Living Popups: AR Plus Storytelling

"Showing (is) better than talking," says Living Popups CEO Cheryl Bayer.

And that's exactly what she and her team are doing.

Living Popups is an interactive augmented-reality platform and media company.    The products Cheryl and company produce are episodic AR features.  And these projects, created with humor and imagination, have a number of purposes.

For example, "Leonardo da Vinci" might fly into frame on a gyrocopter, in a museum.   Or, in an educational application, villainous pig "Napoleon" might pop out of the cover of George Orwell's classic "Animal Farm".  (He'll offer his views on dictatorship--and not surprisingly, he considers it a good thing!  However, he does think it's in need of a few "tweaks".)

In addition, readers of Charlie Fink's Metaverse: An AR-Enabled Guide to VR & AR, get to see Living Popups' work firsthand throughout the pages.  The book festures an episodic augmented-reality series, starring the author's avatar and his two roommates.  This particular series, according to Living Popups' website, garnered a nomination for a 2018 Auggie Award, for "Best Art or Film".   (Here is the link to our earlier interview with Charlie, about his new book.)

Best of all, at VRLA 2018, in the Los Angeles Convention Center in May, Cheryl and her crew introduced "The Aug-mentors".  This was the first-ever AR episodic series to be shown during a live event!

Cheryl, who is both an entertainment and education professional, talked about her background, the creation of Living Popups and her experiences with the Aug-mentors at VRLA 2018.
On this edition of Over Coffee®, you'll hear:

What first sparked Cheryl's interest in working in the entertainment industry;

How she first began working with AR as a means of storytelling;

How Charlie Fink's book, Charlie Fink's Metaverse, became Living Popups' first AR project;

Cheryl's experience with "The Aug-Mentors", as she and her staff presented it during VRLA 2018;

What you'll see, when you watch "The Aug-Mentors" (and how to get the first nine episodes if you didn't attend VRLA!);

The essential element involved, in creating augmented reality;

The creative process behind Charlie, Ripley and Wade, the three augmented-reality characters in the episodes of Charlie Fink's Metaverse, as well as the characters in The Aug-Mentors;

How Cheryl's work with her award-winning kids' enrichment facility, Creative Space, expanded into what Living Popups is doing in the educational field;

The teachers Cheryl remembers, who inspired her most;

A preview of the educational products Living Popups will be releasing, in September 2018 and January 2019;

Her advice, for fellow innovators.