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How do I use WebAR?

WebAR (Web-Based or Browser-based AR (Augmented Reality)) works by having a user scan a generated QR Code, or open its corresponding URL and being able to recognize a single (1) 'Web-Based-AR enabled artwork', or a folder containing up to ten (10) 'Browser-Based-AR enabled artworks', without even needing to download our App. Anyone with the URL can recognize the WebAR artworks the experience contains.

If you would like to be able to recognize all artworks, regardless of whether they are WebAR-enabled, or you don't want to rely on a QR code, use our standalone iOS or Android App.

How do I use WebAR?

If you don't know, how to use WebAR, then please check out this link to one of our examples. It shows you how it will look alike. You can try it out, test it as much as you want.

Make sure - if you want to test WebAR - delete the Artivive App from your iPhone (otherwise the QR-Code from WebAR just opens up the Artivive App and you see your artwork in the Artivive App).

Get Started with WebAR

To get started, you will need at least a 'Pro Plus' or, even better, a 'Business' Artivive Bridge Subscription. You can check more details on our pricing page. After purchasing the subscription, you can enable a specific (working) artwork in your account by opening the respective options menu and selecting 'Publish as WebAR'. The artwork must not contain any errors for it to be recognizable. That's the case for both, WebAR and our standalone Artivive app (iOS Store or Google Play).

If you have a folder containing up to ten (10) artworks, you can also enable all of them at once by opening the folder options menu and selecting 'Publish as WebAR'. Note that if an artwork is moved in or out of the folder, it will not change their respective Browser-Based Augmented Reality status. It just means the Browser-Based-AR URL will contain different artworks inside.

How can I add an artwork to an existing Browser-Based Augmented Reality folder to expand my experience?

If your folder contains less than ten (10) artworks inside, you can simply move 1 artwork more inside and select 'Publish as WebAR' on the artwork itself, or the folder. The URL won't change, so there won't be any disruptions.

If it already contains more than ten (10) artworks, you will need to move one of them out before adding another one inside. No need of deleting it - you simply could place it into another folder.

How can I update an artwork that is already part of an existing Web-Based Augmented Reality experience?

You can update your artwork as you would normally do, and then simply reload the WebAR page to get the latest version.

How can I unpublish my artworks from WebAR?

If you have shared the QR Code, or its corresponding URL, of one of your Web-Based Augmented Reality experiences, and would like to prevent further engagement, you can open the respective options menu, select 'Manage WebAR', and then select 'Disable WebAR' on the top right corner. The same applies to a WebAR folder experience.

What happens to my Web-Based Augmented Reality artworks if I unsubscribe?

Web-Based or Browser-Based Augmented Reality needs an active Pro Plus or Business Artivive Bridge Subscription. If you unsubscribe and are back to a Free account, you will not be able to scan the WebAR artworks anymore.

Are views counted with WebAR?

Yes, views work exactly the same way they do with the standalone iOS and Android App.

What are the limitations of Web-Based Augmented Reality?

The main limitation compared to Artivive's standalone iOS and Android App is the native performance and stability. Other than that, in this first WebAR Alpha release, the artworks are not a 1-to-1 match to the standalone App. As always, please make sure to test your artworks with the WebAR player before sharing it. Limitations include:

The styling of Text Layers (e.g., bold, color, italic) is mostly missing
No support for Particle Layers
Only one (1) Video Layer with audio can be played on iOS. This is a restriction from Apple, so keep it in mind
iOS Video Layer audio only plays through App Clips, so be sure to share a QR Code to be detected as such
(3D) Audio layers' volume might be a bit off.

Reaching the Views Limit

International Tutorials

Tutorials in English

Artivive Creator Account (ACA)

Artivive offers one type of account with upgrade and add-on possibilities. This account is a freemium account – any creative can sign up and use it for free up to a certain number of scans (views).

Once you register, you will be assigned a free Artivive Creator Account, also known as Basic. With the Basic account you have a lifetime of 50 views. Once you have created your account you can then upgrade to one of our higher subscription tiers for more creative fun and benefits!

You can start with a 14-day free trial for the Pro subscription allowing you and your audience to experience your AR creations with views that renew each month.

You are able to upgrade or downgrade your account according to your needs and wishes at any time.

You can find an overview of Artivive subscription on our pricing page.

All our plans/subscriptions are monthly priced and can be changed or canceled at any time. To encourage long-term commitment we offer a discount of up to 35% for yearly plans, allowing you to save big if you opt for one of our yearly plans. The monthly or yearly subscription will renew automatically.

