RealSim featured extensively in RTE documentary

The Secrets of the Stones was an excellent RTE documentary which concluded last night with an episode concentrating on early Irish Christianity and ’God architects’. The series was all the more satifying due to the wonderful animated sequences done for the programme by Gavin Duffy of RealSim. Gavin of course was a speaker at last year’s 3Dcamp and it was great to see his technology bringing Clonmacnoise, Mellifont Abbey and many more location back vividy to life. On his website Gavin writes -

“RealSim have recently completed a commission for RTE to bring them and their viewers back in time to various times in Irelands past. We created interactive 3d architectural and landscape models of 3 sites in Ireland pertaining to 3 different periods in Irelands Christian history, Caherlahillan in South Kerry (circa 450 AD), Clonmacnoise (800 – 1150 A.D.) and Mellifont Abbey in Louth (circa 1200 A.D.). Each location required close co-operation and consultation with expert archaeologists to help our graphic designers accurately model buildings and the environment. The modelling process proved to a be a very worthwhile exercise for archaeologists as it helped them formulate and work through different interpretations and scenarios that would have otherwise proved impossible without such an immersive and visual experience of their ancient environments. The earliest known church at Caherlahillan was modelled with associated dwellings and a grain store. At Clonmacnoise we re-created a large 400m ditch known to have existed around 800 AD. We re-created the dwellings, churches and the round tower which is thought to have been split in two into its current segments after collapsing in 1124. All that exists today at the old Cistercian Abbey at Mellifont are the ruins of the building foundations and the shell of the once acclaimed lavabo. This marvellous and complex building can now be seen again for the first time in 400 years.”