The Process:

Blippar AR app process

To start with I had to locate some Match Attax. I went into numerous local corner shops, like I did when I was younger, but they failed to sell them. I did find some online, but they were costly and I only needed on packet rather than several packets. I eventually found them in WHSmith and bought them for £1. In that packet the 7 players I got were Péter Gulácsi, Clément Lenglet, Jeremie Frimpong, Serge Gnabry, Bruno Fernandes, Karim Benzema and Artem Dzyuba. 

For my first day, of creating my AR interactable Match Attax idea, I spent gathering information on the players I got. I assembled the relevant information and added it to the Blippar text tool. This altered from my original idea a little by using the information: name, position, club, birthday and age, stats, nationality and shirt number. I did this for each individual player and placed them in the same position's layout in each different project. This was to have a consistent format for each card when being scanned. I customised colours on the background of the players' names to match their club's colours or to display it was a special card. For example, Bruno Fernandes' name was red like Manchester United's Home kit, whereas Karim Benzema's was gold to match his special card.

The next session I spent setting up the hyperlinks to external sources. I set up a link to each players' Instagram, twitter (if they had it), Wikipedia page, YouTube clips, national team's website and club's website. This allowed interactivity as the user would be able to access more information on each player as well as being able to follow them on their social media too. An example of this is for Karim Benzema's Instagram where you connect their username to be a hyperlink. Furthermore, I added an image marker for each card, so the correct information for player would marry up with what card was being scanned on the app. 

The final session of creating the AR was me adding special effects to enhance user experience. I did this by adding video footage of fireworks and background noise of fireworks going off. I did this by adding audio in the back on a loop so that it wouldn't run out when if the user is using the app longer than the audio file. I did the same with the video too, putting it on a loop. I used a green screened clip of some fireworks and removed the background using the 'chroma key' tool in the Blippar application.

This helped enhance the AR feature with something other than text. Having a moving image as well as augmented audio helped display AR to another level. It added more excitement to the card and made the feature look a lot more advanced. The reason for adding the firework feature was to celebrate getting that player. Fireworks are associated with excitement and celebration. So, adding that helped me achieve that excitement you get when getting a player in a pack.  

Video Process:

To showcase my project I had to put a video together. I did this by combining a screen recording from my phone using my created AR artefact as well as camera footage using a Sony a7R Mark II camera.

I decided to record with a camera rather than singular doing a screen recording of my artefact. The first reason for that was to create a narrative to the video. I created the scenario of myself at the start walking in and then proceeding to open a pack of Match Attax. This was to display how people would us my artefact as well as how easy it is to use the app. You simply just open the packet and start scanning away and it projects the additional player information on to your phone.

Another reason for use of the camera was to exhibit the AR feature to the maximum. I allowed this by showing a third-person view, rather than just the singularity of a first-person view of screen recording using the artefact. This was evident in the video as you could see the card in reality without the additional text, video, audio and hyperlink features. But on the other hand, in the same shot, you could see on my phone the augmented reality in full effect making use of all the features attached to the card. This juxtaposition and contrast between the AR on my phone and the reality of the card, allowed me to exploit the artefact showing it in full effect.

Screen recording was used too. This was to demonstrate what the app would look like if you were using it. It showed the artefact in full effect seeing the firework features, information on the players as well as hyperlinks to follow the players on social media, find out more on their w

Wikipedia page, YouTube clips of them playing, even looking at their national team or club team websites for your own needs. 

I then proceeded to edit the clips in Premiere Pro. I Used both a mix of shots from the camera recording and screen recording. I also added a backing track too to avoid an awkward silence between each scan. This was because the artefact consisted of some audio with the firework feature when in use, but when hyperlinks were used or scanning to the next card just had silence within it.