MOL Campus’ Sustainable Future
Summary
The MOL Campus visitor centre is a neomodern skyscraper build in Budapest to become the headquarters of the MOL Group, the leading Central Eastern European oil and gas corporation. The Campus was completing construction in 2022 to become their haven and future base for green energy. Set to be a visitor centre for guests and employees, the business wanted a way to make the space interactive and exciting. That’s where Solarflare Studios and I came in, delivering three entirely bespoke tech innovations - including motion-controlled, augmented reality robotic arms - to create something spectacular.
Service | Creative Direction, Tech-Innovation, Product Design, Game UX/UI & Mechanics, Concept Art, Storyboarding, Animation, Illustration, Copy & Storytelling
MOL weren’t looking for just any old simple activations; this was the grand opening of Budapest's First Skyscraper. We had to come at them with some truly forward-thinking and accessible experiences for these permanent installations that would be something the public could enjoy for years to come.
I lead on the creative and pitching of these ideas. Took them through to the final 3 concepts. Oversaw the entire design process, managing the freelance needs of 3D, TouchDesigner, robotics, augmented reality and development of these experiences. Got stuck in myself into creating the UX/UI for the activations, including bespoke children’s games, each with their own mechanics, illustrations, animations, copywriting the characters and world, and even voice acting by yours truly.
I really wanted to ensure our final result came out spectacular to match this incredible vision of the future MOL had.
The Concept(s)
Like mentioned, we wanted to give these ideas a bit more of that futuristic feel, to match their vision. We pitched spotting scopes to go at the top of their sky deck, but kitted out with Augmented Reality, so that viewers could scan the skyline and hover over hotspots within the lens that would come to life in front of their eyes. HYPERVSN fans to create 3D holograms of their green solutions and plans. These really resonated with them, but of course with a budget, we had only so much we could create.
Introducing our final cut of our concepts: Future Is Now, MOLe & Friends, and Energy Fuelled Transformation.
Future Is Now - Augmented Reality Robotics
Sitting proudly in the centre of the main display space, this interactive station allows visitors to explore the green and smart credentials of the iconic MOL Campus. Surrounding an elegant model of the building, we housed three robotic arms holding screens, that tracks guests and users their motion as the controller for the experience using Azure Kinect hand sensor tracking.
The screen showed the model in front of them in perfect Augmented Reality vision, allowing them to open up several hotspots pinpointed over the real model in front of them to discover deeper educational content of 3D animation. To captivate visitors into giving it a shot, we implemented an idle mode where RARUK Automation‘s robot arms seamlessly articulate and ‘dance’ around.
I concepted artwork to drive home this idea, and then creatively directed the final output of 3D content that needed to be created, being a close connection between artists and devs to ensure it correctly tracked to the model with impressive visuals with the cutting-edge interactivity.
MOLe & Friends - Children's Activation
With a core goal to entertain and educate children while their parent’s queue for the MOL Campus SkyDeck, I brought to life an entire world of animated, child-friendly characters, with a storyline, gamefication, and an overall mission to help younger audiences understand green energy in a simple way.
A loveable plasma ball of energy that represents the energy at a molecular level, MOL-e the molecule, is the voice of the experience. She takes guests on a fun educational journey with her pals Sunny, Poly, Geo and Bio – all voiced by me! – showing them the various ways how green energy is generated; how waste can be turned into new materials; and how MOL is moving towards a regenerative, circular economy.
The Games
The home screen I illustrated is a true representation of the beauty that is Budapest and its surroundings. From the MOL Campus and the Danube River to the city people, architecture and hills, it represents an energised animated world where the characters live and work together to bring sustainable energy to the people.
Playing as they learn, the four games, each representing a different type of energy, reward the visitor with surprising character animations and positive feedback as they power up and make energy.
MOL-e the molecule gives them words of encouragement and guidance while introducing the family of MOL energy characters.
Once all games are complete, and the scene has been energised, the children are rewarded with a tree to plant, adding to the virtual MOL forest total.
Below | Full game run-throughs, with some top tier voice acting and game design from yours truly.
Energy Fuelled Transformation - Interactive Discovery
This interactive touchscreen experience encapsulates MOL Group’s vision for the future of energy and mobility. Displayed across 2 x 3-metre ultra-wide, multi-touch LED screens, we blended curated motion graphical content that we created for the overarching brand look and feel, videos, and photography to narrate key strategic areas. Brought together through a beautiful interactive ‘helix’, the shared experience is designed for multiple users to join at any point, with multiple-choice quizzes along the way. A futuristic soundscape complements the thematic shifts in content and subtly emphasises key facts.
These permanent mind-blowing installations came together wonderfully and are currently open to the public, offering visitors a unique and interactive way to learn about the MOL Group’s vision and mission. It really was something ‘world-class’ – as said by the clients.
Had a blast with this project. It was a lot of manic timeline management to get three incredibly intricate and detailed projects all done for one launch, but the fact we pulled it together was a dream finish with how good it looked as a cohesive set of experiences. I definitely got to test my time and team management skills with this one, juggling my own designing around managing the other legends that made these masterpieces come to life.