Apple only released its ARKit suite of augmented reality development tools a matter of weeks ago, but it already fostered the creation of some rather impressive projects. Now, one developer has used ARKit to create a time warp back to the 1980s, powered by nostalgia and Norwegian pop music.
In the classic music video for Take On Me by A-ha, a young woman sat in a coffee shop is invited into her comic book by a mysterious hand-drawn suitor. Eventually, he manages to break free from his illustrated form and become a real human being, much like a pen-and-paper Pinocchio.
The clip has been parodied by all manner of different sources — the rotoscoping effect used to integrate the hand-drawn character into real-world surroundings immediately calls to mind the music video. Now, it’s possible to recreate Take On Mee in the comfort of your own home thanks to an inventive AR app.
We have already seen several AR projects, some built with ARKit, that place a “portal” to another a real-world environment. Looking at the scene through your phone’s screen, there is another world waiting on the other side of the portal, which you can often walk through to find yourself completely surrounded by virtual scenery.
Chip Sineni of Trixi Studios puts a different spin on this idea in his new AR experience inspired by Take On Me. Beyond the portal, your real-world surroundings are depicted in the same manner as the rotoscoped sets of the music video — oh, and there is also a 3D model of an 80s-looking guy dancing away to his heart’s content.
Sineni used ARKit to develop the app, according to Road to VR. The fact that creative people are already using the platform to create attention-grabbing projects like this one demonstrates exactly why Apple launched the tools when it did.
It’s rumored that Apple will introduce enhanced AR hardware capabilities with its upcoming iPhone refresh. Once people have that technology in their hands, they are going to want to see what it can do — and a fun, fresh experience like re-enacting a classic music video in their living room is a perfect primer.
