Operation Cannonshot Wilp '25
Operation Cannonshot is an annual event in Wilp celebrating its liberation. The 2025 edition was a bit more special because of 80 years of commemoration. On Friday evening people could watch a documentary in combination with re-enactment in front of the local church. At first the church played no role during the documentary and re-enactment. That would be a shame because during the war the church was occupied by the Germans and an important location to recapture.
The organization of the event called me to ask if I was able to create a animation to project on the church. Obviously I was very enthousiastic about the project and the chance to create something for the people of my own village. / After a talk in the local cafe we had the following plan. The idea was to show looping effects of destruction, fire and smoke on the church so it became a part of the decor.
Exaggerated Version
In the following evenings I immediately started. I created a Blender project and tried to figure out what I was able to create within short amount of time, because time for this project was quite limited. The first version was very much exaggerated with a lot of destruction. I did this on purpose to find the limits and show the organization what I was able to create.
After we tested the first version by projecting it on the church I had to make adjustments. Although a enitre collapse of the tower is very cool to see, it had to be more historically correct so I reduced the overall destruction, fire and smoke a lot. The final projection is a 20 minutes looping animation. In those 20 minutes chunks of the front wall and roof fall to the ground, fire appears out one of the gaps and finally smoke comes out the front window.
Snippet of the final projection
