What is AR (Augmented Reality) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. To learn more click here.

This particular AR project came together after two internal creative teams competed in putting together ideas for an AR (Augmented Reality) experience, that will show our strong branding abilities in the Advertising Healthcare space.

I was fortunate to be in the team that was awarded for best idea in AR. And this is where this project was born. I dig into my
passion of comic books, and history of superheroes, and went through case studies to help illustrate both the ad, which is the marker.
The marker triggers the experience. If you are unfamiliar with AR please learn more about it here.

As my case study continued, I was emerged into sketching, searching for talent to make this final peice come together with the help of
our Art Buying team, Motion Graphics, Audio Engineering and Developers. I was assigned to handle all Creative Direction along the side of my ACD Juan Gallardo,
which together we created this magnificent visual AR ( Augmented Reality) Microsite.

Here are few case studies, before we landed on the final piece. To help you visualize the hardwork that was put into this micro site. Our deadline was less than a month. I still can’t believe it that we made it. The first days of brainstorming on the early mornings and coming to the end and here’s the final product.

Storyboard done in Illustrator by: Marisol Oberzauchner [We hired a comic book artist to do the final sketches]

Magazine AD done in Photoshop by: Marisol Oberzauchner – The final domain was changed to http://brandsuperheroes.com/experience/.
[The final Ad was Designed by our Print Department for Med Ad News for the 21st Annual Manny Awards ]

Overall this project was allot of late nights and rock blocks, both creative/ technology that need it to be overcome before our set launch date.

I leave you with this quotes, which help me through this whole experience.

“Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and importance, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.”

The experience was a lesson to be learned, but the overall gratification has no value. I hope you can enjoy it, and remember you’ll need a video camera and a printer to print the marker and experienced the (Augmented Reality) AR. Here’s the final product. Click on the image or click here to visit the website. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy yourself becoming a superhero, I know I did. Cheers. Marisol Oberzachner

For this particular posting, I’m dedicating this to the team involved who helped designed and built my latest contribution of our Interactive Website from our department here at Draftfcb Healthcare. Here’s the link to visit ( www.ddfcb.com). “Healthcare doesn’t have to smell like a hospital, but it can breathe like one.”

This magnificent project, which took less than a week to come together. I thank my team and the people around me for such great work. Stay tuned for more work coming up this month, as this is only the beginning in our Digital Playground.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers
Marisol Oberzauchner

Want to learn more about Iphone Apps? If you answer yes, you should
check out this great article by Daniel McKenzie who’s Co-Founder and
Design Director for Nuikea Mobile Apps:

31 Flavors-Designing for Iphone Android and Blackberry Platforms

“A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Marisol brings expertise in web graphic design, interactive rich new media, and 3D animation. She has worked on B2B and consumer-facing projects for Quest Diagnostics, Johnson & Johnson, Biotrove, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, |X|Shares Advisors, and Merrill Lynch. Before joining Draftfcb, Marisol served as a Creative Director at Makovsky+Company, Broadway Online, and was a consulting Interactive Creative Director for IMC2 and Harrison Star Healthcare. Marisol’s special interests include nutrition and health, design, the Web, 3D animation, and photography.”

for more information about DRAFTFCB visit their website.

Examples:
-Finding, managing, collaborating, and distributing rich media content such as
Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress files.
-Locating media files that need to be recreated
-Avoiding difficulties with sharing and distributing of rich media creations
-Lengthy reviews and approval times
-Strains on existing creative, studio and production staff
-Increasing asset re-use and re-purposing
-Wasted time and efforts attributed to searching for media assets, recreating or repurchasing lost images, using incorrect versions, workflow bottlenecks
- Inefficient file transformation and delivery processes, lack of usage tracking and lack of production automation.
After searching for solutions under this topic, I came across North Plains software that specializes in Asset Management.

Stay tuned for a complete list of softwares that specialize in this field of technology, and please feel free to leave your own.

ImageFolio
Canto
North Plains

Step 1: Determine your needs and find yourself a good web host.
Step 2: Back up your existing site & upload to the new web host.
Step 3: Test, test, test and test some more at the new web host.
Step 4: Change your DNS to point to the new web host.
Step 5: Wait for the DNS to fully propagate throughout the internet.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Web Host

1. Historical Uptime & Customer Satisfaction
Reviews and feedback at forums like webhostingtalk.com

2. Customer Support
The web host must be able to provide friendly, professional and knowledgeable support staff members who are willing to help 24/7 and can do it via telephone or email in a timely manner.

