VANDAL and Virtual Immersive use AR to bring Lunar New Year to life at World Square Sydney

In an Australian first, creative shop VANDAL and virtual and augmented reality studio, Virtual Immersive, partnered with World Square to deliver a unique digital experience for Lunar New Year.

Using brand new technology never before implemented to this scale, an augmented reality experience was crafted that brings to life World Square’s iconic dragon sculpture as a digital, animated dragon.

The experience continues via an augmented reality “Red Pocket Treasure Hunt” that unlocks over 40 exclusive retail offers, as well as a grand finale AR experience that integrates with World Square’s social media campaign and competition.

Says Emile Rademeyer and Richard Swan, creative directors, VANDAL: “This is the most ambitious and interactive AR experience Australia has seen to date.”

Says John Doolan, lead software developer, Virtual Immersive: “Breaking ground using new technology in VR and AR is what we love doing. This project delivered.”

With only 6 weeks from greenlight to delivery, the Virtual Immersive team blended together new technologies from various platforms including Apple and Google’s new AR technology.

Says Saxon Dixon, UX director, Virtual Immersive: “Our main focus is always to provide the best user experience. The World Square Lunar New Year experience has a lot of moving parts. It incorporates a wide range of features and functionality including a treasure hunt and 4 large scale activations, digitally overlaid on top of the physical space. Knowing we built an experience that delivers on the outcomes for World Square has been extremely satisfying.”

The giant screen in the main square supports the experience, with a live camera giving visitors the opportunity to see themselves interacting with the Dragon in real time on the screen.

During production the VANDAL creative warehouse in Redfern became an augmented reality playground with digital dragons flying around 24/7 as the Virtual Immersive team built and tested every aspect of the experience.

Says Swan: “VANDAL’s in-house art gallery was the perfect space to utilise as we needed a large physical space to test the digital world in. Utilising our in-house sound studio allowed us to craft bespoke sound effects for the animated dragon.”

Says Rademeyer: “It’s been exceptional working with the World Square and JLL teams. They have been incredibly supportive in trusting us with their brand, and being so progressive as the first Shopping Centre in Australia to embrace AR technology in such an interactive way.”

World Square Lunar New Year 2018 in augmented reality is active every day to 4th March, only at World Square.

World Square / JLL

Halil Basiacek – Realtime Artist and Assistant Software Developer