Where to get resources for your AR project

One of the foundations of our creative process is to focus on creating high quality content. But when you start creating your own projects, achieving this goal can be more difficult than it sounds. At the end of the day, one of the most exciting things about AR is the technology itself, so at the initial stage of introducing the digital layer into the world, it may seem like “enough”.

But as AR technology becomes more normalized, it’s becoming clear that a professional-grade AR experience that really draws people in is associated with a captivating user experience and powerful storytelling, which means using high-quality resources that your users will enjoy interacting with.

It’s not always easy – there is a dizzying array of options, not to mention a wide range of prices and quality levels. So my team and I wrote this article to give you a comprehensive list of our favorite resources to take your AR projects to the next level.

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The best 3D models for your AR projects

Capture users’ attention with explorable 3D content. User experience is key, so let’s take a look at how easy it is to create and import content in Web-AR.Studio, which provides the “wow-effect” for fast loading on mobile devices.

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Taking 3D models for AR

Unsurprisingly, most of the most popular AR apps include 3D models. This is one of the favorite ways to use AR because of the interactivity and immersive nature of the end result – your user is no longer a passive observer of your final design, they can now “meet” your creation in the real world.

In a broader sense, when choosing 3D models, it is important to remember to optimize the project for a wide audience. Remember that people will often access your work from a wide variety of devices and in a wide variety of contexts. High-quality 3D models can be quite heavy, which can affect device performance, which can be a major barrier to entry for users using older smartphones.

Below is a list of websites that we often use to get 3D models for projects. You may need to use a 3D model editor such as Blender (free), Maya, or 3Ds Max to make sure your models work correctly in Web-AR.Studio.

Recommended websites for finding 3D models:

  • Sketchfab
  • Free3D
  • TurboSquid
  • Hum3D
  • CG-trader
  • Adobe Stock
  • Mixamo

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The best 2D elements for your AR projects

These are the elements of your AR project that will make your users crawl and interact with your project, right down to video content, user interface, and fonts. Together, they greatly influence the mood and overall aesthetics of your final product.

When it comes to finding 2D assets, it’s best to work with a well thought out concept. The designer (especially if working alone) may be responsible for combining the target image and the user interface, so it’s cheaper and more efficient to match images to your established artistic vision than experimenting on the fly. Of course, this often means searching for images from a wide variety of sources to import into AR.Studio – you may need to make some changes in Photoshop.

Recommended websites for image searches:

  • Shutterstock
  • Adobe Stock
  • iStock
  • Pexels
  • Bigstock
  • Alamy
  • StockSnap

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Search icons for AR

Using icons is a great way to make your product as accessible as possible. We often create augmented reality projects for a diverse global audience, and the use of icons reduces the use of text and lowers the language barrier for users.

AR Business card || Augmented reality business card

There are many stylish options out there, so it’s worth digging through various sources until you find icons that best match your project’s aesthetic.

Recommended websites for icon search:

  • Flaticon
  • Icons8
  • Iconfinder
  • Flat Icon
  • Icon Archive
  • Freepik
  • Octicons

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Video search for AR

One of the most effective ways to connect with your audience with AR is by using great video.

A good tip is to use the first frame of the video as the tracking image. Starting playback of the rest of the scanned image gives the image a “come to life” effect. It’s awesome, easy to implement, and truly one of the simplest yet visually impressive elements of augmented reality!

AR Postcard || Animated postcard

When it comes to video editing software to help you get the most out of your content – After Effect, Final Cut, Premiere and Lightworks. All packages use different members of Web-AR.Studio.

But remember to check the licensing restrictions (or lack thereof) for the videos you select. Many of the options available are CC licensed, so be sure to support your fellow creators and pay for the license, especially if it’s for a commercial project.

Recommended websites for searching videos:

  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
  • Mazwai
  • Pexels Video
  • Videezy

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The best music for your AR projects

The impact of sound on your augmented reality experience cannot be underestimated. While working with some restrictions on the sound quality of a mobile device, the music you choose, the background ambience, and sound effects go a long way towards immersing users in your project.

