War: Kids’ Drawings in VR Animation

The Siege of Leningrad is known as the longest in human history. It lasted almost 900 days and cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who suffered and died in appalling conditions. Some of the children of that time recorded what they saw and experienced in drawings. For many decades, the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg had preserved about 700 of these unique children’s drawings, which were literally brought to life on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. Renowned XR artists from around the world were invited to transfer these children’s drawings into virtual realities, recreating the children’s experiences in new moving and evocative images. The series consists of 20 episodes, each dedicated to a single drawing. Realised in 3D illustrations, the historical wartime drawings are staged in the individual style of the different artists and not only tell the stories depicted in the drawings in a new, animated context, but also make them gain a stronger emotional impact. With hundreds of thousands of clicks on the video series and posts on social media, this has generated a great response from the public.