Visual Playground has developed a high-end technology solution to visualise the un-precedented bushfires from Black Saturday 2009.

In a 2-hour documentary produced by Renegade Factual for the ABC, Inside the Firestorm features visualisations of the paths of the fires through Victoria. Visual Playground developed a method of re-creating the bushfires through the use of 3D animated maps generated from Satellite and Geographic Information System (GIS) data.

Accurate information models were also provided on the movement of the fires that day. The result was very effective in terms of visualising the catastrophic combination of fire, terrain and extreme weather patterns.The project demanded 16 minutes of animation to be created over a 5-week period.

The human side of the tragedy is told by tracking through tree-scapes, which feature the people whose lives were lost in the devastating fires. The images are both chilling and moving as a memorial to the tragic human cost of the natural disaster.

Writer/ Director Jacob Hickey comments: “… the film also needed a God’s eye view.  I was convinced that the audience needed to gain an overview for what was a complex and rapidly changing disaster.  We’d achieve this by investing in photo realistic CGI graphics and mapping so the viewer could understand how, where and when the fires moved.”