Since their early days at Paradowski Creative, Irina and Noah have been pushing the boundaries of XR with a playful yet disciplined approach. Together, they have built imaginative experiences that merge art and engineering, activations that bring print to life to VPS experiments enhance classical sculptures. Through Pixel Fish Creative, their collaborative creative outlet, they treat every project as a sandbox for testing new ideas, turning technology on its head, and sharing what they learn with the 8th Wall community.

We sat down with the duo to talk about their creative process, the making of Nydia: The Blind Flower Girl, and how they’re building a studio culture rooted in curiosity and collaboration.

Background & Origin

Q: Irina, you became the AR lead at Paradowski after an internship. What was the moment AR “clicked,” and which early projects shaped your approach?
When I started at Paradowski as an intern, they asked if I wanted to start looking into this “AR stuff” they had been exploring. I had never touched it before, but making filters sounded like something fun to do! I was given the opportunity to take time to really learn and dive into various AR platforms.

The first major client project I got the chance to be part of was an 8th Wall AR-activated PR kit for Candace Parker’s newest Adidas launch at the time. We built interactive elements to tell her story and even a pop-a-shot style game, all image-tracked to the box and “ACE” cards within it. That’s when I really had a moment of “Wow, this is fascinating!” and realized the unique interactions that could be created with AR. I kept learning and exploring XR and eventually worked my way up from intern to Social AR Lead, the resident “AR person.”

Q: Noah, you came from 3D and animation and dabbled in app-based AR with Unreal and Unity. You originally bounced off 8th Wall before Studio launched. What about Studio made it finally click for you?
I’ve always been a huge fan of Blender and did most of my work there making models and animations. While freelancing, I was approached a few times to help make AR applications for interactive 3D visualizations. I originally chose Unity and Unreal because their interfaces and workflows were similar to Blender’s, but I always saw the power of WebAR where there was no need to download an app.

I tried 8th Wall early on, but without a proper graphical 3D viewport and editor I was completely lost. I had almost no dev background, so it just wasn’t an option for me. When 8th Wall Studio came out, that’s when it really clicked. The interface is incredibly easy to understand and follows many industry standards, so it fits seamlessly into my tool belt.

Q: How did Pixel Fish Creative start, and what do you look for in a project that makes it a Pixel Fish fit?
We started Pixel Fish as a space to channel our shared creative energy, a place to experiment, have fun, and build community. We’re especially passionate about creative technology and crafting experiences with a hands-on, human approach. Pixel Fish is about real people making virtual (and sometimes physical) things. We’re always looking for ways to take new and interesting technology and turn it on its head to do something different, or just to create fun and engaging interactions.

VPS + Gaussian Splats (Nydia)

Q: Why choose Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl for your VPS project, and what story did you want visitors to experience around that statue?
We’ve both been fascinated and inspired by the technology behind VPS and Gaussian Splats. As we brainstormed potential applications, we realized that using this technology as an educational tool could be an impactful way to showcase its potential. Since the Real World Impact Challenge focuses on culture, we felt there was no better setting than a local cultural landmark: the St. Louis Art Museum.

We were drawn to the statue of Nydia and wanted to tell her story. Rather than using splats to augment the statue itself, we brought the imagined environment to life around Nydia. This approach added historical context without distracting from the original piece. Gaussian Splats offered a high-fidelity yet lightweight way to build an environment that preserves lighting data and creates a painterly atmosphere.

Pipeline Overview

1. Choose a VPS-friendly location – Look for highly detailed, dimensional, mid-sized, publicly accessible content as your anchor.
   
   
2. Scan and Activate – Using Scanniverse, take several scans at multiple times of day under different lighting conditions for best results. Activate the waypoint once scans are complete.
   
   
3. Build the CG Environment – Construct a detailed scene around the anchor with high-fidelity models in Blender.
   
   
4. Generate a Gaussian Splat – Render a fly-through from the camera in Blender and send it to Postshot to generate a Gaussian Splat from the images.
   
   
5. Conversion – Use community tools like lanxinger/spz to convert PLY output to SPZ format.
   
   
6. Integrate in Studio – Add the wayspot to the scene inside Niantic Studio and build the environment around it.

Our biggest challenge was that Niantic Studio requires SPZ files, but we could only generate splats as PLY output. Finding a conversion path was essential. Luckily, Scaniverse made SPZ open-source, so we were able to locate a tool online to help.

Splats allow for highly detailed yet performant models that also preserve lighting data, a perfect way to achieve high fidelity on the web.

Q: You reversed the usual flow by “splattifying” a CG environment. What did that unlock visually or technically that traditional meshes didn’t?
Typically splats are used to capture scans of real spaces and convert them to CG. We couldn’t exactly fly to Pompeii to capture scans, but we still wanted to benefit from the lightweight processing of splats. So we created a Pompeii-inspired environment in Blender, set up multiple virtual cameras, and generated a splat from renders of the 3D space.

