Aquatic Invasive Species - Bow Habitat Station
“We need to entertain the children and educate their parents about the dangers of invasive aquatic species”
Brief
“We need to entertain the children and educate their parents about the dangers of invasive aquatic species”. That was the challenge presented to Onlea by Bow Habitat Station in Calgary. They wanted a series of animations that, without any sound or narration, could delight and entertain the children of the many families who visit their Discovery Centre each year, while teaching the parents and older children about various invasive species that threaten Alberta’s wetlands. Furthermore, they wanted to project the animations onto an existing bas relief sculpture in their Aquatic Alberta display so that presented a unique challenge for us.
Services
Art Direction
Illustrations
Wireframes for Projection Mapping
Animations
Script Consultation
Solution
Working with biologists from Alberta Environment and Parks, as well as staff from the Bow Habitat Discovery centre, our designers put together storyboards to demonstrate how people introduce invasive aquatic species into lakes, rivers and other wetlands in Alberta, as well as the dire consequences that can have on those environments. Our designers then created realistic illustrations of various aquatic life to use in the animations. The next step was to visit the Bow Habitat Discovery Centre and test the look of the illustrations as well as practical projection mapping tests to measure luminosity and scale of our animations on the bas relief sculpture. Measurements in hand, our designers created three animations which tell the stories of how people accidentally, or negligently introduce goldfish, zebra mussels, or flowering rush and impact Alberta’s environment.
Results
The animations are currently being installed into the Aquatic Alberta Display area, so the next time you’re visiting the Bow Habitat Discovery Centre, head down to the basement and look for our projection mapping animations.
