Every year thousands of people attend Royal Mint’s facility tour from tourists to schools, to learn all about how a coin is pressed and the rich history behind the mint itself. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the doors to the Mint and the tours have remained closed, so the brief was to create an innovative and engaging way to deliver a virtual tour of their facilities to the general public. It needed to be enjoyed at home, without additional equipment, and still deliver the educational value that visitors experience onsite.

The tours launch was also to coincide with the launch of a new Coin in partnership with the MR MEN & LITTLE MISS licensors (Sanrio) celebrating 50 years of the beloved characters.

Solution

The solution was an immersive stereoscopic (3D) 360 virtual video tour of the main facility that appeals to all ages and that could be viewed using multiple platforms. The tour would be guided by one of the Little Miss characters - Little Miss Inventor- and available to view on a mobile device, Desktop browser and virtual reality headsets.

Although the character was not created for the tour, the character had never before been voiced or animated. Working alongside both The Royal Mint and Sanrio, we helped bring the character to life, casting and recording the Voiceover artist, animating the character movements and personality, and working closely with Sanrio and Royal Mint teams on the script and pacing of the experience.

The character was created as a 2D animation and composited into a 360-environment stereo video by our Immersive team. Using stereoscopic as opposed to monoscopic 360 video allows us to create real depth in the scenes and bring life to the 2D character animation.

Results

The end delivery is an 8k Stereoscopic 360 video with spatialised sound integrating animation, motion graphics, 360 video and illustrations – all in a 10 minute tour that is available on a multi-platform and appeals to a broad demographic. Capturing the magic of the MR MEN & LITTLE MISS franchise in a way that appeals to generations of fans.

Our workflow included - After effects, Adobe Animate, Adobe Premier Pro, Adobe Illustrator, Insta360 stitcher. The video was shot on an Insta 360 pro 2, Audio mixed in Reaper and Facebook 360 spatial tools.

Our Immersive team has worked on a number of high-profile projects from empathy training with ITV, to developing the Instructor training for BSM/ AA, and this project was a new challenge and one the team thoroughly enjoyed. We pride ourselves on being people engagement focussed and always strive to create new and innovative projects that deliver something special.