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Timelapse #1 for the Director's Cut is in the can!!! In reviewing the footage, came across this lucky frame shortly after sunrise. It gives you a sense of how much detail we are getting even before our image processing pipeline. We believe this is a crow with white feathers which I did not realize existed but if you know better, let us know in the comments.
#timelapse #timelapsephotography #crows #corvid #insaturnsrings
To those in the US, enjoy being together with those in your orbits :)
#thanksgiving #cassinispacecraft #cassinisaturn #insaturnsrings
Timelapse #1 for the Director's Cut happens Sunday night, weather permitting. We have the location set and a volunteer secured (still need a volunteer or two for Dec 14-16 for anyone in North Carolina area).
#timelapse #milkywayphotography #timelapsephotography #greensboro #greensboronc #insaturnsrings
Full video! Next test of $350 12K timelapse solution - night dynamic range i.e. can it capture dim stars when the moon is visible. This was shot the night of our recent supermoon. We are still seeing stars despite moon, light pollution and relatively short exposures. So success!!!
We are now on Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/insaturnsrings.bsky.social, will be the same posts as here but for those that prefer.
Next test of $350 12K timelapse solution - night dynamic range i.e. can it capture dim stars when the moon is visible. This was shot the night of our recent supermoon. We are still seeing stars despite moon, light pollution and relatively short exposures. So success!!!
One of my favorite sequences from the film, we just got everything right, from volunteer Judy Schmidt's amazing Hubble image processing work to the rest of the teams' image processing to the multiplane, it's one of the most beautiful shots in the film in full motion.
#hubble #hubbletelescopeimage #sloandigitalskysurvey #multiplane #multiplanecamera #insaturnsrings
Here's the first 12K timelapse rendered out with our $350 solution to create high resolution timelapses for the director's cut. Also available in 4K on Youtube https://youtu.be/s9iVa4zTu3Q?si=4kGFy49XpQ1V6ey-
#timelapse #timelapsevideo #timelapsephotography #nightsky #nightskyphotography #insaturnsrings
New test footage! Testing for first of 12K timelapses for director's cut. May not look like much, through glass, not processed but shot from my patio in Greensboro NC to simulate what a typical urban dweller sees of the night sky. It's a 12K resolution photo. Normally would come from a $10,000 medium format camera but we've figured out a way to do this with a tiny $350 camera. The results are a big success.
#timelapse #timelapses #timelapsephotography #insaturnsrings #lightpollution
Another blast from the past. After an early clip was featured on YouTube in 2007, a web-designer, Gonzalo Anton, now a well-known artist, https://www.instagram.com/gonzaloantonpainter created the first real website for the film. He painstakingly hand-coded, so in 2011 we had to move on.
Today would have been Carl Sagan's 90th birthday. His immeasurable impact grows over time. I read "Cosmos" as a child and discovered Saturn's moon Titan. Titan's mystery that led me to follow the Cassini mission and the entire reason the film was made. We were lucky to get permission from his widow and co-author Ann Druyan dedicate the film to him. His famous Pale Blue Dot quote resonates more and more as time moves on.
#carlsagan #carlsaganquotes #anndruyan #voyagerspacecraft #insaturnsrings
This incredible Cassini spacecraft photographic mosaic puts everything in perspective. This is us, here on, in Carl Sagan's iconic phrase, this pale blue dot. From Saturn, all that can be seen of our entire world is a tiny spec of light blue.
#perspective #palebluedot #carlsagan #cassinispacecraft #cassinisaturn #cassinihuygens #insaturnsrings
We are deep in planning, previz (previsualization), logistics and figuring ways to do complex things for zero dollars in creating the two 12K timelapses for the director's cut. Both are now on the calendar for December shoots.
#timelapse #timelapsephotography #planning #astrophotography #milkywayphotography #milkywaychasers #insaturnsrings
We are finalizing plans for the new finale of the Director's cut. It will be a 12K hyperlapse (moving timelapse) from a inland city straight in a single take all the way to dark sky of Ocracoke to end in a timelapse of the Milky Way to line up with LeVar Burton's finale narration of JFK's iconic speech "We set sail...". It will be hard, very hard: No one at any budget level as attempted such a shot before. Wish us luck and clear skies!
Another BTS pic in honor of the last part sold off. These were the core workstations servers driving the storage, backup and rendering of the multiplane animations. Some BTS facts: At the peak, 1 petabyte of storage in use for everything required, consisting 33 million files. If the film had been made on a single fast computer, it would have taken over 50 years to process and render out.
animation #aftereffects #insaturnsrings
End of an era. We just sold on eBay the last motherboard from the peak of 33 computers that used to live in the basement laundry/render server room. The remaining director's cut renders are either manageable on a couple of modern machines or ones we hope to land a new sponsor for. At one point there were over a 150 hard drives in those 33 computers. Those too are all sold. This photo is from 2015.
renderfarm #renderfarms #animation #insaturnsrings #frankencomputer
A right place at the right time shot of stars and lightning (Frisco, North Carolina) photo by Stephen V. Stone @stephen.v2
Here's the Big Bang Shot that was cut from the film as it would violated the "no CGI" rule for the film. Also available on YouTube on our official channel.
