Readings on Augmented Reality

Hello!

Here are a few links to articles about AR, not very long articles, but they give a rough summary of what AR is and the timeline of AR.

5 Misconceptions of AR:
http://www.augment.com/blog/5-big-misconceptions-augmented-reality/

AR Milestones in 2016:
http://www.augment.com/blog/the-biggest-augmented-reality-milestones-of-2016/

Infographic Timeline of AR:
http://www.augment.com/blog/infographic-lengthy-history-augmented-reality/


Mainly I suppose to get everyone thinking about how this stuff is all around us. I don't think I realized that it's been around as long as it has been. So I think it could be an interesting read!

A Few AR Tests

Currently this is just a text post letting you know that I have been testing with AR. I can show the work in class, and will take a video of it later and upload it on here to look back at.

So far just little tests, I had a bit of difficulty on one of them and that isn't working currently. Waiting to hear back from tech support on one of them (since it's in an online class on Coursera)

Some Ideas

So, I’ve been thinking of what goal I am striving for with this thesis. And while I have definitely learned some things from making movie posters for objects, and doing the studies of the proportions of posters, I feel that I’ve sort of lost a sense of direction with it. And it’s not bad to have done them, and I feel as though I will probably continue with them, but also I want to direct my thesis into a more solid direction.

When I first started out, I wasn’t quite sure what my thesis was going to be on besides movie posters. And from there I wanted to “reinvent the movie poster” and work on breaking from the trends of movie posters and make them more unique. In creating movie posters for the objects, I learned that movie posters can be interesting, but usually there has to be a common theme or “trend” in some sense, otherwise the poster doesn’t read as a particular genre or as a movie poster at all. Which is something I find interesting.

Then I had tossed the idea of interactive movie posters around. And I’m really liking this direction. From this, I have two paths I could go down, and to be completely honest I probably will experiment with both.

The first being experimentation with creating interactivity in posters using techniques that pop-up books use. For example, having tabs that would flip up and reveal other things, or having tabs you can pull causing some sort of other part to move or something. There’s a wide range of possibilities of things that could happen, and I feel like it would be interesting to try this out. Also, in the real world, it wouldn’t be too unpractical because pop-up books can be produced for sale, so I would imagine posters would be able to be as well.

And the second path is to go completely digital. Which is also very interesting. I’ve been looking into some of the digital interactive movie posters that already have been created, and many of them rely on being online or being on screens in the movie theater. I would want to experiment with it being an app you could use in collaboration with paper posters as well. Similar things have been done, apps that use augmented reality on movie posters to give you the option to watch the trailer or to buy tickets, but the one I would want to make would have different features. I think it would be interesting if when you used the app, something on the poster would move or change or become interactive, and that also by using the app on posters you would be rewarded in some way; could be with points that add up to get you a free movie pass or snack, or perhaps a special coupon.

So currently I’ve been looking into this second path (though, I will be looking into the first one soon as well, just waiting on a book to arrive) and here are my notes/thoughts so far (also, I’m thinking of having an article on digital interactive movie posters for the one to show the class):

Augmented reality app for movie posters

• Hover phone over the poster and it plays something, characters moving or talking or etc. Something you can interact with (like interactive floor games)
• Recognize actor’s faces?
• Point system, get some many and win something? Get coupon for movie tix or?
• Would need the physical poster to work. Could possibly view some content later on (when not with the poster anymore) so long as you got the poster when you were there in person.
• This would keep the need for paper posters and also make it more accessible for people. For example, if people own movie posters they could use it at home, unlike with the screens are the theater “playing” movie posters on them, which couldn’t be a household object for most (maybe some day in the future, but certainly not now). All they need is a smart phone and a poster.
• Would get more people engaged, especially with new posters being released when movies come out. Plus the reward system.
• Possibly could rate movies after seeing them, and it gives you recommendations or would tell you if it thinks you would like a movie when you use the app on the poster.
• Because it would be an app, it wouldn’t be an “overload” of technology, as some think having all digital movie posters on screens in theaters would do, since it would be a choice to use the app. It’s optional, you don’t need to do it to see the poster.

Also, here's a few examples of online interactive movie posters:

Insurgent
(Turn the characters in a 3D space)

Moonrise Kingdom
(click thumbnails of photos to "Meet the Character")
 

Under Cover (Cont.)

Updated versions of the Under Cover movie poster. Edited the title text to be more bright white (before it was faded in to the background) Also, added more "hidden" elements. See if you can find them all. Also tried putting the credits all throughout as well in the bottom one. Might experiment more with that as I'm still missing a few elements usually found on movie posters. 

Another Object Poster (In the Making)

Here's the current object poster I'm working on. This time I tried "making" my own imagery from some things I scanned. Rather than just photographing an object (which isn't bad, I just wanted to try something new).

I still need to figure out the rest of the text, credits, headlines, etc.

More Studies

I've been experimenting with making studies like the ones on the wall, but for the posters I've created myself. To sort of see the difference between the proportions of my posters compared to actual movie posters. Ideally I would like to make these into collages as well. But currently they are only digital rough drafts. 

I'm also still working on some movie posters for objects/non-movies. This time, thinking a little more about the story I am trying to create with the imagery I have taken to use for these. 

More Posters

Here's some more movie posters for non-movies! Also tweaked one of the ones from last time as well!

Some Posters for Not Movies

Just getting started on making some posters for things that are not movies. Sort of "misusing" movie posters in a sense.

Still a work in progress, and definitely want to continue making more.

And then these are some of the photos for another object for a movie poster. 

Okay!

So I think I'm going to do what was recommended to me in class on Wednesday and still post on my own blog some of my ramblings and other projects, and then post stuff more directly related to my Thesis on here.

That being said, if you're interested in seeing my posts on my other blog here's the link: https://alexandrabonin.wordpress.com/blog/

In going with the suggestion to make movie posters for things that aren't movies, here's a poster I was working on with the school as the subject for it.

Not my finest work, but it was an experiment. This week I will experiment more with making posters for things that aren't movies.

However, I guess this brings a question in mind, what makes a movie poster different from a regular poster? I guess I need to do some more studying up on this, because I suppose the simple answer could be formatting and the copy that is on it (the credits at the bottom, release date, etc.), but is there a more complicated answer to this? And does this even matter, is it important? I dunno, just some things to think about and research (while still making work)