Getting to Critical Mass in Augmented Reality

One of the barriers to adoption for any type of interactive print, or print reality as we are calling it, whether a simple QR code or a complicated augmented reality implementation, is the lack of a consistent way to access the content. QR codes are still not natively read by many U.S. smartphones, especially if you have a slightly older phone. And just about everyone who has implemented AR has their own app. To get to critical mass, we need a common way to access this enhanced content. Who wants 15 different AR apps on their phone, and then have to try to figure out which one to use?

Artist and filmmaker Alexander Ward, who is a comic book artist among many other things, has leveraged AR work done by Facebook and Instagram to help users get around this problem. After all, almost everyone has either Facebook or Instagram—or both—already on their phones, right?

A recent AR project Ward completed was the cover of a recent book "I Am Love: Yoga, Ayahuasca, A Course in Miracles and the Journey Back to the Place We Never Left" by Allowah Lani (available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2YTWZ7y). If you aim a smartphone at the cover, it becomes an AR “portal to another dimension.” (Check it out at https://bit.ly/2XTROn6.)

To create the AR experience, Ward leveraged Facebook’s Spark AR Studio.

“I’ve used other applications in the past, such as the Unity development platform for creating 2D and 3D multiplatform games,” he said. “ But that approach requires people to download an app. By using Spark AR Studio, I can design stunning augmented reality effects that can be accessed by anyone with Facebook or Instagram running on their phone.”

Ward got started on this path just a couple years ago when, as he pointed out, the technology was quite young.

“A friend brought it to my attention,” he said, “and we saw the potential right away with comic books and a whole range of other things. Now in addition to producing my own artwork, we have established a creative studio and have done a number of AR promotional pieces for major studios, including album covers. You can also imagine posters, billboards and any number of other printed pieces that can be enhanced this way.”

Anyone who has wanted to add an AR experience to printed content has quickly learned that the toughest part of the project is not necessarily creating the AR trigger but actually creating the AR content that the trigger launches. Want a 3D fly-through of a map? Animated birds? A video? Those things have to be created. Ward has a leg up here because, as an artist, he creates all his own imagery, and adds dimensional and other effects using Photoshop layers. 

All of Ward’s artwork is created digitally.

“I create the image and then separate the various elements out into layers to be able to work with the art in a variety of ways, exporting each layer,” he said. “This gives the art a depth of field when viewed using Spark AR Studio, either on a phone or the web, giving it a stunning 3D animated feeling.”

Users can access the augmented content by either reading an included QR code from a phone that has Facebook on it, or going to a provided link on their phone. Up pops the camera application on the phone, and the user simply points the phone at the augmented image.

“This is a fairly simple application of the technology,” Ward said. “It actually is a window or a portal to the augmented content. There are many more things that can be done with the technology, and we are really just getting started at this point.”

One of the challenges Ward encountered was the file size limitation for Spark AR Studio—a teeny two megabytes.

“It was a challenge to get the file compressed to that size,” he said, “and it takes a lot of back and forth experimentation to make sure the layers are separated correctly and don’t feel distorted. Other than that, it’s pretty straightforward.”

For printers who want to enhance their value to clients, this is an interesting approach. If you want to learn more, just Google “Spark AR Studio” to download the app, or reach out to Ward if you want to outsource work. Imagine enhancing your next big client presentation with this high-tech approach. You’ll be a hero, and you’ll be certain to tear everyone in the room away from checking their email.

Based in Wales, Alexander George Ward can be found at https://wardyworks.art and by email at [email protected].