AVALON BLUES
Educational Interactive Installation For Mississippi John Hurt Museum
Experience Designer, Interaction Designer, 3D Animation Artist
OVERVIEW
The Mississippi John Hurt Museum was established to commemorate the late blues musician Mississippi S. John Hurt (1893-1966), which was founded by his granddaughter Mary Frances Hurt on the site of his former home.
Our client hopes that we could tell his story through an interactive installation, engaging more young people to learn about him and blues music.
Client
Mississippi John Hurt Foundation
My Role
Experience Designer
Interaction Designer
3D Animation Artist
Tool
Raspberry Pi
Blender
Photoshop
Illustrator
Location
Avalon, MS, USA
Team
5 People
Time
Nov 2023 - Dec 2023
Full Documentation Film
Takeaways
Do playtest as early as possible, even with the roughest greybox prototype. It really inspires the design, everytime, also prove your design to clients and build the trust.
Scope small first and keep improving it later. Time is less than anticipated. Don’t chace for huge fancy ideas in the begining.
RESEARCH
Conducting local research and attending a blues festival deepened our emotional understanding of the project's context, while multiple interviews and discussions with the client provided us with a clear vision of the project's goals.
Design Challenge:
Clearly present the life story of Mississippi John Hurt.
Engage young generation through innovative interactive installation.
In Narrative, cover his main musical works and the racial discrimination of that era.
NARRATIVE
Timeline
Although there is a lot of information about John Hurt available online, much of it turned out to be inaccurate after verification with his family. After several rounds of fact-checking, I believe I have compiled an accurate timeline of MJH's life.
Storyboard
Cooperated with Narrative Designer, I created the storyboard for our narrative’s visual.
PLAYTEST & ITERATION
3D ANIMATION: LOOKDEV & PRODUCTION
For our narrative purpose, I created some necessary 3D animation using Blender, responsible for art production, shader creating, scene setting, camera setting, still assets modeling.
LookDev: An Art Style that fits historical footage.
This is not just about creating visually appealing animations, but about how to make the visual consistent with historical footage, yet distinct and unique. I made the visual feel like 1940s newspaper illustrations.
Inspiration
Analysis
Hatching shadows
Simple object outlines
Yellowed paper
FactCheck:
Art Iteration:
Final Outcome:
Outcome Details
