06 / A connected practice

One universe.
Many ways in.

Projects connect through ideas, technologies, and the people who bring them to life.

Explore the universe ↗Topics · Technology · TeamsContinue through the portfolio ↓

Body & presence ↔ Learning & worlds ↔ Architecture & lightEnter spatial view ↗

← tylersammy.com

Selected Work

Projection mapping, animation, virtual production, immersive (VR/AR), and AI-augmented learning, made in Toronto, 2012 to now.

Every piece here starts the same way: a body, a machine, and a question about what they mean to each other.

Current

Live Ventures

What Tyler is building now.

BEKIN Health

Community-based longevity and sports-performance platform co-founded with Julian Ho (Honours Kinesiology, six-time ultramarathon champion). Launch cohorts now running include PRIME 3.0 (high-performance running with central gait analysis) and FORTIS (six-week strength training). Pairs Eastern Medicine with Western Science. Privacy-first AI-augmented coaching using on-device Gemma models with statistical-validation pipelines (HRV, gait, readiness) and a practitioner observability dashboard.
The Normal Map

Interactive digital field guide to holistic human development across 47 chapters. Built on the Somatic Triad framework (movement, stillness, breath) with a transparent citation system distinguishing established science, emerging research, traditional wisdom, and theoretical frameworks. v0.9 prepublication, April 2026.
Alchymine

A workspace for human assessment, intelligence, and creation, where analysis, synthesis, and making converge.
Healing Swarm Skills

Open-source AI-assisted ecosystem developed with Carl Hayden Smith (University of East London / Ravensbourne). Operationalizes Hyperhumanism (endo-technologies, Contextology, consciousness literacy, archaeoacoustics) as deployable skills and agents. Licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 with enforced pharmacological exclusion for clinical safety.
Agiiincy

Original products and apparel storefront. Tyler is product designer, artist, and model on the line.

FutureTalk + Thought Cafe

Immersive & Interactive

Immersive production, interactive XR, and AI-enabled content systems, often built by the two studios together.

02 / Learning as an environment
Step inside
the question.
Learning becomes
a place to explore.
FutureTalk
Immersive education
FutureTalkTREK AI
Worlds built for understanding.
Viewpoint
FutureTalk: TREK AI + Thealogue
Immersive learning across web, mobile and XR
Explore the full project ↗
Curved image-space study using project screenshots, not a live 360 lesson. Original project media continues below.
Project film & photographs Original media sequence ↓

Trek AI + Thealogue

FutureTalk own product

AI instructional design platform. Thealogue, the studio's ingestion engine, converts a 1M+ asset library into a knowledge graph for AI-assisted lesson creation. Trek delivers those lessons as immersive 360 environments on web, mobile, desktop, and XR. 13B+ views, 11M+ learners. Reduced immersive content production from about $500k USD over 18 months to about $30k over two weeks. Co-inventor on WIPO PCT Publication WO/2026/060516 (Systems and Methods for Generating Immersive E-Learning Content, published March 2026).

PatentScope
Siemens Biograph Trinion

Siemens Healthineers, 2024

Immersive product launch at Illuminarium Toronto for the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging annual meeting. 3D renders from technical CAD drawings, animation, and mixed reality with hyper-realistic simulations, topped with an interactive holographic display of the scanner's features.
SandboxAQ Quantum Virtual Production

SandboxAQ (with Thought Cafe), 2022 to ongoing

Real-time green screen compositing and camera tracking to previsualize scenes as they were shot. Hosts placed in a quantum computer, a laboratory, and on the Moon. 150+ minutes of science communication content across live-action, VFX, animation, and event presentations.
Foot Locker: Future of Retail

Foot Locker

Stereoscopic 360 VR experience combining live-action video and 3D animation. Delivered simultaneously to 200+ managers and executives in Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets.
UP Cannabis + The Tragically Hip

UP Cannabis / The Tragically Hip

Audio-reactive stereoscopic VR with five immersive worlds paired with hit songs from The Tragically Hip, one world per strain at launch. Built in Unity using Tilt Brush, After Effects, and Cinema4D on Insta360 Titan hardware.
PBS NOVA Polar Lab

WGBH PBS NOVA (with Thought Cafe)

360 immersive web experience accompanying the Polar Extremes documentary. Players travel the globe through clickable 360 landscapes, video, animation, and mini-games to study climate history. NOVA Labs have served 6M+ students since 2012.

