Butterfly Girl

I painted her, and then I could not leave her alone. She was sitting still on a canvas and everything about her said she should not be. I wanted to interact with the character I drew and see her move. So: what if the character I drew could move?

I knew painting. I did not know AR. [Chelsea: what stopped you first — tracking the painting, rigging the character, or the drawing itself not being built to move?] [Chelsea: how long were you stuck there, and what did you try that did not work?]

I learned the medium the answer needed. The painting became the marker, and she came off the surface and moved against it. [Chelsea: which tool did you build this in, and roughly how long from first attempt to something that tracked?]

• [Chelsea: caption for process photo 1 — the original painting]
• [Chelsea: caption for process photo 2 — the first tracking test]
• [Chelsea: caption for process photo 3 — rigging her to move]
• [Chelsea: caption for process photo 4 — the finished piece on a phone]

The first time I held a phone up to the painting and she moved. [Chelsea: where were you, and who else saw it? The moment someone else lit up is the one worth writing down.]