Walt Disney Pictures challenged us to find a way to promote their new film, Alice Through The Looking Glass, at the 2015 D23 Convention in Anaheim, CA.  We had a 40? x 40? space, a blank canvas to build our own little corner of Wonderland.

We conceived a magical mirror, using cutting edge face tracking technology to instantly transform anyone into a beloved Alice character.

Our goal was to not just use a simple 2D overlay, but to fully transform the user with both makeup and 3D elements, tracked perfectly in real-time.  And create a cool shareable takeaway from the experience.

We designed and engineered four face-tracking augmented reality photo booths. Each kiosk had a second screen (mirror) with a duplicate feed placed on the outside so friends, family, and passing fans could stand and watch same the magical results from users’ screens inside the kiosks.

After several months down the rabbit hole in research and development with multiple cameras, trackers, and hardware solutions, we decided to build own custom software to interface with raw facial tracking.

This custom application allowed us to position our occluded 3D elements and pair them with our texture wrap makeup effects for a true first-to-market experience, and a revolutionary progression of a traditional “photo booth,” now truly allowing real-time augmented transformation.

To turn our face tracking execution into a true Disney attraction, we paired a magical soundtrack with a recorded a Wonderlandian style voiceover to guide users through the timed two minute experience.

Users controlled the experience through an iPad in the booth, and colorful smoke puffs added to the magic of the character swaps.

As a takeaway, we created customized Instagram-sized videos and a still image of the Wonder Mirror results, which were emailed in real-time to users as soon as they completed the experience.  These shareables were also further personalized by adding the user’s name to branding of the film.

At the D23 convention, our Alice exhibit was an overwhelming hit.  It was the most digital experience with a line over 45 minutes long each day, from open to close. Shortly after D23, our team flew to Toronto with the exhibit to shoot a specially themed episode of the brand new Freeform series, Shadowhunters.

At the D23 convention, our Alice exhibit was an overwhelming hit. It was the most popular digital experience with a wait line over 45 minutes long each day, from open to close. The convention staff had to quadruple the size our the initial line space to accommodate the demand.

Shortly after D23, our team flew to Toronto with the exhibit to shoot a specially themed Alice in Wonderland episode of the brand new Freeform series, Shadowhunters. We're currently prepping versions of the software packages to be delivered to kiosks worldwide. The original kiosks will be housed at Disneyland and tour throughout the USA to promote the film.

After our kiosks debuted, similar executions released from Snapchat and Masquerade become very popular, proving that demand for a truly augmented experience of this nature extends beyond Wonderland.