Biotherm: Play with Purpose

AC3 Studio and SUPERBIEN teamed up once again to craft an immersive “underwater” experience for Biotherm–this time, with a gamified spin.

For their second collaboration with French beauty brand Biotherm, AC3 Studio and SUPERBIEN designed an interactive gaming experience centred on plankton, the key ingredient of the brand’s line of skin-enhancing and regenerating products. The team’s vision was to combine cutting-edge interactive technology with the naturally captivating elements of the marine world.

AC3 Studio devised a game where users would point toward a target while trying their best to stay as accurately on target as possible within a given time. The team began with the decision to incorporate an Ultraleap sensor to track user gestures. They used TouchDesigner to drive video output, bring sequences to life, and filter sensor input. They also used Ableton Live and Max/MSP to trigger and modulate the pitch, gain, and effects of audio clips based on user movements.

With homemade custom web tools, the team developed their UI overlay graphics and linked the entire application to record user creations and design a leaderboard for the game. After putting it all together in a complex system, they used Notch to model, animate, and render 3D plankton and molecule shapes in an underwater environment with ray tracing. Audiences described the finished experience as intuitive, entertaining, and, above all, fun.