Blender-Produced Planetarium Show Receives NASA-Sponsored Award
“Expanded View,” a Blender-produced planetarium show, has been recognized as a “Hubble Top Star.”.
“Expanded View” has been recognized as a “Hubble Top Star.”. The show is our fifth major Blender production.
We owe a big thanks to the developers, the Blender Foundation, and the Blender community. Thanks for making Blender great!
From the IGES Press Release:
One winning entry — a planetarium show, created by informal educators AmyJo Proctor, Ron Proctor and Stacy Palen at Weber State University’s Ott Planetarium in Ogden, Utah, and viewable online — introduces the electromagnetic spectrum and multi-wavelength observation with images from Hubble and other space telescopes. Audiences learn how images are captured and what the colors tell us about the composition of deep-sky objects.
“Many planetarium show producers try to reproduce Great Observatory observations with 3D models instead of using the actual images — these, while often lovely, fall flat because they are missing the scientific content and honesty that could be so inspiring to their audiences,” the team wrote in its entry submission form. “We have developed techniques to give these 2D images a 3D feel, transforming the planetarium dome into a window on 3D space.”
Show Information and Online Video
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OMG, congrats! it’s really amazing to see how blender is used to teach the wonders of the universe. keep it up and party on!
Congratulations!
Did they use Dalai Felinto Dome Rendering in BGE ?
Just Curious…
Awesome ! I think the Blender homepage should now read “Blender ; As Approved by NASA.”
Fantastic!
Kudos to Ron, AmyJo, Stacey and the rest of the Ott Planetarium team – great work!
Yeah Congratulations to the whole team.
‘..to boldly blend, where no man has blend before!!’
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Very impressive win. And no less because NASA sponsored the award!
NASA has some crazily accurate software for craft design, but I wonder if you’ve opened minds in NASA to use Blender for quick pre-viz design concept work?
Perhaps a future animation of NASA’s plans to send craft to Mars will be made in Blender because of your work?!
At the least, you’ve opened up space, astronomy, and the role of planetariums to a wider audience by using Blender.
Awesome!
Hi everyone. Thanks!
@Ivan Paulos Tomé (Greylica): We use a reflective fisheye camera rig for show production, but we’ve been having a lot of fun with the BGE fisheye for live stuff in our planetarium!
Wow mesmerising. I do wish I could view them at the dome.
Update: The “Top Star” award qualified us to compete for another award, the “Gold Star.” Expanded View won that too!
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/back-to-school-top-stars.html
Hooray! :)