VIEW LIMITS

Your Bridge account allows you to upload an unlimited number of artworks. However, there is a monthly view limit that applies to the total number of times all artworks in your account can be viewed. The number of views included in your subscription/plan applies to your entire account and not to each individual artwork. For instance, if you have a Pro plan with a monthly limit of 1000 views, you can view all of your artworks a total of 1000 times per month.

• You can see how many views you used in the current month on the bar in under your Bridge profile.

• Once the monthly view limit has been reached, you will receive a pop-up message in your Bridge account (see below). When this happens you have several options:

- Holders of the basic plan are able to upgrade their subscription, this way the number of your monthly views will increase and the artworks in your account will stay active. If you do not upgrade, the artworks in your account will be temporarily deactivated (you can edit them, but you will not be able to scan them with Artivive App). The artworks will be activated automatically when the views count resets (new month).
- Holders of pro, pro plus, or business account, can choose between upgrading their plan, adding additional views (more information below), or setting a cost control, where you will be charged per view after using all your available views (more information below).

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• Emails will be sent when: 50%, 80%, and 100% of the limit is reached, the add-on was added, and/or the artwork was set inactive to not generate any more costs.

IF YOU REQUIRE MORE VIEWS CHECK HOW TO ADD ADDITIONAL VIEWS!

Special upgrades

Educational / Enterprise upgrade
The accounts that don’t fit as business accounts or have other needs – educational institutions, NGOs, museums, etc. They will be administered and invoiced separately based on the offers Artivive made. Here we will not have public price lists. Based on regions and needs we will have different offerings.

FAQs:

Who can register and use this account?
Every creative (artist, musician, designer, …) who wants to use Artivive for their artworks. At the registration, the creatives will be asked to share with us an online portfolio (website, Instagram, Behance, …).
What happens if I reach the limit of my views?
For Basic ACA – After the 50 lifetime views have run out your artwork will be disabled. There will be a message in the app that the limit was reached. For Paid ACA – the artwork will also be disabled after your views limit has been reached but you have the option to purchase add-ons or add to your cost control. For paid users these views will reset each month and for free accounts you only have the 50 lifetime views.
How can a user have an overview of the scans left?
There will be a bar in the dashboard on Bridge.
How does the free trial work?
We offer a free trial for our subscriptions, which gives you an opportunity to try out all of Artivive‘s pro features. The trial is 14 days long, and after the 14 days the selected subscription will automatically continue. Please note, that you have to unsubscribe during your free trial (14 days) if you do not want to the subscription to continue.
How will the statistics work?
The views per artwork will reset each month. Only ACA Pro Plus and Business users will be able to see the total number of views and detailed statistics.
What should happen if there are any payment problems?
The account will be set on Basic until it’s solved.
How do we handle an up/downgrade in the middle of the pay cycle?
For upgrades, you will automatically be billed on that day for the new tier and will receive all features and new number of views. You will only have to pay the difference. The next billing cycle will be a month after the upgrade. Downgrades will be for the next billing cycle.
Would it be possible to put some artworks on pause so that they don’t get any scans or views?
Not at the moment.
Would it be possible to see your invoices?
Yes, invoices will be available in the account’s info.

Cancel subscription

You can cancel your subscription at any time by visiting your Bridge profile dashboard and clicking on “manage subscription”. The change will occur in the next billing period. If you would only like to deactivate your subscription for a short period, we offer you an option to pause your subscription.

Pause subscription

You are able to pause your subscription for up to 3 months. You can do so by proceeding to unsubscribe and selecting the pause subscription option when offered. The subscription will automatically continue after the time period you paused it for ends.

Delete Account

You can delete your account by visiting your profile and selecting the “delete account” option from the list. Once you delete your account, all your artworks will be deleted and you will not have access to the account anymore.

Create Your First AR Artwork

Buying Additional Views

Register

Bring Your AR Artwork to Life

3D/Pro Features

How Do I Downgrade Or Cancel My Account?

Create Art

HOW DOES THIS WHOLE THING WORK?
Our platform, Bridge, was created especially to be used with Artivive. It analyzes the image you upload in order to find its unique pattern – like a fingerprint. When the Artivive app recognizes the image, it starts playing the digital layer connected to it. At the same time, through the camera view, the recognized image is replaced in the real world by the animation/video/digital layer. The technology we are using is called augmented reality.

WHAT IS BRIDGE?
Bridge is our creator tool for you to create AR masterpieces. After you create your work in Bridge you can scan the physical work with the Artivive App.

