Making the AR Zines
Sketching and Drawing
Although there are a variety of ways to create a zine, Cergam Muslimah was mostly created through sketching and drawing. These are first sketched out traditionally and are then imported and placed into Adobe Illustrator as reference images.
Vectoring Illustrations
Using the Blob brush tool on Adobe Illustrator, the sketches are used as reference images to vector the drawings. These are later arranged on the 8-page zine template based on how each story is planned out.
Using Eyejack
The MAR (Mobile Augmented Reality) technology used for this prototype is Eyejack (eyejackapp.com), in which I demonstrate the accessibility of this technology as a free resource. Making the experience through this application can also be as simple or complex, depending on the story the designer would like to evoke.
In my process, the augmented layer of the story consists of creating vector gifs and images based on the content of the narrative to enhance the dimensions to the story. Both the printed artifact and the augmented content are as important in expressing the dimensions of the perspective told. Different reskinning (Ronald Azuma) techniques are used here to balance the duality of the story.
Image of Eyejack Application and Eyejack Creator (Desktop)
Selecting the image files for the Image Trigger
These are pages of the zine exported as individual images. What needs to be made sure is saving the files within the right dimensions so that when the AR is triggered, the artwork overlays on top of the zine page perfectly.
Uploading the AR files
Below is the process to uploading the files onto Eyejack Creator. The files that need to be readied beforehand are the .jpg or .png files that will be set as the Image Trigger and then the AR animation file that could be in most digital image formats.
Step-by step Upload Process
Step 1: Uploading the Image Trigger artwork
Step 2: Determining title for the artwork
Step 3: Adding the animation that will play through AR
Step 4: After the animation is created/added, a QR code will be generated to be scanned and saved onto the mobile device used to read the augmented content
Step 5: Scanning the QR code on mobile device and activating the artwork on the Eyejack App
Step 6: Loading all the pages on the Eyejack App
Alternate Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) Applications
Similar to Eyejack, Artivive has its own visualization app and a creator hub that is downloadable on desktop/laptop devices. There are kits tailored for different institutions to creating augmented reality artwork.
Different to Artivive and Eyejack, the approach to creating the AR experience can be done through the application itself. This however still requires a way to learn the software itself and may not be fitting of zine-circulations, but is optional.