Client : MLSE • Medium : Augmented Reality • 2019
For the 2019 Stanley Cups Playoffs, Toronto's hockey team wanted to target a younger crowd and bring the club closer to the digital world. The goal was to let fans experience and interact with an augmented reality activation as part of their ongoing Next Generation campaign.
I was initially brought in by the agency Big Studios Inc. to help conceptualize the project, then to develop multiple prototypes as well as the final version.
The original concept was a large scale AR timed event to be performed during a Maple Leafs game for fans on Bremner Boulevard. We eventually shifted to an at-home model placer/visualizer, inspired by Google's Childish Gambino AR experiment.
Fans can use the experience to place six individual animated player characters in the real world, and scale them from miniatures to building-sized giants. A recorder allowed fans to take pictures and record short video clips to be shared on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms from within the app.
Squad Up with the Leafs!
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) April 20, 2019
Now you can take the boys in blue with you wherever you go in our brand new AR feature.
Only in the Maple Leafs app >> https://t.co/GVef52U8MM#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/Da6nMp5ofV
The experience was built using Google's ARCore and Apple's ARKit for Android and iOS respectively and integrated within the Maple Leaf's native applications for each platform by their mobile development team. The player models were provided by Big Studios and animated by Pixel Reborn.
Due to performance concerns on mobile devices as well as the current limitations of AR technology, the experience itself does translate well into static screenshots. That's why the pictures on this page are composite concepts made using models and shaders from the released experience.
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