3. Website & Server Speed
Maximum download speed, website loading time, ping times and traceroute times should all be considered. Many good web hosting companies will post large files for you to download & test the speed of their servers. Test throughout the day. It’s important to know how the server behaves during peak and off hours.

4. Server Location & Connection
Preferably, the web hosting company should own & operate their own data center and is connected to the internet through multiple Tier 1 bandwidth providers. It’s also best to choose a web host located in the same country as the majority of your users.

Step 1: Get all of your files local.
Using a basic FTP program or whatever development tool you may be using, such as FrontPage, download all current files used in your web site including graphics, html files, and anything else that may be used in your site. Most likely you already know this – but when you are copying down your files you want to keep the directory structure exactly as it is on your web server. If you built the site then most likely you already have all of this.

Step 2: Analyze your hosting needs and select a new host.
Is your site just basic html or will you need a Windows host that supports active server pages? Depending on your site needs, select a host that can provide what you need. Most hosts these days allow you to either handle the domain name change yourself, or they can handle it for you. Just so your domain name does not get switched faster than you can get your new files posted, you may want to handle the domain name change yourself. Be sure they know to still add a record to their DNS, but that you will handling the NIC record change.

Step 3: Get everything loaded to your new server.
Before making the domain name change, go ahead and load up all of your site files to your new host using just the IP address. If your new account does not have a dedicated IP address, then request that they create a subdomain for temporary use from their domain – something like newcustomer.hostingcompany.com for you to work with before transferring your name. Most should gladly do this for you. Although they won’t really work yet, go ahead and set up all of the email accounts that are used on your domain as well.

Test the following:
- Databases – Access, SQL – Do you need a DSN (data source name)?
- SSL certificate – Verisign, Thawte, Geotrust – Have your own or using shared?
- ASP components – ASPmail, ASPupload, ASPlogin – What are using if any?
- Ecommerce – StoreFront, SalesCart, Cart32 – What cart are using?

Step 4: Initiate the domain name record change.
Either through Network Solutions or whatever registrar you used to register your domain, initiate the name change. Technically speaking the only thing that really needs to be changed in your record is the name server information. If you host has not already provided you with this information, just email their support and ask what their Name Server information is. It is also a good idea to update the technical contact on your domain name record to your new host, although that is not required.

FrontPages Web Hosting Network
Name Server Information
Ns1.fms4u.com 65.174.200.240
Ns2.fms4u.com 63.165.78.240

Step 5: Monitor for the domain name change.
Depending on who you used to register your domain, you should get one or more emails confirming the domain name change. Once the change has been initiated it
will typically take 24 – 48 hours for the entire world to see the change. This period is called propagation and is simply the time it takes for all the DNS servers around the globe to “catch up” and take note of your domains new location. Once propagation has completed its course you are free to safely cancel service with your previous host.

Test the following upon propagation completion:
- Web site (company.com)
- Ecommerce (store.company.com)
- Domain pointers (company2.com points to company1.com)
- Subdomains (intranet.company.com)
- Email (you@company.com) – POP accounts, e-mail forwards, and auto responders

A note about the Propagation period: As mentioned before, it takes about 24 – 48 hours for the domain name change to propagate through everyone’s DNS server. This means that during this time some people will get the new site, and some will still get the old site. As far as web surfing, that’s really no big deal but can be tricky in regards to email. Depending on where an email is from, it may go to your new email server or your old server. To safeguard against losing messages, try creating 2 accounts for your email address, and use each mail server’s IP address instead of the domain name in your POP settings. For example, if you are using mail.yourdomain.com as your pop settings, try replacing that with the IP address of your web site or email server. Creating an account that checks both mail servers insures you don’t miss any messages during this 24 – 48 hour period.

TIPS
Use a move as an opportunity to “clean house”. Most servers accumulate a lot of unnecessary files over time – test pages, superseded pages, images etc. A good clean-up can simplify your life and will ensure you have maximum free space on your server.

If you use absolute addressing on your site’s navigation hyperlinks (eg: “http://www…” format links), you probably won’t be able to fully test your site’s navigation until delegation has been made. Until that time, your server will only have an IP number, and absolute addressing will not work until your domain is linked to this IP.

By contrast, if you use relative addressing (eg: “../index.htm”) type links, you should be able to test your site’s navigation even if your server still only has an IP number,
since relative addressing sends visitors through your server’s directory structure -
not back out onto the web searching for a URL.

If you’re moving your web site to a new web host, lower your stress levels by posting a prominent note to that effect on your web site. Visitors are very tolerant of faults for a few days if they know you’re moving. And you won’t feel so pressured either…