Bare Tree Media and TikTok Expand AR Partnership
Boston, MA — September 3, 2020 — Bare Tree Media, a leader in the design and creation of branded augmented reality (AR) experiences, has expanded its partnership with TikTok. The two companies will work together under the company’s recently announced TikTok for Business Marketing Partner Program to connect advertisers with trusted creative and technology providers who can help scale success on the TikTok platform.
“With the launch of the TikTok For Business Marketing Partner Program, we’re building new opportunities for marketers to be creative storytellers and meaningfully engage with the TikTok community. We’re thrilled to collaborate with some of the most strategic and trusted leaders in the advertising industry and continue giving marketers access to more tools to successfully create, measure, and optimize ad campaigns on TikTok. We can’t wait to collaborate with partners to bring a creative and joyful experience to our brand partners and the broader TikTok community.” — Melissa Yang, Head of Ecosystem Partnerships, Global Business Solutions at TikTok
Bare Tree Media will be creating branded 2D and 3D AR effects for clients of TikTok, as well as introducing new clients to the TikTok platform.
“Bare Tree Media has been strongly positioned to leverage its leadership position of helping brands engage consumers through creative and interactive experiences. We are excited to broaden our partnership with TikTok and to bring our clients added value through marketing opportunities within the TikTok platform.” — Robert Ferrari, President of Bare Tree Media
About Bare Tree Media
As a pioneer in the digital creative and technology sector, Bare Tree Media enables brands to reach, engage, and entertain consumers through the creation and digital publishing of branded emojis, messaging stickers, GIFs, digital collectibles, metaverse virtual goods, and augmented reality experiences within popular messaging platforms. Interested brands can learn more at www.baretreemedia.com or contact Bare Tree Media at info@baretreemedia.com.
About TikTok
TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. Their mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok has global offices including Los Angeles, Mountain View, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo. For more information, please visit www.tiktok.com.
Bare Tree Media Partners with TikTok to Bring AR to Brands
Boston, MA — June 25, 2020 — Bare Tree Media has been selected by TikTok as a preferred AR (Augmented Reality) design agency partner. As part of the TikTok Branded Effects Partner Program, Bare Tree Media will be assigned to strategize and design TikTok AR effects for brand campaigns.
“With the digital landscape always evolving, we are consistently investing in our interactive competencies such as augmented reality. We are honored to be selected into this partnership to create branded AR experiences to engage audiences within the popular TikTok platform.” — Robert Ferrari, President of Bare Tree Media
Through TikTok’s technology and Bare Tree Media’s in-depth expertise in 2D and 3D AR design, this partnership will help to scale creativity and production of AR effects for brands. This partnership builds on TikTok’s newly launched Branded Scan, which activates certain visual effects after recognizing a flat image as a branded product.
“Branded Effects give brands the opportunity to interact with TikTok users in a way that’s engaging and fun. We’re thrilled to partner with the most creative leaders in 2D and 3D development to bring this playful, immersive experience to our brand partners and the broader TikTok community.” — Melissa Yang, Head of Ecosystem Partnerships, Global Business Solutions at TikTok
About Bare Tree Media
As a pioneer in the digital creative and technology sector, Bare Tree Media enables brands to reach, engage, and entertain consumers through the creation and digital publishing of branded emojis, messaging stickers, GIFs, digital collectibles, metaverse virtual goods, and augmented reality experiences within popular messaging platforms. Interested brands can learn more at www.baretreemedia.com or contact Bare Tree Media at info@baretreemedia.com.
About TikTok
TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. Their mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok has global offices including Los Angeles, Mountain View, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo. For more information, please visit www.tiktok.com.
The Best of Snap Summit 2020
Like most recent events, this year’s Snapchat Summit was adapted virtually; it might seem like a no-brainer for a company whose expertise is in AR and the digital realm—but if anything, this year’s summit has proven Snapchat’s ambition of bridging the gap between between augmented reality, and reality.
If the theme of Snapchat up until now has been “show, don’t tell,” the mantra they’ve adopted moving forward seems to be “experience, don’t show”. What this means for brands is that Snapchat has uniquely positioned itself to allow artists & studios to create unique, branded AR experiences that transcend the digital sphere.
Below we highlighted the features that our AR team is most excited about, as well as how they can be utilized to elevate users’ AR experiences.
