The New-York Historical Society (now known as the New York Historical) launched a fundraising campaign to create a new exhibit space for their considerable antique model train and toy collection. To help with the campaign, the museum wanted to produce a 3D animated tour of the proposed space, giving potential backers a firsthand experience of how a trip to the exhibit would look and feel.
I was hired as the Producer for the project, first creating an overall production plan and bid for approval. The approval process also involved testing, sample asset builds, and technical evaluations to determine what level of detail would be necessary to create an effective experience. Those tests informed scheduling for the 3D asset build time, as well as the timelines for camera animation, lighting and render.
In addition to Producing, I built the vast majority of assets for the project, specifically the trains, toys, museum entrance level, and set decoration. The lower-level model was adapted from architectural models, but it required heavy modification and cleanup to be usable for animation. Its surfacing and textures needed to be recreated, and most of the geometry needed to be rebuilt as well. Character models were acquired stock assets, but these were also modified for clothing and accessories in some cases.
As I worked on the Project, I had the opportunity to help develop ideas for the signage and displays in the museum lobby. Once I built the museum lobby set, it was possible to iterate many different ideas and versions for the museum to consider. It was a new and enjoyable experience for me, working with the museum staff to develop and create these concepts. The process yielded a lot of fun and useful explorations that we might not have considered on our own. Being able to realize them in 3D brought them to life for my clients and made them much more accessible.
