Thursday 13th July –
Today is the start of my 21 day challenge! I have decided to focus mainly on three activities that will help with the overall aims of my project and guided by my study statement.
My key areas of focus are as follows:
- Explore ‘The Art of the Fold’ – Bookbinding
- Explore augmented reality
- Continue Research Paper
So How did it Go?
I started the day full of enthusiasm for diving into augmented reality in order to produce something really amazing! Unfortunately both the universe and my MacBook Pro had other ideas. I decided to start my day by exploring augmented reality with Meta Spark. This is industry leading software and I found it to have lots of functionality.
Challenges
The first challenge I faced was to free up resources on my MacBook Pro. I reluctantly got rid of Cinema 4d which I just haven’t ever had the time or inclination to explore. Sadly this wasn’t enough and the Meta Spark software still wouldn’t download. So unfortunately Microsoft Excel was next on my hit list. Luckily this gave me the space that I needed. Already I had wasted 20 minutes simply trying to free disk space! Luckily by expunging Excel my MacBook Pro allowed the download and install to go ahead.
I opened the software and as usual I thought that I could run before I could walk – I really couldn’t! All I achieved in my enthusiasm was to mess up the default user interface. This in turn meant that I had to work out a way to return to the starting point. This was so that I could follow along with the tutorials that I should have done in the first place!
Eventually I managed to return to the original screen and work my way through the first tutorial. This was fun to do!
I developed an augmented reality face filter (like the types found in Snapchat), and I also successfully tested it out in real-time, in both Instagram and Facebook. By this point I was feeling quite smug and self satisfied having just trialed my very first augmented reality face filter. Actually I was just quite relieved that it worked. However my joy was very short lived. In order for others to experience my newly created augmented reality filter, I needed to publish the project to the Meta Spark hub. I thought that this should be plain sailing – how wrong was I? To my dismay the project would only upload as far as 40 percent then it consistently hung. It was so annoying! I considered looking up the error messages that kept popping up (please see below). Fortunately the instructional video that I had playing in the background just happened to mention that I could upload directly to the hub instead of through the software.
Finally, I published my first face tracked, augmented reality, makeup filter! It was not plain sailing and I had to do a direct upload. The filter also has to be approved by both Instagram and Facebook before they can be accepted. However, I am making the link available to everyone reading this to trial my filter.
In order to trial my creation you will need up to date versions of either the Facebook or Instagram Apps. Then simply click on the links below in order to try out my makeup filter for yourself. It’s quite fun and works (as mentioned above) in a similar way to a Snapchat filter. I have posted an image of me using the filter so that you can see an example of the end result. I would like at this point to say that I’m not a fan of filters. I think that they give a wholly distorted version of reality and in some cases can be harmful to teenagers trying to live up to an ideal that simply does not exist.
The Development of my filter was a ‘means to an end’. It was simply a way of learning the software. Face filters are not something that I want to pursue, but that said, it was a great first experiment!
Please feel free to try it out for yourself the links are as follows:
If you would like to see my results of using my augmented reality makeup filter, please see the photograph below. I think I do look younger but I don’t really endorse this kind of thing. Therefore, my next project will concentrate on image tracking. I’ve got this planned for tomorrow.
Observations – What Did I Learn?
I learned quite quickly that today at least there was no way that I could learn a new complex software program and make a paper sculpture and do some research. It’s nearly 9.00pm as I am writing this and I’m already tired. My ‘brain hurts’. Therefore, I have decided to concentrate on learning more about augmented reality and creating AR experiences to accompany my images. I will build in time for my research and my paper sculpture but sadly time is not permitting me to do 3 tasks a day. Tomorrow I will continue my journey in augmented reality.
What did I Actually Achieve?
I learned the basics of the Meta Spark program and I created my very own augmented reality makeup face filter for use with Instagram and Facebook. I finish day 1 of my challenge feeling optimistic!
