Hollywood Style Storytelling with AR

Augmented Reality (AR) is being used in the medical field to train doctors and even being used to quality control car manufacturing. Companies are using AR technologies to allow their customers to “virtually” try and place items in their homes or try on different shades of makeup before buying!

These industries aren’t the only ones using AR, it has made its way into classrooms across the world. Using augmented reality apps, users are able to apply design thinking strategies and build prototypes in these apps. AR has also opened the door for digital storytelling!

Digital Storytelling

Humans have been creatively telling stories in various ways. Traced back thousands of years, people communicated and learned using cave paintings, pictograms, hieroglyphs, and characters.

Today, we still share and tell stories through literature and images. Only now we take advantage of AR technology to share our experiences and learn from what others shares. Using 3DBear, an AR app, I’ll share how anyone, from an elementary student to a college graduate, can create augmented reality scenes and put them together to tell a story.

Enhancing Videos with 3DBear

Moving pictures or movies is a powerful method for storytelling. But they also are expensive to make! I don’t have $250 million dollars in my bank to help with special effects or create large sets, animated creatures or CGI (computer-generated imagery). Fortunately, I don’t have to. I can use the 3DBear app and my phone for that!

I used the magic of video editing with the AR resources in 3DBear to create a short this short clip, Dinosaurs Attack. I took an ordinary setting like a park or store and then added actors. In this case, my daughter and I, add some AR dinosaurs and begin filming it all on my phone!

3DBear uses your native phone camera to capture footage. Carefully choreograph your action and placement of actors and begin filming. I took several shots from different angles to make it as realistic as possible.

After capturing all the footage, I imported the clips into one of my favorite mobile video editors, Adobe Premiere Rush. I then added sound effects, music track and used some filters to give the video a “Hollywood” look to it. Combining the clips captured in 3DBear and enhancing the footage with a video, I was able to tell a short story! This is a great approach for storytelling for students in grades k-12.

[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://iamclaudius.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/db974a89-63a7-4147-b522-02098077f0ef.mp4"][/video]

3DBear and Green Screen

Green screen technology is a popular effect that is being used heavily in schools to create newscasts, music videos, and short stories. Blending green screen effect and AR objects adds a whole new dimension to creative storytelling for students.

Within 3DBear, you’re able to access AR objects ranging anywhere from animals, furniture, and people. You can augment the scene by dropping them into your view. But in the case you want an augmented object that is not available, you can easily import one.

Create a free account in Thingiverse and curate collections of 3D files. These files, which are known as STL files, are used in 3D printing. But you can import them into 3DBear and place in view, manipulate, color and resize them.

Taking advantage of these additional resources, you can expand your creative storytelling palette. I’m going to use a combination of 3DBear and a green screen to create a short movie clip.

I placed a green or chroma key backdrop on a wall. Make sure that it’s well lit, it will help with editing. Import an object in view. In this case, I’ll use a file I found on Thingiverse, a Star Wars Tantitive IV (yes I’m a nerd).

[video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://iamclaudius.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/6a332970-2313-4bb9-a7d8-274f27b45760.mp4"][/video]

After recording several scenes, I continued editing my story by adding a moving background, audio track and sound effects. There is plenty of creative commons content. Here are a few you can use:

I used a combination of DoInk and Adobe Rush to edit my AR green screen footage. Just another way to build digital stories.

3DBear offers so many options for digital storytelling. Students can use the 3D resources in the app to create multiple scenes to edit in your favorite video editor. Import your own STL files or find many available in Thingiverse. Then they can really get creative with green screen effects and 3DBear objects to make your own special videos. Their only limit is your imagination!

Want to try 3DBear for yourself? Want to have some fun? You’re in luck! 3DBear was generous enough to offer a 30 Day trial. Click this link 3DBEAR 30 Day Trial to get started. Sign up today and you can spend the summer learning how you can use AR in the classroom for digital storytelling.