W3 Awards Best in Show 2020
PBS NOVA Exoplanet Lab

WGBH PBS NOVA (with Thought Cafe)

3D immersive web game where players become NOVAnauts finding habitable exoplanets using the methods scientists actually use. Character design, the Star-Dex interface, and full game development for PBS NOVA Labs.
PBS NOVA Financial Lab

WGBH PBS NOVA (with Thought Cafe)

Interactive financial-literacy lab in the NOVA Labs suite. Three mini-games (Shopportunity Cost, Budget Buster, Exponential Potential) teach young adults to recognize and work past common money-management biases.
The Water Brothers: Dive Deeper

TVO / The Water Brothers (with Thought Cafe)

Interactive educational web series across seasons 3 to 5 of the eco-adventure documentary. Macro, Meso, and Micro analysis layers, clickable hotspots, and animated stories on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, whale conservation, ocean acidification, and more. Widely adopted in schools.

Canadian Screen Award 2018, 2019 · W3 Silver 2017
A Curious Mind

CreamVR / Thought Cafe, Hulu and YouTube

Pop-science stereoscopic VR show with The Lord of the Rings actor Dominic Monaghan exploring the Earth's most mind-bending scientific concepts. Psychedelic collage illustration throughout. Co-produced with Thought Cafe.

Canadian Screen Award winner 2019 (Best Immersive Experience) · W3 Gold 2018

Stereoscopic VR
Dark Threads

FutureTalk / CreamVR, 2021

6DOF PCVR narrative game on Steam, built in Unreal Engine. Players recover lost memories by exploring detailed environments. Photorealistic 3D body scan of actor Dominic Monaghan, body capture via Xsens and facial capture via Faceware. About $380K in sales revenue. A follow-up to A Curious Mind.
StudioAM: River

Studio.AM, 2020 to ongoing

White-label multi-user remote production and livestreaming platform built with Studio.AM during COVID. River delivered high-resolution streams for Seth Rogen's Hilarity for Charity, the Visual Effects Society Awards, the Casting Society of America, the Cesar Chavez Legacy Awards, and dozens of live events. About $500K in sales revenue.

Thought Cafe

Animation & Broadcast

Executive Technical Director, 2012 to 2024

Toronto studio turning complex ideas into branded visual media. As ETD, Tyler owned the technical production pipeline across 2D and 3D animation, VFX, stereoscopic VR, mixed reality, and interactive web.

Crash Course

Complexly / John & Hank Green

Branding, visual identity, motion systems, and asset infrastructure for 60+ subjects across the flagship educational YouTube series. Thought Cafe built and maintained the brand across 50+ series over fifteen years, including custom intros, graphic packages, a mobile flashcard app, curriculum workbooks, and a library of 500,000+ vector assets. Channel reports 16M+ subscribers and 2B+ lifetime views.

YouTube Diamond Play Button · Webby Award (People's Voice) 2021 · Webby Honoree 2015
TED-Ed: Gerrymandering

TED-Ed / Christina Greer

Animated lesson on how packing and cracking district manipulation works and why it matters. Part of an ongoing TED-Ed collaboration across civic and political topics.
The Water Brothers: Seasons Three & Four

The Water Brothers

Technical Director for Animation for Seasons Three and Four of The Water Brothers broadcast television series. Separate from the Dive Deeper interactive companion featured in Immersive & Interactive.
History By The Numbers

Saloon Media / Smithsonian Channel

Broadcast TV series that decodes historical narratives through numbers, combining fast-paced infographics, 2D and 3D animation, and expert interviews across topics from King Tut to air travel.

