USING ADOBE EXPRESS
FOR AUGMENTED REALITY

Joe Zeff Design helps companies tell better stories using interactive content. One of the ways we do that is augmented reality holotwins — shooting a subject in front of a green screen and using software to remove the background. The result: a web-based AR experience accessible from any mobile phone where the subject appears to be standing directly in front of you, wherever you are.

Adobe Express, a free product from Adobe, recently made available a feature that removes the background from any video file, which has the potential to make augmented reality even more accessible. I tried it today, and here’s what I figured out:

First, I asked someone to shoot a quick video of me using my iPhone, and I uploaded the video to Adobe Express. The background was busy, and we paid no attention to lighting or sound.

Then, I simply hit the button to remove the background.

The results were nearly instantaneous:

I then changed the background color to green by clicking a button, downloaded the file to my computer, and uploaded to the platform that I use to create augmented reality holotwins. Check out the result:

See for yourself on your mobile phone by tapping this link.

(If you’re on your computer, the link will bring up a QR code you can access.)

Is the quality as good as a professional shoot with dialed-in lighting and audio? No. But it could be with some effort!