AUG - Tools to Make AR Lesson

Tools to Make AR Lesson

Understanding the sensors and concepts are a big part of AR development. But everything in AR, the "assets", need to be created. A virtual piece of furniture or a target image for an app need to be created before they are used. For this lesson, let's assume you're going to make an AR app that will show a teapot when your camera on your phone sees a certain image like a bunch of wood chips. You would have to make the wood chips picture AND the teapot 3D object. See the example on the right. How do we do that? That's the objective of this lesson.

Making 3D objects has never been easier, and you have so many options from which to choose. Most require establishing a free account, but one or two do not. On the professional level, Autodesk Maya or Autodesk 3DS Max offer free download licenses to students, and these are 3D softwares used not only in AR, but also movies like Ironman, and games like SMITE. There are also web-based versions, like TinkerCAD where you don't need to install a thing, just create an account and go! One free software that does not require any login or fee is Blender.  It can help you make just about anything in 3D, and animate as well if you'd like!   

In the 2D world, your target image can be anything from a bar code to a company logo. In fact, it can even be a 3D object like a can or box, but the camera sees a 2D version. If you use a 2D picture, it can be made with any type of graphic editing program. The most popular picture editing programs in the professional world are Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. But those do cost money, so you might want to consider the free options. One great free option is Pixlr. It is very much like Photoshop, but it just uses your browser window, it does not need to install a thing! When you make your image, you can just download it and use it wherever you'd like.

 

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS