He started with a little simple plane tracker and developed a complex Aliens Sky Hub AR Experience. Read more about Divakar Sarika’s interesting AR journey which went From Curiosity To Success. Blog readers will appreciate this creator’s determination to become a professional creator after 3 years.
What Is AR for you?
AR is Enabling Digital content + Real-Time Environment Interactions adding Visual Effects, Sounds, Multiplayer Vibes, and storytelling in a more immersive and interactive way.
How did you discover Augmented Reality? What motivated you to start creating AR?
When I was in college I was learning unity engine to create console and mobile games. Then I searched for AR tools to create and then I discovered Google AR core. I Did deep research on AR – how it works for real-time daily use cases and marketing. After research, I discovered more Use cases that are emerging trends. Then I started looking into many creators and agencies’ already booming in the AR industry. I found a few and they’re Genius Ventures & The Electric Factory. Genius ventures inspired me a lot at the AR and Metaverse Space to create content for Creative Marketing. Nowadays as everyone is seeing AR has much more reputation than traditional marketing. People all around the world started learning to create Augmented Reality. AR is everything to me because it motivates & enables me to understand the exact visualization I’m imagining to view in my real-world space.
Tell us about your first steps in augmented reality.
As I said, I first discovered AR at Google’s core SDK for Unity. I researched a lot again on Unity + ARcore documentation and explored a few inspirations. Then I built a simple plane tracker and object placement project in unity with the ARCore drive
When did you realize that you had reached a turning point in successfully creating augmented reality? What helped you with this?
After Learning and observing A lot in the AR industry from experts, and agencies and creating my own AR portfolio. I compared my portfolio to check if I’m missing any stuff. After building my portfolio slowly but launching and publishing AR applications, I failed due to a lack of knowledge in marketing and funding. but I found another great opportunity from Meta. that is spark AR – I thought this is the right platform to test my AR experience and give chance to users to use my AR projects without any app installation. Even though I had limited features compared to unity but still, I tried to manage to build them in spark AR.
I launched a few filters and got a very good response. Later I found a friend’s agency and started building AR experiences for brands. So with my portfolio, they were impressed at the first sight. Then I got a very public impression on my portfolio for the first time then worked on different projects and Different AR platforms like Snapchat lens Studio, Spark AR, Unity, Unreal, and WEBAR. After working in different environments They helped me a lot to Create and Build my Own Studio called Tids AR Studio
There are many skills needed to create a professional AR project, which of them is a must, and which of them helps you the most?
Yes. to create a Professional AR Project we need some compulsory skills to get the best output at the end of the day. For suppose we’re working on a brand AR project, So I’m creating an AR game experience for a non-alcoholic Beverage Brand. They expect a lot of Gamification because, in AR problem-solving Gamification, Good UI, good 3d Animation, modeling skills, and programming is very important. As of I’m already from Game Design and Developer Background. I thought of them before when I was in college. They made me easy to understand to create AR projects At the industry levels and run the projects at the best outputs.
How would you describe your work, do you have a specific style? direction? Does it change over time?
I always love to take real-time experiences as inspiration and sync them with either Future cyberpunk style or past historical events. Suppose we have a party with Tom in a garden so I just visualize that in 2 ways future or the past. If it is the future I design the experience with futuristic models or environments and if it is the past I try to re-create the same environment & replace them with historical environment elements as storytelling. I don’t have a specific Direction style or something else but I always go with flow and situation maybe without sound, without any 3d models but just with 2d particles and sky elements – something like that and it changes every time.
What or who is your inspiration? what would be your advice for our creators? how to find it?
I have already mentioned before that My biggest inspiration is Genius ventures, The electric Studio, Niantic Pokemon Go, and of course now the new Niantic Lightship ARDK Metaverse AR Tool.
Tell me about the projects you’re most proud of. What makes them special? What assets were used to build that project?
I have a Made Aliens Sky Hub AR Experience using the Unity and Niantic Lightship ARDK Sky semantics. that’s my favorite AR experience so far I have created because when the user opens the app he can detect different types of lovely Aliens ships and jets in the sky, moving around him or his house. I love the physics and process of this experience and even you can look into the project
Describe your working process. Do you follow the work spontaneously or do you have a plan that you follow?
Before Starting Every Project I draw sample 3d assets and UI, Then prototype using Adobe XD. I only jump into building the Experience after checking all the design elements and rules.
How do you deal with clients’ feedback?
I always Appreciate Client’s Honest Feedback and Suggestions. Sometimes if they’re against my rule I’ll try to educate them and try to sync my idea and their suggestion. But won’t totally change their idea and it’s very important to give chance to clients to review the feedback of other testers too.
Do you think we will be living in a world like a metaverse? And if yes, when it will be?
Of course, we’re already in the first stage of the Metaverse, like Virtual Makeup, digital collectibles, super VR gadget & Power full AR experiences reacting with Real-world objects. full metaverse? I don’t know because every time we humans invent new products and new algorithms soo is infinity we’ll just keep building until earth lasts ❤️
How are you planning to go deeper into the world of AR?
Educating more people about AR first and then creating the prototypes based on their daily life use cases and bringing them to work in this first stage of this metaverse World
We wish Divakar great success. Crosscreators would like to thank him for participating in our interview. If you missed our previous AR Creator’s Journey blog: Way Of Creativity Expression – Nina Aundrey
Our Creators and their works are featured on Crosscreators’ Instagram Page and other social media platforms. So don’t forget to register on Crosscreators and get projects on demand.
