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Year:
2023
Client:
DEM Museum
Hagia Sophia History and Experience Museum
The Hagia Sophia History and Experience Museum stands as one of the most significant projects in Lighthouse VFX’s history — a large-scale immersive storytelling journey that brings more than 1,500 years of history to life at the heart of Istanbul.
Lighthouse VFX served as the lead creative studio, responsible for directing and producing the museum’s entire creative vision and content ecosystem. Under the creative direction of Lighthouse ECD Arman Sernaz, the project united animation, visual effects, immersive experience design, and digital storytelling into a cohesive, museum-scale narrative.
Spanning over 20 experiential rooms, the museum blends immersive animations, large-scale projections, CGI content, and video mapped 3D installations with physical sculptures and architectural elements. Each space was designed to guide visitors through the layered history of Hagia Sophia — from Byzantium to Constantinople to modern-day Istanbul — using contemporary visual language and cutting-edge technology.
Completed in a record time of just three months, the project represents an extraordinary creative and technical achievement. Shortly after opening, the museum was awarded Gold at the MUSE Creative Awards 2025 and Gold at the Mondo-DR Awards 2025, recognizing its excellence in immersive experience design and cultural storytelling.
For Lighthouse VFX, contributing to the narration of Hagia Sophia’s millennia-spanning legacy was both a creative challenge and an honor. The project reflects our commitment to crafting immersive experiences, animation, and visual effects that connect history, technology, and emotion — transforming cultural heritage into living, cinematic experiences.
Lighthouse Team
Creative Director — Arman Sernaz
Project Director — Gamze Sernaz
Studio Producer — Arda Topaloglu
Art Director — Oktay Nikseresht
Post Producer — Gunkut Altun
Post Coordinator — Isil Ozgur, Ayse Zumra Barmak
Animation Artists — Semih Erman, Batuhan Ozcicek, Muhammed Tuyluoglu
CG Artists — Madhi Khodadadi, Arash Khosravinejad, Orkun Altan, Fethi Batu Tozan, Ural Akin, Misagh Saborori, Saman Khorram, M. Halit Kucuk, Melisa Ozturk, Hazar Kutay Aymergen
Motion Graphics Artists — Arif Yildiz, Onur Eren Savci, Emre Sahin, Sepehr Radfar
2D Artist — Orkun Altan, Moein Kahrizi, Masih Javady, Salih Aydin
Compositing Artist — Farhad Zamani
CG Pipeline Specialist — Sercan Oguz
Information Technology Specialist — Firat Bal
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