James Clar x Canada Goose

ABOUT THE COLLABORATION

Canada Goose's new product line BRANTA is going launch its Spring 20 collection soon with theme “The Art of Light”. Their spring jacket has a reflective detailing which is influenced by the work of artist James Clar and interprets the way technology has altered our perception of reality and time.

BRANTA WEBSITE

Let the Light in With James Clar

Branta: The Art of Light

brief

TIME: Dec. 2019 — May 2020
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TEAM: James Clar, Ellie Lin, Casey Conchinha
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ROLE: TouchDesigner Development
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TOOL: TouchDesigner, Kinect v2, WatchPax media servers, Adobe Illustrator, Spark AR, 8th Wall Web AR

About the Collaboration
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I’m working with James Clar as one of his two assistants to develop the interactive system. The collaboration has three main stages, the first is a commercial photoshoot, the second is a series of motion tracking installations for the Milan Design Week 2020 and New York Frieze Art Fair (Canceled due to Covid-19). I led the interactive system development and experimented with Spark AR, Unity and 8th Wall web AR to demo the branded Instagram
AR filters.

Schedule
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First Chapter (Dec. 2019 – Jan.2020) – Commercial Shoot: S20 collection commercial photo shoot: visually complex effects as background, generated by the artist in realtime.

‍Second Chapter (Canceled due to Covid-19) – Milan Design Week: Multiple room installations at Via Savona in Milan viewed by the public at night and day using the same elements from the commercial campaign shoot.

‍Third Chapter (Canceled due to Covid-19) – Retail Theater: An installation exhibited at the New York Frieze Festival.

Commercial Photoshoot

For the commercial shoot, we had eight 4k projectors setup in a row with fully overlapped projection on top of each other, which allows one object to have multiple shadows, potentially shadows of different colors. I helped to develop a control system in TouchDesigner for James to play with the shadow effects in real time. So during the commercial photoshoot he can easily change the content, colors, brightness of projection background according to the stage setting, theme and special requirements of the photographer.

Commercial Shoot - Tech Setup

Commercial Shoot - Background Test

Commercial Shoot - Scene Setup

Commercial Shoot - Product

Control Interface Demo for the Commercial Photoshoot
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System Design for the Commercial Photoshoot
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This system has functions including: uploading image/video as the background, uploading image/video as the mask, basic transformation, color modification, scaling and tiling, disable/enable individual channels and disable/enable effects.

Technical Setup:
1. Eight 4k projectors
2. Plants
3. Stage for models

Prototyping | Process of Development
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WorldStage Prototype with 4 Projectors

WatchPax media servers

Overlapped Shadow Effect Testing

TouchDesigner Output

Projectors Setup

Kinect Effect Testing

Kinect Tracking Test Smoke Effect

Kinect Tracking Test Rainbow Effect

Kinect Effect Testing in the Studio with 2 Projectors

Studio Shadow Testing

Studio Kinect Tracking Test

Milan Design Week / Frieze NYC

Unfortunately, due to the global outbreak of Covid-19, both the Milan Design Week 2020 and Frieze Art Fair NYC 2020 got canceled. Canada Goose, however, will still launch their Branta SS20 products on time and shifted their promotions from offline shows to online digital forms (Augmented Reality filters).

Web AR Experiments
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I experimented with multiple tools, including Unity, Spark AR, and 8th Wall, to prototype various AR effects and bring to the client meetings.

Here's the basic setup to demonstrate the face tracking effect and portal illusion on my phone.

Instagram AR Filter Demo
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After discussions, we decided to move forward with Spark AR and build Instagram filter integrated with the rain element.

* Final version of this IG filter was developed by Italian designer Alessandro Arcidiacono.
Linked here.