Lanterns are universal symbols of brightness, transcendence and guiding light. In various cultures they are also viewed as symbols of love, wisdom and illumination. Lanterns also symbolise the inner light that guides the soul through periods of darkness with the promise of a new day.
Lantern festivals provide a moment for people to come together, as their lantern is launched to the sky we make a wish. Aero-lantern translates this experience into Augmented reality creating a shared contemplative moment no matter where you are.
The experience
The augmented reality experience invites the user to place a single lantern in the space in front of them. When positioned the lantern pulsates and text is displayed asking the user to tap the lantern and make a wish. Once tapped, the text disappears and music starts and the lantern starts spinning and expanding in size. After a brief period the lantern starts to move slowly to the sky, in the meantime many more smaller lanterns appear on the ground and also start moving to the sky. At the end of the experience text is displayed asking people to share their experience online.
Scan the QR code or click this link to launch your own lantern in augmented reality using Adobe Aero!
Creative Process
This project was developed using many of the techniques that we use to develop our physical builds including sketching, 3d modelling and 3d printing.
The functionality of Aero meant the team were able to bring the project alive with ease using its inbuilt behaviours and animations. It was exciting to be able to work with such creative freedom and without many of the material constraints we often face in our work. We look forward to expanding this area of our practice in the future!
To create the lanterns we decided to use the most primitive digital form; the triangle, as a building block. We arranged the triangles in such a way that they create three dimensional forms. The triangles are spaced out and oriented so that when the lanterns rotate they appear to be flowing in three dimensions. The yellow / orange / brown tones were chosen based on the warm tones found within a real lantern festival.
Aero Lantern was designed as a collective online experience and we invite you to join us! We are excited to see your Lantern launch on social media so please tag @adobeaero on Instagram! Below you can see the locations where Lanterns have been launched.
