AR Experience
Interactive AR & 3D Production
Brief
GO-GENIE was recognised in the SPBA – Promising Brands category for 2025. Attendees of the Singapore Prestige Brand Award (SPBA) Gala Dinner on 2 January 2026 received a magazine featuring all awarded brands. The brief called for the poster design in the magazine to signal the brand's technological edge.
Rather than a standard poster, we went for an interactive AR experience: users scan a QR code, and a genie appears to explain a $500 GO-GENIE Credits sign-up offer (terms apply).
Approach: Risk & Mitigation
Anchor Tracking
Risk: Poster had to be finalised before AR marker-tracking could be tested, due to a one-day design turnaround.
Mitigation: We had Plan B, a fallback video in place of the live AR layer, in case the anchor failed. Luckily, tracking held on testing and Plan B wasn't needed.
8th Wall Platform Life Cycle
Risk: 8th Wall, the AR hosting platform, was set to end support for edits to published experiences going into 2026, creating uncertainty about whether the live build would still function on the 2 Jan event date.
Mitigation: Confirmed 8th Wall's sunset schedule that live campaign hosting will retire on 28 Feb 2026. Publishing the experience prior to our 2 Jan event guarantees it will run smoothly without risk. Published experiences continue to run until 28 Feb 2027.
Technical Execution
Storyboarding & Previs
After receiving the initial brief, I mapped out a step-by-step user journey for every interaction point in the AR experience. This served as a visual for discussion with HelloHolo, the immersive media development studio we partnered on the build.
Through the meeting, proposed functionalities were edited against technical feasibility and we ultimately locked in a streamlined app flow.
Asset Pipeline & Optimisation
The Genie character usually required a high-poly count for marketing renders and print materials. The AR build needed optimised low-poly assets to ensure smooth frame rates.
A placeholder genie with proxy animation was given first so the developer, Shawn, could begin work immediately.
Then, Genie model was optimised by reducing polycount and managing UV space, alongside all environment assets like the bike and ship, and ultimately using a single texture atlas for efficiency.
Development: UIUX
A simplified UI was designed and exported to Shawn, the developer for integration.
Development: Device Testing & Iteration
Managed two passes of device testing with the help of my colleagues’ phones. Each test had iterative feedback for the developer.
Animation & Lip Sync
Animation process began by establishing key action poses with the confirmed Eleven Labs audio track. I then dedicated a seven-day sprint to refine the animation, making the character's movement as smooth and fluid as possible.
Late in the production cycle, management feedback flagged the lack of mouth movement and expressivement. Despite the looming deadline, a face rig was built and lip-sync animation was completed and approved before the end of December.
Reflection
It was nice to work with HelloHolo colleagues again, and this time I could lead the AR development, rather than working purely as a mixed reality artist. I was happy to have ownership over testing and refining the experience. Not gonna lie, the tight deadline and last-minute changes were extremely stressful and even ate into Christmas holidays.
The poster was reused as A5 flyers given out at GO-GENIE booth events, extending its life beyond the original launch. Seeing visitors smile at the booth, while watching the animation I’d built, was a reminder of why I studied animation, ultimately to entertain and enlighten people with beautiful things.
AI Usage Disclosure:
The genie's script was drafted and finalised by upper management with AI assistance. The final voiceover was generated using ElevenLabs.
