Flying with ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ technology

“How to Train Your Dragon 2" hits theaters on Friday and will give moviegoers a heady 3-D ride from their theater seats. But a team at DreamWorks Animation’s DreamLab has gone a step further and created a virtual reality journey in which people can fly over the island of Berk on Toothless the dragon.

“This is kind of the first thing we are able to share publicly,” said Shiraz Akmal, head of business and product development for DreamLab at a media event for the film Friday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. “We wanted to focus on helping people understand what it feels like to fly.”

“One of the best things about the DreamLab is that we work on creating interactive experiences to tell the story,” he said. “A lot of the animation — like of the dragons and the world of Berk — is actually from the movie.”

Though the Oculus Rift headset is only available to developers and filmmakers (for now), Akmal said the team at DreamWorks spent several months last year developing the immersive experience to help promote the film.