Telling a Story with Spoken Word and Trippy Animation

After working with KANEKO on their previous record-breaking Light exhibition, they brought us on for their very next one. REALITY exists to challenge viewers to step back and look at the world in a different way. We storyboarded, designed, and animated the video to introduce the grand opening, as well as an introduction to the exhibition itself.

Whereas the Light video was videography taken from the different areas within the museum, REALITY was an exercise in more abstract and cosmic imagery. We animated several independent scenes in black and white and strung them together with recurring red lines and original voiceover consistent with the exhibition's branding and identity.

Additionally, we took elements from the animation and transformed them into holograms for another area of the exhibition.

This is Pixel Bakery's first commissioned work of art.

Process

The process for this project was different than any project we've worked on before. There was no specific product, storyline, or cast of characters to work on. We had the REALITY logo, branding, and positioning, and were tasked with creating a cohesive video combining individual scenes, without inspiring a randomness factor to viewers.

After multiple all-team creative and strategy meetings, our plan of action was to create dozens of individual scenes consistent with the branding and combine them in a light to dark order, where the video transitions from lighter scenes to darker ones, while the red line appears throughout. After the first pass of the video, we decided a voiceover was necessary, so we crafted a script to enhance the viewing experience.

In addition to the full versions for social as well as the gallery intro, we segmented specific scenes for use on social media to keep the exhibition top of mind until it closes in September.

Holographic Project

After the video was completed, KANEKO asked if we would provide portions of the video that might work well for the hologram portion of the exhibition. We took two scenes and modified them specifically to be compatible with their holographic projector.

Exhibition

Because the animation was used as the announcement of the gallery opening, it was used as the introduction to the main exhibition. As patrons walk through the main doors, the video plays on a loop directly to the right. As the introduction to the rest of the exhibition, it was our hope that it would get people in the right mindset to view the exhibit, and the world, from a different perspective.