TMNT: Mutant Mayhem
Social AR
Project Summary
Allow users to inhabit and "become" their favorite Ninja Turtles on social media.
- Drive awareness for the theatrical release of the new animated feature
- Rev up the excitement meter for hardcore fans
- Let fans step into turtles' shells to create mind-blowing shareable content
Out of the Ooze
The iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles emerged from the underground comics scene in the 1980s to become a pop culture phenomenon across TV shows, figures, video games, movies, and more.
After a seven-year hiatus from the big screen, the turtles were returning to theaters in the new animated feature, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Paramount Pictures looked to Pretty Big Monster to create a marquee immersive experience that would introduce the characters to new audiences, reconnect with existing fans, and announce the characters' updated, stylized look.
More specifically, they hoped to let legions of fans "become" the turtles, using advanced techniques now available on social AR platforms like Snap and TikTok.
More specifically, they hoped to let legions of fans "become" the turtles, using advanced techniques now available on social AR platforms like Snap and TikTok.
Whether their favorite character was Leo, Raph, Mikey or Donnie, fans of TMNT could now step into one of the Ninja Turtles shells through Augmented Reality.
Put Some Heroes in a Half Shell
Arguably led by Snap, social AR platforms have been expanding their capabilities in areas such as body tracking and AI-based visual effects.
Full-body puppetry of a virtual character—combined with Snap's machine learning-developed ability to “erase” portions of images in Snapchat—enables a novel form of real-time social AR where users disappear entirely from the screen to appear as characters controlled by their own movements. Early examples were getting a lot of attention on social media and teasing the possibilities—the time was right to let fans become the turtles!
Starting with original models from the film, we optimized and re-textured a turtle mesh for use in real-time 3D. Fitting all four turtles into one lens was a challenge as each would need their own body shape, mask, accessories, and textures. But with some extra optimization work from the team, all four characters were accessible to users.
On Snapchat, fans had a full range of facial and body movements to play with. On TikTok and Instagram, where the platforms don't support image-erasing, users were placed in front of a city wall; TikTok enjoyed full body tracking from their platform's Body Avatar Drive system, while Instagram and Facebook users could see their facial expressions reflected in the turtles', thanks to an assortment of blendshapes attached to the turtles' faces and driven by the user's.
Cowabunga!
The response was totally radical, with thousands of videos created in the first week alone. Fans busted out some killer dance moves, pulled off epic stunts, and captured hilarious moments. It was pure awesomeness seeing everyone embrace the turtle life!
What's more, the lens received the unexpected honor of the Best Branded Lens award at Snap Inc.'s LensFest 2023! It was a pleasure working alongside our friends at Paramount Pictures and our tireless partners at Snapchat.
The turtle-tastic 2023 Snap award now looping in the PBM office.