Live Event Installations & Projections
Sistine Chapel : REVELATIONS
Catalyst XR
Sistine Chapel : REVELATIONS
Sistine Chapel: Revelations (Exhibition) is a 24-minute immersive projection journey transforms Michelangelo’s masterpiece into a living, room-scale cinematic environment.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney staged and otherwise commissioned the exhibition with the express permission and support of the Vatican Museums, engaging local suppliers Catalyst XR to develop the animation sequence for the main immersive chamber, and Jane Dillon Creative as the exhibition producer.
Rather than presenting the Chapel as a static artwork, the experience unpacks the stories within the frescoes and brings them to life across the ceiling, side panels and altar wall. Guided by the voices of the Sibyls, the audience moves through a dramatic visual journey of creation, temptation, fall, redemption and judgment. The show begins with the birth of light and the creation of Adam and Eve, descends into expulsion, flood and human decay, then rises through prophecy and salvation before culminating in the monumental force of The Last Judgment.
Over 120 high-resolution images from the Sistine Chapel were provided by the Archdiocese (on loan from, and under permission granted by, the Vatican Museums), which Catalyst XR worked with to create a high-resolution digital twin of the Sistine Chapel with more than 120 million pixels. From this foundation, the frescoes were carefully extended through cinematic VFX. Light, depth, atmosphere, particles, compositing, animation and spatial transitions were used to give the artworks a new temporal dimension. Thoughtful CGI moments were integrated to elevate key parts of the story, including flowing cloth, the rising flood, divine light, atmospheric transformation and the dissolving Ignudi. These additions were not designed to overpower the frescoes, but to feel as though they belonged inside the visual language of the Chapel.
The Sistine Chapel contains some of the most iconic images in art history, so every visual effect had to honour the spirit, composition and integrity of Michelangelo’s original work. The goal was never to replace the frescoes, but to reveal their drama, emotion and scale in a way that could only be experienced through immersive projection.
The result is a world-first room-scale digital reconstruction of the Sistine Chapel that combines archival restoration, CGI, compositing, animation, projection mapping and large-scale visual storytelling into one seamless VFX achievement. Sistine Chapel: Revelations shares the stories, beauty and experience of visiting the Sistine Chapel without having to travel to Rome.
CREW
Andy Noonan
Julian Reinhold
Jamie Foulston
Jamie Gilroy
Esther Y Chung
Trevor Coates
Jason Chow
Marton Papai
Octavio De Lellis
Sam Ho
Jin Hien Lau
Matt Tillman
Cameron Fernandes
Aden Manning
Jack Dunphy
Josh Mitchell
Melanie Horkan
SOFTWARE
Adobe After Effects, Cinema4D, Houndni, Adobe Premiere, Affinity, Photoshop, Disguise