The Oscars are just a couple of days away when Hollywood will celebrate the best crop of films from 2019 in the US and internationally.
To enhance the event for hardcore movie fans, the Los Angeles Times and Yahoo News have teamed up to produce an augmented reality experience that highlights some of our best memories of Academy Awards ceremonies of years past.
Embedded in an updated version of the Yahoo News app for iOS (no Android version), the app presents five iconic Oscar ceremony dresses worn by actors over the years dating back to the ’70s including Björk, Cher, Gwyneth Paltrow, Billy Porter, and Farrah Fawcett.
To get started, the app presents you with an “AR” icon placed in the middle of a static image of the AR illustrations (see above).
Once you click on that icon, you’ll be prompted to scan your area to place the AR dresses (the experience is built for iPhone 8 and later), after which you can resize the dresses in AR. Clicking on a dress in the app carousel begins an audio narration as you examine the designs of the dresses.
However, unlike some previous AR experiences paying homage to Hollywood, these aren’t exact scans. Instead, they appear to be illustrations done in Tilt Brush, which delivers a more painterly aesthetic. The artist behind the illustrations is Micah 404, a New York-based artist who worked with award-winning LA-based VR studio RYOT to produce the final work.
Instead of something like the USA Today Oscars experience, which gave users a more precise look at Hollywood costumes of recent memory, this new LA Times & Yahoo News experience seems to be more about the spirit of the awards event rather than the exact fashion lines and designs.
Nevertheless, this represents yet another engaging and immersive way into Hollywood history that you can pursue right in your own home.