We leaned into the fuzzy, painterly aesthetic of splats to convey the art’s emotion and the uncertainty of Nydia’s surroundings. The result was a stylized yet believable reconstruction that preserved the feeling of ancient tragedy in a way meshes couldn’t.

Q: Since Nydia, which splat tools or formats (for example SPZ, SuperSplat, PlayCanvas) have become essential in your workflow, and why?
When working with Gaussian Splats, a handful of tools are incredibly useful depending on the task. The main one is Postshot, used to generate and train splats and NeRFs from image sets. It’s streamlined, performant, and integrates nicely with other software.

Next are PlayCanvas and SuperSplat. SuperSplat is built on PlayCanvas, and the two work beautifully together. It’s a lightweight, web-based splat editor that’s easy to use. Finally, Blender remains central. It doesn’t natively support splats yet, but plugins like Kiri Engine’s Gaussian Splat Addon make visualization and editing possible with free, open-source tools.

Craft & Collaboration

Q: You like to “break” tech and use it for the “wrong” thing. Can you share a concrete example where that mindset led to a better idea?
We often look for ways to turn something on its head. For Nydia, we decided to train a Gaussian Splat from a rendered 3D environment instead of photoscanning the real statue. In other projects, a rigid-body simulation might become a fast way to simulate rubber, or AR can become a step toward virtual production using live camera tracking.

Even in the Putt-Putt game jam, we mixed pinball and skeeball mechanics into mini golf. Looking at technology from the “wrong” angle helps us discover new possibilities and have fun while doing it.

Q: As a creative couple, how do you balance deep work with downtime, and do your best ideas really come from those walks?

We’re all always striving to find that ideal work-life balance which can be especially challenging when you’re partners who also work together both full-time and in our free time. Because of this work and personal projects bleed into our daily lives even more. It’s nice always having constant access to bounce ideas off of each other. This can be a great way to brainstorm, or even catch any potential pitfalls early. 

Being a CG Artist and a Developer, we often come at ideas from different angles, but in a way that compliments each other’s knowledge and helps fill gaps in each other’s thinking. We often find our best ideas while walking around the neighborhood. Moving gets creativity flowing. We enjoy getting to collaborate so closely consistently, of course, it also means occasionally our date-night dinner discussions turn into a deep dive on Blender’s light-baking pipeline.

Community & Industry

Q: What makes the 8th Wall Discord stand out to you compared to other communities?
The 8th Wall Discord is such a fun space. It’s full of people genuinely excited to share and talk about each other’s work. The developers are quick to respond in both the help channels and forums, and the energy during game jams is unmatched. Everyone cheers each other on. It’s the kind of community that helps everyone make their best work and have fun doing it.

Q: Blender’s open culture clearly influenced you. What lessons should web-XR platforms copy to keep collaboration healthy and generous?
As the community grows, it’s important to encourage collaboration and keep a supportive, excited atmosphere. Blender has always listened to its users and given back, which inspires the community to do the same. Web-XR platforms can thrive by paying attention to what creators are actually building, then curating features around real needs instead of trends. 8th Wall has done a great job of doing this in their game jams.

Q: What did you learn from recent 8th Wall game jams (and the broader community) that you’re carrying into Pixel Fish experiments?
We’re trying to bring more quick, inspired, fast-turnaround projects into our workflow. Game jams are such a fun challenge. The short timelines force creative decisions. We want to bring that same energy into personal experiments, setting prompts and seeing how far we can push them in a few days.

Looking Ahead

Q: What other technologies are you exploring, and how could they blend with interactive XR?
We love XR but we’re open to all kinds of emerging tech. We’ve been exploring interactive exhibits, video production, and projection-based installations. Lately, LED hologram fans have caught our eye, and we’re researching ways to merge an XR game with hologram displays to make them interactive.

Interactive screens and projection mapping that respond to body tracking are also fascinating. Irina’s senior capstone was an underwater projection piece controlled by user movement. We’d love to revisit ideas like that using modern AR tracking and the knowledge we’ve gained since.

Q: What near-term frontier excites you most, and how will Pixel Fish Creative grow into that future?
We’re keeping a close eye on AR wearables. As they become more accessible over the next few years, the space for XR creation will explode. More creators mean more experimentation and a wider audience.

Pixel Fish is always looking to explore new and exciting directions. With indie games having a big moment right now, it’s a great time to be a small creator. We’d love to eventually produce a mid-scale game and continue exploring immersive event experiences. Interactive exhibits are on the rise, and we’d love to create something truly experiential in the near future.

Join the 8th Wall Community

Want to be featured next? Connect with us on Discord and share your next build for a chance to be highlighted in an upcoming spotlight.