Creative Brief

The British Museum’s Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road exhibition offers an immersive journey through the landscapes of Edo-period Japan. The curatorial team sought a subtle, poetic form of motion design to introduce and conclude the show. Something that could animate Hiroshige’s world without overwhelming its quietude. The brief called for interpretive animations that would both set the tone and evoke the enduring legacy of his printmaking style.

Our Approach

Little Shadow was commissioned to produce two key pieces for the gallery space. At the exhibition entrance, we created a layered parallax animation that brings Hiroshige’s landscapes into motion. Working with high-resolution scans of selected woodblock prints, we carefully separated foreground, midground, and background elements to construct multi-plane compositions.

The motion is intentionally subtle. Tree branches drifting, travellers passing through the frame, mist rising across distant hills – allowing visitors to feel that they are stepping into a living version of Hiroshige’s world. We combined 2.5D compositing with subtle particle FX and stylised camera movement in After Effects, preserving the delicacy of woodblock textures at 4K resolution.

A second animation, placed at the exhibition’s end, draws visual parallels between Hiroshige’s prints and their influence on later generations of artists. Here, a shifting collage of imagery-waves, roads, weather-pays homage to his lasting imprint. The piece was designed for silent playback, functioning as a contemplative epilogue to the visitor experience.

The Results

The animations have been praised for their sensitivity and craft, helping to contextualise the prints without detracting from them. They played seamlessly on a loop within the gallery throughout the exhibition run, enhancing the narrative arc from Edo-era Japan to global artistic legacy.

Get taken on a journey around the exhibition with Curator Alfred Haft and Co-Curator Emily Williams →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4tBP7lDnMQ 

A quote from The Times: “The British Museum’s exhibition … offers a captivating exploration of 19th‑century Japan … Visitors are treated to Hiroshige’s technical brilliance and expressive detail, from depictions of sudden weather changes to subtly humorous observations of ordinary life.”.

View the official exhibition page → https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/hiroshige-artist-open-road