OUGD602 - PPP - My Crash course in Augmented Reality at Media and Digital

Today, I got the chance to experience a 'crash course' in Augmented Reality, the feature for many designs at design studio 'Media and Digital', formerly Printel UK based in Widnes, Cheshire. 

A little demo of Augmented Reality:

I came across augmented reality during second year, after looking at one of their brochures. For me, it was an opportunity to experiment with both print and digital media, and the opportunity for potential experiential design for my portfolio (which would obviously be great for concerning my interest in the Themed Entertainment industry)

Media and Digital encompass the use of this amazing technology to bring prospectuses for local colleges and schools to life.

Chris, one of the designers at MaD showed me around the studio and gave me a quick tour of the necessary technologies that make this virtual reality a reality.

Although Augmented Reality can use any kind of digital animation, a lot of what they use is video, meaning they can take a still from a video and use that as the 'trigger image' (a symbol or marker in which the app can scan from a real life product, usually a printed product and 'marry' up with a digital image, thus creating a 'trigger' for the app to play a video). Because they use a lot of video for their AR, they actually have a green screen in their studio, and Christ showed me how they remove the green screen for a nice clean background on their video. He also explained that the background can then be substituted for any background digitally.

Me in front of said green screen

He also showed me many of the different tools and tricks within Adobe After Effects such as frame transitions, moving imagery and text animation that all assist in masking any lack of alignment between trigger images and the video itself. The result is very effective.

We finished off the session with me creating some front cover designs for Riverside College's 2016 prospectus. 

I really enjoyed the session it was really beneficial. He advised a few different websites for different tutorials on creating your own transitions and said that the best way to know your way around the software is to teach yourself through online tutorials and that a one-time session isn't enough (Much like the rest of the complicated Adobe Creative Suite).

Georgie and Gill from MaD's team.