I was there

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  The marshmellows in 3D

Inspiration

The space race around the first moon landing with the time jumps to today's race around space tourism, and finally to the assumed future normality of moon visits inspired us to depict the change of technology and mankind. We have taken up this change to show how technology first brings humanity apart, but in the end brings it together again. We want to point out that this is not only our hope, but also our optimistic assumption for what our tech community here on earth will achieve in the future.

What it does

The short film explores the theme of how technology has affected humanity throughout history and into the future. The main character travels through time, observing how technology has both divided and united people in different eras. The film ultimately suggests that, despite the negative impacts technology has had on society in the past, it will ultimately bring humanity back together again. The final scene, set in a distant future, shows people coming together and living in a way that emphasizes this idea. The film is thought-provoking and entertaining, providing a unique perspective on the relationship between technology and society, showing that technology will make people more present in society again. We created interactive filters with Tiktok effect house that support the futuristic and confusing atmosphere of the whole story.

How we built it

1. Combine a series of historical images and videos to show the history of mankind between 1960 and 2023 in a funny way. Adding photos and videos to show the time between 2023 and 3023.
2. Filming a person with Tiktok greenhouse filter imitating different scenes necessary for the short film against the backgrounds created in step 1.
3. Create new Tiktok filters with Tiktok effect house.
4. Applying the newly created filters to the video created in steps 1 and 2.

Challenges we ran into

1. Tiktok Effect House App crashed constantly on one of our effect house developers' device (windows); the app is limiting in some areas and can't upload huge files one some of our devices. More documentations/tutorials would be a good idea for the future of effect house.
2. There are some bugs in previewing the effects on mobile devices.
3. Integrating all the tiktok effecthouse filters, real live video contect, and background effects we created was a challenge we faced. Maybe there're better tools to combine Tiktok effect house and video editing, but we didn't figure it out in the small time period.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Teamwork, collaboration, cohesion and communication. Project leadership, commitment is real and moral is high and sharing our experiences. Really bonded together as a team. Learning and trying new ideas and tools. Being PRESENT and developing new skills and knowledge, eg, acting, modeling, multicultural and multidisciplinary group. Proud of our team and making new friendships.

What we learned

Vas learned about visual scripting, creating AR filter and promoting new ways through AR. Susan learned new creative tools and effects and how to produce video content. Irvin learned how to use TikTok effect house and marketing himself on TikTok. Vincent learned how to be an actor and to created video content. Emmy learned about Effect House, placing effects on TikTok. Leila learn how to apply a 3D face binding mesh, Effect House’s visual scripting.

What's next for I was there

1. Expand interactive content and effects on the film
2. Develop a TikTok “Dude…I WUZ THEIR” series for monetization
3. Create a marketing and advertising plan to use multi-media tools to promote edutainment in Space exploration and to offer immersive integration of AR/XR and novel innovative technologies.
4. Submit to local, national and international film festivals and to educational and public organizations to form collaboration and partnerships including pitching for funding to further the idea.

Built With

• adobe
• blender
• effecthouse
• imovie
• maya
• mixamo
• photoshop
• substance