A 10m circular floor display at the heart of the experience, the LED floor invites guests to walk directly across a digital coral reef. Our top-down camera system tracks movement to trigger lifelike fish reactions, particle effects and playful behaviours.

Guests stepping onto the screen trigger bursts of light, swirls of sand, or cause fish to dart away. Each guest is treated as a unique input — creatures respond to individual speed and direction, with interactions that ripple outward without overcrowding the space.

Different species exhibit unique behaviours. Bannerfish follow footsteps, Moray Eels emerge from coral crevices, Lanternfish pulse with bioluminescent glow when approached, and event creatures like a Whale Shark cross the entire floor unexpectedly, delighting visitors.

Environmental design was carefully composed to include negative space, vertical layering and paths for movement — ensuring a readable, dynamic scene from all angles.

These 60cm interactive projection globes are placed throughout the venue and feature touch-reactive sea life. The sphere content invites personal exploration, offering ambient animation and tactile moments of delight.

The experience begins in an idle state, with each of the three interaction zones showing a different species. When a guest touches a focal point, audio and visual feedback encourages further interaction — tap, swipe and press gestures all elicit different creature responses. Each species exhibits unique animated behaviours before returning to the ambient loop.

Importantly, each focal interaction zone is regionally tethered — fish do not orbit the full sphere, but remain linked to a hemisphere zone, ensuring spatial clarity.

Example behaviours include:

• Clownfish hiding in anemones
• Bannerfish circling a fingertip before swimming off
• Lanternfish triggering glowing plankton clouds

After each interaction completes, a gentle transition brings in the next sea creature, inviting guests to continue their exploration.

A towering 4m-tall interactive screen, the Aquarium Portal allows guests to peer into a virtual reef that responds to their movement in real time. Positioned in a rock-formed frame, the screen creates the feeling of looking through a natural reef window.

Guests walking past the screen are greeted with subtle cues — bursts of air jets, animated fish glances, or shifts in background light. If a guest stops to engage, fish mirror their movements — moving left, right, or hiding when the user crouches.

Directional motion guides guest interaction:

• Step forward → Fish retreat playfully
• Step back → Fish grow curious and swim forward
• Step left/right → Fish mirror direction
• Crouch → Fish dive or hide behind coral

The SVM is a venue-wide ambient show that plays across all LED displays and lighting systems. Though still in development, the framework is designed around a five-act underwater journey:

1. Bubbles rise as we descend below the surface.
2. Bioluminescent fish illuminate the deep, gliding through darkness.
3. Colour builds as midwater life forms appear.
4. Turtles and rays ascend through shifting currents.
5. We emerge into a shallow, colourful reef, celebrating the beauty of Yanbu’s setting.

Each act is punctuated with lighting shifts, ambient soundscapes and coordinated visuals, creating a rhythm of stillness and spectacle. The experience transitions seamlessly into and out of ambient content.

One of the most rewarding challenges was translating real Red Sea species into stylised, recognisable characters that could function within our interactive ecosystems.

We started with detailed reference studies of creatures like the Bannerfish, Moray Eel, Sailfish, Lanternfish and Giant Trevally. Our concept art explored various levels of abstraction — from photo-real to cel-shaded polygonal styles.

These illustrations were then translated into 3D models optimised for real-time environments, ensuring strong silhouettes, readable motion and consistent style across touchpoints. Species were selected not just for their look, but for how well they could express lifelike behaviours — hiding, darting, trailing, glowing, etc.

Our environments were designed to balance realism and legibility, using stylised coral forms and animated elements to support narrative and interaction.

From concept sketches, we blocked out reefs with clear layering — top, mid and base — ensuring depth and variety in every camera angle. Vertical coral stacks, arches, and coral mounds provided distinct silhouettes, while negative space allowed creatures to move freely and interactions to remain visible.

The final scenes combine soft motion (plankton drift, swaying sea fans) with interactive hotspots and ambient particle systems, giving the feeling of a living, responsive world.