In the Beginning

With the Franken-Friend uploader, creating life from death has never been easier... or more fun.

Starring Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy, Fox’s Victor Frankenstein breathes new life into the legendary horror story. Told from Igor’s perspective, this action-oriented twist on the classic tale explores the unknown origin of the fabled doctor and the hideous monster he unleashed upon the world.

Fox tasked AvatarLabs with creating a unique interactive experience that was global, highly shareable and built buzz leading up to the Thanksgiving premiere. Seizing the opportunity to create digital mayhem, we donned our lab coats and retrieved our boxes of diodes, actuators and more to assemble a creation worthy of the name Frankenstein.

Assembling the Parts

We worked to develop a unique concept that was simple, personal and inherently shareable. Taking our cue from the film’s theme of “bringing back to life” we gave birth to Franken-Friend, which would invite moviegoers to step into the shoes of Victor Frankenstein and create their own monster by stitching together the facial features of three entirely different friends or family members to generate a unique piece of social content. Fox immediately saw the idea’s viral potential and gave us the go-ahead, with one little catch – it had to be ready to launch in four weeks.

Keeping in mind the power of simplicity and the short attention spans of the online audience, we developed an intuitive user experience that allowed fans to create a monster in just a few clicks. We wrapped this in a design inspired by the film’s sets, taking into account Fox’s directive not to give away the look of the monster in the film.

Fully responsive for mobile, tablet and desktop, the experience was built to work seamlessly on any screen. Users can either upload photos or retrieve them from Facebook. With fun and simple tools, they can line up the faces with guidelines and adjust rotation, brightness, saturation and hue. Then, with the click of a button, a frightening assemblage is created, combining the the three faces into one, horrifying monster! Users can name their abominable creation, shuffle the parts to make additional faces, and share instantly to social networks.

It's Alive!

Creating a custom Franken-Friend is a whole lot easier than digging up body parts, stitching them together and waiting for lightning to strike.