Mindi Lipschultz

MINDI PRODUCES 3 INTERACTIVE GROUP-PLAY GAMES for DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER'S NEW "ECO-CHALLENGE" EXHIBIT !

2011-10-26T00:06:00.000-07:00

The New "Eco-Challenge" exhibit opened last month at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, CA. Mindi produced & directed three custom immersive interactive games that educate children about how to make environmentally-friendly choices while food shopping and recycling. She was contracted by Cinnabar, California and collaborated with the Discovery Science Center to bring their concept to reality. Mindi and her team created 6 life size 3D animated fun and quirky characters called the "Eco Crew" that are stationed at each department and give children clues to win the Eco-Shopper game:

The Museum really publicized the new Exhibit!

When visitors first enter the "Discovery Market" they are greeted by Sandra, who tells them to "grab a cart" and gives a fun introduction about how the game works.
Click here to see her video (but be sure to hit "back" and come back to this page!)

Each of the animated clerks also appear on the "Eco-Shopper Game" that is played on the Shopping Cart Monitor.

Courtney, the hippie-dippie produce clerk, explains how 50% of our landfills are filled with rotten food! Meanwhile, players are shopping and learning lots of fun information about how produce is packaged and shipped to the store. Care was taken in the creation of each character's animated environment to exactly match the actual fabricated sets created by Cinnabar.

Oh, here is Courtney grabbing a quick mediation while she is waiting for someone to push the "help" button!
Click here to see Courtney's video!

And this is Roxy, the Bakery Clerk. Click here for her video.

Susie, the Meat & Seafood Clerk, is very passionate about getting out her message to avoid wasteful packaging. Definitely check out this video by clicking here !

Players choose a shopping list on the screen and and are directed to shop around the store by going to each department to answer questions. They use the scanner attached to each cart to scan the barcode of the product they choose as the correct answer.

When they scan the item they choose as the correct answer, it is "virtually" added to their cart.

One of the other games is "Race to Recycle", where players race against the clock to quickly sort trash coming out of the back of a full sized garbage truck into one of four categories.

photo courtesy Discovery Science Center

Zac is the Eco-Crew member that introduces the Race to Recycle Game. He is the Waste Hauler.

Mindi created lots of short 3D animated video clips that are called up to play on the trash bin screens via Show Control, based on the players performance.

And another regular kid was transformed into a "Green Superhero"!

Thanks for checking out the Eco Challenge Exhibit's media production !

MINDI is MEDIA PRODUCER for IDEA MONKEY, INC's 4-SCREEN "EXPRESSION" SHOW for the ARTSCIENCE MUSEUM at the MARINA BAY SANDS, SINGAPORE !

2011-07-31T14:07:00.000-07:00

The Architectural wonder known as the “Welcoming Hand of Singapore” is the ArtScience Museum, the first museum to explore the connection between the Arts and the Sciences:

photo: Pappu | Photography

The Museum is part of the Colossal Megastructure below, the recently opened Marina Bay Sands Resort (which was featured on National Geographic’s “Megastructures” TV show), that has now transformed the skyline of Singapore. The $6 billion resort houses the largest Casino in the world, and is made of three 55 story hotel towers and a cantilevered roof deck that connects all 3 buildings:

photo: noexpectations.com.au

The rooftop "Skypark" has the longest infinity pool in the world (that would outstretch the Eiffel Tower if it was laid down!):

photo: blog.bonvivant.co.uk

Here is the first day of pre-install where we're aligning the four projector streams with the screens and figuring out frame rates, compression schemes, etc… to optimize the viewing experience. Shown below with client Mark Hayward of Idea Monkey, Inc., the Museum's producer.

Voila! The film is complete. It was created utilizing hundreds of layers of After Effects animation incorporating thousands of archival images & video, and is displayed on 4 High Definition screens. All 4 screens rotate in sync so the film had to be rendered at almost 8k resolution (all 4 screens simultaneously) to give a truly 3D feel to the experience in the gallery:

The film profiles famous Artists and Inventors throughout history who have incorporated Science into their work, and Scientists whose inventions are a Work of Art!

THEMED ENTERTAINMENT ASSOCIATION - THEA AWARDS !!

2011-07-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

The THEA Awards are given annually for excellence in the area of "Themed Entertainment" consisting of Theme Park Attractions, World's Fairs and Museums. The formal "Red Carpet" Awards Banquet was held at Universal Studios.

The interactive device that Mindi produced/directed the media for, as part of the team from BRC Imagination Arts, won an esteemed THEA Award for "excellence in the Integration of Technology and Storytelling" for the Shanghai World's Expo Information & Communications Pavilion.

Everyone present saw the video showing the highlights of the ICT interactive mobile device created for the Shanghai Expo.

Mindi is a winner!!

And, in case you can't read the fine print:

JUST ANNOUNCED - Shanghai Expo ICP Pavilion Receives Esteemed THEA Award for Groundbreaking Interactive Mobile Device ~ Media content Produced/Directed by Mindi !

