Secret World of Butterflies

The Secret World of Butterflies is an interactive digital exhibit built for Auckland Museum. Using any of the three touchscreens, players are able to choose and customize their own butterfly, and then release it into a large digital garden, projected onto the wall using three HD projectors. The display will consistently show nine custom butterflies at any given time, along with four regular ones, which all navigate on spline paths, and will land on rocks intermittently or occasionally get snatched up by a bird.

My main involvement was creating the models and animations for the butterflies, as well as a complex material which allowed the wings to be customized with up to six different colors, two different wing templates, and eye-spots and iridescent sections which can be enabled or disabled. I also spent a lot of time arranging the layout of the scene, lighting, camera positions, and placing nodes for the various spline paths that the butterflies fly along.

Studio: Method (NZ) / M Theory
Client: Auckland Museum