Field Research–The Natural History Museum

Following a successful visit to the British museum for my minor project I saw the positives for me to visit the Natural History Museum as I have commissioned myself to produce an animation for the Museum.

The First place I visited was the Darwin Centre, I was surprised by the small amount of butterflies the Museum had here.

What was amazing was the system they had in place for taking the information home. You take a card and scan it each time you find something interesting and then when you get home you can take the code on the card and enter it into their site and take the information you collected.

I didn't only visit the Museum to get an understanding of something I have already researched, I wanted to get inspired as well and more importantly I wanted to see what presentation techniques and styles the Museum uses so I can ensure I make an animation that would fit in the Museum.

Below is some photographs of a presentation board they had in the “Cacoon” of the museum. Visitors could answer questions and then they can be Displayed on the two large projections.

What was disappointing was where there were Butterflies, it had a lacking in explanations and labels of the particular names. Besides this there were some stunning butterflies suspend inside the glass cases. I enjoyed the aspect of being able to view them in 3d rather than just a standard top view.

Below are some photos of the Displays and Display boards inside the “Cacoon”. They are very minimalistic and you can say this allows the visitors to find the information at ease. But I must admit it does lack in style and colour. This museum is about nature and yet it feels so unbelievably man made in this section in contract the the creepy crawly area.

The image to the right states “There are 3.5 Million Butterflies in our collections”. I must say I barely saw any of them. There was a lack of colour in the museum and although you could say that it wouldn't fit in with the museum I feel it

Below are photos I took of crickets, cockroaches, stick insects and moths inside the display draws. Although not butterflies The shapes, textures and patterns are relevant for my character design.

The Creepy Crawlies was by far the best section of the museum for my research. It was for the kids but also had the information there. The was a massive display / sculpture of the butterfly lifecycle.

The information is there, and a video which is part of the display plays out footage of the lifecycle. The information is displayed is good but some parts are abit small and about out of the way for children. You can see the transition there but with an animation this will be immersive experience. I

In the Museum there were so many children's book which were stunning visually. Below is a standard book and explanation of the lifecycle he is much like how the museum signs are set out.

The book below was my favourite, I love the style and how it is tells the story in a much better with just the illustrations. The solid colours of the backgrounds bring the foreground images out making them easier to depict.