Canadian Screen Awards nomination 2023 (Best Visual Effects)
PBS NOVA Labs

WGBH PBS NOVA

Polar Lab, Exoplanet Lab, and Financial Lab, co-produced with FutureTalk. See the Immersive & Interactive section for the full case studies.

Projection & Live Performance

2013 to 2025

Live AV performance and installation across festivals, galleries, and stages. Projection mapping, audio-reactive visuals, interactive environments, and real-time generative systems.

Holographic Realms: Octagonal Prism Portal

Love Burn, Miami, February 2026

Holographic projection installation for Love Burn 2026 in Miami, an octagonal prism portal piece in the Holographic Realms series.

Holographic
Dissolving Boundaries

OCAD University Global Centre for Climate Action · Delegation of the EU to Canada · OOOPStudio · Ava Animation · FutureTalk, 2025

Signature attraction of Toronto's Nuit Blanche 2025 and the largest projection mapping installation at the event. A 350 by 200 ft canvas transformed the historic Canada Malting Silos with choreography, animation, and environmental themes centred on water. FutureTalk served as technical support partner alongside Ava Animation, for a piece created by OOOPStudio (Alessandro Grisendi and Marco Noviello).

Nuit Blanche 2025 · 350x200 ft projection mapping · Canada Malting Silos

FutureTalk
01 / Architecture as moving image
A city-scale
canvas.
Light gives a familiar place
another life.
Canada Malting Silos
Toronto · Nuit Blanche 2024
Emilija ŠkarnulytėRIPARIA
Projection, architecture, water.
Viewpoint
Artist: Emilija Škarnulytė
FutureTalk: technical realization partner
Panasonic Canada: hardware partner
Explore the full project ↗
Photographic depth study using project documentation. The original project media continues below.
Project film & photographs Original media sequence ↓

Riparia

OCAD University · Delegation of the EU in Canada · Panasonic Canada · FutureTalk, 2024

On October 5, 2024, Riparia turned the historic Canada Malting Silos into an immersive aquatic temple. Lithuanian-born artist and filmmaker Emilija Skarnulyte used mythology, future archeology, and climate science to invite thousands of passers-by on a journey through nature, goddess energy, and environmental preservation. FutureTalk was technical realization partner with Panasonic Canada as hardware partner.

Nuit Blanche 2024

FutureTalk
Be Here Now (Things I Can't Tell You)

Randall Okita · Robert Kananaj Gallery / AGO Massive Party, 2015 to 2016

Interactive projection installation where viewers strike the artwork and ring a floating bell to trigger sound, light, and a projection-mapped passage through the seasons. Featured in director Randall Okita's exhibition Things I Can't Tell You at Robert Kananaj Gallery, and at the AGO Massive Party.

Point cloud · Projection mapping
Spark the Senses

Future Food Studio · PepsiCo · Art Basel Miami 2015, PepsiCo Foresight Food Immersive 2016

Interactive immersive dining for 28 guests per seating, multiple seatings a day. FutureTalk assembled creative technicians alongside Future Food Studio's chefs for a sensory-rich program where menus and visuals evolved with each course. Pressure-sensitive coasters and OSC triggers drove live interactions from guest movement; multi-projector mapping and audio, installed and struck without access to existing tables or projection infrastructure.

FutureTalk
Design Exchange / From: Nothing

Design Exchange + Common Good, 2016

Interactive projection installation for DXSocials: From: Nothing at Design Exchange. Common Good and FutureTalk created three clocks that let guests traverse time and space.

Projection mapping · FutureTalk
Design Exchange Gala

Design Exchange + Common Good, 2013

Window projection mapping wrapping the DX Trading Floor, mapped in under a day with a mixed array of projectors and lenses. On a midnight cue from the live band, audio-reactive starscapes burst from the windows and danced through the seasons while VJs performed from the second floor. Gala guests shaped the space themselves with mobile touch controls.

