If you’re a fan of Belgian comics, you probably noticed the recent introduction of “La douce”, François Schuiten’s latest piece of artwork. But did you notice that the author’s editor Casterman partnered with Dassault Systèmes to transform the comic book into a 3D augmented reality experience? Better than any amount of words, check out the video below and you’ll instantly get what I’m talking about. Definitely the missing piece between comics and animation! 🙂

Now the beauty is, it’s not just about plain 3D animation. A passionate team of volunteers at Dassault Systèmes accurately modeled the 12.004 locomotive starting from 2D drawings all the way to the final 3D mock-up including kinematics. Knowing that only 6 of the Type 12 locomotive were ever produced and that the 12.004 is the only one left today (kept in a museum in Louvain), this is an amazing way to give this incredible piece of engineering work a new birth.

If you stay tuned, I’ll come up very soon with 3 questions for you to WIN 3 comic books “La douce”! OK, those will be in French (translations pending) but the 3D experience goes beyond the barriers of language, doesn’t it? 😉