Animated digital sticker set
The theme of the Lunar New Year set is centered around "connection." Each pair of stickers in this set tells a complete story, as shown in the accompanying figure. One sticker shows a rabbit giving red packets, while the other shows another rabbit receiving them with a basket. One sticker depicts a rabbit being caught by chopsticks and falling, while the other shows the rabbit falling into a bowl full of dumplings. Another pair of stickers portray a rabbit setting off fireworks on the ground, and the other shows a rabbit watching the fireworks explode from the top of a building. One sticker shows a rabbit dropping a paper "Fu" (福), while the other shows it is falling and sticking to a door. In another pair of stickers, one rabbit sprinkles gold coins from the top while the other dances in the "gold coin rain" below. Finally, each rabbit holds a beer, creating a festive "cheers" scene.
This is a creative approach to designing and using digital sticker sets. By incorporating connections between the stickers, they become more interactive and engaging rather than just serving as a tool for expressing emotions. People can enjoy discovering connections while chatting online, which adds an element of fun to their conversations. This innovative design can generate a curious and entertaining mood for users rather than simply conveying emotions.
Released on WeChat and WhatsApp
AR face filter
In the first AR filter, I transformed my face into the head of a rabbit character and created an interactive experience of sending and receiving red packets. By using Spark AR Studio, I could control the virtual rabbit's eyes, mouth, and ears using my own facial movements. When I blinked, the rabbit blinked its eyes, and when I tilted my head, the corresponding ear of the rabbit would shake. When I opened my mouth, a group of red packets appeared from the rabbit's mouth. The rabbit character below would receive these red packets by holding a basket. Through this project, I discovered how to connect my facial features seamlessly with the virtual character's features, creating a more immersive and engaging AR experience. By transforming myself into the rabbit character from my sticker set and playing the "red packet game" with another rabbit, I felt part of the scene and connected with other virtual elements.
I incorporated the traditional Lunar New Year elements of spring couplets and dumplings for the second face filter. In front of me is a bowl of dumplings and spring couplets hanging in the background. As I tilt my head to the right, a streamer unfurls from the top of the screen by the rabbit character. When I open my mouth, the chopsticks holding the rabbit's head separate, and the head falls into the bowl of dumplings. Throughout the scene, red packets float in the background.
I created an immersive setting for setting off firecrackers in the third face filter. When I tilt my head to the left, the firecracker in the top left corner of the screen starts to explode. When I open my mouth, the rabbit character below me lights the firecracker with a stick, and it explodes in front of my face. This AR experience allows users to use their facial actions to set off firecrackers and immerse themselves in the celebratory atmosphere of the Lunar New Year.
AR spring coupletes
Spring couplets, also known as "Chunlian" in Mandarin, are traditional Chinese New Year decorations featuring two poetic expressions on either side of a door or gate and printed on red paper. The phrases in spring couplets are frequently rhyming and alliterative and are written in an ancient Chinese poem. They convey well-wishes for the upcoming year, like success, happiness, health, and good fortune. The words' characters are often written in traditional Chinese calligraphy, and to make an eye-catching and celebratory presentation, they are sometimes mixed with vibrant drawings and images. Spring couplets are frequently seen on the doors and gates of residences, places of commerce, and governmental structures during the Lunar New Year celebrations.
Spring couplets and the "Fu"(福) symbol are traditionally placed on the entrance of the door to represent good fortune and send blessings to others. Integrating AR technology would be a good idea to make this tradition more interactive and playful. Thus, the first design for the Lunar New Year sticker collection is an AR spring couplet created by combining a paper sticker with an AR sticker. The "Fu"(福) symbol, designed using Adobe Illustrator, is printed on a paper sticker and displayed in the middle of the spring couplets. To highlight "the year of the rabbit," the cartoon rabbit head replaces the right top portion of the character. A QR code is placed inside the character to allow users to scan and access the AR couplets. This design aims to add a new dimension of interactivity to the traditional practice of displaying spring couplets and "Fu"(福) symbols.
The AR couplets showcase the integration of AR technology, paper stickers, and the real environment, highlighting the potential for AR to add playfulness and interest to everyday products. By scanning the QR code, visitors to my home can view the AR couplets instead of the physical version, offering a more dynamic, entertaining, and innovative experience. The AR effects, including fun animations and interactive elements like clicking on the rabbit to change its actions, enhance the visual effects and engagement level beyond what is possible with traditional couplets. This project demonstrates the potential for AR to transform common objects and create more playful and immersive experiences.
AR New Year Immersive scene
I imported the cartoon rabbits from my digital sticker set into Adobe Aero and created a new theme where the rabbits are gathered together to celebrate the Lunar New Year and engaged in various activities. I wanted to explore how I could personally immerse myself in the Lunar New Year theme and interact with the characters alongside me by using different body actions. My friend held the phone and recorded a video of me interacting with a group of rabbits in the AR theme. I stood in the center of the theme while rabbits appeared to my left one by one, and I did different body actions to match their movements. For example, I pushed the door with one rabbit, used the same hand gestures as another rabbit to send New Year blessings, put on sunglasses and pretended to play guitar like another rabbit, tickled a rabbit's face, held red packets, and waved my arms, stood in the middle of the couplets, got down on my knee to collect gold coins from a rabbit with my hands, and more.
This demonstrates how AR can aid people in creating interesting videos that immerse them in a fun virtual environment and allow them to interact with animated virtual characters. Compared to the AR experiences created for Halloween and Christmas, this larger AR scene can involve people inside it. It is not simply an AR visual effect or game viewed or interacted with through a phone screen. This AR experience is intended to be a functional tool that assists people in capturing entertaining videos with themselves involved in a virtual scene. In this case, AR can influence people's moods and provide them with engaging experiences and enable them to become actors who act in different ways based on different virtual themes.
AR phone case
Phone cases are available in various materials, styles, designs, and colors to cater to customer preferences. Graphic design is crucial in phone case design, as patterns with cute, beautiful, or unique designs can attract customers. Introducing AR technology to phone cases can make the design more innovative and distinctive.
I used Adobe Aero to generate the AR experience and the corresponding QR code. Then, I placed the QR code on the graphic design of the phone case I created. A company offering custom-made services helped me to produce the phone case with the designed patterns and QR code. The phone case's theme is "Year of the Rabbit," If people scan the QR code held by one of the rabbits, an animated AR rabbit will appear. Holding two lanterns in its hands, the AR character dances and shakes its ears. The AR effect blends harmoniously with the pattern, maintaining consistency with the design.
