New Series Announcement: "True Size" (Patreon)

We are excited to announce a new project where we aim to bring the "True Size" of the past to life using Unreal Engine 5.

What is it?

All too often, when watching movies and shows, we get excited about the scale of blockbuster scenes but ultimately come out disappointed because of all the historical inaccuracies. We wanted to do something about this.

The goal of the "True Size" series will be to produce a more accurate and interactive recreation of the past by leveraging the latest that technology has to offer.

Progress so far?

The move to 3D brings with it many new benefits but also hurdles to overcome. One of the most important is the practicality of accurately rendering hundreds of thousands of characters and elements at their proper scale. We therefore spent much time testing different visual styles to balance accuracy, readability, and scalability.

Ultimately, we decided that a 2.5D style, which consisted of 2D illustrations on a 3D base, was the best option. This allowed us to quickly produce hand crafted models for close up shots whilst not taxing the system when zoomed out.

From here we set to work further testing model movements, animations, equipment, highlights, camera movements, and environments.

As we dialed in our presentation style we worked in parallel on building out the content of the series. This involved conducting research and building calculators to determine the “True Size” of our subjects of interest. For instance in our episode on the “True Size” of an Imperial Roman Legion we were able to show that such a force at full strength actually consisted of not just 5240 soldiers but also 319 officers, 35 specialists, 1580 slaves, 1902 animals, and more. We could then properly array these in various stances such as parade rest, camp, march, and battle order.

From here we were able to properly visualize the “True Size” of the Roman Legion and derive novel conclusions such as the fact that their column stretched out over about 2 km in ideal conditions while the battle line spanned around 400m.

Here are a few demo videos of our progress!

• True Size Demo 1 - Scaling Up (link)
• True Size Demo 2 - Character Animation (link)
• True Size Demo 3 - Environment and Layout (link)
• True Size Demo 4 - Narrated Sequence (link)

What comes next?

We plan to kick off the series by portraying the  “True Size” of a Roman Imperial Legion, a Roman Republican Legion, a Macedonian Army, and a Spartan army. From here we will continue to deepen our exploration of army sizes as well as widening the format to look at things like battles, logistics, architecture, infrastructure, and more. The possibilities are endless and we could really use your help!

Leave your feedback and suggestions below for what we should cover!