We make the imaginary into reality
We make the imaginary into reality
Minny Stynker AR
Minny Stynker is a theatrical augmented reality experience: part AR workshop, part picture book.
Zubr Curio collaborated with theatre-maker, artist and illustrator Tomasin Cuthbert to explore ways of using AR to spark children’s creativity and imagination.
We developed an app to accompany the Minny Stynker picture book, for an interactive augmented reality reading experience, complete with immersive sound and exciting visuals. Tomasin also used the app during initial Minny Stynker workshops, which allowed children to design and create their own imaginary friend on paper, before placing them in the app to animate them in fun AR scenes. Many of these imaginary friends later appeared in the final picture book, whilst the AR activity was incorporated into the final app.
Feel like inventing your very own imaginary friend? The Minny Stynker AR app is now available to download on iOS and Android.
Partners
The Minny Stynker app and AR book were developed via direct collaboration with Tomasin Cuthbert, Artistic Director of Soap Soup Theatre, and author and illustrator of the Minny Stynker adventure. Composer and musician Tom Ball designed the audio.
The project was kindly funded by Arts Council England, and supported by The Space, Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol Old Vic, and Action for ME.
175
Workshop participants
557
Workshop stream viewers
190
App users
11
AR picture book pages
AR Picture Book
The Minny Stynker Experience was originally designed for children with chronic illnesses, or who were in hospital long-term, to enjoy augmented reality in a meaningful, social context. Therefore, it was essential that the app we made would enable creativity and initiate community.
Building on Tomasin’s beautifully illustrated picture book, which centres around the imaginary friend, Minny Stynker, we began thinking how augmented reality could bring these 2D illustrations to life by transposing traditional animations into a 3D space.
We discussed ways of expanding the story beyond the physical book, such as creating AR pools of water collecting on the surfaces outside of the page, or how the illustrated characters could break out of the limits of each page.
Tomasin shared her digital drawings with our graphics team, who suggested elements of each picture book page to animate in order to create a believable, multifaceted scene for families to explore.
Creating visual layers and simultaneous movement through swaying tree branches, plummeting raindrops, and rumbling lorry engines adds to the realism of each image, bringing the pages to life. This adde dimensionality expanded the world of Minny Stynker beyond the boundaries of the page.
The blurring of reality and imagination is heightened by playful AR techniques as well as a wonderful soundscape which plays beneath the audio narration. Together, the dynamic visuals and atmospheric audio really brings the world of Minny Stynker to life for each reader, resulting in an immersive, captivating and unique reading experience.
“We made The Minny Stynker Experience to ease the tedium and stress of long hours in care settings, and to create a bit of magic for families to share when they might not be able to access traditional theatre settings due to ill health.”
Tomasin Cuthbert, Artistic Director of Soap Soup Theatre
“We made The Minny Stynker Experience to ease the tedium and stress of long hours in care settings, and to create a bit of magic for families to share when they might not be able to access traditional theatre settings due to ill health.”
Tomasin Cuthbert, Artistic Director of Soap Soup Theatre
AR App and Workshops
Inspired by the magic of imaginary friends, we also developed an interactive AR experience for the app, which transforms hand drawn figures into pose-able AR characters. Children can design their own imaginary friend inspired by Minny Stynker using one of the downloadable paper stencils. Once they’ve finished drawing, they can photograph their work using the app and watch as their very own imaginary friend appears for an in-app adventure.
Presented with the option to explore either outer space or the forest, children can decide which AR environment they would like to see their imaginary friend interact with. The outer space scene allows children to insert a variety of different colourful planets, tapping to place them in the space around them, before their imaginary friend embarks on a whizzing flight around each planet. Alternatively, the AR forest offers the opportunity to compose their own soundtrack for their friend’s woodland walk, as tapping on each animated tree prompts a different sound effect.
The broad selection of animations, including dancing, waving and flips, allows the children to bring their imaginary friend to life in an interactive, customisable experience, as they experiment with different styles and poses. Children also have the option to record a short video of each imaginary friend moving around their own space using the screen record function.
With several different stencils to choose from, there’s the possibility to create a variety of imaginary friends, as well as a unique outer space or woodland adventure for them all.
Before the creation of the Minny Stynker app, Tomasin ran creative family workshops across Bristol, offering participants a series of silhouette templates which they could colour in or collage. These initial sessions resulted in the final AR app experience, as we perfected how to use the resulting photographs of imaginary friends as a texture for a rigged sprite, which converts each drawing into a full-bodied character. The foundations of the interactive AR experience now available were laid during Tomasin’s initial workshops, which revealed how Minny Stynker could be a fantastic, low-key introduction to augmented reality and animation for young children.
Sharing photos or videos after the workshops were encouraged as part of an ongoing online exhibition. This offered an opportunity for the children to digitally ‘meet’ the different imaginary friends that have been created during the project, inspiring their own AR creations.
With over 175 workshop participants and 557 workshop stream viewers online, Tomasin’s workshops demonstrated how engaging the Minny Stynker AR activities are, whilst several of the imaginary friend drawings featured in the final picture book.
Sure to charm adults and children alike, the Minny Stynker AR app encourages creativity and offers a brand new, interactive reading experience. For more information on the Minny Stynker picture book and how to make the most of your AR reading experience, visit the Soap Soup Theatre website.
