For the midterm, Scott and I decided to continue working on the project we started a few weeks ago referenced here.
We really love the notion of an AR app that serves as a compendium to a vinyl purchase. In our minds, a user would go to a record store, buy a vinyl and receive both the download code for the records MP3’s – a practice already being used – and a download code for this app. Each app would be specifically catered to the vinyl purchased. We already vaguely fleshed out this idea with Bowie so we wanted to try a different album: Radiohead’s Kid A.
Rather than approach this album thematically like we did with Bowie, Scott and I wanted to work from a more technical standpoint. Scott was really interested in API integration while I was interested in a more immersive AR experience. Scott likely goes into the API work in his post so I’ll focus on the immersive nature.
As of now, I think it’s really jarring to see AR images overlaid on top of other images. After the novelty wears away, it just seems kind of hokey. I’m interested in AR experiences that make the user look twice. For example, for this particular album cover featured below, I wanted to augment the actual mountains.
In my head was an experience in which a user would point their phone at the album and seemingly see …the album cover and nothing more. I wanted them to feel as if the app was broken or wasn’t working. Then I wanted something to happen – the ice on the mountains begin to melt, the sky begins to move – that made them look closer.
For Kid A, Radiohead released a dozen or so short videos, all of which are featured below in the compilation.
Scott and I took the video featured at 9:14 and figured it would be perfect to augment on the cover. Scott took the album cover, made the mountains transparent in after effects and placed the video of the moving mountains over it. The result was the following:
While the rest of the project is done, I don’t have video documentation as Scott has the album tonight BUT I can describe what else was included:
- A full video augmentation of the album cover starting with above and ending with other Kid A blips
- A back album that uses Vuforia Buttons to toggle between the influences of the album. For example, touch one button and see which Charles Mingus album influenced Kid A, touch another and see which Aphex Twin album influenced Kid A, etc.
- An API with 3D text that shows related artists you could listen to if you’re into this particular album
- Videos from the band describing the process of recording Kid A.
Excited to show you all of this tomorrow!