Kelly La Belle

Our Microsoft client wanted to create an interactive, to-scale presentation to demonstrate their conceptual product at the Microsoft Ignite Conference. The product, Soundscape, is a wearable device that works as a personal assistant using data relating to the user's current location. For example, this device can act as a tour guide, give directions, measure air quality, issue safety alerts, and even identify plants and measure their health. This keynote presentation generated a considerable amount of interest so the client wanted to impress the crowd with a unique experience.
 
The presentation was displayed on a 20 foot tall screen with the stage flush to the bottom of the projection area. I designed this presentation to give the illusion that the speaker was walking within the scene as they spoke. All of the animated people and buildings in the scene were measured to-scale based on where the presenter would be standing and walking during the presentation.
 
The client decided to use cotton candy gradients instead of the Microsoft Brand colors in order to give a twilight effect to the scene to match the time slot the presentation would be premiering.
 
I did some research on the topography of Kyoto, Japan in order to keep the scene relatively accurate to the actual city. The client really wanted a geometric look to the graphics but could not decide between a flat aesthetic or a 3D aesthetic, so I recommended using a little of both to give the presentation a bit of a "Paper Mario" effect. I used a faux parallax effect on the motion between scenes to give the impression of depth, but kept the objects themselves flat using the gradients as a loose light source reference.

The presentation was developed in Microsoft PowerPoint using its advanced features and stretching its capabilities in order to demonstrate the power of the existing Microsoft products as well as present the conceptual product. The presentation had an amazing reception and is now used for all Soundscape conceptual presentations.