#animation #aftereffects #redgiant #bigbang #thebigbang #insaturnsrings
VOTE IN OUR "NEW TITLE" POLL. We have the new poster design for "The Director's Cut" or "Ultimate Edition" or others.... please vote for your favorite. https://forms.gle/LAXsaJPPvKiPJNNEA
From the cutting room floor. In the film, we journey from the Big Bang to present day which is also from the farthest objects to Earth. I struggled to figure how to use only real photographs since there are obviously none. I built this simulation, first with an image of a single hydrogen atom (about 30 million of them) then this one using a single young star image. But it required some level of CG so it was cut from the film.
#bigbang #thebigbang #animation #photoanimation #insaturnsrings
Blast from the past. This was a resolution test for the first footage we output to IMAX film back in 2009. Obviously not scientifically accurate, but very 2001: A Space Odyssey style.
#cassinispacecraft #saturn #saturnmoons #2001aspaceodyssey #insaturnsrings
Working on a new poster for the Director's Cut, first draft. This is an actual frame from the new cut of the film. Note this is for the 27" x 40" poster size, so text may seem a wee bit small online. #movieposter #insaturnsrings
We have our new ending for the director's cut. Clue in this image.
Here's the 2014 update of the 2010 original viral clip, it features our recording of Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber performed by the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra (now ours for life thanks to Michael J. Malaska). https://youtu.be/UgxWkOXcdZU?si=jQD0NF-B972k00cx
#saturn #cassinispacecraft #animation #cassinihuygens #multiplanecamera #insaturnsrings
What exactly is the "mutliplane photographic animation" that is used to create the imagery in the film without resorting to 3D CGI or VFX? It started around a century with the multiplane camera that Walt Disney elevated to a great artistic tool. Here's a good starter video showing how it works.
Beauty and Awe for today as we work on the director's cut!
#awe #saturn #space #spaceforabetterworld #cassinispacecraft #cassinisaturn #insaturnsrings
We missed post this in September with everything else going on. But we were fortunate to be in person at JPL on this historic day, watching it happen with the Cassini-Huygens Team.
#cassinispacecraft #cassinihuygens #insaturnsrings #grandfinale #insaturnsrings
We've been offline as producer Marie Stone recovers from knee surgery. Major music news. First, as of 10/1 thanks to donor/volunteer Mike Malaska, our recording of "Adagio for Strings" ifs officially licensed in perpetuity with no restrictions. Secondly, the rest of the music will be an original score from Pieter Schlosser who composed the opening track and will write new music for the Director's Cut (Q1 2025).
#adagioforstrings #samuelbarber #greensborosymphony #pieterschlosser #insaturnsrings
More behinds the scene from the Adagio for Strings recording with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra in 2014. Pics by Tim Matson.
More BTS from the Adagio for Strings recording as we had an amazing team of top people making it happen. Pictured filmmaker Stephen V. Stone (white shirt), Francois Arbour the recording engineer, Dmitry Sitkovetsky the conductor of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and Nate Beversluis, the music director of the Greensboro Symphony. Later this week, some video clips! Pictures by Mark Wagoner Productions.
#adagioforstrings #samuelbarber @greensborosymphony #insaturnsrings
In our continuing celebration of "Adagio for Strings", more pics from the recording. Here the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra string section supplemented by many other area string players are conducted by Dmitry Sitkovetsky. The three large microphones are the "left", "right" and "center" as we recorded this in 5.1 surround sound, the only true 5.1 recording of this music we know of.
#greensborosymphony #greensborosymphonyguild #samuelbarber #adagioforstrings #insaturnsrings
The indescribable complexity of this film came up yesterday. Although this is not a perfect analogy, nobody has any idea how much more complicated this film is than any other film ever made. For comparison, a typical 2+ hour feature film averages about 10,000 moving parts.
#spaceshuttle #saturnvrocket #cassinispacecraft #insaturnsrings
Still working on restoring the masters. This is a direct screenshot from the film. We are obviously biased, but wow these images are beautiful. Just imagine this on a screen 80 feet wide.
timelapse reflection of a human eye watching the Saturn flythrough. We shot many tests but (1) most eyes are actually too gross without lots of Photoshop fudging. (2) very few people have large, dark eyes (3) people can't hold them still and open long enough for a 2 minute flythrough shot. This was the best shot every got from volunteer Jeni Powell.
#macrophotography #insaturnsrings #timelapse #saturn #cassinispacecraft
One rule of ISR that longtime fans know to be true: everything takes a ridiculously long time.
Case in point, we are just trying load the core render assembly of the 2018 version of the film, then output checks to see if the film is intact and outputs okay in Adobe After Effects 2024 since the film was created on much earlier versions.
So far, so good, everything is still intact, looks great and ready for work on the Director's Cut.