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Sound sources for AR

Audio is the instrumental part of your overall AR composition that can really add depth and emotion to the final experience. From immersive sound effects that reward your users for interaction, to background music that shapes the mood, sound adds depth to your project. Therefore, making the right sound decision for your experience can be an important factor in connecting with your end users.

To get the most out of your audio, you may need to use popular editing tools like Logic, Cubase, or Audacity. Optimizing audio is not only about keeping your file size relatively small, but also maximizing the quality to match common mobile devices.

Recommended websites for finding music:

  • Premium Beat
  • AudioJungle
  • AudioBlocks
  • AudioMicro
  • Stockmusic.net
  • Freesound
  • Orange Free Sounds
  • Gamesounds.xyz

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Conclusion

I really hope that the recommendations from me and my team will be useful to you. The options can be confusing, but since many are free, this is a great opportunity to experiment and find what works for your job. Our forum has a fantastic community of augmented reality enthusiasts and Web-AR.Studio users who, along with our support team, are always ready to provide suggestions, feedback and discussions when it comes to finding resources.

Five Tips for Learning AR with Web-AR.Studio

In the technology development world, augmented reality is rapidly becoming a valuable skill across industries ranging from graphic design and marketing to corporate training and development. With the slowdown in many business sectors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many have the opportunity to spend time improving their augmented reality skills.

This is where Web-AR.Studio can help. AR.Studio is our most powerful and versatile content creation tool. It supports 3D models, custom animations, and various tracking types, and is surprisingly easy to learn. We also have a number of educational resources available for free, including tutorials.

The only thing that unites us all here at Web-AR.Studio is that we all sat down at one point or another as newbies, so we decided to combine our knowledge and come up with some useful tips that we would like to know before than to learn how to use Web-AR.Studio.

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Getting to know the basics

Get started in a 2D editor using our easy-to-use AR.Studio templates

Creating projects using templates Web-AR.Studio

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Start with image recognition (Live Photos)

We recommend starting with the simplest. Perhaps most famous in augmented reality, Live Photos are a great first step, showcasing a number of different features with a very recognizable use case at the end.

Align your video and images using Web-AR.Studio, making sure that the first frame of the video and the image is the same. This is the easiest way to create a “animate” effect that immediately brings the WOW effect after scanning the QR code.

Template project: AR Pack. Interactive quiz

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Get to know the Web-AR.Studio analytics system

We believe that understanding our dedicated analytics dashboard is key to building successful AR projects using data.

Analytics can be accessed through your Web-AR.Studio account and can provide a range of analytics, including how many users crawled your project, where they clicked, and how long they stayed in augmented reality.

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Join the forum Web-AR.Studio

Our Web-AR.Studio community forum is a priority for new Studio users.

“Whenever I faced obstacles, I realized that the Web-AR.Studio community is a great place to find people who were in a similar position and can provide answers. Everyone is very kind and ready to help each other make the most of the platform.”

Anyone can contribute and view the forum here.

Design Tips for AR

At its best, augmented reality is an interactive storybook that briefly makes the end user suspend their disbelief and feel like their physical environment is integrated with digital content. As an augmented reality designer, your goal is to surprise and delight users while maintaining immersion throughout the entire process.

A good comparison is a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat – you know he put a rabbit in there, but that destroys the illusion if you see him doing it. Here are some practical tips to help make sure you never get caught hiding your bunny in a hat or with cards up your sleeve.

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Bring your image to life with video and animation

When designing a project for a client, try to make sure that the first frame of the video matches the trigger. By juxtaposing the two, you get the ability to move elements that exist on a physical target that you don’t need, and inject those pieces of content that you do. If something just appears on the screen that has nothing to do with what existed before, this is a sure way to destroy the magic.

For Web-AR.Studio users, we recommend using the first frame of the video as part of the tracking image. This is the easiest way to create a “liven” effect that immediately benefits when your target audience scans your code. If you plan to use video in the designer, video editing tools such as After Effects or Premiere Pro can be great for animating components of the target image. Or, you might even decide to use animated graphics created in third-party software.

