Today Nexus Studios has announced a collaboration with Magic Light Pictures and Forestry Commission England on an augmented reality (AR) app based on the children’s storybook The Gruffalo.
The Gruffalo Spotter brings to life the characters from the popular book at 26 forests across the UK. Families follow clues on an interactive trail tracking signs of the characters. This leads them to five different AR markers specific to them. So there are little footprints for Mouse, fox tracks for FOX, a slithery trail for Snake and of course a massive Gruffalo footprint.
Users then point their device at a marker triggering a short animation. The trails are full of fun facts to keep the kids entertained and once characters are spotted photos can be taking alongside them.
Sam Southward, director at Nexus Studios said: “One of the exciting things about The Gruffalo Spotter is the way in which we have scaled up the AR technology to create close to life-sized characters in a real world location. Up until this point, the majority of AR has been a smaller and more controlled experience, but for this project we really wanted to see how much we could push it. On a technical level, we have included a few clever techniques to better integrate the characters into their outdoor surroundings, such as designing the animation to work from the ground up, giving the characters a stage, which will hopefully make the experience even more magical and memorable for the audience.”
The Gruffalo Spotter trail and app will launch on 20th February, running through to September 2017. The app will be free to download from the App Store, Google Play and Amazon.
Launch dates will differ depending on the forest so head to the The Gruffalo Spotter website for further info. For any more updates, keep reading VRFocus.