Abstract

Christopher Mcquillan
»The Story«

A rich projection based animation from the current works by the animator and vfx artist Chris McQuillan, who lives in Newcastle Upon Tyne, the works will be shown from 21-23rd February 2025 at the Story museum Durham.

The Story is a 6 minute projection mapped animation and experience bringing a beautiful concrete wall and the museum vaults to life to tell a story of sorts of the cultural and historical nuances of the region.

Produced over 3 months, the projection animation is cast onto a beautiful laser etched concrete facade which has carved into it scenes from the past, present and future, . This forms the backdrop to showcase a vivid, flowing animation which shares the history, culture and regional challenges of the past. This projection forms part of a continuation of works for the Story museum, exploring the many rich stories from DLI vaults.

Chris McQuillans works from past years, include work for national geographic and other historical works. This piece of work forms one of three projection animations. This is the largest-scale projection mapped animation to have been commissioned and it spans 20metres x 15metres and is his largest scale output created, this work brings together elements of north east heritage and culture.

The purpose of the piece was to visually showcase the rich artefacts and significant history of the region whilst maintaining a flowing narrative. The content comprises 2d, 3d, mixed media, simulation, experimental and key visuals effects processes.

In most of the sections within they are developed organically to allow a natural flow and transition into the following section. Traditionally storyboards would be produced to guide the creation, but it was originally developed via a written treatment as a means to visualise the story, whilst this was at odds to a traditional approach and offered some risk to the eventual outcome this was quite a logical approach to achieving an organic outcome, without being rigidly fixed in a singular creative approach, this gave freedom to express, while exploring colour, light and texture across the piece.

In the piece on show, McQuillan is interested in the explorative and iterative process of design, refinement and storytelling via animation and projection. Collectively they are immersive tools that go hand in hand to tell and share visually rich and engaging stories for all audiences.