Got to the World Museum early this morning but the place was already very busy. Apart from this new exhibition opening today, of course, there’s still the Love Sport section, the new aquarium and loads of other interesting stuff.
But we were here to see ‘Animated Adventures‘ which is mostly about the making of Wallace and Gromit animations and in particular ‘The Curse of the Were-rabbit‘.
Its great to see some of the sets, the detail is amazing, check out the set of family portraits on the walls of Tottingham Hall for instance.
There are various videos and text explaining the drawing and creation techniques.
Its not all Wallace & Gromit though, there are displays about other animators, for instance
Banjax
d7studios
and animagine
We didn’t get to have a play with the interactive pieces, too many kids. We’ll have to come back after half-term when its quieter. As we left about 11am, people were pouring in, it was far busier than the city centre shopping centres at that time!
The main part of Animated Adventures features actual sets from the film used in popular scenes. They reveal the amazing detail that is put into each model and set.
There are five main sets and models which all who have seen the film will instantly recognise: Wallace and Gromit’s basement, Tottingham Hall entrance hallway, Mulche’s garden and the carousel.
The vicarage set is also an interactive called Adding Atmosphere containing small lights for visitors to change the lighting within the case.
Two additional sets with 3D viewers for visitors to look through, giving perspective and depth to some behind-the-scenes images.
Having seen how the professionals do it, the visitors are provided with opportunities to try it for themselves through a range of interactives.
Colouring Characters (A)
The visitor chooses from four characters provided by D7 Studios. Using a touch screen they can use the paint tool box to colour each element of the character. This sophisticated interactive allows the visitors to mix colours by using colour sliders to see the colour effects used by professionals.
Colouring Characters (B)
This is a simpler version of the interactive above with wonderful outlines by Richard Vaucher to colour using colour and paint box tools.
Adding Sound Effects
Visitors see a fabulous clip from the movie The Curse of the Were-rabbit showing Gromit in the kitchen and discovering some bunnies hiding in the bread bin. The challenge is to supply sound effects for the clip in real time, pushing buttons in sync with the action.
Getting Animated
Remember the character Morph who accompanied Tony Hart on the wonderful children’s art programme? In this interactive Morph lays down a black mat that turns into a hole, which he dives into and disappears. The visitor drags a series of images on to a time line attempting to put them in the correct order to make a smooth animated sequence.
Adding Titles
This interactive allows you to add titles in an animated way, using letters, to title a film or credit the makers.
Making a Mini Movie
A camera is at one end of a bench with a panel with six printed interchangeable backdrops on scratch-proof laminate at the other end. The user has a number of small model characters, in a box to one side, which can be moved around to make a short animation. Push-button controls let them take a still image and then play back their finished clip.
Creating Characters
In the final section the visitor can try a very different skill using a sheet of paper and a pencil. On a screen, an animator from Aardman Animations shows the visitor how Wallace and Gromit are drawn through drawing simple shapes and gradually building up detail. The visitor follows the professional’s instructions for creating their own drawing.