Projection mapping · FutureTalk
Emergence by Patrick Olsen

Emergence Performance Theatre, 2024

Live immersive audio-reactive visuals, 'Unveiling the Cosmic Tapestry,' enveloping the audience in cosmic, ego-dissolving imagery. Real-time performer capture with 3 Microsoft Azure Kinects and iPhone LiDAR; a point-cloud pipeline across Unity, Unreal, Houdini, After Effects, Premiere, Brekel Point Cloud, and Polycam.

Point cloud · Live performance · FutureTalk
July Talk: Live at the Drive-In

July Talk · Panasonic Canada · FutureTalk · Adam Crosby, 2020

Two-night concert and livestream at a Toronto-area drive-in after the band's Budweiser Stage show was cancelled. Tyler as technical director and live projection performer. Three Panasonic laser projectors mapped the stage, amplifiers, and a rear-stage surface, the rear unit in a short-throw periscope configuration to solve weather and sight-line constraints. Eight cameras for live stream and record.

Panasonic case study

FutureTalk
July Talk: Love Lives Here

July Talk · Good Job Hi-Five, 2023

Feature documentary on July Talk's pandemic drive-in concert and livestreams, crediting Tyler for technical direction and live projection performance.

FutureTalk
July Talk: I Am Water

July Talk, 2024

Live projection mapping and a custom augmented-reality filter designed for July Talk's I Am Water.

FutureTalk
July Talk: Live at Massey Hall

July Talk · Massey Hall, Toronto, 2024

Two nights of live projection video performances at Massey Hall, Toronto.

FutureTalk
July Talk: The News

July Talk

Live projection mapping and VJ performance for July Talk's The News.

FutureTalk
MAJIC JORDAN at Rebel

MAJIC JORDAN · Rebel, Toronto, Nov 2016

Live projection mapping and VJ performance for MAJIC JORDAN at Rebel, Toronto, across two nights, November 10 and 11, 2016.

FutureTalk
OVO Summit

OVO · John Bassett Theatre, MTCC, Aug 2019

Live video projection mapping and interactive visual intermissions for the OVO Summit.

FutureTalk
TIFF RBC House: RBC + OVO

RBC / OVO, Sept 2019

Live video projection mapping and interactive point cloud installation at RBC House during TIFF.

Point cloud · FutureTalk
Metric at Osheaga

Metric · Osheaga, Aug 2019

Live video production and audio-reactive visuals for Metric's Osheaga performance.

FutureTalk
#SMASH with Kathryn Macnaughton

Gardiner Museum, June 2016

Live projection-mapped interactive painting installation at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto.

FutureTalk
(in)finite reflection

Nuit Blanche x Hub14 Dance Collective, Oct 2014

Immersive and interactive art and dance installation, iterated through several versions including a 3D-printing variant at The Design Agency Block Party and a collaborative version at the NXNE Art Lounge.

FutureTalk
The Nativity

Evangel Pentecostal Church, Montreal, Dec 2013

Content creation, technical direction, and live performance integration.

Point study: Joseph of Mercury, MVA. One frame of the Kinect capture, redrawn in gold.

Music Videos & Point Cloud

Point-cloud capture and audio-reactive renders for musicians, performed live and cut into videos.

Joseph of Mercury: Pretty Blonde Boy

Joseph of Mercury

Spatial point-cloud capture brought Joseph's time-traveler ethos to the Pretty Blonde Boy music video, with live capture and manipulation. Kinect depth-sensing cameras, Brekel Point Cloud, Unity, Unreal, After Effects, and Resolume Arena.

Point cloud · Music video
03 / Performance as spatial data
Presence,
in particles.
A performance at
the edge of matter.
Joseph of Mercury
MVA · Music video
Joseph of MercuryMVA
A body becomes a field of light.
Viewpoint Disperse
Artist: Joseph of Mercury
Project: MVA
Kinect point-cloud performance capture
Explore the full project ↗
Image-derived particle study. Illustrative depth, not the original Kinect point-cloud data. Original project media continues below.
Project film & photographs Original media sequence ↓

Joseph of Mercury: MVA

Joseph of Mercury

Point-cloud capture and live performance manipulation for Joseph of Mercury's MVA, carrying the same time-traveler aesthetic across depth-scanned environments. Kinect depth sensing, Brekel Point Cloud, Unity, Unreal, After Effects, Resolume Arena.

