Theme
I chose the theme of Bat Mitzvah celebration both because I have been called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah in the past, and also because it felt like a less common form of greeting card. I tend to be drawn to things that are on the fringes or are a less normative part of the culture I occupy. I enjoy giving those topics a platform. I also enjoy adding my own brand of humor to my work, both to make it more “me” and also to increase my own enjoyment in a project.
I selected two prefabricated started assets in Aero: the Urban flat graphic and the directable character, Marion. I was drawn to the Urban background first as it uses a color palette similar early 2000’s Bat Mitzvahs I attended in childhood. I also recently watched the Adam Sandler film, You’re So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, and the theme of the protagonist’s party was New York City. So this background felt like a perfect choice. I was drawn to the character, Marion, as she had a youthful look, and her name had Hebrew origins, meaning bitter, and is actually gender neutral, which I love.
I wanted to be sure to include some Hebrew in the greeting, as well, so the words you see state, “Mazel Tov” in Hebrew. The rest of the greeting is in great contrast, tonally speaking, in that is adopts a lexicon that is much more contemporary and rooted in queer culture. I find such contrasts in tone feel somewhat ridiculous which is my brand of humor. I matched the color of the greeting to the blues and purples I saw in the Urban background image and grabbed a pink and yellow for the jumping Stars of David.
Lastly, I chose a free version of Hava Nagila, a typical celebration song played at Bat Mitzvahs and JewishWeddings, where guests step in a cross over foot pattern, being connected in one big circle by holding hands with dancers on either side, and moving around the guest(s) of honor, in this case, Marion!
Troubleshooting Aero
While the creative vision came very easily, I definitely ran into some issues navigating the Behavior Builder in Aero. I think the main issue, that honestly, just practice and some additional tutoring could help improve, would be understanding the interactions between the specific Subjects, their Triggers, and their Actions. I also struggled with the overall placement of the various Subjects, some being scaled way to big so that an initial attempt at trigger, Proximity Enter, felt unworkable given my skillset. Instead I opted for the music to begin playing upon the start of the scene. This felt easier for me to figure out. Additionally, I don’t have directions (like an arrow or closed box) on how to interact with the subjects to trigger the actions for the greeting to drop down or the stars to appear. I’m relying on the intuitive nature of AR and hoping the user will play around and tap various subjects on their phone to enact the various triggers.