THEMUSEUM & Conestoga College

Bridging the Gap Between Classroom and Industry

As a professor at Conestoga College, I was tasked with leading over 25 Capstone students in a high-stakes partnership with THEMUSEUM in Kitchener. The goal was to create “EYEPOOL | ALLURA,” an immersive and interactive digital art exhibit. The primary technical challenge was immense: students needed to design a cohesive animation that would be projection-mapped across a complex, non-standard room with five surfaces, a long, continuous video for four walls, and a separate, connected animation for the floor. My challenge was to create a workflow that would empower every student to successfully design for this complex space and deliver a professional-quality experience.

Empowering Students with a Custom Visualization Tool

Recognizing the difficulty students would face in visualizing how their individual animations would connect in the physical space, I developed a custom solution. I wrote a unique After Effects script that served as a virtual pre-visualization tool. This script provided students with two critical views:

1. A 2D “unwrapped” view, showing all five video compositions stitched together on a single timeline to ensure seamless transitions.

2. A 3D simulated view of the room, allowing them to see how their animations would look from a visitor’s perspective.
   This tool was instrumental in removing technical barriers, allowing the students to focus on their creativity within the “Garden” theme and confidently execute their vision.

From Mentorship to Museum Floor

As the Lead Professor and Technical Director, my role was to guide the project from concept to installation. This involved:

• Project Leadership: Guiding 25+ students through the entire creative process, from ideation and storyboarding to final animation, within a semester-long timeline.

• Technical Direction: Developing and deploying the custom After Effects script and providing hands-on technical support to ensure all projects met the specifications for projection mapping.

• Mentorship & Critique: Facilitating regular critique sessions, providing constructive feedback, and mentoring students to help them refine their concepts and elevate their work to a professional standard.

• Client & Partner Liaison: Coordinating with the team at THEMUSEUM to ensure our academic goals aligned with their exhibition requirements.

A Celebrated Showcase of Student Talent and Innovation

The “EYEPOOL | ALLURA” exhibit was a celebrated success, launching at the Conestoga Creative Industries Showcase to acclaim from students, faculty, and industry partners. The project provided students with invaluable real-world experience, allowing them to see their work come to life in a public museum setting. As the Program Manager noted, the event showcased “creativity, storytelling, and innovation.” This collaboration stands as a powerful example of how to successfully bridge academia and industry, and it reinforces my commitment to empowering the next generation of motion designers with both creative guidance and innovative technical tools.