An epic projection mapped immersive attraction created for Cardiff Castle
Client: Unusual Expo
Skill set: Storyboarding / Character Design / Animation / Projection Mapping
The Black Tower Tales as an exciting new experience re-telling the story of Llywelyn Bren, a forgotten hero of medieval Welsh history.
In the 14th century, Llewelyn and his followers led a brave rebellion against the oppressive Sheriff of Glamorgan. They fought hard but the rebellion ultimately failed and Llewelyn would pay with his life.
He was wrongfully imprisoned and murdered in the very same Black Tower where you will hear this chilling tale.
Unusual Expo wanted a 3 wall projection mapped immersive experience so came to RamJam to make it happen
The experience takes place at the Black Tower inside Cardiff Castle, with a specially upgraded room kitted out by Unusal Expo that allowed us to take users on a fully immersive journey.
The focus of the room on the main stage is a giant mechanical book along with a chair that a live action narrator is separetly projection mapped onto throughout. The main story telling takes place in the pages of the giant book but then quickly expands out past the confines of the pages and spills into the room itself covering all the walls.
Having created animated music videos and projection mapped experiences before we had exciting ideas of how to bring the story to life.
The experience takes place at the Black Tower inside Cardiff Castle, with a specially upgraded room kitted out by Unusal Expo that allowed us to take users on a fully immersive journey.
The focus of the room on the main stage is a giant mechanical book along with a chair that a live action narrator is separetly projection mapped onto throughout. The main story telling takes place in the pages of the giant book but then quickly expands out past the confines of the pages and spills into the room itself covering all the walls.
Having created animated music videos and projection mapped experiences before we had exciting ideas of how to bring the story to life.
To achieve the grand battle sequences we developed our own realtime crowd and army engine. This enabled us to place randomised soldiers and peasants in the scenes, along with randomised animations for them to use from a set pool of suitable human gestures.
This was invaluable for the production, allowing us to rapidly adapt and update the scenes during development and achieve the epic sense of scale that the story deserved.
We wanted to play with the audiences expectations from the start, the book itself having the feel of a classically illustrated tome but then evolving as the experience unfolded to bring the rest of the room into play.
Early on some flashes of lightning reveal a hidden army in the dark behind the book and as the journey unfolds we bring more of the room to life; including cascading jewels falling all around as the greed of Payne de Turberville is exposed and culminating in some full 3 camera rendered, perspective accurate battles that really place the viewer right in the heart of the action.
This was invaluable for the production, allowing us to rapidly adapt and update the scenes during development and achieve the epic sense of scale that the story deserved.
We wanted to play with the audiences expectations from the start, the book itself having the feel of a classically illustrated tome but then evolving as the experience unfolded to bring the rest of the room into play.
Early on some flashes of lightning reveal a hidden army in the dark behind the book and as the journey unfolds we bring more of the room to life; including cascading jewels falling all around as the greed of Payne de Turberville is exposed and culminating in some full 3 camera rendered, perspective accurate battles that really place the viewer right in the heart of the action.
