AR Production

Here is the breakdown. AR production in China sits at the intersection of the world's largest mobile commerce market and a fast maturing XR talent pool. Tmall, JD, Alibaba and the Tencent ecosystem now ship AR brand activations as a default channel for product launches in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing, and the iOS-AR / Android-ARCore split is supplemented by WeChat Mini Program AR, Douyin (TikTok China) effect filters and the Pico headset experiences sold through ByteDance.

Here is how this works in practice. Our team sets up AR production with Chinese pros including the XR units at Pixomondo Beijing, Base FX, Tencent Animation and the Mindwalk Studios virtual production crews, drawing 3D artists and AR developers from the Shanghai Songjiang Film Industrial Park talent pool. Photogrammetry and LiDAR capture for AR assets — heritage reconstructions of the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Warriors and Great Wall sections for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism — runs through Chinese scanning rigs working alongside Unity China and Epic Games China developer teams. AR for branded entertainment, automotive launches for BYD and NIO and the Tencent Animation IP activations spanning Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor anchors the bulk of commercial work.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. Our process starts with NRTA pre-production approvals for any AR experience deployed inside mainland China — content moderation rules under the Cyberspace Administration of China apply to consumer-facing AR — and routes through our Chinese business partner entity needed for foreign producers to invoice and pay local talent. Asset creation runs on ARKit, ARCore, WebAR, Unity, Unreal Engine and the Spark AR pipeline for Meta-equivalent reach abroad, with Douyin-effect-house and WeChat Mini Program builds prioritised for domestic distribution. 3D modelling, animation, texturing, rigging and on-device tuning for the iPhone, Huawei and Xiaomi flagship lines are handled in-house, with QA across the fragmented Android ecosystem key for mainland deployment.

Here is how the picture comes together. The picture on the ground is more specific. Heritage AR for Chinese tourism platforms needs Cultural Relics Bureau planning alongside the standard NRTA forms. Timelines run from a fortnight for simple Douyin filters through to several months for custom location-based experiences. Delivery, content review and 17 per cent VAT invoicing run through the Chinese partner entity, with Qingdao 40 per cent rebates and Hengdian incentive forms applied to qualifying production spend.