The Looking Glass
The Looking Glass installation is an immersive 16’ x 9’ user-led interface built in the Unity gaming engine, and the user interaction is powered by Google’s Blaze Pose model which allows the experience to be driven by natural user movement without the need for physical buttons or touchscreens.
These technologies were strategically used to encourage open exploration of regional wine environments, vineyard landscapes, and the unique cellars of various places around the world.
Nothing resonates or explains the nuances of a given wine better than being in the place where it was made, so we invested in the aesthetics of the experience to take consumers to wine regions around the world.
The images that drive the Looking Glass were photographed on location by the Community Wine and Spirits team and Nicholas Knight Studios. Jonathan Podwill of Mythic Digital (a film and television digital effects agency) then turns the images into “2.5D”—that is a 2d image placed in a 3d space to create the illusion of 3d. Parallax motion is then achieved by splitting the image into five depth layers which makes the objects in the distance appear to move relative to users’ movement.