I found this bit of news on BlenderNation. It piqued my interest for two reasons: first because the documentary, which was broadcast March 16th, is about the 1759 Battle for Québec, an event that shaped my country's and my province's history. Some scenes were filmed not very far from where I live! Second, because a free open source software, Blender, was used to produce all the graphics shown in the documentary.

Producer and director Nathan Williams writes to BlenderNation:

I’m a producer director who also uses Blender. I’ve recently made a history documentary about the Battle of Quebec [...]; all of the graphics in the programme were created with Blender – half by me and half by animator and blender user Christian Krupa.

As you can see, we kept the graphics simple – avoiding any attempt at photo-reality and using lots of period source material such as maps (from the amazing David Rumsey collection). The results really helped bring the story alive and make the geography clear – crucial to understanding the battle.

I’ve produced many programmes with graphics but this was the first time I’d created any of the graphics myself. As a programme maker I found the experience liberating and hugely creative. I was able to experiment freely (we tried a number of different look including using freestyle to create a sketch style) and make changes right up to the last minute. For instance, in the last few days of editing we decided we needed a map to make the layout on the battlefield clear, and I was able to create something there and then in the editing room and create a new scene in just a couple of hours.

Blender is a free open source 3D modeling, animating and rendering application. It might be compared to the well-known Autodesk 3ds Max, if not for their very different user interfaces; their features are mostly similar. I plan to talk about Blender again in the coming weeks.

Here's a video showing some of the documentary's graphics:

Can't view the video? Watch it on YouTube.