City of Ruins is a digital stereoscopic reconstruction of Warsaw destroyed during World War II, created by Platige Image a design company from Warsaw, Poland. The film depicts a flyover of the Liberator airplane over the razed and depopulated city of Warsaw, portraying the sheer scale of destruction intentionally wrought upon the capital following the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Compiling the source material and processing the enormous amount of information took over a year.
The process) In order to depict the city as faithfully as possible, an enormous amount of archival and referential material was amassed. Aerial imagery and photographs found in museum collections served as references for the film. A total of several thousand pictures were used in the project.
Terrain) Properly dividing up Warsaw’s enormous area was the greatest production challenge facing the filmmakers. The entire area of the city was divided into over 30 sectors.
Models) Once designed, each individual object had to be placed onto a virtual landscape. Additionally, 40 landmark buildings that played important roles in the city’s history were modeled with a greater degree of precision.
Final composition) The reconstructed city of Warsaw features: 63000 manually placed models of buildings, 1600 reference photos, 40 historical objects recreated in great detail, 30 graphic artists, 6 months of composting, 2 months of continuous rendering
Stills
