Burg Castle Solingen

Animation with a historical perspective

Burg Castle in Solingen is reopening its doors to visitors after an extensive restoration. Sinnema is creating an animation for a section of the exhibition that offers a historical perspective on the Middle Ages.

What did it feel like to live back then, to be largely at the mercy of social changes?

Visitors in Solingen will be able to experience this through a large-scale, wall-spanning animation.

Storyboard

This project was not based on a script in the traditional sense. Instead, Sinnema approached the work with a strong artistic intent. Based on a series of key stages developed in close collaboration with the client, a preliminary visualization was created in the form of a storyboard.

Animation

How can we convey to visitors a sense of the powerlessness people may have felt at times—during an era when the aristocracy and the Church expanded their influence and established a strongly hierarchical system? This experience lies at the heart of the animation. We used a combination of frame by frame animation with cut out, puppet, 2D rigged animation.

Mockups

As the animation is projected across two walls, and the building features historical elements such as wooden pillars along the upper edge of the ceiling, it was important to visualize in advance—using mock-ups—how large the animation would ultimately appear in relation to the visitors.

Design

For the designs, it was important to convey both the harshness and the inner tension of this period. The sense of power and dominance was intended to be communicated through the visual language. In addition, the deliberate use of oversized illustrations contributes to the desired effect, allowing visitors to experience a feeling of powerlessness.