With interest in surface and pattern design, I wanted to explore a new direction: interactive t-shirts! This series of t-shirts includes legendary creatures that appear when viewed through an augmented reality application, which can be used on multiple mobile devices. This project included many steps such as character design and research, t-shirt graphic design, motion illustration, and meshing assets together with Unity to make the augmented reality experience come to life. This series was created for children between the ages of 5-12, but can be fun for adults too!
Augmented Reality, or AR, is a type of technology that overlaps digital components with real life objects or images allowing the two separate elements to interact. This can be done with the help of many different devices such as smart phones and tablets.
Let’s meet the legendary creatures!
Ogopogo
The spirit of Canada’s Okanagan Lake or as some like to call the creature, “Oggy”. Ogopogo is said to be a 40-50 feet long sea serpent. With sightings still being reported to this day, Ogopogo was originally spotted in the 19th century. Natives refer to Ogopogo as a spirit rather than a monster.
Bigfoot
A classic North American folklore creature who is known for being large, muscular and very hairy. 3 in 10 Americans believe that Bigfoot exists.
Top Five Reported Sightings:
1) Washington (528)
2)California (425)
3)Oregon (227)
4) Ohio (224)
5) Florida (207)
The Kraken
A Scandinavian folklore sea creature who terrorizes sailors that cross it’s path. The Kraken’s tale is a staple with sailors and it’s attacks typically involve grabbing a person or object and yanking them down into a whirlpool. The Kraken’s name derives from Swedish and Norwegian origin meaning “something twisted”. The legend is thought to be based on giant squids that grow to be 40-50 feet in length.
Each of the t-shirts feature what is called a “target image”. In this case, it’s also the t-shirt design. When in use, the augmented reality application searches for the target image it’s assigned to. Once the image is recognized by the application, augmented reality comes to life!
Each of the creature’s target images feature objects or places that share more about the creature. Ogopogo’s t-shirt presents Okanagan Lake, Bigfoot features one of his foot prints, and because The Kraken is always curious about ships, a ship in a bottle is highlighted. The designs also include an exciting badge that can intrigue others who haven’t seen the shirt in action.
Here is a demonstration of how this technology could work. At this point there were some issues with the AR images not centering on the target image but this simply proves that this is possible!
The next pictures share still images of what these interactions would look like when centered.
With this technology we can continue to advance these interactive t-shirts or other objects. A few ways we could enhance the experience is with more animated interactions, crossover between creatures and objects, and the subject could change entirely with an awesome opportunity for educational purposes. And to showcase it all in a quick view, I’ve created a pocket booklet with future clients in mind.
Lastly, I have designed some t-shirt tags to promote interest in the creatures since you cannot see them without the augmented reality. If this product were to be displayed in stores, an instruction booklet would be a great addition!
While the application is not available for use at this time, check out the work I have available on Red Bubble!
Thank you for viewing and for your support!
And a special thanks to my dad for his help with Unity!
