The Grid. A Digital Frontier

• GIF

  indoor space: using it for a game of tic-tac-toe

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  outdoor space: on grass

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  "what's next"

Inspiration

Inspired by Stuart Williams' work “Luminous Earth Grid” (1993) where he explores "the potential harmony between technology and nature", the grid is a simple and consistent statement on what my interpretation of "AR" is - a possible middle ground between the overwhelming virtual space/tech and reality. I wanted to make something simple and consistent, which is the opposite of what the digital experience of tech/social media has become, and also what AR filters (for example, in tiktok) has become.

What it does

It detects horizontal surface in the real world and places a grid on top. People can play noughts and crosses with it. Potentially using it to line up and organize things in real life.

How I built it

Using Cinema4d for the asset and SparkAR for the filter.
Steps: Following the worldAR tutorials and understanding what it can do and can't do, think of the concept, making the asset, editing the manipulation ring, adding plane tracker, putting the asset in, testing materials, testing and reiterating make small adjustments here and there.

Challenges I ran into

• Trying to get a better glow (more textured) of the grid, which I did not figure out.
• plane detection is pretty unstable and I tried figuring out ways to optimize it (did not figure out).
• Getting rid of things. Initially I had a picker which switches between grids with different dimension, so 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, I then realize I was once again falling into the trap of "adding features will make things better" - not only would the user already busy placing and moving the grid and making sure it is on the right surface, the difference between dimension does not add anything to the experience,
• I was hoping to make it into something more engaging and well-polished and conveys the same target experience. But because of time I wasn't able to polish it more and experiment more things that could make it better.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

• This is the second filter I made with SparkAR, thinking more about the content itself instead of just the tech and features.

What I learned

• AR is more than just filter on people faces.
• World AR effect and plane tracking features.

What's next for "The Grid. A Digital Frontier"

• More landscape filters that interacts with landscapes in interesting ways.
• plane tracking that can detect surfaces very far away (mountains, rivers etc) and use this filter on top.
• Trying to do a better glow material
• If Spark AR adds more features like detecting actual depth in space so different things can be put in front of the filter, the user can interact with the grid and maybe use it to do things like frame and organize plants in the garden (like this ).

Built With

• ae
• cinema4d
• photoshop
• planetracking
• sparkar
• worldar