During a cosy and dark winter 2021 / spring 2022, I created this set of “Magic Owls” experimenting with AR capabilities in Instagram and Facebook.

These prints were first born with the intention to make a winter themed multi-owl surface pattern, loosely inspired by Hedwig as it was a friend’s favourite owl. It quickly morphed into a series of owls with their own styles. At the same time I was learning Augmented Reality, trying to explore its uses and limits, and decided that these owls could be a fun application. They could literally come to life.

Each owl has slightly unique types of animation, with the snowy owl I got excited and had to quickly learn the limits of AR currently on Instagram/FB, ie. that you are very limited by the amount of frames in your animation, because it quickly gets laggy and oversized. The sleeping owl on pink was my last animation in the series, and you can tell I learned some lessons in the process. The pink barn owl is light and limited in its movement, and runs the best.

For this AR to function, you need to have the print or an image of the print and point your phone towards the print with the instagram app and the link to the effect. This link can be found on the “downloads” page here, or in my effects tab on instagram.

The process isn’t super intuitive yet, and I am waiting for AR to develop further to become easier for users.

These owls were a limited time card set on my Etsy page. I am finishing a barn owl notebook with an awake owl and sleeping owl on opposite sides, which is intended to be a more steady item in my Etsy shop.