HOW CAN I REGISTER FOR A BRIDGE ACCOUNT?
To register for an account, click here and fill out the short registration form. Once this is done, you will receive an email to activate your Bridge account and you can get started with creating your first augmented reality artwork!

HOW HARD IS IT TO CREATE A PROJECT?
It depends on the story you want to tell. We suggest that you start with a test: upload an image and a video that you already have. You can also use your smartphone for this test, just take a photo and record a short video to go with it. This won’t take more than five minutes and it will give you a better understanding of the whole process.

HOW DO I CREATE MY FIRST PROJECT?
Tap the “Add Artwork” button on the home screen, or the “Add Artwork” icon in the top right-hand corner. To begin, give your project a name and choose the folder you will work on – and then name your folder. Then drag and drop, or upload a JPG or PNG image and an MP4 video to create an augmented reality artwork. By clicking the “Publish” button, you will link the image and the video. Wait a few moments for the upload to be complete. Once the project is ready, it will appear in your “Artwork Collection”.

WHY DO I HAVE TO UPLOAD AN IMAGE AND A VIDEO?
Artivive needs a photo or image of your artwork in order to recognize it and extend it with the video/animation dimension.

WHAT DO THE STARS IN THE PROJECT INFO MEAN?

Bridge analyzes the image you uploaded to find its unique pattern – like a fingerprint. The stars (0-5) tell you how suitable the image was for finding a unique pattern. Images with a higher contrast are easier to recognize. Images with very little to no detail, a single color, or that are very blurry, will not be suitable for Artivive. If you experience any difficulties, please contact us so that we can assist you.

CAN I ADD ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO MY ARTWORK?
Yes, you can add information about your artwork on Bridge. To do so, click the “Artwork Info” button. Fill out your name, the name of your artwork, a brief description of it, and your social media handles. This information is visible to users when they press the “i” button on the Artivive app.

HOW WILL MY AUDIENCE KNOW THAT THEY SHOULD USE ARTIVIVE?
You can download templates with instructions for your audience here.

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Artivive Creator Account

I WANT TO CREATE AR ART — HOW DO I REGISTER?
To register for an account, click here and fill out the short registration form. Once this is done, you will receive an email to activate your Artivive Creator Account. Then you can log into our content management system, Bridge, and start creating!

WHICH ACCOUNT SHOULD I CHOOSE?
Artivive offers one type of account with upgrade and add-on possibilities. This account is a freemium account – any creative can sign up and use it for free up to a certain number of scans (50 lifetime views). These are the following upgrades available:

Pro – 1.000 views/month
Pro Plus – 5.000 views/month‍
Business – 15.000 views/month‍
Custom – custom views/month

For prices and further features please log into Bridge.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
The basic Artivive Creator Account is free. After that, you can choose between different tiers of Artivive subscription. You can find the prices on Artivive‘s pricing page. You can get a discount of up to 35% by opting to pay yearly:

Please note that our monthly subscriptions are automatically renewed each month unless you cancel during the subscription period, and our yearly subscriptions are automatically renewed each year.

HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE?
Please go to Bridge and click on the “Upgrade” button. Then, under the Basic plan, there is a button “unsubscribe” – this will downgrade your paid account to a free one. The change will be reflected in the next billing cycle.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER MY 14-DAY FREE TRIAL OF THE PRO SUBSCRIPTION?
After the 14-days, your account will automatically continue the Pro subscription unless canceled beforehand (you can cancel the trial at any point before it ends, and still use it for the whole 14 days).

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COST CONTROLLING AND ADD-ONS?
For cost control, the user can set an additional cost limit for the account/month. This will be the amount until the account can be charged for over-usage (more views than in the upgrade). The amount can also be 0. It works on a subscription basis.
The add-ons are one-time payments that can get you additional views for the current subscription month. They start from 2.000 views and can reach up to 20.000. Add-ons are available only for upgraded accounts – they won’t work for a Basic ACA.

WHERE ARE MY INVOICES?
You can access your invoices on Bridge by clicking on your account information and then on the button “Invoices”.

I FORGOT TO CANCEL MY SUBSCRIPTION ON TIME. DO I GET A REFUND?
If you forget to cancel before the renewal date we may, under exceptional circumstances and without prejudice, apply a credit to a future purchase. No refunds will be issued.

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Duplicate Artwork

A duplicate message appears when you upload an artwork, and our system finds the same (or a very similar image) already in our database.

