With this fun project I set out to enhance comic books using augmented reality technology. I chose a few covers from some of my favorites and tried to follow the theme of the comic book cover while adding augmented reality enhancements. The 3D objects and animations that enhance the scene when viewed through a camera seem to be a perfect combination.
Building on what I learned in my first project, I made five different AR targets and programmed each one with a different augmented reality effect. Some of them are quite complex such as smoke coming out of the chimney of a house and even characters that attempt to attack an enemy.
The first one is the cover of one of my beloved childhood comic book characters: Garfield. What could be better than looking at the cover through a camera and seeing Garfield trying to devour a steaming cheeseburger.
For the second one I chose an issue of The Tick from Free comic book Day. To augment this cover I put a grass landscape with the walkway going up to a small house. The house has a chimney and an oven both looking like there’s a lot of cooking and heating going on. In front of the house a a farmer stands ready to defend from any invading creature.
The third comic is a lesser known franchise called “Steampunks Of Oz” also from free comic books day. This title features a very distinct artistic style that I really enjoy. I enhanced this cover by building a steamy dungeon complete with decorations and three warriors attempting to fight off an enemy.
The fourth comic is Ghost Rider so naturally there is one of the cool motorcycles hovering over the cover rotating in 3D.
The the fifth comic book cover is augmented with a ship sailing around in water.
And the last one has a plane flying around with clouds.
You can download this APK for an Android device from my website here.
https://meta.dwdenney.com/ARComicBook.apk
Then check it out by holding the camera up to each of these images. Works best if you open the image in full screen.
