With the rapid growth of spending in the metaverse and projections of future spending being in the trillions, companies like Spree3D are making it easier for consumers and brands to enter the phygital world.
Spree3d has delivered the first Hyperreal Avatar Platform called MyDubble allowing users to create and share their avatar adventures as hyperreal videos. Their first mobile app built on the platform, MyDubble, targets the fashion industry and offers an entirely new way to experience lifelike fashion. Creating your first MyDubble video is as easy as 1-2-3. 1) scan to create your dubble 2) pick your fashion 3) pick your scene. That’s all it takes to see yourself in a fantastical fashion video, starring your dubble.
By digitizing humans, apparel, and experiences, MyDubble also offers a unique metaverse building opportunity for partners. Rapidly propagate fandoms with hyperreal doubles that can instantly experience your fashion as content in their personalized videos. A “dubbled” fan base offers a radically new engagement and merchandise opportunity. We spoke with Eric Rubin, Chief Operating Officer at Spree3D about the new app.
GRIT DAILY: What motivated you to join the Spree3D team and what excited you most about this technology and business?
I come from a background in technology platforms, largely in business development roles. There were two things that got me excited about the Spree opportunity 1) being on the leading edge of a paradigm shift- metaverse/W3. I’ve been fortunate to have been on the leading edge of several paradigm shifts in computing- web platforms in the mid-’90s, and an early mover in SaaS and Cloud computing in the early 2000s. 2) The Business development opportunities of onboarding partners into this paradigm shift are boundless.
GRIT DAILY: Why did Spree3D choose to debut MyDubble as its first project? What were some of the challenges involved in bringing this project to fruition?
Starting with the challenges: We have solved a very complicated technology problem- the auto-creation of a lifelike digital version of you (which we call your dubble), that can exist in fantastical experiences. To do this we had to blend competencies in machine learning, 3D, apparel virtualization, and CGI- into a single pipeline. We have pulled together a rock star team, with technology leaders from Disney, Dreamworks, Pixar, Blizzard Entertainment, and Apple.
GRIT DAILY: Why did you choose to focus on hyper-real versus animated avatars? What are the current capabilities of the app?
The idea for the app came from one of our founders, Lisa Park, a very talented fashion designer. Her vision was to allow anyone to see themselves in beautiful fashion, breaking down all of the barriers to access. To deliver this vision we rooted our technology in photoreal avatars with lifelike animation. However, this is just a foundation as digital gives you the opportunity to blend fantastical with IRL experiences. Hyperreal experiences give your digital-self superpowers – garments have fluid colorways, dubbles are not constrained by gravity, etc. This is extremely important, as it gives creators entirely new ways to express their fashion, and themselves- starting with the foundation of IRL experiences and then layering it with the limitless fantastical elements that digital allows.
The simplest way to think about our first app, MyDubble, is that it allows users to create avatar movies that star your personalized avatar (your dubble). In three simple steps, you can create your first hyperreal fashion movie 1) scan yourself from your phone to create your dubble 2) pick your garment from a catalog of digital fashion, and 3) pick your scene from a catalog of fantastical scenes. Start to finish is under 5 minutes, and the output is a 15-second fantasy video.
GRIT DAILY: Where do you see the future of this technology going for Spree3D? What are some general AR/VR predictions you have for the industry in the next 5 years?
I’m not an AR expert, however, our platform agenda in the near term is to allow dubbles to exist in multiple environments. Currently, we virtualize users to exist in our video creation environment. To accomplish this requires a state-of-the-art W3 technology stack. A dubble, however, is a blended 3D object, so existing in AR environments with interactive experiences is an obvious future capability for us.
If you add virtualized humans to the metaverse stack in your question, there are obvious beachheads for our platform. At the surface we have a simple value proposition to the industry- our platform automates social content creation around your brand via a movie maker for personalized avatar experiences.
Our initial target is fashion, and metaverse platforms can revolutionize the fashion industry. We provide an entirely new way for brands to engage with digital natives. We can boost a brand partner’s social content, by virtualizing physical garments that then become content in avatar movies. So customers can now have a digital-first experience with a brand’s apparel in a novel social content platform. We can also boost promotions with digital f/x added to apparel as well as the user. For example, a garment could have virtual textures that morph, without losing the essence of the foundational garment.
This also allows partners to boost sustainability initiatives with pure digital collections. For example, we can convert carbon burning “wear once” trends (e.g. wardrobing) into a green marketing promotion.
All of these initiatives, by the way, require photorealism as the foundation to be effective.
The next phase for us is to move into adjacent markets. Simply put, our sausage machine allows users to create any personalized hyperreal experience. So sports is another potential beachhead. For example, your avatar could star in a hyperreal NBA video with insane slam dunks.
Finally, the next level of value to brands and creators is in community building around your brand with the automatic creation of digital fandoms. Dubbles eliminate any friction in activating your brand. Where it gets really interesting is that your fans are encouraged to create social content featuring your brand. So we enable a viral flywheel with engageable content.
GRIT DAILY: Where can our readers go to learn more about Spree3D and MyDubble?
We are just coming out of stealth mode, and have started an early access program, accessible from our website mydubble.io. The best way to learn about us is to explore our app, which we will be continually updating with new content as we get close to general availability.
