Magical Reflections
A virtual gallery for the Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Visitors step inside a Johann Erdmann Hummel painting on phone, desktop, or VR headset.
magische-spiegelungen.de
Built by Webxela, the engineering team behind Yatri Cloud.
Client
Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Industry
Museum & cultural heritage
Location
Berlin, Germany
Year
2021
Engagement
Immersive web experience, supported by Meta
Timeline
Concept to public launch
Live capture
Challenge
Hummel's reflection paintings reward slow looking, and most people will never stand in front of them in Berlin. The museum wanted the painting to open up as a space you can walk through, without an app install, on any device a visitor already owns.
Approach
We staged the experience in the browser. A cinematic entry through the gallery hall leads to the painting, then the scene opens into a navigable space. GSAP drives the scroll and camera choreography, and WebXR takes over when a headset is present. The same build serves mobile, desktop, and VR, with English and German copy.
AudienceMuseum visitors, art students, and remote audiences with a phone or VR headset
What we shipped
Cinematic gallery entry
Walkable 3D painting scene
WebXR headset mode
Scroll & camera choreography
English / German content
Ambient audio controls
How we ran it
- 01
Study
Work with curators on what the painting hides and what a visitor should find.
- 02
Stage
Block the camera path from the gallery hall into the canvas.
- 03
Build
Ship one WebGL build for phone, desktop, and WebXR headsets.
- 04
Launch
Tune load time and frame rate on mid-range phones before going public.
Outcome
Anyone with the link can walk into the painting without installing an app.