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Behind-the-scenes look at the old French army camp

Waalre’s history comes to life in new podwalk app along Kunstroutenetwerk

Gemeente Waalre, a township south of Eindhoven, is filled with nature and history. What better way to bring this history to people than through a podwalk? That is exactly what Gemeente Waalre is currently working on – developing an immersive narrative walk along the Kunstroutenetwerk. Nils van Keulen, project manager at the municipality of Waalre: “In collaboration with app builder Elements, sound studio Make and story developer Story Matters, we are working on this podwalk. For the incorporation of the augmented reality experiences in the app, we asked 4DR Studios from Eindhoven.”

During the podwalk, a professional storyteller will guide you through the area. You will stop at the places where history has left traces in the landscape, such as some pits on the open heathland. Findings, documents and historical maps show that these were fire pits belonging to a French army camp, which was situated here in Waalre for about six months in 1800. To fully immerse the user in this period, we let a trio of French soldiers come to life on this spot, where they were bored in their spare time.

Peek behind the scenes

To develop the augmented reality experience, the three French soldiers were recorded in our volumetric capture stage. Van Keulen: “I chose this unique studio because here we can record and digitise scenes 360 degrees all around in 1 take, to be used later in AR applications. All the details of human movements and emotions are captured lifelike.” 

Re-enactment actors were used for the recordings. Besides great enthusiasm, these actors also had a lot of knowledge about French soldiers, traditional costumes and customs of the time. 

Before the start of the shoot, the gentlemen made sure they are ready for battle, all in style and historically correct. “No, this canteen was not used at the army camp back then,” Maxim Munnig Schmidt manages to tell fellow actor Jan Sleegers. Meanwhile, Ed van Haaster is testing whether the pipe will be properly recorded in the studio. This may in fact be a challenge, as the stem of the pipe is relatively thin and therefore may not be captured properly by the cameras. 

Natasja Paulssen, CEO and founder at 4DR Studios: “With all three gentlemen, we are making test shots. Are all the tassels on the outfits properly caught by the system? Are no fabrics melting together? Can all actions be performed within our recording circle? And that hat of Jan Sleegers, that could also become a challenge…“

Fortunately, there seem to be no faults after making the test shots and the experience can be filmed.

Step back in time with us

One by one, the French soldiers are recorded in the studio, meanwhile taking into account the choreography as conceived beforehand. Starting with Ed, who has been given the task of pacing while watching – somewhat without confidence – the two young soldiers. 

As usual in those days, a lot of time was spent maintaining the weapon. Maxim therefore quietly sat down to clean his weapon. Jan, as a young soldier, quietly watches Maxim carry this out while drinking from a cup of wine. 

At another spot in the podwalk, augmented reality is used to visualise the former station of Aalst-Waalre. In 1866, the railway line between ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Liège was opened and trains also stopped at this station. In 1945, the last train left from the station and the rails were removed in 1962. Today, there is a cycle path. Augmented reality technology allows you to walk around the building and the lifelike volumetric video recording allows you to meet the platform attendant waiting for the next train. 

We can almost start exploring

The podwalk app is expected to be launched around October 2023. From then on, it will be possible to discover the Kunstroutenetwerk of Gemeente Waalre and get to know the French soldiers and the platform superintendent, which have been recorded at our studio.