CASE STUDYMURALS brings thewar devastation inUkraine to Cannes
Film Festival
MURALS is a powerful immersive experience
shedding light on the ongoing war in Ukraine
through a virtual showcase of the ruins of Kyiv
which feature artwork from street artist Banksy.
Disguise, along with an international team ofvolunteers brought the visuals and importantmessage to life, eliciting an emotional response atCannes Next Film Festival.

www.disguise.one

The concept
The journey of the project began when Sten-Kristian Saluveer,
strategic advisor and head of Cannes NEXT met MaciejŻemojcin at an innovation forum during Tallinn Dark Nights FilmFestival. The process of scanning was already initiated by
Artem Ivanenko in Ukraine, who had travelled extensively
capturing 3D scans of buildings destroyed by Russian Forces.
Some of these buildings featured graﬃti murals by the artist
Banksy. The team meticulously photographed and scanned
these ruins, capturing the essence and history of the war zone.
Spanish-based Tigrelab, renowned for their virtual content
expertise and led by Federico Gonzalez, transformed the scans
into a digital story with Unreal Engine 5, which was thendelivered through the Disguise EX3 media server and displayedon high-quality True Performance LED screens. L-acoustics
provided top-quality 8 channel spatial audio, bringing thesounds of war and spoken poetry that would form an
unforgettable nine-minute immersive experience.

Image credits: MURALSA global teamcollaboration"Our goal with MURALS was to convey a message, not justcreate art. This project served as a mission to draw attention to
the war in Ukraine that is being increasingly overlooked,"
explains PixelRace’s Maciej Zemojcin who was producer of theproject, together with Radoslawa Bardes from ATM Virtual.
In addition to featuring the artwork from Banksy, the teamincluded talent such as Grammy award-winning director duo
Alex Topaller and Dan Shapiro from Aggressive.tv who havelong supported Ukraine with their fundraising project Ukraine
Express as well as their Paper Planes art exhibition, whichshowcases Ukrainian artists’ work on the subject of the war.
Artist Bart Putkiewicz, a Golden Reel winner, created the sounddesign for the project.
It’s a pro-bono project produced with support of The PolishUkrainian Cooperation Fund from The Polish Film Institute ledby Radoslaw Smigulski.
“This project shows collaboration between many countries
including Ukraine, Poland, USA, Spain, UK, Estonia andFrance, explains Disguise Technical Solutions Manager Lanz
Short. Short contributed as a programmer alongside Disguise
CXO Alex Wills, who consulted on the project.

Image credits: MURALSThe process
The narrative of the MURALS experience was carefully crafted,
combining visual and auditory elements to create an emotional
journey brought to life on LED screens, accompanied by thesounds of military trucks, explosions, and voices, highlighting
the human toll of the war. Facts and stories about lives lost
further emphasised the gravity of the situation.
As such, the technical aspects of the project were carefullyplanned and executed to the highest standards. The
newly-developed Disguise EX3 server was chosen to deliver
the immersive experience, with two 4K outputs running on True
Performance 1.8 mm pitch LED panels.
The audio had been mixed using L-ISA and was delivered using
an 8.1 spatial surround system provided by L-acoustics.
The content for the project was particularly challenging due tothere being a lot of dark black gradients. The team had to
examine all parts of the pipeline to ensure colour banding
didn’t become an issue. The Disguise EX3 server was set up to
overcome this by setting it for HDR 10-bit.DPX image
sequence playback.
"The ability to perform video playback in 10-bit was key for thisproject," explains Short.

Image credits: MURALSThe impact
The impact of MURALS was overwhelming. According toZemojcin, "the response to the project was more than we
expected. I have never before seen so many people come outof the screening, touched by the experience or crying - telling
us how terrible the war in Ukraine is."

1263

800

9monthspent planningweeksof 3D scanning

renders in UnrealEnginevisitors at theMarche du Film
Festival

minutesof immersive
storytelling

Up to 800 visitors saw the experience at the Marche du Film
Festival- a huge crowd considering the exclusivity andprofessional character of the ﬁlm market.
Going forward, the ambition is to further develop MURALS as afully-ﬂedged immersive experience, raising more awarenessand encouraging global conversations about the devastatingeﬀects of war.

Image credits: MURALSPIXELRACE“This project is not justabout the art; it's about
delivering a message. It's
about reminding people
that there is a war
happening right now, andit's our responsibility to
acknowledge and addressit.”
Maciej Zemojcin
ProducerDisguise equipment used

DESIGNER

EX3

Designer is the ultimate software
to visualise, design, andsequence projects at every stage,
from concept all the way throughto showtime.

A video playback andpixel-perfect mapping solution
designed speciﬁcally forlocation-based experiences andﬁxed installations.

Find out more

Find out more

In Partnership withAggressive / Directors: Alex Topaller & Daniel Shapiro

Disguise / Operator: Lanz Short

Scanning Artist: Artem Ivanenko

Disguise / Consultant: Alex Wills

ATM Virtual / Producer: Radosława Bardes

Sound Designer: Bartez Putkiewicz

PixelRace / VP Producer: Maciej Zemojcin

Technical Consultant: Brandon Epperson

Mriya Production / VP Producer: Maksym Dudko

Copy Editor, Translator: Helgi Palko

VP Technical Production Partner: WePlay Studios

Poet: Gio Pachkoriya

Head of Virtual Production WePlay Studios: AleksiiComposer: Egor Grushin

Gutiantov

Production Manager: Michał Kowalik

Executive Producer: Sten Kristian Saluveer

Production Coordinator: Maciej Kapłucha

Ukraine-Europe Partnership Coordinator: Mariia Skakun

Designer: Lina Maria Shlapak

Editor: Jason Yantz

Legal Council: Dorota Pielak

Tigrelab / Art Director / Compositor: Federico Gonzalez

Social Media Manager: Agnieszka Kiepuszewska

Montoya

Art Director: Ivika Künnapas

Tigrelab / Unreal Artist: Ion Romero

Website Developer: Arsen Igorev

Tigrelab / Unreal Artist / Smode Artist: Antonio Nieto
Tigrelab / Unreal Artist / 3D Artist: Borja Pastori
Tigrelab / Producer: Laura Gomez

Get in touch
Curious to know more about us?
Want to master our production toolkit?
Need support on your project?
Our team will be happy to speak to you,whatever your query.
Get in touche-learning programme

Get Started