Local Lenses
These dynamic lenses use real-life locations (whole areas or specific buildings) to create a unified AR experience that different Snapchatters can share, as long as they’re in the same physical space.
In the example, multiple people are creating a mural of different colors on one shared space using multiple phones. This added experiential element creates a unified experience that exists wholly online but that facilitates physical community.
Photo Courtesy of Snapchat
Photo Courtesy of Snapchat
Snap Scan & Marker Lenses
Scan Partners allows the camera to recognize an item and then attaches it to a specific lens. The examples Snapchat used were a plant-identifer that, when clicked, would provide information on how to care for that plant (including links to buy those items).
When Louis Vuitton’s logo is scanned in real life in Snapchat, a virtual door to their latest showroom opens highlighting classic and current collections in a virtual showroom. Too-Faced marked their ‘Born This Way’ product packaging—so when scanned, users can try it on virtually.
Marker lenses eliminate the need to advertise via Snapcode.
SnapML
SnapML (Machine Learning) lets developers bring their own machine-learning models to power Snap lenses. This allows for the creation of extremely accurate tracking of faces, gestures, feet, and even landmarks such as buildings.
You can see the practical application that Wannaby has used: they created a try-it-on filter that lets users see their newest shoe in a variety of colors (yes, that shoe is AR, not real).
In short, SnapML has destroyed many creative boundaries that previously existed—the new “brand experience” is limited (mostly) by what you can imagine .vs. by technology.
Photo Courtesy of Snapchat
Photo Courtesy of Snapchat
Places
Snapchat is making it easier than ever to integrate call-to-actions within their app and lenses. One example of this is “Places”, which lead to an outside-Snap call to action such as ordering a physical product online, whether it’s that new lipstick or food from their favorite delivery spot! This would be especially crucial for smaller businesses that need to receive local support.
In the example, users can search their favorite restaurants on Snapchat’s in-app map feature. From this search, Snapchatters will have access to price point, reviews, hours, contact information, directions, and nearby community snaps.
Integration SnapKits
If your brand has an existing app, Snapchat will now let you integrate their technology with it in order to create a new layer of interaction with your fans. This is more abstract in thought but can be applicable to any number of brands across any discipline.
Rally Road is an app that is meant for classic car investments but has integrated Snapchat’s CreativeKit to let users purchase shares in rare items and share them with their friends in a unique AR environment.
There are numerous types of kits available, each with their own unique perks:
- AdKit – makes monetizing apps easy with SnapAds
- CreativeKit – allows apps to bring real-time data into Snapchat
- CameraKit – brings the power os Snapchat camera to your apps
Photo Courtesy of Snapchat
Where do I start?
If you’re interested leveraging Snapchat for any of the above uses, a qualified creative studio is your best bet, since we know the ins-and-outs of not only best creative practices to create an attractive filter but can also help determine which strategy is the way to go.
We here at Bare Tree Media would love to collaborate with any artist, strategist, or brand who’s just as pumped about these new Snapchat features as we are! You can take a look to see the lenses we’ve already created or contact us below for more information.
How to Bring Some Fun to Your Video Calls
As we adjust to a new normal, video conference calls have become the number one way to get some quality face time with co-workers, clients, and loved ones. If you’ve been like us, you’ve been spending a majority of the time in these calls and want to break up the monotony with a bit fun! Using Snapchat’s desktop app Snap Camera or simple videos, you can add exciting backgrounds and AR effects to your video feed.
How to Add Videos to Zoom
Adding fun videos to Zoom calls is super easy! Once you are in a Zoom Meeting, in the bottom left corner of the window, you will see a ‘Start Video’ button. Click on the up arrow to the right of the icon and select ‘Choose Virtual Background.’
This will bring you to your video settings within Zoom. You will see five default videos from Zoom that you can try out. But if you want something special hit that plus button to the right and choose ‘Add Video.’ A finder window will open up where you can navigate to any mp4 video file you have on your computer.
And that’s it! You should now have a fun video playing in the background!
If you’d like to use our enchanted forest video background you can download it right below by hitting the download button. Then right click on the video, hit ‘Save Video As,’ and choose where you would like to save the video onto your computer.
How to Use AR Lenses
If you’d like to get a little fancier, you can use Snap Camera to add a wide variety of AR effects to some of the most popular video call apps including Google Hangouts, Skype, Twitch and more! Unfortunately Snap Camera doesn’t currently work on Zoom with the latest macOS (though they are working to fix this!) but if you are on a Windows computer you can follow the instructions below for Zoom as well.
