Our Brain Tank team, commissioned by FreeGen Group as part of a special project on digitizing the museum heritage of Kyiv, together with Kyiv Digital, brought to life the long history of Ukraine in a video, elevating its crucial elements from the 20th century. All of this is for the tourist and cultural hub of Kyiv. Let's delve into the details.

Well, we became part of a massive special project, "Virtualization of the Museum Heritage and Tourist-Cultural Legacy of Kyiv," with the goal of popularizing and preserving Ukrainian culture through digitization, following global cases of 3D modeling, AR, and VR digitization.

So, let's get to the essence. We were responsible for creating video clips for six museums in Kyiv.

However, we invite special attention to the work done for the Historical and Memorial Museum of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, as this part, in our opinion, is the most interesting in terms of its content. It hides many deeply embedded stones that require illumination due to their complexity.

The content our team worked with was provided by FreeGen Group in full — a large amount of digitized material related to the museum, a model of Mr. Mykhailo, and an audio guide. Brain Tank's task was to create a quality VR video with a lot of important details.

What is the significant importance of this part of the project? It is dedicated to one of the most influential politicians of the 20th century, who even then defended the right to sovereignty and independence of the future state — Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, who became the head of the first representative body, the Central Rada, laying the foundation for the formation of Ukraine. Therefore, visualizing in VR the place of his spiritual and creative activity was our main task.

Technical capabilities and process

However, here's the setback. To showcase the working space of a Ukrainian historian, logically, we should have demonstrated the entrance to the main building — the wing, but there was no wing. So, our principled initiative became its creation from scratch. Piecing together the entire architectural structure brick by brick, we depicted a short tour with a smooth transition, where from the courtyard, we enter the historian's office.

What's interesting? Of all the materials available for our 3D reproduction, there were only two images of this structure, preserved in a single copy since the last century. However, we chose the higher-quality photo as the basis. This work turned out to be very meticulous, perhaps even a challenge, which we faced head-on; and as a result, we stood with dignity, implementing our vision.

Now the wing looks entirely different from Hrushevskyi's time. So, in its reproduction, we focused on bringing the appearance of the building closer to the original.

After a short tour along the old streets of Kyiv, we immediately find ourselves in a place that once became the center of the birth of new historical literature.

The historian's office can rightfully be considered his temple of literacy. It was here that he spent most of his time, writing his work "History of Ukraine-Rus," which became an epochal monument of written culture, significantly influencing the further development of Ukrainian historiography in modern times.

Why is such work important?

We all understand that Ukrainian culture is not experiencing the best times — museum exhibits hidden from human eyes under the label "completely secret" preserve their integrity in this way; other museums have simply closed their doors away from sin.

It has become evident that one must fight for their heritage — to protect, appreciate, and even create alternatives for its popularization. So, we are pleased to contribute to a project that tries to preserve the authenticity of our culture in any way possible. Moreover, not only to preserve history but also to convey it correctly to the next generations.

So, dive into the times of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi's monumental activities in VR!

Conclusion

We express deep gratitude to our partner FreeGen Group and personally to Dmytro Matiash for providing visual materials, as well as to the Kyiv Digital project team for the opportunity to be part of the trend that fights for the popularization and preservation of Ukrainian culture with its authenticity.

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