Category Archives: Digital Art

Dan Maas Martian Rover and Asteroid CG

“Martian Mega Rover ” (National Geographic Channel) with animation created by Dan Maas, the acclaimed animator who did the IMAX “Roving Mars” and NGC’s Emmy winner Five Years on Mars, vivid photorealistic CGI simulates Curiosity’s entry into the atmosphere as a massive parachute deploys, rocket thrusters fire up and a sky crane safely lowers the rover to the ground.

NSS Kickstarter: "Our Future in Space" Promotional Video

The National Space Society (NSS) has just launched a Kickstarter for the creation of a cutting-edge film about the ways in which all of humanity benefits from the expansion of space exploration and development. This ground-breaking education initiative, entitled “Our Future in Space” is designed to bring NSS’s vision of human beings living and working in space to a broader audience.

The campaign can be accessed via their Kickstarter web page. It provides an opportunity to help fund and support the film’s development and promote the Society’s mission.

Deep Space Industries "Our Future is Amazing" (Promotional Animations by Bryan Versteeg)

“Deep Space is a new kind of company with a new kind of plan.”
“We don’t build rockets, we don’t do astronomy, we are explorers, harvesters, makers, and suppliers.”
“As they say, timing is everything, and for space, right now is that time.”
“In fact, some of the planet’s most successful people are placing their bets on this new frontier.”
“The resources in space will lead to…”
“…a renaissance.”
 “…both in space and back here on our precious Mother Earth.”
“We will be the gas station, the oasis, for air and water.”
“And the building supply center for the frontier.”
“The goal is a better future for all of us through space resources.”
“When the first asteroid is mined, Deep Space will be there.”
“When the first power plants come on line, Deep Space will be there.”
“When the first space colonies are built…”
“…Deep Space will be there.”
“We can have an amazing…”
“…future.”
“We are Deep Space.”
“The frontier is coming. And our time is now.”

“Right now the best way for everyone to get involved is to share our vision with others.
Surprisingly there are a lot of people out there who have lost touch with a fundamental human
condition…PROGRESS; a forward or onward movement: a royal journey marked by pomp and
pageant: gradual betterment; especially for the progressive development of humankind! All of
you are here today because you have NOT lost touch with this desire, and you leap at the
chance to express it! There are hundreds of articles in circulation right now about DSi and there
are many people out there who are unable or unwilling to understand the magnitude of what
we have just shared with the world. So our challenge to you is to take that spark and share it
with those who have lost theirs, be our voice and fight for our cause!

“You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold.
That is how important you are!”
Eckhart Tolle

Mother Mars! "A Living Mars: A Visualization of Mars, Very Much Alive" Thanks to Kevin Gill

“A visualization of an Earth-like Mars, be it ancient or a future of terraforming. This was
produced by rendering a flat model image using the MRO MOLA 128 pix/deg elevation dataset
in jDem846 then layering imagery from Blue Marble in GIMP. The layer was then brought back
into jDem to produce the final spherical projection and scripted to add the atmosphere and
clouds from the NASA Visible Earth catalog. Eye position is about 6,600 kilometers (4100 miles)
from the surface of the planet and looking at the southern hemisphere (~20° South) and the
180th meridian.”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/8165909516/

Screenshot of jDem846

“The height of the clouds and atmosphere are largely arbitrary and set for the sake of
appearance. The terrain is also exaggerated by about 10 times. The orbital “eye” view is about
10,000 km (~6,200 miles) from the surface.
A two dimensional digital elevation model was first rendered in jDem846 (an open-source
learning project of mine) using the MRO MOLA 128 pix/deg elevation dataset. In that model, I
picked a sea level and scripted it such that terrain at or below that level was flat and blue.
The resulting model was then brought into GIMP were I painted in land features using a NASA
Blue Marble Next Generation image for the source textures. There is no scientific reasoning
behind how I painted it; I tried to envision how the land would appear given certain features or
the effects of likely atmospheric climate. For example, I didn’t see much green taking hold within
the area of Olympus Mons and the surrounding volcanoes, both due to the volcanic activity and
the proximity to the equator (thus a more tropical climate). For these desert-like areas I mostly
used textures taken from the Sahara in Africa and some of Australia. Likewise, as the terrain
gets higher or lower in latitude I added darker flora along with tundra and glacial ice. These
northern and southern areas textures are largely taken from around northern Russia. Tropical
and subtropical greens were based on the rainforests of South America and Africa.
Finally, that image was brought back into jDem846 as a layer to be reapplied to the same MOLA
dataset, but rendered as a spherical projection (like Google Earth). I scripted the model to apply
a three-dimensional cloud layer, add an atmosphere, and dampen specular lighting on dry land
and under clouds. There are some other scripted tweaks here and there.”

"Red Dragon Departing Bigelow Earth-Mars Cycler"

red_dragon_departing_bigelow

Learning experience from this: probably not to use a misleading logo like “Target” : ) and to alter
logos to fit a color scheme rather than select only those with original colors fitting the scheme….
High Res: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Advertising_Subsidized_Red_Dragon_(artist%27s_mockup).jpg