Ever wanted to dance with Childish Gambino? Now you can, as Childish Gambino and his legendary dance moves have been added to Playground on Pixel, allowing users to use augmented reality (AR) to project a virtual Gambino into your life.
If you’re not familiar with the feature, Google’s Playground uses the Pixel camera to fill your life with augmented reality-created avatars — known as Playmojis — that you can interact with. We saw some early versions of this include characters from Star Wars and the Marvel universe, and Google has continued to expand Playground’s roster with the inclusion of the This is America singer.
The Childish Gambino Playmoji pack includes dance moves from three of Childish Gambino’s songs — This is America, Redbone, and Summertime Magic — and Google’s team worked with Childish Gambino himself and his music video choreographer, Sherrie Silver, to make sure the AR version of Gambino can rival the real Gambino’s dance moves. Google has injected a bit of machine learning magic into the AR Gambino, too, and he’ll be able to intelligently react to certain facial expressions while he shares your selfies. This, along with ARCore’s motion tracking, light estimation, and ability to react to the world around him, means the AR version of Childish Gambino should feel pretty real.
Users of any of the Pixel phone, from the original Pixel to the newest Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, should be able to start playing with Childish Gambino today, as the update is rolling out worldwide. Getting started with Playground is easy; just open your camera, swipe over to the More tab, and tap Playground. Then you should be able to access Playground by tapping the Sticker icon from your Pixel’s camera app. You can select your chosen character, move them around your world, and even make them bigger or smaller. Playground is usable with both the rear-facing and front-facing camera, so you can take selfies or pose them around while you take photos or videos.
Google wants #TeamPixel to show off its dance moves on Twitter, so get out there and bust out some moves alongside Childish Gambino. Just don’t forget to tag your effort with #pixeldanceoff when you’re sharing it.
