Battlefields in Motion – Fort Moultrie

This company contacted our Civil War Round Table a few weeks ago.  Turns out we’re not the only Canadians with an interest in the war!   The CG Fort Moultrie presented here is amazing. A real glance into the surroundings of those who eventually found themselves dodging the first fire of the war at Sumter.  The only thing that’s missing are maquettes of the soldiers and families walking around in their daily routines.  Worth a look!

In 2008, a historian and two young computer-graphic specialists began an exploratory association, to learn how their respective talents might be combined for educational ends. They tried combining the latest CG technology with in-depth research, to direct the visualization of vanished buildings or even past historical movements. Through a reconstruction of 18th-Century Quebec City and its surrounding terrain, their methods evolved sufficiently to allow them to become incorporated in 2010 and embark upon their first independent project.

After discarding various possibilities, they chose to virtually recreate the remnants of 200-year-old Fort Moultrie, as only its weathered ramparts still remained intact on Sullivan’s Island at the entrance into Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Satellite imagery was used to calibrate its outer perimeter and the north-western interior around its Magazine, while the footprint of its long-lost West Barracks — plus vintage photographs and historical records — allowed for a virtual resurrection of that building, followed by several more. Fully-functional cannons were then replicated from 19th-Century US Artillery manuals, and the entire model textured in period stucco, paints, bricks, and vegetation. The resultant three-dimensional model serves to produce a variety of instructive video-clips, dioramas, and photographs.

Battlefields in Motion – Fort Moultrie May 1860 – Peacetime Federal Garrison.

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