Harrods launches AR powered Christmas window displays
Harrods has worked with Visualise AR & VR on an augmented reality experience which blends the retailer’s Christmas window displays with 3D animations, delivered through WebAR technology in a mobile browser.
This year’s theme, “Witness a Spectacle”, is centred on an enormous feasting table that runs the entire length of Harrods’ Knightsbridge, London store. The windows feature an array of objects from luxury brands including Miu Miu, Bvlgari, and Carolina Herrera.
Visualise AR & VR was tasked with designing something that would play on some of the more traditional elements of Christmas, such as toys and music, but then add an unexpected twist to the experience.
It proposed to create a bespoke ‘automaton’ character – an early form of self-operating robot made popular in the 19th century – complete with a Harrods ‘H’ breast plate.
At first, the automaton appears as a clockwork toy, moving awkwardly in time to Swan Lake as if perched on a music box. Midway through the animation, the character becomes ‘self-aware’, removes the mechanical restraints from its feet and begins freestyle dancing in the window.
It then jumps up and smashes the window with a kick mid-dance, before finishing up and collapsing back in to its start position.
“The 3D animation was designed by our VFX team who used motion capture techniques to create the movement for each version of the experience,” Visualise AR & VR says in an online post.
“Once the scenes were completed, our development team then worked to further optimise the 3D animation for playback in a mobile web-browser, adding realistic reflections and lighting to the scene. It had to be carefully optimised and tested on a range of mobile phones getting the best balance of look and compatibility.”
It adds: “To make everything look as realistic as possible, our development team used 8th Wall’s image and SLAM tracking software, together with a custom built suite of tools to track the animation perfectly to the windows.”
“Finally, we added the facility for users to capture and share their experience which until very recently, was virtually impossible in a browser.”
