Embark on a voyage to the depths of the ocean inside this 360º environment full of interactive experiences showcasing marine ecosystems from across the globe!
Experience the diversity of shapes and colors of the coral, wander through a kelp forest and mangrooves, discover the gentil leopard shark and its habitat, and witness the greatness of the manta ray.
Our amazing friends at Rare Volume asked us to craft immersive and vibrant visuals for the One Ocean Hall room, the tech-enable centerpiece of the massive and award-winning Ocean Pavilion project at the Seattle Aquarium. As proud nature and science nerds here at Bam Studio, this project was music to our ears, we couldn’t have been happier to dive in and be a part of something this extraordinary!
Seattle Aquarium Photos
Process
Research
We knew that we'd be working with experts in the field so the first and very important step was to conduct as much research as possible. We consulted the Seattle Aquarium site where useful information is available, plus books, articles and all the information that we can find online. This proces was not only informative, but also it provided a heavy load of inspiration for the team.
Visual Development
Once we felt that we had all the information we needed, we started working on the visual development. We explored shapes, colors, brushes, textures etc., to develop a unique style that can convey the message and coexist with the other elements and spaces in the aquarium.
360° Wall Ilustrations
To create this 360° immersive video story telling experience, the surface of the wall where the visuals are projected needed to first be translated into a workable 2d canvas, where illustrators and animators could work. This process ended up in a big canvas divided in three irregular screens.
We designed and animated each screen based in the research we did previously. The animation required to feel sublte in order to support and squire the live action footage. Here you can see the full designed screens, as well as the animation we did for the main screen.
Coral
Kelp
Mangrove
Manta Ray
Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark
Floor Interactive System
The coolest spot is this huge circular interactive floor where the public is able to control the content of the whole room and play with interactive particles. We had fun designing and animating all 5 population maps and environments for this interactive floor.
How does it work?
Once you selected any anvironment for a few seconds when the 3d maps are displayed, one of these environments will animate in and trigger the particle interactive system. These particles will react to the people moving inside the circular floor.
3D Maps
These maps illustrate the population around the world of the coral, kelp, mangrove, manta ray and the indo-pacific leopard shark around the world.
These illustrations of the floor interactive experience complement the wall designs for all 5 environments. Each one has its own count down bar that indicates the duration of the content that is displayed and the label of the environment.
This video shows how the particles react to people, represented by the bright pink dot.
Each environment has it's own set of particles with it's own color palette. We provided to the technical team this set of particles for them to use in the interactive system.
Other assets were created to complement different areas of the aquarium, like this ID screen that displayed useful information around the aquarium.
We created animated assets for the technical team to use in the interactive system. The challenge we faced was to keep all the animations consistent and coherent with the interactive design and with the style we developed so the public can keep track of all the action around them. This demo showcases the interactive sequence with one of the environments.
Credits
Client: Seattle Aquarium
Agency: Thinc Design
Agency: Rare Volume
Bam Studio Team
Production: Mitch Goñi
Direction: Andy Castillo
Art Director: Diego Freyre
Illustration: Diego Freyre, Caro Marínez , Andrea Esponda
Animation Director: Andy Castillo
Animators: Oscar Rodriguez, Alberto Sanchez, Juan Manuel Arias, Andy Castillo