The Bowl-shaped Screen Movie of “Cambrian Explosion”

Developed by Motion Magic, “Cambrian Explosion”, a presentation of Cambrian life through bowl-shaped screen, is a movie staged on the ground floor of Shanghai Natural History Museum and the core of the exhibitions. The imaging surface is a bowl-shaped double-curve screen, projected by 10 2K projectors in a 360° fashion.



The “Cambrian Explosion” depicts the life scenery in marine environment from a diver’s point of view and shows 37 kinds of typical biological organisms of 13 main categories. The immersive environment creates an atmosphere like that of the Cambrian sea.



To reproduce lifelike ancient marine creatures, designers of Motion Magic followed the guidance of experts in paleontology and geology. They did a lot of digital restoration in light of the fossils of the Cambrian Period and analyzed their way of moving on the basis of the body structure. The shaking light effect proved a challenge to them in the production of the movie, so they made special efforts to design a real-time lighting system to simulate the lighting effect and acquired satisfactory result.