BES Studios teamed up with ARtGlass Group to create a 17-stop, 45-minute Augmented Reality tour of the ancient Nabataean city of Hegra, Saudi Arabia. Together, we created the world’s first AR experience of a UNESCO World Heritage Site
BES worked with ARtGlass, the Royal Commission for AlUla, and other partners to build the tour from initial outline through final implementation.
Starting with a script, we set about ideating and planning the visual and functional elements users would experience at each tour stop.
With that creative blueprint, we then traveled to Hegra in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to photograph, capture 360° video, and 3D-scan each monument. Upon our return, we filmed actors in our studio on a 180° green screen with live keying, and placed each person into the VR, 3D, or 360° world.
In post we edited and animated hundreds of elements (video, photographs, illustrations, text, 3D) and composited them into each tour stop. Each stop was completed as a 360° environment, and finished by programming interactive elements into ARtGlass’ proprietary tour-building software.
The end result can only be experienced through AR glasses on-site in AlUla, Saudi Arabia.
One of the most impressive pieces of the tour is the 3D city. BES was provided with a 3D model of what the ancient city of Hegra is thought by archaeologists to have looked like. We were tasked to animate it and bring it to life, including lighting and rendering. All other 3D elements in the tour were modeled, textured, and rendered by BES Studios’ artists.