- Install Snap Camera: You can download Snap Camera to your computer here. Once it downloads, double click and follow the instructions to install the application. Snap Camera will automatically open and show a wide range of suggested lenses. Click on any effect to try it out!
- Update your Video Settings: Once you have Snap Camera setup, open up your video call app of choice and go to the video settings. There you should see a dropdown to select which webcam you would like to use and select ‘Snap Camera’. If you don’t see ‘Snap Camera’ listed you may need to restart both applications or your computer for Snap Camera to appear on the list of options.
- Choose & Have Fun: After Snap Camera is selected as the video source, you can pick any AR effect you would like within Snap Camera and it will update in your video call. Try out our enchanted forest effect by searching ‘Enchanted Forest’ or search ‘Bare Tree Media’ to see all of our Snapchat effects!
Interested in having your own custom AR effect or video background created? Reach out to our team!
Bare Tree Media is a full-service creative studio and digital publisher creating super slick, mobile-facing content! We would love to bring your brand’s ideas to life through digital animation and AR. Check out our Augmented Reality page to see branded experiences we created for TikTok, Snapchat, & Instagram.
Wimpy Kid Introduces Augmented Reality and Sticker Keyboards
Boston, MA – January 24, 2020 – Massachusetts-based companies Wimpy Kid, Inc. and Bare Tree Media expanded their digital partnership with the introduction of augmented reality social media effects and a global expansion of their stickers within keyboard mobile applications.
“I love seeing fans around the globe engage with the Wimpy Kid brand using our existing emoji-style stickers. This year, we wanted to expand the Wimpy Kid universe and I’m thrilled to have the brand-new augmented reality and sticker formats on major global platforms. I’m really looking forward to seeing where Greg can go with his fans in 2020!” — Jeff Kinney, Author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
To kick off 2020, Bare Tree Media designed and released three augmented reality effects themed around Diary of a Wimpy Kid 14: Wrecking Ball. The AR effects offer users the ability to insert a swinging virtual wrecking ball into their camera scene and then wreck, record, and share a real world scene of their choice. The AR filters are available to engage Wimpy Kid fans on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.
“Augmented reality is a great marketing platform for brands to engage audiences and a perfect fit for the Wimpy Kid fanbase to create and share their special moments with a wrecking ball.” — Robert Ferrari, President of Bare Tree Media
Bare Tree Media also expanded their Wimpy Kid-branded digital presence to include digital stickers released within Baidu’s keyboard apps worldwide, including Facemoji Keyboard in the United States, Simeji in Japan, and Baidu IME in China.
“We are delighted to kick off 2020 by launching these stickers with Bare Tree Media and Wimpy Kid, Inc. Now, our keyboard app users around the world can all enjoy Wimpy Kid’s uniquely charming brand of humor when they chat with their friends online.” — Josh Fenn, Senior Marketing Manager at Baidu
About Bare Tree Media
As a pioneer in the digital creative and technology sector, Bare Tree Media enables brands to reach, engage, and entertain consumers through the creation and digital publishing of branded emojis, messaging stickers, GIFs, digital collectibles, metaverse virtual goods, and augmented reality experiences within popular messaging platforms. Interested brands can learn more at www.baretreemedia.com or contact Bare Tree Media at info@baretreemedia.com.
About “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”
More than 200 million copies of the books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series have been sold globally. Published in 2007, the first book was an instant bestseller and remained on the New York Times bestseller list since its publication and through the release of the fourteenth book. This is more than 686 weeks total!
Published on November 5, 2019, the fourteenth installment in the series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball, immediately hit #1 on the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times bestseller lists.
About the Author
Jeff Kinney is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and a six-time Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award winner for Favorite Book for his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Jeff has been named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He is also the creator of Poptropica, which was named one of Time’s 50 Best Websites. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff lives with his wife and two sons in Massachusetts, where they own a bookstore, An Unlikely Story. For more about Wimpy Kid visit wimpykid.com.
Building a Better Bee Beard
Building a Better Bee Beard
I’m Lahna 🤠
I’m primarily an AR lens programmer here at BTM, but I also help out with illustrations.
The decline in honey bee health is a very important issue all around the world. So for National Honey Bee Day we wanted to contribute our skills as a company to help the honey bee gain more attention.
