Create Your Own AR Character
CreuTech worked with young people at GISDA across three creative technology workshops, taking them from an original character idea all the way through to creating their own augmented reality experience.
The aim was to make technologies like 3D, motion capture and AR approachable by giving the group one simple challenge: create your own AR companion.
From sketch to AR
The group started with character design, thinking about personality, movement and what would make their character recognisable and unique. They created character turnarounds before beginning the process of turning their designs into 3D characters.
From there, we introduced a creative pipeline using Meshy, Blender, Cartwheel and AR Studio showing how different tools can work together to take an idea from a drawing to an animated character living in the real world.
Participants explored rigging and animation, then used motion capture to bring their own movements into their characters. Finally, they published and tested their characters as AR experiences on mobile devices.
More than just learning the software
A big part of the workshop was helping the group think beyond the technology.
Once their characters existed, we explored what else those ideas could become: a game, animation, comic, film, toy, mascot, AR experience or even the beginning of a larger story world.
This led into an introduction to intellectual property (IP) and how original characters, stories, worlds and designs can become creative assets that can be developed, protected and shared.
The outcome
By the end of the sessions, the young people had experienced a miniature version of a real digital production pipeline, designing, creating, animating and publishing their own characters in AR.
Rather than learning each technology in isolation, they could see how drawing, 3D, animation, motion capture and augmented reality can all connect to turn a simple idea into an interactive experience.
Skills explored: Character Design · 3D Modelling · Blender · Rigging · Animation · Motion Capture · WebAR · Augmented Reality · IP & Creative Development