Harry Potter - Studio Tour Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan
Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo opened in 2023 and is the second facility of its kind in the world, after London. It offers a brand new type of experiential entertainment in Japan, one of the biggest markets for the brand. The indoor attraction takes visitors on a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour of the Wizarding World series, offering the opportunity to explore the iconic movie sets designed and built by the creators of the Harry Potter film series.
We worked closely alongside Warner Brothers, Lumsden Design and Cod Steaks for over 2 years to deliver some of the worlds most engaging retail entertainment.
We developed original animation content that retained the series original style and aesthetics to build upon the franchise in an immersive environment. We created multiple special effects for the store utilising; projection mapping, show control, lighting, content editing, installation, maintenance and engineered mechanical prop elements. These special effects included; a large projected prop and skyscape for a Cosplay Dome retail area, Liquid oil effects for a Butterbeer POS area, Projection mapped wands area for an Olivanders wands retail shop area, Magic Wand interactive table that triggers external special effects, Lighting effects for a large Hogwarts diorama, Digital menu boards with updating content system and much more!
The realisation of this project is a sight to behold. One of the biggest projects we have ever worked on with incredible designs and an amazing crew. The installation was a massive success and the shop received praise from around the world.
The team worked closely alongside Cod Steaks to produce projection effects to compliment their incredible scenic prop design on a projected Octagonal pavilion canopy folly dome retail area. Each face of the dome represents a film in the franchise featuring physical scenic props complemented by digital prop effects based on original sketches by Mina Lima. The dome features 8 projectors that we coordinated using show control and projection mapping software with real-time event triggers. These projectors illuminate an animated skyscape mural that recreates scenes from the films with special events to captivate the visitors and create a magical 360 degree surrounding environment.
We were tasked with creating interactive special effects to compliment the Olivanders Wand shop area. We achieved this feat using our in-house custom built wand table special effect with interactive touch wands that would trigger special effects and video clips on the dome table surface with special wand animations that would communicate with a projected window and wall effect using show control. The spells from the table triggered by the visitors cast spells in the windows across the wall, retail area and even trigger magic moving drawers for added magic effects. An incredible interactive environment that has never been attempted. The wand table features wands from major charactors in the film franchise that would trigger corresponding effects from the movies. The window effect created the illusion of looking out of the shop into Diagon Alley. This featured realtime weather effects and magical animations that would spread out of the windows across the retail area.
The wand table is a replica of the one that we created for the Harry Potter Broadway store, New York. It features custom animations and effects. It was modified with extra content for the Japan Store.
The team created and installed an original Butter beer special effect after plenty of prototyping to create the perfect look to mimic the beer from the films flowing through scenic pipe props and adding a layer of realism to the magic of the bar area.
To compliment the large dining area the team developed a floating candle lighting effect. This effect was designed and prototyped to create the perfect visual to match moments from the film franchise. The lighting added an extra layer of magic to the restaurant area and looks even better in person. We also developed a custom menu-board digital signage system with animated graphics that can be updated.
Our experience in immersive restaurants helped us add some extra effects to the Umbridge Cafe by incorporating digital signage animations into set-works.
We contributed to the Hogwarts model diorama by adding some lighting effects that were programmed to change dynamically.