The goal was to create Snapchat augmented reality lens that gave you a beard made of bees that flew off when you shook your head. This concept was an attempt to debunk the idea that a swarm of honey bees is a dangerous entity. Swarming honey bees are when they are most calm and passive since they have no home to defend. Which is why beekeepers have no fear when they show off a beard of bees! Also, it looks cool.
We thought of two ways we could go about it:
- Position so many bee objects around the face that it looks like they have conglomerated there into a natural beard shape
- Create a static, textured mass that resembled a beard and then cover it in actual moving bees to save on tri count.
We decided to start with plan A just so we could work on the head-shaking and bee navigation while our technical artist expertly modeled, rigged, and animated a bee for us to work with. We used spheres of the approximate size of what the bee object would be until she was finished.
We whipped up a script to detect when a user was shaking their head and partnered it up with a system that monitored all bees and their states. This triggered random bees to fly off the face every time the user shook their head a certain number of times.
I was then sent the bee proxy to more properly craft the shape of the beard until the full textures and animations were complete. Substituting them back in took a long time because of a weakness of Snapchat’s AR engine that we didn’t understand — but would come to terms with later.
In order for the bees to appear more realistic when they are flying, we wanted to add a little flying loop as the come back to the face. So, we added a looping state in there as well.
Eventually, the animations were finished and it was time to replace all proxy bees with proper bee objects. This took an even longer time and we didn’t yet know why; each bee was just taking forever to select.
After trying to put a certain amount of bees on the face, the engine kept crashing. To the point where the project was un-openable.
We had well exceeded the suggested tri count for the engine, but it hadn’t stopped anything before. Other lenses were ten times over the allowed tris but worked fine.
We realized, however, the engine was worse when it came to an overload of the number of objects in the scene hierarchy. The engine could select an object on its own, but an object with dozens of children took a very long time to select…and because of the nature of the engine each imported bee was broken up joint by joint into their own objects.
So it was time for plan B. We made up a beard-shaped object but no matter how hard we tweaked it it just couldn’t look right because the surface needed to be covered in bees for it to be believable anyway. We remade the scene from scratch, using the old scripts. There were three kinds of bee objects:
- Static bees with very few tris, to make up the bulk of the beard
- Idly animating bees that never leave the face
- Bees with animations built in that let them take off, fly, and land
This set of solutions worked surprisingly well! And after that, we put an overlay filter and some sparkles on it and called it a day!
Check out the finished result for yourself: http://tinyurl.com/beardofbees
Garfield Celebrates His 40th with Augmented Reality and Mobile Messaging Stickers
Boston, MA — June 19, 2018 — Today marks a major milestone for the world’s most beloved and lazy cat, Garfield. He turns 40 and still looks great whether napping, snacking, or driving Odie and Jon crazy. To celebrate, Bare Tree Media collaborated with Paws Inc to create a special 40th anniversary series of mobile messaging stickers and augmented reality effects.
“We are excited to be part of Garfield’s 40th celebration and offer fans our digital options to join the party.” — Robert Ferrari, President of Bare Tree Media
iOS fans can find the 40th sticker series on iTunes for use within iMessage and as a new sticker pack added to the Garfield StickerTap app. Android fans can find the stickers in the emojiTap app and the Garfield StickerTap app on the Google Play store.
Fans active within Snapchat and Facebook can add Garfield augmented reality effects altering their identity and sharing 40th greetings using the Garfield Snapchat Lens and Garfield Facebook AR Camera Filter.
“This is a special milestone for Garfield and I am thrilled fans can have fun celebrating all month and all year long with stickers and AR.” — Jim Davis, Creator of Garfield
About Bare Tree Media
As a pioneer in the digital creative and technology sector, Bare Tree Media enables brands to reach, engage, and entertain consumers through the creation and digital publishing of branded emojis, messaging stickers, GIFs, digital collectibles, metaverse virtual goods, and augmented reality experiences within popular messaging platforms. Interested brands can learn more at www.baretreemedia.com or contact Bare Tree Media at info@baretreemedia.com.
About GARFIELD
GARFIELD was born on the comics pages on June 19, 1978. The creation of cartoonist Jim Davis, GARFIELD is a humorous strip centered on the lives of a quick-witted orange cat who loves lasagna, coffee, and his remote control; Jon Arbuckle, his owner; and Odie, a sweet but dumb dog. Follow Garfield and Odie, along with nearly 19 million other fans, on Facebook and Twitter, and Instagram.
