Our first venture into the world of 3D scrollytelling. To present the case of a small-scale Hungarian corruption, we used a new method for the same old principle of scrollytelling. A 3D virtual tour around a canopy promenade that became a hot topic for the public during the spring of 2023. The mayor of the village of Nyírmártonfalva received EU funds to improve forest life and build a structure to connect people with nature. The structure – the canopy walkway – was built; the forest was cut down. The structure now stands in the middle of an empty field, unable to fulfil its function. A monument of corruption. A small-scale reminder of the large-scale misuses of EU money.
The structure is quite far away from the Budapest, and it takes around three hours to drive there. To bring this structure to everybody, we created a 3D model, and a scrollytelling article, so everyone can experience walking across this pointless building.
For the creation of the 3D model, I used the free modelling software Blender. I had minimal prior knowledge of how it works, so this was not only for making something for a story, but also to learn a new tool, useful in making 3D explainers in the future. The creation of this model took around 2-3 weeks. Using images and videos taken about this walkway, and knowing the exact measurements, I was able to reconstruct all elements of this installation.
For the coding part, I used Sean Bradley’s three.js tutorial, and for the scrollytelling part I used the ‘Animate on Scroll‘ module from his tutorial series. The coding was the easy part of this project, which took about 3 days altogether.
The 3D model also had an afterlife following the publication of the story: Tumblr user SztupY created an FPS shooter using the 3D model and the same three.js engine, albeit different functions of it.
Click here to access the full project in English.
Published on 22nd May 2023.
Szabó Krisztián 