Find out how easy it is to animate images with Web-AR.Studio

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Break the fourth wall

AR is designed to act like another layer of reality, making you, as a user, a part of it. If you have a 3D character standing on a trigger, why not make him turn to face you when you look at him from a different angle? Have your character look up at the user instead of straight into the distance like in a theatrical production, making sure everything is done with the awareness that the audience should be watching.

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Interactivity

AR has an advantage over more traditional media like television or films in that we can design and create interactivity with the content in question. The more interactivity you add to your project, the more immersive it will become. Touch, swipe, browse – really engage your user in exploration down to the smallest detail! A really good example is the AR Pack we made for you as a template. This project is actually quite simple compared to some of the things you can create in Web-AR.Studio, however you should see how you can add additional levels of complexity to your project.

Template project: AR Pack. Interactive quiz

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Conclusion

Like any good magician, starting small and perfecting the basics is the key to long-term success. Use these design tricks to create an immersive experience that users will come back to over and over again. Finally, don’t be afraid to experiment and innovate. AR is still in its infancy, and you have the opportunity to help define design conventions in an entirely new environment.

Bringing Photos to Life with WebAR as the Idea That Changed My Approach to Photo Albums

Greetings, dear reader! My name is Alexander, I am a photographer with 22 years of experience, and in this article I would like to tell you about an amazing discovery for me in the field of creating photo albums and personal photographs. To be honest, lately there have been a lot of young photographers who take away the client base that I have developed over the years. They set minimum prices, sacrificing quality, which leads to the fact that many customers during a pandemic turn to those who have cheaper, and not those who have better quality.

When I started thinking about how to get back some of my lost customer base, I found an interesting tool that is widely used in America. In Russian, it would be called “Live Photos” or photographs with “augmented reality”. Their meaning lies in the fact that WITHOUT downloading any mobile applications, simply by pointing the smartphone camera at the photo, you can “revive” the photo. That is, in your smartphone, instead of a regular photo, a video will be displayed on the screen (in place of the photo). As a result, a kind of cool effect of enlivening the photo is obtained.
To create such photos without programming and 3D skills, you can use the only free augmented reality designer for photographers web-ar.studio

I have already seen before this reviving photos on the Russian market, which work through mobile applications and are extremely inconvenient, since you need to spend time searching for an application, registering, downloading and uploading certain projects. In addition to a heap of wasted time that your client will need, they will also have to donate space on their phone in order to view the project once. However, I was able to find a solution to these problems and this made me one of the most sought-after and technologically advanced photographers in my city. All my “come to life” photos work by QR-code, without the need to download mobile applications. In addition, in my projects, I can add not only video, as is done in applications, but also many other functionalities to photos: 3D scenes, mini-games, and much more. Also, on the platform I am using, there is access to its own editor, which applications do not have. Here I can add my own loading screen, domain and see analytics for any of the projects. As a result: we managed to return some of the old clients and acquire new ones, even from those who have already used reviving photos before.

I decided to change the approach to creating photo albums, in which there are general photos of the class of students and at the same time to make a short 15-second video of the moment from the photo at the same time. Thus, at the exit I got a photo, when you hover over which, there is a moment of photographing in a video format, for example, how the whole school class waves at the camera and smiles.

The effect is just “Wow!”, Nobody in my city makes such albums and photos so far, and now, in addition to ordinary photos, I propose to make more and these, which arouses great interest in examining my photo samples.

Also for this article, I shot a video in which I show how I animate a photo in just 1 minute – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB2ul26j7Rs, at the end of this video is an example of what the “revival” looks like.

Here is one of my samples that you can see for yourself.

To watch:
1) Open the photo on your computer or laptop monitor.

2) Scan the QR code in the lower right corner through the camera (if you have an iphone or some types of Android) or the built-in QR code scanner app.

3) Point your phone at the photo that you have opened on the monitor.

If you liked my ideas for unusual photos, I will gladly take them for you or your family. Thank you for reading the article to the very end, I was happy to share my experience with you.