The Palace Museum Interactive Installation
Jan 2019, Beijing
Interactive Installation, Digital Experience
OUTPUT
Exhibition
Digital Installation - The Palace Museum in Beijing, China
Team Members
Yang Wang
Yue Hu
Fanyun Peng
My Contributions
Interaction Design
Animation Design Application Development
Tools
Unity 3D
Kinect
Laser RangeFinder
Project Objectives
The interactive digital exhibition - "The Palace Museum Interactive Installation", was held at the Palace Museum in Beijing from January to April 2019 to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. The exhibition featured three themes, including “Catching New Year Blessing”, “Eternal Blossom” and “Frosty Wonderland”.
Eternal Blossom
Frosty Wonderland
Catching New Year Blessing
"Eternal Blossom" - Inspiration
I was the key creative technologist responsible for the development of the theme “Eternal Blossom”. This theme drew inspiration from Qing Dynasty paintings, showcasing visual elements that symbolize spring and joy, such as persimmons, pomegranates, narcissus flowers, and peonies, to celebrate the festive spirit of the Chinese New Year.
When people wave their arms, the butterflies flutter, the flowers sway, the narcissus and the plum blossoms bloom, and the various kinds of fruit are rolling, just like people are interacting with the ancient paintings.
Development
I rigged all the 2D visual elements with bones and apply 2D Inverse Kinematics(IK) to the bones so it will response naturally to the force. By touching or dragging on the large screen, users could apply force and interact with these antiques, triggered animations, making the elements respond with dynamic movement. Below is the screenshot of the rigging 2D elements.
Unity Screenshot - 2D Rigging
Here is the test video of using mouse dragging and clicking to trigger the plants swaying, flowers blooming and fruits rolling.
Unity Rendering Interaction Demo
After I finished the scene and interaction setting, my teammate Fanyun Sun helped setup the scene to the big screen and connect Unity with the Laser RangeFinder to map the real space. So people can wave, touch to trigger the interaction happen.
