The North Face

Web Augmented Experience

Project Overview

Partners Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison are the first to descend the summit of Lhotse, the world's fourth highest mountain, on skis. It was our job to capture the Himalayan achievement as an augmented reality experience. We pushed to develop an experience that combined smooth flythroughs, dynamic transitions, handcrafted skyboxes, and beautiful UI.

My Contributions

I was a part of this project from beginning to end. I started with developing motion design for the experience. I had to conceptualize what transitions would look like and how UI elements would animate. I then animated camera paths and 3D elements. Finally, I worked directly with developers to optimize, export, and integrate 3D elements in Three.js.

Task 1

3D and Optimization

Task 2

Motion Design

The project called for a highly detailed recreation of Lhotse, Everest, and the surrounding massif. We fist digitally sculpted the mountains in Z-Brush, hand-textured them in Substance Painter, then baked the results.

In order to optimize the version of the landscape to function fluidly on mobile, we had to twice-bake our mountains using Octane Renderer. Once fully cooked, our final Lhotse model exhibits intense detail, a single texture map for three.js to load, and a sense of awe at human ability.

Next I was directly in charge of developing motion design for the experience. In Adobe After Effects I added motion to our design elements. I had to keep in mind we needed transitions to feel seamless in order to maintain the feeling of immersion. Likewise, in Cinema 4D I created camera animations that we were able to bring directly into our mobile experience.

The North Face

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