RIVER ALIVE
Kids tap bugs into a dance and meet river animals with personalities. Another motion designer and I shared the animation across the wall game, data screen, and animal characters.
THE RESULT
A RIVER TO EXPLORE
THROUGH PLAY
Our team designed River Alive to help kids get curious about their local river through games, touchscreens, and encounters with its animals.
River Alive was my first project as a full-time motion designer at Bluecadet. Our team designed the children’s exhibition area for the Independence Seaport Museum, including a style guide with hand-painted lettering, a logo, and a color palette.
We built a wall game around working together, visualized river data for visitors to explore, and created a personality test connecting visitors with river animals.
My part was the motion. Another motion designer and I drove the animation together, across the wall, the data screen, and the River Hero animals.
CONTINUUM WALL
Five stations connect visitors to one shared river game.
FIVE STATIONS, ONE SHARED CELEBRATION
The wall’s clean-river celebration unlocks only when visitors complete all five stations.
At the entrance, our team paired a 32-foot curved gaming wall with five input stations representing landscapes along a river, including mountains, wilderness, farmland, and a city.
At the city station, visitors press round buttons on an illustrated map of streets and buildings. Each station contributes to the shared goal of unlocking the wall’s “party mood.”
FROM SPINE TO UNITY
Another motion designer and I animated the wall’s elements in Spine for import into Unity, where the developer built the game.
I animated elements such as sunflowers, rocks, and trees separately so they could be brought into the wall game.
RIVER DATA SCREEN
River data visitors can touch: bug population, salinity, and plant life.
WATCH THE PLANTS RESPOND
Drag the slider to raise salinity, and freshwater marsh plants wither onscreen.
Our team visualized river data through Bug Population, Salinity, and Plant Life. Visitors can move the slider and watch the plants change as salinity rises. The animation gives a visible example of what changing river conditions mean for the life in the water.
TAP A BUG, FIND A DANCE
Tap the bugs on the data screen, and they dance around your fingers.
Our team tucked this Easter egg into the river data screen, alongside the information visitors could explore.
RIVER HERO
I animated river animals to express the personalities visitors could match.
GIVING EACH ANIMAL A PERSONALITY
I animated the River Hero animals so each animal’s movements expressed a personality.
Our team designed River Hero to match visitors’ personalities with river animals. I animated characters including a frog, a heron, a crab, and an otter, giving each its own movement to represent a specific personality. River Hero is my personal favorite in the exhibition.