The Storyteller Augment Reality Pop-Up Book!

Canadian production company Felix & Paul Studios has made an augment reality pop-up book based Jim Henson's The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens.

Enter a realm of enchantment with Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens, an augmented reality pop-up book that draws from advancements in AR to transport you to the heart of a timeless tale narrated by award-winning author Neil Gaiman.

The magic of the fairy tale classic is reimagined through cutting-edge technology, creating a spellbinding experience that transcends traditional storytelling. Captivating visuals and interactive elements merge to bring the story to life.

 

You can watch a trailer showing how the story comes to life below:

CNET has more on this including this paragraph on when you can experience it for yourself.

The Magic Leap-based Storyteller experience was created five years ago and was intended to debut back in 2020. It was delayed because of the pandemic and because Magic Leap changed its path, shifting from creative-focused experiments to a business-targeted relaunch.

 The Storyteller experience emerged from the ashes to launch at the Venice Film Festival, but Felix & Paul Studios' co-founder, Paul Raphael, now sees the experience as being a stepping stone to making an actual book product for headsets sometime soon, possibly even for mixed-reality devices like Apple's Vision Pro or the Meta Quest 3.

Thanks to Lorna Mitchell for the info. 

Take a Virtual Tour of Jim Henson's Office!

Yahoo teamed up with the Center for Puppetry Arts and the Jim Henson Company to offer fans a virtual tour of Jim Henson's office. 

You can scan the QR code below or follow these links to explore Jim's office and see the Storyteller's Dog. 

In addition to the virtual tours, they also interviewed Lisa and Brian Henson about many of the objects in Jim's office, how the Storyteller's dog came to be, and how he was operated. 

You can read Yahoo's article on Jim Henson's virtual office here. 

Sesame Street Books Get Augmented!

TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bookful, the number one augmented reality children’s book app, has teamed up with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, to bring Sesame Street storybooks to life with AR. Since 1969, children and families around the world have been learning and playing with Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and their friends. The organization behind the beloved show is on a mission to help kids everywhere to grow smarter, stronger, and kinder – and Bookful is here to help, with titles going live on the app this December!

The Bookful application brings children’s books to life with AR and 3D animations, providing productive screen time while fostering a love of reading and learning. Bookful houses immersive learning opportunities for a magically interactive user experience, personalized based on each child’s reading level and interests.The 5 new titles are joining Bookful’s library of top publishers and brands. Bookful’s current collection includes titles from leading publishers: Penguin Random House, Charlesbridge, DK and more! Bookful’s brands include Barbie, My Little Pony, and The Smurfs.

Welcoming one of the world’s leading educational media brands into the Bookful library, Inception’s CEO Benny Arbel notes the potential of this addition: “We are extremely excited to have the world’s leading brands on board with us. Thanks to our partnership with Sesame Workshop, we will bring more educational content in Augmented Reality. With help from iconic characters such as Elmo and Cookie Monster, we can help cultivate a love of reading in children worldwide.”

Sesame Workshop is committed to delivering educational, safe, and fun experiences — wherever families learn and play together,” said Gabriela Arenas, Sesame Workshop’s Vice President of Licensing, North America. “So we’re thrilled to bring these Sesame Street stories to life in a new way with Bookful.

To check out Sesame Street’s titles – and many more! -- in augmented reality download Bookful at https://bookful.onelink.me/N9JT/sesamestpr

The Jim Henson Company Announces Immersive Storyteller: The Seven Ravens!

The Jim Henson Company announced a new immersive augmented reality experience in development based on The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens.

The full press release is below:

The Jim Henson Company, renowned leader in family entertainment, and Felix & Paul Studios, leaders in immersive storytelling, today announced a new project in development: The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens, a groundbreaking augmented reality (AR) experience. The new chapter of Jim Henson’s classic The Storyteller will be an innovative and ground-breaking addition to the acclaimed television series, in the form of an augmented reality (AR), trackable storybook. Award-winning author Neil Gaiman (Anansi Boys, The Graveyard Book) will voice the role of the narrator. The experience will be demoed in the Siggraph Talks track at the Siggraph virtual conference starting August 17, 2020, with a live Q&A the week of August 24, 2020 to discuss the project’s tracking module.

The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens is an extension of The Jim Henson Company’s popular franchise, that re-envisions folk stories, legends, and fables from around the world. In The Seven Ravens, a young girl sets out on an adventure to save her seven brothers from a curse that turned them into ravens. The AR book experience will allow people to interact with, explore, and re-explore the detailed and robust world of The Storyteller through the lens of The Seven Ravens tale.
Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens is produced by The Jim Henson Company and Felix & Paul Studios with support from the Canadian Media Fund, Magic Leap Independent Creators Program, Epic MegaGrants and SODEC Quebec. Stéphane Rituit executive produced as well as Lisa Henson and Blanca Lista of The Jim Henson Company.

“Partnering with Felix & Paul Studios on this innovative project will bring our fans even closer to The Storyteller, immersing them into the classic tale of The Seven Ravens like never before,” said Lisa Henson, CEO of The Jim Henson Company. “‘Through the magic of augmented reality, readers will be both amazed and surprised by how the story comes to life visually and in a truly interactive format. It is also exciting to have Neil Gaiman, the storyteller of our time, lend his voice to this project.” 

“The Seven Ravens is the next step in immersive storytelling, truly bringing a storybook to life,” said Paul Raphael, co-founder and creative director of Felix & Paul Studios. “We are lucky to be partnering with The Jim Henson Company and Neil Gaiman on this project and can’t wait to show a sneak preview at this year’s Virtual Siggraph conference.”

No other information including the release date or platform for The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens has been announced yet.