There’s Nothing Comical About a 4D Immersive Dome Experience

Every July, close to 130,000 fans converge on San Diego to experience comics and popular arts in person – to get first glimpses of upcoming shows and movies, and see their favorite actors, authors and characters all together in one massive conference. The event is Comic-Con International.

An Experiential Challenge

For new shows, books and movies to succeed and gain the attention of any substantial number of attendees at Comic-Con, the experience has to stand out. In 2018 when FOX was looking for a fresh way to generate buzz and excitement around a new season of one of their hit shows, they decided to bring it to Comic-Con. The question was, what could they do to get noticed among hundreds of exhibits, presentations and events?

National Geographic’s “Cosmos” is a FOX blockbuster docuseries in which viewers travel across the universe with Neil deGrasse Tyson, who walks them through the experience with both educational and entertaining flair. The new season, “Possible Worlds,” was about to launch. For the Comic-Con activation, to get the results they wanted, they needed to turn the show into an experience.

A Collaborative Solution

Working alongside the teams at FOX and National Geographic, we activated an immersive, 4D experience inside a 33’ bluemedia dome that included:

• A custom exterior dye sub dome cover
• A custom-built interior stage replica of the “Cosmos’” ‘Ship of the Imagination’ from the show, built by our fabrication team, including truss, acrylic backlit panels, wood and laminate
• A four-minute, 4K, 4D animation that provided a taste of the upcoming season
• A custom Imax-like screen which reached all the way to the floor, unlike most screens that sit 3.5’ above the ground
• More than seven projectors, calibrated using our proprietary software to provide 4K resolution
• A secondary projected image on the ceiling that gave the illusion of looking out a window while traveling through space
• Special effects using CO2 bursts of air that blew at guests at certain points in the video

Out-of-this-World Results

In summary, the “Cosmos” dome was highly successful, with more than 8,000 visitors seeing 80 shows per day throughout Comic-Con. With proper planning, organization and project management from the first conversation all the way through setup, running the event, and strike, the project, like the show, was a hit with both the brands and the fans.