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Creative agency Imaginary Forces is perhaps best known for its stunning main-title sequences but for this year’s holiday card, the company took a little bit of a risk.
Instead of sending out the standard holiday card, it sent clients and friends an augmented reality (AR) experience, which they could see on their iPhones and iPads, as the video above demonstrates. [Editor’s note: this is AR experience is best seen on the iOS platform.]
“A lot of us here are interested in AR, although people don’t know us for that. We can do AR just as well as anyone else,” said creative director Tosh Kodama. “So we started with this internal project and we’ll build out from there. This is our first foray into doing AR with Imaginary Forces’ style.”
For the purposes of this project, Imaginary Forces built three moving AR “statues”: peace, joy and love. Each statue is constructed out of three dimensional shapes that move to music. To view each of the statues, go to this link to scan the QR code with your iPhone and the experience should open in your phone’s camera. Once that happens, you’ll be able to place the statues wherever you want them, snap photos or videos, and share those with your friends and family.
Love
“Our influence was classic design like Alexander ‘Sandro’ Girard and Charles and Ray Eames,” said Kodama. “We took pieces that people will recognize as classic design and applied them to an AR 3D world. Instead of [using that technology to make] something futuristic, we were influenced by the past.”
Each sculpture has a different theme with unique movements and color schemes, from a present unfolding and an entrancing balancing act, to a clockwork tower reminiscent of the Nutcracker.
“It was a fun thing to examine and it’s really attainable for everyone. It was easy to send a note to our closest Imaginary Forces friends but also to a million people if we wanted,” said Kodama. “The reach you get is the fun thing about digital.”
Imaginary Forces is just playing around with the technology right now, but the applications are interesting. Imagine creating a main-title sequence that included an AR piece, so people could drop a character from a show or a piece of the set in their living room.
“AR is a lot more accessible than it was even a year ago and it doesn’t take a big team to do it,” said Kodama.
Imaginary Forces wants people to share their work and to encourage that is holding a contest. Those that make the best virtual use of the AR sculptures and share them using the hashtag #ImaginaryForces_AR have a chance to be rewarded with “awesome swag.” So grab your iPhone and start snapping!
CREDITS
Creative Director: Tosh Kodama
Marketing Director: Krista Templeton
VFX/AR Supervisor: Meng-Yang Lu
Producer: Rachael Cohen
Art Director: Nicole Dileo
Designer/Animator: DaAe Kim
Digital Specialists: Brandon Savoy, James Gardner
Project Coordinator: Kyra Alper