HORTON DESIGNWORKS LTD.

I was appointed by Unit9 as ECD across all aspects of the Fury vs Ngannou ‘Battle of the Baddest’ campaign. I designed and directed the deep screen experiences in London, NYC and Tokyo. Directing the performance capture of Francis in Los Angeles and Tyson Fury on a tiny pop-up stage near his home in Morcambe UK. Photogrammetry scans were taken of the fighters by clear angle before preparation by the Selected Works team in London who handled the rendered computer graphics whilst I handled the realtime versions. From these Assets the AR app was created and Posed Scans formed the started point for the enormous 3D prints made by Makinarium at Pinewood Studios

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Working for the Mayda Creative Company I led the design and development of a 5G and AR equipped American football helmet for use by a deaf quarterback at Washington’s Gallaudet University. Taking the project from a Kitbashed prop through two rounds of development to create a bespoke ‘looks like works like’ run of prototypes that were certified for on-field use. Working with IDC we created not only the helmet but the tool for the coach to communicate with the players.

An experiment in creating episodic content for Fortnite’s UEFN platform. Pushing storytelling & production values through custom characters with motion captured performances and extensive voice recordings.

Over 250,000 plays across both games, the games had a very positive reaction but discover and customer acquisition challenges led to stopping development on the next planned episodes.

Working with Target 3D I built a system to stream 2 performance captured avatars to join a panel at SXSW.

I handled both performance and technical direction on the project Using the Unreal Engine with Epic’s LiveLink to drive body and face on two characters from the ‘LUSH Storyverse’ and workshopping the performance to transition from a short theatrical performance to a discussion panel between the characters and the founders of LUSH.

the ‘Snow Fairy’ made extensive use of Unreal Engine’s cloth and physics simulation in real time.

Unit9 bought me on to help finish this mobile AR project built with Adobe Aero's geospatial Beta with google.

I wrangled a variety of matters from the approach to scene construction through to optimising the character pipeline for the platform.

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This interactive VR storytelling experience, created and executed by UNIT9 directing duo, Horton De Rakoff, allows fans to actually visit deadmau5’s studio as he’s putting the final touches on his latest creation, “Saved.” We then shift to a third person CGI world as we navigate deadmau5 on an exhilarating adventure to reach the stage. We help him locate his car and his forever companion, Professor Meowingtons, and race him through the city to reach the club. We encounter bouncers and club goers who try to stop us as we reach our final destination.

For the launch of the Nike React shoe in China Weiden and Kennedy teamed up with Unit9 to deliver a retro gaming treadmill experience, run through the world bouncing on clouds and collecting orange Nike boxes. Take your place on the leaderboard and share your custom takeaway movie.

Working with Unit9 and the Hololens I directed the development and execution of a custom epxerience for the Microsoft Hololens system, playing to the system's strengths  and adapting game control mechanisms to create an intuitive and charming experience

For the Arrival of Teemo to wild rift Unit9 and BBH introduced him to the world through an Augmented Reality filter that offered more than interaction, but exclusive sneak peeks of the game’s next update.

Inspired by League Of Legends locomotion mechanic this was a step on from the Smurfs AR experience

In 2020 The Mill asked me to lead tech strategy on their HBO account, one of the focuses was technical strategy, finding the right fit for technology and entertainment fir for fans of their biggest IP. The time was right for the bringing virtual life to AR and The Mill went on to achieve their goal in style.

Using the motion trackers from an HTC vive hooked into a Unity Raycasting and particle system guests could reveal various Hermes products on a large LCD screen.

NIT9 partnered with Nissan Middle East and TBWA/Chiat/Day New York to create a cinematic movie set for Nissan’s stand at the 2015 Dubai Motor Show where guests transformed themselves into movie stars from inside a Nissan Patrol. They were placed into a cinema-quality movie poster and film trailer for fictional action thriller Agent 23 using green screen technology.

Brough onboard to oversee the design and execution of a great idea:  Using VR and motion control technology create an experience of riding a wild helter skelter around the shard, high up above london.  The riding surface was deisgned to match the curvature of the virtual slide to give a complete sense of immersion.  The installation was a suceess on a number of levels, not least generating publicity through user generated videos of their friends trying the experience.

I wrote and directed this ground breaking experience that took groups of 60 people into an animated virtual world. Inside guests were first revealed the exterior with the creation story told by a live presetation from the designer Ian Callum.  finally the vehicle interior builds around the guest to give them a virtual drivers seat in the concept vehicle. 

I conceived the approach from the Scalextric onboarding game and interactive tabletop presentations to the interior building ‘around you’.

Appointed by Unit9 as ECD across all aspects of the Fury Ngannou campaign I led creative on the material for The Sphere in Las Vegas, opting to create something that works from all angles rather than a 2 or 4 pole projection we created this zeotrope inspired loop.

I built a fully functioning Avatar for the Mayda Creative Co. Intended for use on Zoom calls and other comms this Avatar was driven by an iPhone camera using Epic’s livelink inside Unreal Engine 5

Using artificial intelligence, we managed to translate the Northern Lights into music. With the help of a professional Aurora chaser, we trained the AI to classify auroras and built an app that analyzes each one, generating corresponding music phases. We worked with a best-in-class composer and a live orchestra to create the soundtrack.

The first of its kind, SoundSeeker uses AI to analyze three photos and compose a custom track. If that wasn’t enough, the AI even makes a custom video out of your photos. Learn how a team of developers, composers, music producers, engineers and Berklee College of Music helped Royal Caribbean bring it to life.