Category: AR

Golden Gardens Beach

Link to video here.

At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about this project. With final projects due for every other class all converging it seemed like one project too many. Lucky for me I had a group that was quick to come up with an idea for our project’s topic: Seattle beaches.

The hardest part of the project was coming up with the copy for my EyeJack panels. It helped that I didn’t have to go too in depth with the subject matter because we were aiming for fun and informative information that might help a user learn more about the beaches they were visiting. I picked the Golden Gardens beach in Ballard mostly because I live an easy biking distance from the park.

I learned a number of interesting facts about the beach while conducting my research, like how the beach was named and that it was originally intended as a marketing tool for local realtors. There are apparently a number of interesting creatures that have been spotted at the park, including bald eagles, beavers, ducks, and more.

Once my research was done I compiled the information that needed to be in text panels and brainstormed a number of images that would at least hint at some of the other things the park has to offer. I used photoshop to convert the images into transparent .PNGs and Illustrator to make the panels and headline for the completed project

The animation I created as something of an after though. I had forgotten that animation was required for the completed project. I decided on this animation because most my memories growing up and visiting the beaches are punctuated by the waves crashing on the beach and the tide coming in and out.

Here is the QR code for the project. And HERE is a link to the video of me using it while sitting on a bench at Golden Gardens.

Swift Playgrounds Review

I am a huge fan of Jerome Vogel’s illustrations and style. Somewhat recently he began posting videos of his illustrations that were projected onto his phone or a piece of paper that appeared to be in three dimensional space.

For this project I hoped to follow along with a tutorial Jerome Vogel had produced that walks you though the process of creating one of these pieces.

I began with coming up with some ideas for what I was hoping to create.

I settled on the idea of a hero running through a portal turning from a skeleton into a human as he ran through. I soon realized that this was too complex a project for my first attempt at this process, so I settled on creating a skeleton running though a castle hallway.

After that I had to import the layers that would be project above the background.

One the layers were in the composition, I then had to adjust them in three dimensional space so they would look good when visualized in AR.

Here is a (link to a) video of the results: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1imgRE6_cfe2Tzeo8-oP9LFNHNfi2Mkjx/view?usp=sharing

Overall this process was much easier than I expected. The guide was pretty simple to follow. I was initially very nervous about the process because it involved coding which I have struggled with in the past.

One big issue I had was with getting my devices camera to work in Swift Playgrounds. After troubleshooting I discovered a message board that pointed out that Playgrounds has an image size limit of 1000 pixels and I had made mine 1080 pixels. One I figured this out the project started working.

There are some issues with the projection stuttering. My guess is that my background image doesn’t have enough contrast so the camera doesn’t know where exactly to place the image in space.

I think my next steps with this project would be to play around with different background images so that the camera has a better anchor point and creates a smoother experience when viewed in AR.

Adobe Aero Project

You can see the finished project here: https://adobeaero.app.link/pw6ieDKeqvb

Or scan the QR code:

I began this project trying to come up with ideas for what I wanted to do. I initially wanted to be as ambitious as possible and make a series of animations that would then play as the user walks through them. Unfortunately, with the holidays and multiple projects due for other classes I had to compromise.

After much thought I came up with the idea for a book that had graphics appear as you flipped through the pages.

I made the illustrations for each page as complex as I could given the time constraints I found myself working in.

One issue I realized only after completing this project was that the starting rotation for my book was off, so in order to view the book properly you have to walk 90 degrees around the composition.

Video of Aero project in the real world: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G4TtI-7Thds0Fz2Lop7LdXkTpGjgkmET/view?usp=sharing

AR Project 1:

For this project I wanted to give myself a challenge. Before starting school I began to teach myself the process of character rigging in After Effects, something I had wanted to learn for some time. I had begun a project, but lost momentum somewhere along the process.

My first step when creating my animation was to learn how exactly to rig a character in After Effects. I used Jake Bartlett’s Skillshare class on using and animating with the Duik plugin.

Working though the tutorial, I designed a character. There were a number of problems with the initial build of the character. First, I had way too many layers, which I had started with intentionally because I thought it would give me more control when animating. Additionally, I created my character forward facing when the tutorial had suggested something like three-quarters perspective, which proved to be a problem later on.

When I had finished creating my character, I began the long and tedious process of rigging everything in After Effects. This part wasn’t too bad, though I did have a number of hiccups when it came to parenting layers.

Animating was where I had the most trouble. I had hoped to have my character casually cruising down the street on her roller skates. I eventually realized that this animation was not within my current abilities given the amount of time I had left if I wanted to be able to turn in something complete. I played around and found a way to simplify the animation that worked well enough to my liking and aesthetic.

When I finally exported my animation, I uploaded it into EyeJack. I found this experience to be more or less as simple as when we did it in class.

Here’s what I ended up making. All things considered, I’m pretty proud of it.