FC Dallas’ Fan Experience “Get In The Game” AR Mural and Pose with the Player Campaign
FC Dallas brought on Groove Jones to help them kick off the season with additional augmented reality fan experiences, including multiple murals and Toyota trucks. Soccer fans can activate the experiences by scanning QR codes on the printed images.
AR-Enabled New Era Mural at Toyota Stadium
Fans can activate an awesome animated mural at the North end of Toyota Stadium. By activating the mural with their phone, they unlock an explosive animation in which FC Dallas players Paxton Pomykal, Jesus Ferreira, and Paul Arriola burst out of the mural with an electrical effect and a roaring sound effect.
The AR effect uses image recognition of the printed murals over 20 feet wide and 10 feet tall. Below are images of the team testing it out on location the night before the opening game.
AR Avatar – Join the New Era Mural and Toyota Trucks “Get In The Game”
We also created a fan experience that allowed fans to activate an AR “Pose with the Players” moment. This involved creating an AR experience that would unlock AR digital doubles of FC Dallas players Paxton Pomykal, Jesus Ferreira, and Paul Arriola.
After the fan launches the experience, the three FC Dallas players fly in from the sky to a designated fan spot, where they land – superhero-style, and pose for a picture before running off.
This portable AR Avatar-style experience uses SLAM technology to bring it to life. It can be activated from one of the murals on-site at Toyota Stadium or from one of the FC Dallas-wrapped Toyota trucks used for off-site mobile tours and fan events.
Behind The Scenes: Making the Experience
Since the experience included actual FC Dallas players, we went onsite to Toyota Stadium to capture the players on the pitch where they played. Instead of motion-capturing the players on a stage, we shot reference videos for our animation team to recreate. Once we captured what we needed on site, the players joined us at our studio in downtown Dallas, where our volumetric capture camera system is set up for updates and R&D.
The XR Avatar Scanner is powered by 50 4K cameras that capture HDR (high dynamic range – for color and depth) using multiple focal lengths. Instantly capturing both the geometry and texture of the person standing inside. Learn more about the scanner here – https://www.groovejones.com/scanme
Within seconds, we captured them and effortlessly brought them into our production pipeline.
Below are the poses we used for the superhero flying and landing shot and the pose with a player design.
Scan with your phone and unlock the experience yourself.
About FC Dallas
FC Dallas is an American professional soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes as a member of Western Conference Major League Soccer (MLS). Learn more about FC Dallas – https://www.fcdallas.com/