I had the pleasure of working with Josh and his Planet Nutshell team on the virtual tour for Boston Children’s Museum. They are a group of incredibly talented individuals who worked together to produce a product beyond our greatest expectations. In addition to their creative and technical skills, they are adept at working with groups of people (many cooks in the kitchen with many different ideas). They not only created our Virtual Tour, but developed icon maps of each floor, created two animated characters from scratch, coordinated the voiceovers, made a scavenger hunt for the tour, and synced everything flawlessly. We could not be happier with the result.

Karin Hansen – Creative Director, Boston Children’s Museum

We’re proud to announce the launch of a new virtual tour for our friends at Boston Children’s Museum. The thrill and delight (and many challenges!) of this project came from combining so many things: 360-degree panoramic photography, accessibility standards, software development, user experience/interface design, storytelling, and of course, animation.

A Focus on Fun and Storytelling

As part of our research, we looked at a ton of other museum tours. It quickly became clear that we wanted to do something different and special. It wasn’t enough to simply re-create the museum space. We wanted to make BCM’s tour an experience, something with a story that invites the user to explore, learn, and play. Most of all, we wanted to make something fun.

A Delightful Treasure Hunt

That’s where Penny and Pickles come in. They’re friends with very different personalities who introduce visitors to the tour and invite them to embark on a hunt for lost items in the museum.

Along the way, visitors learn about select exhibits from them via short animated videos embedded in the tour. These videos also provide hints about the treasures they can uncover.

Simple UI and an Interactive Custom Map

A key design principle was keeping the user experience simple and easy to use. While we wanted to promote exploration, we also wanted to make it easy for visitors to fast travel throughout the museum in just a few clicks. So, we built a custom map of the entire building that makes it easy to see where you are and where you can go.

The tour is now live, so go dive into the experience and tell us what you think!

I want to thank the team at Boston Children’s Museum who supported us throughout this very intensive creative and technical process, as well as the complex task of making the tour accessible for visitors with disabilities. We couldn’t have done it without their input and guidance. We hope it brings joy to all who join Penny and Pickles on a grand adventure.

It’s finally here! After more than two years, eight film festivals, incredible audience response, and a feature by the United Nations, our labor of love is available for public viewing.

As part of the public release, we’re announcing an enhanced edition that includes improved character animation, all new frame-by-frame animated character lighting, and various improvements that only obsessive types like us will notice.

What is Azúcar?

Azúcar is an animated short film about a boy and his mother. 

Ana and Marcelo have traveled 1500 miles from Honduras to the U.S. border. Tonight is the night they will attempt to cross the Rio Grande.

During the crossing we will learn why they have come so far, and endured so much, to get here. We will also see them face their greatest challenge of the journey.

Ana and Marcelo arrive at the riverbank carrying little more than hope, resilience, and a few packets of sugar—azúcar—to keep them going. But will their hope and resilience survive the night? 

Planet Nutshell hurtled through space and time for yet another year, and boy was it interesting! 2023 was a year of change for us; we emerged from the pandemic wondering what the world would bring, and several long-term projects made landfall on our shores, projects that we unfortunately can’t share until 2024. That said, a few projects did reach the finish line in 2023, and we’ve chosen a few favorites to share.

We Finished Azúcar!

It’s FINALLY done. And the best part? People really liked it, a lot of people, in fact. The film was selected by eight film festivals around the world and was profiled by the United Nations. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s streaming for the ludicrously low price of $1.99, which is all the more amazing because it is probably the best seven minutes you’ll spend all year.

Rockland Trust Bank

This one is near and dear to our hearts. We loved working with the forward thinking marketing and education team at Rockland Trust Bank to help them educate future customers about making wise financial decisions — as well as the virtues of break dancing at a school supply fair. Want to learn more? Head on over to Rockland Trust Bank’s classroom, where Ms. Money will be happy to help you out.

Say No to Plastic Oceans

I chose this one simply because I adore the animation the team did on this one. I mean, look at those 3D renderings of plastic trash! The real star of the show is the harbor seal. These sequences were commissioned for inclusion in a recent music video by Berkeley, CA-based singer/songwriter Don Arbor.

The Unexplored

Like many of our 2023 projects, this one isn’t quite finished yet, but it’s close, and we’re super excited about it. The Unexplored is a new and original web series designed to help folks (re)discover the humanities. We can’t wait to show you more of this and other projects we’re working on in 2024.