Magical Picture – feel the magic

Introduction

The Magical Picture app will make even realists believe in magic when they see how an ordinary photo suddenly comes to life on the smartphone screen.

LOOKINAR studio, for the first time in Ukraine, has developed an app that helps customers to combine photos and videos with a magical augmented reality effect. A reviving photo will remind you of a past event, emotions, and renew the atmosphere of a memorable meeting.

Users

The project will be of interest to everyone who values happy moments and wants to preserve the memory of important events in the most convenient format. Recalling the atmosphere, mood, smiles of loved ones and important words from an anniversary, a graduation or a romantic date – now it is possible with the help of one photo.

A working mother will smile looking at the picture of her child in his first role in the theater studio on the office table and on the screen of her smartphone.
A couple in love, looking through photos in a family album, even in 15 years will be able to remember the emotions that overwhelmed them during the wedding day.
Grandmother will show her grandson how happy his father was by tossing up a graduation hat.

Magical Picture app can be used:

for educational purposes – you point your smartphone camera at a book picture and hear the story of the author or a lecture of the teacher;
in museums – when you point the camera at the picture in the booklet, you get a guided tour of the halls;
at exhibitions – a product photo will become the key to a 3D presentation;
in household appliances and electronics shops – when pointing the smartphone camera at the QR code, the buyer receives complete information about the product, without disturbing always busy consultants.

How it works

The photo and video on the server are linked by a QR code. When you point the a smartphone or tablet camera at a photo, the picture comes to life – a video of a photo-related event is launched with the help of augmented reality.

Special aspects

The app is free of charge and is available for Android and iOS devices.
All “live” photos are stored on Amazon, not in the device’s memory, but are available at any time.
The app is easy to use and can be used by both amateurs and professional photographers.

Magical Picture is an opportunity to save and recall the best moments, emotions and mood associated with them with a couple of clicks at any time.

Difficulties

The thorny path of an app, or a Magical Picture thriller with a traditional happy end

The app path was not simple and straightforward.

The planned week for the design development was not enough. None of the three options we proposed matched the client’s vision. Yes, it happens. We offered seven more – not a single hit.

The client, seeing the state of affairs, opened Figma and began to improve the design at his own discretion. But we continued working process and offered new solutions. The way to the final version lasted two and a half weeks, which, after long approvals, was accepted.

There were some pitfalls every now and then.

We planned to make a copy of the AR Albums app, but using their UX made the app less intuitive, overloaded, requiring extra clicks.
Our app is on Unity, the platform does not support the GIF format, but we wanted to use GIFs in augmented reality. Okay, we agreed with the backend that it will convert to WebM format. We did it, and then it turned out that in editore everything works on the computer, but not on the smartphone. Android does not support it. We had to try several plugins until the right one was found – converting GIF to texture.

As expected, the result is an estimable product that we present with confidence and pride.

Project prospects

Creation and storage of emotions about significant events for the company’s clients.
Development of interactive projects for educational purposes.
Conducting excursion tours with a video guide.
Online consultations on the household appliances and electronics selection.

And these are just a few options. We are confident the list will continue.