100 YEARS of STORIES
CZECHO-SLOVAKIA
Immerse yourself in Czech-Slovak history in virtual reality. The project was realized in Brainz VR / Immersive studio in cooperation with the client Czech Tourism Agency.
Travel through
Time 100 years of shared
Czech - Slovak history
Time 100 years of shared
Czech - Slovak history
Hop on an unconventional time machine that will transport you through a mysterious library to a land of stories, reviving old memories. Books and sheets of paper form into shapes, creating houses, landscapes and cities. Human stories come alive again. The storytelling can begin.
VIRTUAL TIME TRAVEL
The project was realized on the anniversary of the independent Czech-Slovak statehood and the celebration of the founding of the First Republic (1918). As the art director and designer of the project I worked closely with creative director Petr Hanousek, motion designer Petr Kollarčík and programmer/developer Ondřej Pultera. TTogether with our manager Robin Pultera and colleagues from Czechtourism we went through our complicated history. Our goal was to take the audience through 100 years of Czech-Slovak history on an old winter wooden sleigh in a fun and engaging way.
KEY VISUAL
To tell the story, we chose a linear ride through history on an old wooden sleigh. Along the way, the viewer can encounter dozens of motifs from Czech / Slovak history and a diverse landscape that changes depending on the historical period. As part of the development of the virtual experience, I therefore created a concept map of the ride in the first phase. It was primarily intended to serve as a reference for the amount of information. The client liked this map, so I reworked it into a large-scale illustration at the end. The map of 100 years of Czech-Slovak history starts at the bottom. If you run your finger imaginatively over the map, you can see key stops and places that are also in the virtual experience.
VISUAL STORYTELLING
The entire visual storytelling is based on a very distinctive stylization that combines several layers and main motifs. The land of stories and often very dramatic sections of history were portrayed by building a 3D surrealistic environment that is both a paper collage and a diary with memories of old times. For this purpose, we researched archives and old collections with hundreds of materials (National Film Archive of the Czech Republic, State District Archive Kolín,...) In the VR experience itself you can see dozens of newspaper clippings, countless photographs and magically motion pictures.
INSPIRATION / STYLIZATION CONCEPT
The layered landscape of time and environmental design also changes psychologically depending on the story. The surrounding environment becomes claustrophobically smaller during the war and repression. Conversely, in times of peace and freedom, the space opens up into the calm wide spaces and graceful landscape of Czechoslovakia. We can also observe the change of period materials over time. Old scanned archive books are replaced by typewritten texts and digital prints.
ANIMATIC / CONCEPT
Animatic is an animated concept that we used to design the environment, composition and rhythm of the story. Within virtual reality, it was a 3D real-time prototype that we tested directly in a VR helmet. Based on this design, we were able to start building an entire time travel and populate the environment with dozens of stories and encyclopedic information.
"LEVEL DESIGN" (UNITY ENGINE)
In the image below you can see the environment layout and the flow of time of our story directly from the Unity engine. One of the most challenging jobs was creating this particular composition and building the world of memories in 3D space. Reading from left to right, you can see the beginning in the opening room of the library and following the blue line, a fly-through through history to the present day.
FIRST PRESIDENT'S (TGM)
3D OFFICE RECONSTRUCTION
Our journey begins in the office of the first president of Czechoslovakia - Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (TGM). It is 1918, the first republic has just been established. One of the many interesting works was the reconstruction of the office of TGM, which I realized using photo reconstruction and 3D (Cinema 4D) and design in real-time engine (Unity). In the beginning we appear just on the desk. The dwarf sized viewer is in a glass paperweight(snow sphere) with a diorama of snow covered mountains. The globe is also an imaginary "oracle sphere", where behind our backs we can see a hill with a snow-covered monument of Mount Jested (built between 1966 and 1973 on top of the mountain of the same name).
ATHMOSPHERE
The atmosphere is also an important part of the narrative. The color grading of the scene and the lighting effects corresponded to this. The colours of the environment change saturation from an old yellow paper colour, referring to the main medium of paper books. It then transitions smoothly through the red tones of the fire of war, and the dark gloomy lighting. Next earthy red flat colour of socialism and ends in the light blue colours of the present, symbolising openness and space for further development.
For the film, 70% of the resulting atmosphere is sound. In virtual reality, this is doubly true. The original and very atmospheric sound design and background music was designed and composed by Martin Holy aka Bonus.
> FINAL VR EXPERIENCE <
3D Real-time stereoscopic VR
The virtual installation premiered at the 2018 Winter Olympics in the Czech House - Kangnug, South Korea. For this purpose, we designed a stylized physical installation.
What would it have been like a hundred years ago? Through an unconventional time machine - a winter sled and virtual reality, we decided to convey such an experience. The traveller thus has the opportunity to experience an odyssey through Czech and Slovak history, a place in the heart of Europe.
In the pictures below you can see images from virtual reality. The primary form is a 3D real-time spatial experience for virtual helmets.