2010-11-21T20:13:00.000-08:00

The Themed Entertainment Association announced the recipients of the 2010 THEA Awards at last week’s IAAPA convention (International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions) in Orlando, and... the first-of-it’s-kind custom interactive mobile device, for which Mindi produced & directed over 40 interactive and animated segments and games, received the THEA Award for the best “Integration of Technology and Storytelling”! Mindi was part of the team from BRC Imagination Arts, who built and produced the entire pavilion. Mindi's Media producing/directing efforts have helped contribute to at least 6 other awards for the Information and Communications Pavilion including two gold 2010 Event Design Awards: Best Interactive Element and Best Use of Media/AV. The Pavilion also won three Honorable Mentions in Exhibitor Magazine's awards for the Shanghai 2010 World Expo: Best Use of Technology, Best Presentation and People's Choice. The pavilion, sponsored by China Mobile and China Telecom, hosted over 3 million visitor in only 6 months, and was one of the most popular pavilions at the Shanghai World’s Expo.

The ICT Mobile Device speaks 4 languages! (so all 40+ media pieces had to be created in 4 languages each... OY!)

The THEA Awards recognize and honor excellence in the creation of extraordinary visitor experiences, attractions, exhibits and places. Other THEA’s were awarded to: Universal Resorts for “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” Ride at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, and to Disney California Adventure for “The Wonderful World of Color”, among others (not bad company to keep!!). There were 15 total THEA’s awarded.

Click here for the full article.

Every visitor gets a custom ICT Mobile device which provides additional media content that plays in sync with 2 large-format theatrical films.

Check the other postings below for more cool info and images on Shanghai Expo 2010 and Mindi's other media producing and directing projects.

Shanghai Expo 2010 ~ Mindi is getting tons of Press!

2010-09-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

Wow... Our pavilion, the Information and Communications Pavilion, is turning out to be one of the most popular ones at the Expo. It showcases the future of communication technology and I produced and directed over 80 media segments that are shown on high definition monitors throughout the pavilion and also on 8,000 custom built handheld devices. I was part of the team from BRC Imagination Arts. You can check out the article in IN PARK Magazine by clicking HERE:

Or, link directly to the article that showcases my work on the pavilion by clicking here.

But be sure to come back to this blog and scroll down to see AMAZING PHOTOS OF THE PAVILION and other cool media work!

Back From China ~ Images of the Shanghai World’s Expo !

2010-07-14T18:14:00.000-07:00

What an awesome experience! Here’s a little tease of the…count ‘em… 86 animated and interactive media pieces I produced for the Information and Communications Pavilion at the Shanghai World’s Expo 2010 (presented by China Mobile and China Telecom). This enormous World’s Fair will be running until the end of October and is expecting 70 million visitors! I was hired by BRC Imagination Arts, one of the leading World’s Fair attraction design companies, to create all of this media, starting with 18 high definition pieces for the exterior Welcome Garden where visitors cue up to go inside. Here is the exterior of our pavilion showing a few media samples, day and night:

Why oh why does this blog make the video so compressed???

In the Welcome Lobby visitors are given a custom made touch screen handheld device that they can use on their journey through the pavilion to collect imagery and information that will be saved for them on their own web page that this system automatically builds for them. I produced all of the media on the handheld device and on the orientation videos.

In the preshow theater, a wall mural comes alive to guide visitors through the history of telecommunications. I produced the clips on the Handheld device that sync with this show. These are actual historical photographs that were also used as visual reference to create the larger film. The pavilion’s sponsors are the 2 largest telephone companies in the country; China Mobile and China Telecom.

The main theater has a huge screen and 33 more that form a barrel ceiling overhead. Here the handheld device is used to help the characters realize their dreams by utilizing futuristic communications technology.

(background photo courtesy Brian Smith)

For the Post Show I produced/directed six 8-minute HD videos showcasing future technology that entailed more than 260 layers of composited 2D and 3D animation combined with live action footage. Here visitors can use their handheld devices to play an RFID triggered dream lantern collecting game. When visitors swipe their device in front of the backlit panels under the monitors, a 3D magic spinning lantern that represents one of the future technology concepts is triggered to fall into the game board.

AS OF AUGUST 28, 2010 A NEW FANTASTIC VIDEO SHOWCASING OUR PAVILION WAS PUT ON YouTube BY BRC IMAGINATION ARTS, CLICK HERE TO SEE IT, BUT PLEASE COME BACK TO MY BLOG! I produced & directed all of the media shown in this video either on monitors or on the handheld devices.

Click here to go to BRC Imagination Arts website, the creator, designer and executive producer of the pavilion.

Mindi Featured in May Issue of In Park Magazine!

2009-06-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

The California Academy of Sciences is the Cover Story of the latest In Park Magazine. Click here to link to it and download the full article (the 4th pdf down called "Green Acres"). I'm on page 3, and here is an excerpt from the story above.

Hot Off the Press! Behind the scenes Science museum video.

2009-01-05T20:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a little sneak peak of the "Making of the Media - California Academy of Sciences" video I just completed. This is the intro for the piece, if you would like to see a "back of house" walking tour of how the innovative interactive games, kiosks and mini-documentaries for CAS were created, contact me to see the full piece. Scroll down to see other media excerpts I designed and produced for Theme Parks and Museums.

