Step into the role of Crow with this Facebook Karaoke AR filter.
Baobab Studios, the VR animation company behind the Emmy-award winning films Invasion! and Asteroids! have launched a new Facebook AR face filter that lets you wear the colorful feathered face of the hero from their most recent VR film, Crow: The Legend.
The face filter resembles an experience similar to that of Apple’s Animoji app. Move your eyebrows up and down, open your mouth, turn your head, and your AR Crow mask follows your every movement. To make the AR experience even more unique and fun, the filter will have you lip syncing along with singer-songwriter, actor, and voice of Crow, John Legend!
The song is a John Legend original written specifically for Baobab’s film, and no worries if you don’t know the words, because the AR filter provides the lyrics on-screen karaoke style for you to follow along with.
Crow: The Legend – released back in November on Oculus Rift, Oculus Go and Gear VR – is a beautifully animated interactive VR film that has you joining Crow, played by Legend, along with a group of forest creatures voiced by an incredible line-up of talent including Oprah Winfrey, Diego Luna, Sarah Eagle Heart, Liza Koshy, Tye Sheridan and Constance Wu. The film takes you on an interactive VR adventure that tells the Native American story of how the crow came to be black.
You can also watch Crow: The Legend in a traditional 2D format on YouTube in case you don’t own an Oculus Rift, Oculus Go or Gear VR.
Baobab worked with Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP) to bring their latest VR film to life, and even has NAP’s CEO, Sarah Eagle Heart playing the part of Luna the Moon. “We share this wisdom through storytelling, with tales passed down through many generations over thousands of years,” said Eagle Heart.
AR face filters have become increasingly popular over the last couple of years with Snapchat, Instagram, Apple, and Facebook all incorporating the technology into their respective smartphone applications and technology. The format is not only proving to be a great way to get AR experiences into the hands of people who might not own a high-end AR headset, such as the Microsoft HoloLens or Magic Leap, but it’s also shifting to be a very powerful marketing tool that fans have actively been sharing on social media with their friends and family.
By merging the physical world with digital objects, you have a technology that could serve as a brilliant marketing tool for retailers, organizations and ad agencies.
Brands such as Sephora and Estee Lauder, and entertainment franchises like Star Wars, Marvel and The X-Files, have all turned to AR face filters to connect with fans, but Crow: The Legend’s AR face filter takes the idea into a new direction that is more immersive and interactive than its current counterparts.
Image Credit: Baobab Studios
For NAP, this AR filter could assist in reaching out to an audience that they normally wouldn’t connect with. Crow: The Legend is more than a VR film or an AR face filter, it’s an opportunity to pass along a generations-old story that teaches us right from wrong; how to live a fulsome, compassionate, and engaged life. By using the AR face filter as a way to evoke curiosity, this simple experience draws users to the VR film and, in turn, cherished pieces of Native American history.
Baobab Studio’s Facebook AR face filter is available now for your iOS and Android smartphones.
Just don’t be too hard on yourself when you realize you can’t perform as well as John Legend. Sing loud and proud!
