Our analysis of 43 official IDF videos found recycled 3D environments, spatial inaccuracies, and assets lifted from unrelated artists and institutions.

We traced over 30 unique assets to Washington-based 3D creator Ian Hubert, who makes bespoke models created for his sci-fi project Dynamo Dream, available to his Patreon subscribers. Models of parking lots, antennas, + pipes were repurposed as Hamas and Iranian military sites

Hubert's assets, created as decorations for cyberpunk cityscapes, are used especially widely in animations that the IDF released during their strikes on Iran in June. Ripped assets from Hubert are shown here in stills from IDF animations, with blue highlights:

Others assets came from scans made by the Scottish Maritime Museum of their boat-building workshop which was downloaded (via @Sketchfab) and reimagined by the IDF adornments for underground missile factories.

These assets have been used in IDF videos as recently as September 5, in an animation of the Mushtaha Tower in Gaza City, which was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes the same day In this video the ground itself is a patch-work quilt of third-party scans of pavement & parking lots

One of most well known of these animations is video depicting Al Shifa Hospital, published in October 2023. We found that an “underground command room” was recycled from a previous 2022 IDF animation; moreover, the street above was built from prefab @KB3D_Online storefronts

These videos are produced in-house by a small animation cell in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, working mainly in After Effects + Blender In a TikTok posted after Israel's June attacks on Iran, soldiers describe working weeks under “prime-minister-level secrecy” to prepare visuals

The video outlines that a specific goal of these animations is to multiply their reach by cultivating secondary coverage And indeed, dozens of major outlets like BBC, CNN and Sky News have aired them, in part or in full, often without context

I started working on this research in my spare time with a small group of fellow journos/artists — @N_Voegele, @jakecharlesrees, & Robin Kötzle — after noticing recurring patterns in these IDF 3D videos last autumn The Ferret (via @billybriggs): https://theferret.scot/idf-sco...

Over the months, we gathered material and analysis before working with colleagues @SRFnews, @972mag, and @TheFerretScot to bring the investigation together for their respective audiences. SRF International podcast (via @subruSRF) https://www.srf.ch/audio/inter...

As someone who works very closely with satellite and 3D imagery, this project reinforced how crucial it is to question what’s rendered as truth. Keep an eye out for some follow ups in different mediums looking ahead Full story w/ @972mag via @OrenZiv_: https://www.972mag.com/israeli...

@JackSapoch Great work! So basically, the IDF’s “intelligence” was actually 3D fan art recycled from a cyberpunk project and the Scottish Maritime Museum! They even reused the same fake tunnel from a UN school to “justify” bombing Al-Shifa Hospital. CGI war crimes in 4K.

@JackSapoch Israel steals everything.

@JackSapoch Your thread is gaining traction! #TopUnroll https://threadreaderapp.com/th... 🙏🏼@lothenon for 🥇unroll

@JackSapoch Those are stock images to represent targets as seen on the news everywhere, Einstein.

@JackSapoch @archivegenocide @receipts_lol

@JackSapoch A culture of thieving.

@JackSapoch The question is whether these are reasonable representations of the relevant actual situations, "close enough" to explain what happened. Might be pretty challenging to get actual video and still pictures and whatever else in the middle of a war.

@JackSapoch They used 3D models from other libraries. So what? Do you expect them to model every table and every fixture? That’s not how 3D modeling works. This “investigation” is absurd.

@JackSapoch Lying is what they do

@JackSapoch And all lies. To justify the genocide of “non Jewish” Palestinians.

@JackSapoch Who’d a thunk it

@JackSapoch Shitty AI by shitty humans.

@JackSapoch Good work that serves as a basis for investigations by the @IntlCrimCourt and the @CIJ_ICJ . Everything Israel does is lies and propaganda; this is how they justify massacring children, women, doctors, and journalists.

@JackSapoch It's truly fascinating how quickly the media presented this as "indisputable evidence."...great research ✊

@JackSapoch Fucking hell! And the BBC has a department called bbc verify...clearly didn't check as you have. We know it was all lies...but thanks for the evidence to back it up. Cant wait for the Hague trials

@JackSapoch Can't even fabricate their own lies without stealing. Amazing research Jack... Mad how these untruths never get any traction. They should always be worldwide front pages. It's maddening.

@JackSapoch Did you do any analysis of Hamas videos? You know the ones, where the civilian clothed fighters, fight from residential areas. All the Hamas war crimes, of fighting from hospitals, mosques, universities and schools. You investigated those too, right?

@JackSapoch Deception, lies, manipulation, gaslighting.

@JackSapoch a new visual language of unproven fantasies to justify genocide and ethnic cleansing

@JackSapoch It’s an illustration to explain the public, moron. It’s not the actual target

@JackSapoch @972mag IDF aren’t smart

@JackSapoch Top notch research and thread.

@JackSapoch Seems like all one person or studios work. Remember the barrels in the cartoon baddie lair?

@JackSapoch I mean... so? Like, what's the claim against IDF here - that they used assets without permission in their videos? Or that they polish their videos too much?

@JackSapoch The world is catching onto Israel's lies and deceit, finally. It took 2 years too long.