Hurricane Hunters for Force Five

"Hurricane Hunters " for the NASA "Force Five" fulldome planetarium show

SIMULATED VIEWS

A three minute long immersive fulldome sequence for the "ForceFive" extreme weather show, Home Run Pictures was asked to animate a dramatic look at the NOAA P3 "Hurrocane Hunter" aircraft as it flies into a tropical hurricane. The format would be for fulldome planetarium projection systems where the audience is immersed in the scene with projectors mounted around the dome to create a 180 x 360 degree view. Exciting views inside the storm and then inside the interior of the plane tell the story of flying into a hurricane to gather scientific data about these storms.

To accomplish the task, Home Run Pictures' animators relied heavily on Autodesk's Maya Fluid Effects software and Mental Ray rendering to generate the 3K x 3K resolution frames needed by the multi-projector systems used to fill the dome with an immersive "you are there" view.

Interior views of the P3 aircraft featured a fully detailed model of the plane's cockpit and research areas complete with working switches and guages. The immersive fulldome view allows the audience to feel as if they are riding right in the cockpit as the plane flies through the storm giving the viewer the experience of being there with the researchers.

While the P3 flies at a high altitude gathering data and deploying small sensors, remotely controled drones fly close to the ocean's rolling waves to safely gather data there without risking human life in the violent weather forces hurricanes are made of. This sequence, part of the "Force Five" extreme weather show, was funded by a NASA grant to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and Rice Unuversity. The show also included sequences on thunderstorms, tornados and solar storms.

Click here for Quicktime movie of Hurricane Hunters sequence