Dino Eggs Visualization

“Life, uh, finds a way.” — Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

For a recent project, we were tasked with designing a visual effect where a museum guest can see dinosaur eggs inside of a crate in the back of a jeep. The eggs are meant to wiggle, then crack open. During our experimentation phase, we tried various techniques like holograms, projection mapping on physical eggs and using small 4K monitors.

Combining digital with physical experiences poses a particular challenge to multimedia artists. We see flat images on the screen and add dimension through a process of “willing suspension of disbelief”. When we add physical objects in the scene, our minds try to resolve the differences. It take a careful hand and sense of design to come up with a solution that solves the problem.

Placing two 4K monitors at a right angle, and using an apple crate to hide the intersection, we give the illusion of depth, while allowing the flexibility of animating dinosaur eggs moving and hatching.

The 3d elements were modeled using Houdini from SideFx. Houdini is a powerful animation and simulation system, designed for this type of task. We split the output from the PC onto the 2 displays then carefully shot it on an iPhone to showcase how it would look to a viewer peering inside the crate, to view the eggs.

Author: Chris Tedin