Point cloud · Music video
Airplane Boys: Change the Vibration

Airplane Boys / APB

Concept development, visual effects, and spatial point-cloud capture, with audio-reactive point-cloud renders performed live during the music-video recording. Microsoft Kinect v2, Brekel Point Cloud, Unity, After Effects, Premiere.

Point cloud · Music video · FutureTalk
Joy Odyssey: Feels Like Heaven

Metanoia

Audio-reactive immersive spatial web experience that runs on any modern device, a 360 viewing gallery for the Metanoia project and an interactive musical experience for the song Feels Like Heaven. Built with Next.js, Node.js, Three.js, and react-three-fiber alongside Blender and Cinema4D.

Spatial web · FutureTalk
Maestro x Lights: Desire

Maestro x Lights

Virtual-production music video for Desire, with a behind-the-scenes cut.

Behind the scenes

Virtual production · Music video · FutureTalk
Ocean Expedition AR board game

Rutgers University · UN Decade of Ocean Science

Explorers of the Deep, an augmented-reality board game tied to the Rutgers STEM challenge and endorsed by the UN Decade of Ocean Science. AR overlays turn the board into an undersea expedition.

AR · FutureTalk

Selected Clients

Complexly (Crash Course)PBS NOVA / WGBHSiemens HealthineersSandboxAQTED-EdFoot LockerPanasonicPlayStationTelusAmerican ExpressPepsiCoCaptain MorganWiser'sCBCTVOSmithsonian ChannelCream Productions / HuluCreamVRSecret LocationApple TV+Mozilla FoundationGates FoundationCIVIX CanadaAsapSCIENCEThe Tragically Hip / UP CannabisShopifyAGO (Art Gallery of Ontario)Scotiabank ArenaSteamwhistle BreweryGardiner MuseumDesign ExchangeArts & Crafts FestivalOCAD UniversityToronto Metropolitan UniversityDunlap Institute (U of T)WebMDBroadbent InstituteUN Development ProgrammeRonald McDonald House Charities Canada

Speaking

"Go Prompt Yourself"

FITC Spotlight on AI, March 2023

Panelist on AI for Digital Creators.
"Flow Growth: Developing Creative and Sustainable Business Models"

MIT Art Scholars, Arts@MIT, January 2020

Thought Cafe and FutureTalk.
"The Future of Work: Identifying and Creating Future Trends"

Bei Vita Master Share, July 2020

International video conference presenter.
"Enjoying Educational Design"

MIT Art Scholars, Arts@MIT, November 2018

Thought Cafe.
"Animation for YouTube and Beyond"

Nerdcon: Nerdfighteria, February 2017

Thought Cafe.

Contact

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Start a conversation

One universe.Many ways in.

Selected Work

01 / Live Ventures

02 / Immersive & Interactive

Siemens Biograph Trinion

SandboxAQ Quantum Virtual Production

Foot Locker: Future of Retail

UP Cannabis + The Tragically Hip

A Curious Mind

03 / Animation & Broadcast

History By The Numbers

PBS NOVA Labs

04 / Projection & Live Performance

Holographic Realms: Octagonal Prism Portal

Design Exchange / From: Nothing

Design Exchange Gala

OVO Summit

TIFF RBC House: RBC + OVO

Metric at Osheaga

#SMASH with Kathryn Macnaughton

(in)finite reflection

The Nativity

05 / Music Videos & Point Cloud

Joseph of Mercury: Pretty Blonde Boy

Joseph of Mercury: MVA

Airplane Boys: Change the Vibration

Maestro x Lights: Desire

Ocean Expedition AR board game

06 / Selected Clients

07 / Speaking

"Go Prompt Yourself"

"Flow Growth: Developing Creative and Sustainable Business Models"

"The Future of Work: Identifying and Creating Future Trends"

"Enjoying Educational Design"

"Animation for YouTube and Beyond"