The National Museum of Scotland commissioned Tigershark to produce a new video for the European Styles gallery which was to be launched in time for the grand opening of the museum following its £47m refit.
The European Styles gallery traces design style and fashion from Gothic grandeur to the Historical Revivalism of the Victorian era, showing the influence of leading artists, new manufacturing processes and increased exchange with far flung countries.
The video had to provide information about the work of leading artists such as the 16th century master maiolica painter Nicola da Urbino, the British pottery entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) and ceramicist William de Morgan (1839-1917) and show how they developed new styles and ways of working that spread across Europe and beyond.
The video was to be created for display on a large public screen as part of the museum's large scale digital installations.
The Tigershark Productions Motion Graphics department took on the bulk of the work on this project, with the "grand vision" being to create a central spine of 3D space to hold the video together.
Thereafter, the team wove in a simplified visual timeline to give each section context with items to illustrate each period overlapping and interlinking on screen.
A key part of the production process was to take features from objects in the gallery and bring them to life on screen.
For example, animating the light spilling into a Gothic cathedral, showing the soaring open spaces; A Leonardo da Vinci sketch brought to life in front of the viewers’ eyes; A Napoleonic building built column by column as the viewer approaches.
The final production very much brings the history of European style to life before the viewer's eyes.