During July and August we partnered with Samsung to bring eight AR creators, two per weekend, to the big stage at Samsung 837, the NYC flagship store. Each weekend kicked off on Friday with an inspirational keynote presentation, followed by a hands-on augmented reality workshop on Saturday and Sunday. If you missed an experience or weekend, here’s the recap.

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Weekend 1: Storytelling

The series kicked off with Eddy Adams and Manuel Borrero Rios speaking about storytelling through augmented reality.

Eddy discussed the importance of always keeping your audience in mind. He also went into detail about the Story Circle, a structure in storytelling. This structure is divided into eight parts that follow a protagonist’s journey. He talked about how these parts within the structure follow a character’s pursuit of a goal, and at the end, finds that character changed. No matter how complicated or simple your story is, Eddy emphasized the importance of structure to help develop his ideas. Eddy has even created a Spark AR Masterclass using the Story Circle, and will soon be offered within the Spark AR curriculum.

Manuel offered a different perspective, conveying his experience of storytelling through characters he created. He also talked about how other users have taken his effects and characters to recreate and interpret stories of their own.

Despite the importance of knowing your audience, both creators agreed to never chase “likes” or trends. Instead, they encouraged the audience to create stories for themselves.

Weekend 2: Beauty and fashion

The second weekend featured presentations from Paige Piskin and Piper ZY who spoke about the impact of augmented reality within beauty and fashion.

Paige touched upon the influence that augmented reality has had within the beauty space. She demonstrated how effects in the metaverse could be free from restraints, offering the possibilities of complete freedom for creative expression. She also touched on the freedom to draw and embody different characters.

Piper ZY focused on fashion, and the role that augmented reality has played in transforming the industry. She imagines a digital world where materials and fabric are not dictated by clothing choices, and where creativity is boundless. Piper introduced the audience to new design concepts through target tracking, and how they too can transform the clothing industry with Spark AR.

Weekend 3: AR as a career

The third weekend featured talks by Alexis Zerafa and Helena Dong who spoke about AR as a career.

To begin, Alexis provided the crowd with advice and affirmation: “When you start a new thing, it's okay to suck at it.” She also provided tips to attaining passive income with ideas like: selling scripts, textures, 3D models, and educational courses. When working with clients, Alexis also shared tips she learned throughout her career, which include: being responsive, setting clear boundaries, taking all feedback, being organized, and asking for referrals.

Helena taught students the importance of putting themselves out there. She recommended being resourceful, and to contact people directly rather than sending emails to a generic jobs account. Helena also shared a personal experience where she created a document that held contact information to 280 companies, to which she ended up working with six of them.

Weekend 4: The metaverse and its possibilities

For the last weekend, Luke Hurd and Leighton McDonald spoke on the metaverse and its future possibilities.

Luke shared how his team created the Coachellaverse, a location-based augmented reality experience brought to Coachella ‘22 by Meta. During the creation process, he discovered how important it was to think about the user’s experience. Most importantly, to think of all factors within that experience, which can include: location, time, travel, temperature, and even climate. Specific to the Coachella experience it was important for them to consider the heat, walking distance, the sky, and glare within the creation process.

Leighton discussed identity within the Metaverse. He touched upon people’s ability, and creativity to be who or what they want to be in this space: “You could be a lizard. If you want to be a balloon, you can be a balloon.” Most importantly, Leighton addressed the importance for people to be themselves.

Conclusion

Thank you to Samsung, the Spark AR creators, and all who attended an amazing Spark AR Creators Series. Subscribe to the Spark AR Blog, keep an eye out for the next big event and don’t forget to get involved in the Spark AR community. You may find yourself on a Times Square billboard next.

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