3D Simulation of space
THE CONCEPT
Drawing inspiration from animation, children books, interaction design, game design, interactive cinema, and stage arts - A Trip Beyond the Horizon is a site specific 20 minutes long augmented reality tour, designed to take children on a guided journey between stories originally written by Bina and Uriel Ofek durning the 50's-90's in Israel.
The creation is constructed out of four stories that are transformed into immersive playable scenes integrated within Train Theater's exterior compound.
Client
Train Theater
Supported by
The national lottery of Israel, 2022
Jerusalem municipality, 2022
Talks
There's a virtual elephant in the room. Interaction 23
Press
Portfolio magazine - Whats new // Beyond the Horizon, Aug, 2022
-
Team
Co creator, screenplay writer, actors director: Ayelet Golan
Sound design: Alon Peretz
Actors: Gili Beit Hallahmi, Benjamin David Elder, Ayelet Golan
Video photography & Editing (opening video): Hila Spectur
A Trip Beyond the Horizon
An augmented reality gamified theatrical tour that uses wall murals, animation and sound - taking children on a narrative experience between stories originally written by Bina and Uriel Ofek in Israel of the 50's-90's.
2022
-
My role
Concept & Creative XR direction
Art direction
Illustration
Animation
Interaction and AR design
Play design
On boarding video
Dan's Mini-market - wall mural
THE EXPERIENCE
-
On boarding video
One of the main challenges we faced was how to communication the flow to a diverse audience which included both young children, who intuitively knew how to use the AR technology, while at the same time catering for their parents and grandparents who came with them to experience the tour - All while navigating in a lively physical space. To bridge this gap of know-how we created an on-boarding video that introduces the main characters, the sites, and the tool tips and buttons available on the application.
Interactive storytelling and UI design
In each scene, the audience is given an active role, an AR tool/filter, and a series of empathic actions that they must perform in order to move the plot forward. The audience that comes to take part in the experience is given a tablet, headphones, and a map.
On boarding video
Dan's Mini-market - wall mural
Dan's old mini market // Animatics
-
MIcro interactions
Selecting objects to take from the shop
-
Dan's old mini market // Animatics
Dan's old mini market // Animation
Dan's old mini market // Animation
2nd scene / / Mama bear's house
The 2nd scene takes place at Mama Bear's house. She received a letter from her uncle but can't read it as she lost her glasses. She asks the audience to use the magic flashlight they got at the mini market (that can see through objects), to help her find her glasses.
When the audience directs their tablet to different objects in the house micro animations with small hidden stories appear.
-
MIcro interactions
Using a magic flashlight that can see through objects to look for glasses
-
Mama bear's house // Wall mural
Mama bear's house // Wall mural
Mama bear's House // Animated AR Layer samples
3rd scene / / Tel Aviv beach
The 3rd story takes place at the beach. Here, the audience is welcomed by Rani, who forgot to get a present for his mother's birthday. He asks the audience to use the metal detector they got at the mini market to help him look for a present under the sand by digging holes and finding hidden treasures.
-
MIcro interactions
Using a metal detector to look for treasures in the sand
-
Beach // Animatics
-
Wall mural without AR layer
-
Beach // Wall mural
-
Wall mural with AR layer
and spatial narrative analysis
-
Beach // Wall mural
.jpg)
Beach // Animated AR Layer sample
UX Design - Wire-framing & Navigation
In order to create a story-driven experience in an open space with minimum distractions - the flow of the experience was first mapped - stripping it down to the minimum UI elements needed to help users drive to story forward.
-
AR triggers were distributed throughout the wall to encourage movement
-
Mama bear's house // Wall mural
UI elements & Hierarchy
The buttons were designed with a 3d look with highlights and shadows, strong background color blocks, and flat 2D icons. This styling was chosen to differentiate these elements from the colorful wall murals.
Set design
Mama bear's kitchen set
1st scene / / Dan's old mini market
The 1st stop of the tour takes place at the entrance to an old mini market store. Here, the audience is welcomed by Dan's voice, the shop's owner, who invites them to choose objects from the shop window to take with them for the rest of the tour.
Some objects chosen become AR filters/tools that are necessary in order to complete the tour successfully, while others trigger micro animations, transforming the window into a series of funny accidents.
Image from on-boarding video
VISUAL LANGUAGE
The styling of the illustrations takes its inspiration from the interior, industrial, graphics and textile design of the 50's-80's in Israel. The warm colors, yellowish backgrounds and typography were chosen to give the murals a look and feel of old press color block prints.
The perspective and composition of each mural was designed with respect to the average height of the audience (children, 6-11 years old) and the excepted viewing distance - enabling them to view the scenes from a 1st person shooter's game point of view.