A little glimpse of media pieces produced by Mindi Lipschultz (scroll down to see more)

2008-10-12T11:48:00.001-07:00

Mindi Lipschultz Creates Innovative Media for California Academy of Sciences

2008-10-08T21:54:00.000-07:00

Wow! I just completed 2 years of media design and production on the new California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. It was a fantastic project and I created 31 media pieces including interactive games and kiosks, mini-documentary films utilizing archival footage and stills which were brought to life with some fancy After Effects tricks, edge blended projections to bring static murals alive, soundscapes and more. You can read the full story on the Blooloop Themed Attractions site. I'm posting some samples here for all to see and you can click here to go see more images and video samples. When you get there, click on the first image of my logo on black, then use the "View Album" feature in the upper right to get a slideshow. Don't forget to hit the back button to return to this blog!

One of the most popular attractions at the California Academy of Sciences is my Insect Collecting Game. Players use a hand tool that they swing in mid-air that corresponds to one of 4 scientific collecting tools on thescreen. In this game, players are virtual field scientists on an expedition in Madagascar. Watch the movie to see how it works!

At the conclusion of each round, actual Academy collection drawers animate out to reveal the insects each player collected. The software calculates each catch and places it in the drawer.

In this excerpt from the documentary about the history of the Academy's expeditions to the Galapagos, I wanted to bring to life the archival photos that the scientists took 100 years ago, so we separated them into layers and animated them using a "multiplane 3D" technique and also added special effects to give the visitor the feeling that they are traveling through the actual 1905 landscapes.

There are so many more samples of the exhibit media to show here, but please go to the photobucket to see them, click here. I'll just show a few more ...

Portal to Undersea Galapagos Underwater Adventure, and...

...one of the 4 interactive Kiosks for Africa Hall. Each kiosk has 2 Virtual Safari Adventures that get visitors involved in the stories depicted in the adjacent dioramas.

Mindi Creates First Ever High Resolution Spherical Film for Paul Allen's Science Fiction Museum in Seattle.

2008-10-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

This "centerpiece exhibit" film was an 80 year retrospective of Science Fiction Films and literature. It utilized 5 projectors and the 2K film was divided up into 5 edge blended streams. I edited 14 picture tracks in sync and created original CGI mortise windows that displayed the simultaneous scenes. If you would like to download a better quality version click here. It will take you to the NOAA site and this is the 5th one down. NOAA provided the hardware system that this movie played on, Science on a Sphere... but even the Rocket Scientists had never seen it put to this use!

This is a frame of the film before it was "wrapped" around the globe.

and here it is after:

Here we are on Opening Day under the Space Needle. This is the Science Fiction Museum:

And since Steven Spielberg is on the board of the Museum, he was there for the Opening Day Ceremonies. I call this photo "Half Mindi and Steven with Son":

Click here to see The Globe, as it appeared on the front page of the Seattle Newspaper.

I became known as the "Globe Girl". I soon got a call from Big Buddha Baba Productions to produce another globe film. This one 3 times bigger than the Sci-Fi globe, for the post show of the new Spaceship Earth attraction at Disney's Epcot Center in Orlando.

Las Vegas Museum and Themed Experience

2008-10-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

I designed 57 media pieces for the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. There was a lot of history here and great archival images to work with. I utilized some innovative animation techniques to bring the archival imagery alive and tell the history in a captivating way. This clip is about the arrival of the Railroad to Las Vegas and the auctioning off of the first land plots. There was a pre-existing visual device of a "Historical Notebook" that had to be integrated into the media, so here we go:

and the Hoover Dam story, among others, was told by a little water drop named Dewey:

In the museum, there were many interactives like this one where the visitor places a fossil they dig up from a sandbox on a scanner to identify the creature that it originated from.

I also designed media screens for this interactive where the visitor slides a mechanism to see the microscopic organisms inside the soil,

and this one where visitors learn what geological forces were at work to create the Las Vegas terrain.

Mindi's Television Producing work

2008-10-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

I spent over 20 years producing animation and documentaries for most of the major networks including a 6 year stint at PBS in New York. Here in Los Angeles in the 90's, I co-owned one of the first digital TV animation companies. Here are some sample animated pieces I produced for various TV series and Music Videos (yuck, this blog really compresses the video):

I produced dozens of Main Title sequences for most of the major TV networks:

and I produced and co-directed this Janet Jackson Music Video in the heyday of MTV, which was featured in the "Top 30 Videos of the Year" on the VH1 countdown!

And there was a lot of great coverage in the Media. I appeared on 3 TV shows, including this one where I was interviewed regarding the innovative digital production pipeline I designed for the first Hi-Def animated series ever aired which was a combination of 2D and 3D animation techniques. The series was FREE FOR ALL on Showtime. Click here to read a little about my work on the show.

Back in New York I was a documentary editor for PBS, cutting such shows as:

and I received several Emmys and won many other awards, here's just a few:

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR CHECKING OUT MY BLOG!