A duplicate artwork can happen for many reasons:

Identical artworks uploaded to the database
Text, font and logos repeating throughout multiple artworks
Similar characters throughout multiple artworks
Repetitive symbols throughout multiple artworks

Pro Tip: Think of your artwork like a fingerprint. No two fingerprints share any similarities and they are entirely unique from one another.

Example of identical artworks:

2. Example of text, font and logos repeating throughout multiple artworks:

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These two posters contain the same text and logo so it has appeared as a duplicate. In the next example you will see the same poster uploaded but without the text and logo and it will be approved.

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3. Example of similar characters throughout multiple artworks (very similar but different):

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Although these two artworks are not exactly identical and the character is in two different positions, the artwork is share too many similarities and therefore pronounced a duplicate.

4. Example of repetitive symbols/elements throughout multiple artworks:

Similar to the example of text and logos, symbols shared between artworks can also cause duplicates.

Removing the repetitive elements (example: the border, and the King and Queen of hearts symbols) can help resolve the duplicate problem and make the artworks unique.

Tips and tricks:

Try to eliminate these elements from all the artworks and leave the space blank. In most cases, it’s enough if you remove the duplicate elements only in the images you upload to Bridge Don’t worry, you don’t to remove these elements from the physical work.
Don‘t use a very popular artwork or symbols, there is a higher chance of it being a duplicate.
Are you working with somebody else on this project, have they already uploaded this image in a different account? If so, you should get in touch with them.
Do you think somebody is using your own work and is therefore violating copyright laws? If so, please get in touch with us and let us know which artwork is affected. We will get in touch with the other artist(s) and solve the issue.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out to us at support@artivive.com

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How to optimize image recognition

File Types

WHAT FILE TYPES ARE SUPPORTED BY BRIDGE?
The file types that are compatible with Bridge are .jpg and .png files for images and any video files (eg .mp4, .gif, .MOV). For 3D objects, the files compatible are glTF and GLB.

WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE IMAGES AND VIDEOS USED?
For images and 3D objects, the maximum file size is 3MB (holders of Pro subscription) or 5MB (holders of Pro Plus and Business subscription). For videos, the maximum file size is 100MB. For the target image, the longer side must be between 380 and 8000 pixels.

We have no length restrictions for the videos, but we recommend to keep it under 45 seconds.

WHAT DOES THE OVERALL SIZE LIMIT OF 3MB FOR A PROJECT MEAN?

There are 2 different type of limits (independent of each other):

Up to 3 (unique) videos with each one up to 100 MB
Up to 3 MB for all non-video layers (images and 3D models, trigger image not included in this count) – for holders of Pro subscription
Up to 5 MB for all non-video layers – for holders of Pro Plus or Business subscription

Note: All files are compressed upon uploading/saving your project. Except for already compressed 3D objects.

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO PRODUCE A VIDEO!
Of course you do! We are certain that you have already filmed something with your smartphone. That’s all you need to start creating. That being said, if you’re looking to level up your skills, there are many resources and tutorials available online on how to edit and process videos, which can help you implement your idea. Check out some tutorials here.

SHOULD MY VIDEO HAVE SOUND?
Sound extends the experience of your AR artwork. If you are creating for an exhibition and are concerned that this might disturb other visitors, you can set it so it will only play over headphones. By clicking the “headphone” button, you can activate or deactivate the option to play the sound only over headphones. If your video has sound, this will be played and can be heard, provided that the user’s smartphone is not on mute.

CAN I MAKE MY VIDEO TRANSPARENT ON BRIDGE?
Videos can be made transparent by selecting a color to be eliminated, either by using the color-picker tool or by entering the color’s value. You can also adjust the threshold to set the transparency level. Uploading an already transparent GIF is also supported.

WHY IS IT NOT OPTIMAL IF THE VIDEO IS LONGER THAN 45 SECONDS?
In order to view artworks, users must hold their devices upright and point the camera at the artwork. We have found that after 45 seconds, it becomes tiring and the focus shifts from viewing and enjoying the artwork to maintaining a steady hand. Therefore, we suggest making videos that have a length of under 45 seconds. There are no restrictions though, so you can make a video longer, just keep this in mind.

CONVERTING IMAGES AND VIDEOS INTO THE RIGHT FORMAT
You can easily convert the image format by using a variety of free tools such as this one for .jpg images or this one for .png images.

ARE 3D OBJECTS SUPPORTED ON BRIDGE BY ARTIVIVE?
Yes! We now support 3D objects. The files compatible are glTF and GLB. Files can also be uploaded in a zip archive.

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Viewing AR Artworks