In this edition of our Home Run Pictures' "Inside the Production" page, the creation of a Saturn V launch in the immersive fulldome format, specifically the Apollo 11 mission will be detailed.
INTRODUCTION:
We always wanted to do a rocket launch in fulldome, but seeing what had been created over the years gave us some concern. You want to be close up, but avoid losing the "suspension of disbelief" because something gives away that it's an animation. Expensive movie visual effects have generally solved that problem but they are only dealing with a quick viewing and definitely not a 360 degree immersive one. Most daunting was the need to do the huge launch pad exhaust plume in a realistic way and not have it look like 3D rendered shaving cream. But then seeing some recent Hollywood films accomplish the effect very sucessfully gave us hope that the latest software was more capable of creating something in the 360 degree fulldome format as well.
GATHERING THE MODELS AND LANDSCAPE TEXTURES:
First task was to get a good models of the Saturn V rocket and Pad39A at the Kennedy Space Center. There were several available as beautifully detailed stock models, but unfortunately not in the required format for our Maya pipeline. But we were able to eventually piece together the various elements needed.
The NASA Pad39A at the Kennedy Space Center is still in use today.
The models we acquired needed to be modified somewhat to match the pad's appearance in 1969. Landscape imagery available from Google Earth only went back about 20 years so some Photoshop touchup was going to be needed to be able to allow use of the more recent imagery that was of a much better quality and resolution.
Google Earth landscape around Pad39A and adjustments to the launch pad itself since modifications for use as a Shuttle launch area had been made as well as other newer launch vehicles.
The large finished tiles were layered with more detailed ones close in and lessor versions off in the distance. [Clouds seen here were a separate created layer we will describe later]
USING FLUID EFFECTS SOFTWARE TO CREATE ROCKET EXHAUST, PLUMES AND CLOUD LAYERS:
Animating the rocket would not be much work at all since... well, it accelerates and goes up. But the exhaust from the five big Rocketdyne F1 engines used by the Saturn V and the plume created by the launch pad's side channels would be the most difficult challenge. There would also be some lessor challenges with the ice particles and vapors that are part of any rocket launch if you want to get close to a realistic look. Since we were hoping for a dramatic fulldome "you are there" view of the Saturn V as it climbs up through the clouds, we needed to create a cloud layer for that to happen also.
Our client initially suggested we use the "Firstman" movie that was playing in their Giant Screen theater as a guide for the sequence. In the movie the launch scenes are mostly real NASA footage enhanced for their wide rectangular framed use, but since we were working in an immersive projection, that footage would not work directly. Initially trying to follow what was in the movie, we discovered that they had used footage that was actually not Apollo 11, but a later launch. So the thick overcast clouds in a more late day launch timeframe was dramatic in the film, but not really accurate as we desired [Apollo 11 launched at 9:30 in the morning in a rather clear blue sky with clouds off to the north]. So we took a little creative license and staged the scene in a way that was more true, yet still had the dramatic quality we desired. One scene we definitely wanted was something that was impossible for NASA to have shot back then... that of following the rocket up as if we were, I guess you could say, a camera on a drone following along side as opposed to the telescopic lens views that were only possible.
Using Maya Particle and Fluid EFX tools we first created the rockets exhaust from the five big first stage engines. This was a particle script with Fluid texturing and physics dynamics controlling the shape and motion. A similar approach was used for the vapor and ice "flakes" dropping off the side of the rocket from the cold propellant tanks.
Here is a look at the launch pad view with the various particle scripts highlited. The camera at the bottom is for the initial view of watching the engines ignite, a view filling the dome above the viewers.
A wide-view of the first scene from below as the engines ignite...
As mentioned the most challenging effect was the plumes shooting off from the side of the pad, and a totally Maya Fluid EFX technique was used with various forces dynamically applied to get the desired shape and motion. This was rendered separately and composited in to the final scene along with the rocket's thrust, the ice and vapor effects. Render times for the plume was for later frames when filling the fulldome view, 10-15 hours per frame.
Fluid EFX used for the plumes needed to be cached to allow rendering on multiple CPUs to match.
Volume light objects were placed to colorize the "heat" effects during a launch.
Again, Fluid EFX was used to create layers of clouds as the rocket rises... a high up long shot with the terrain around the pad as if a camera was possibly on a helicoptor a few miles away. The horizon can be seen along with the Atlantic Ocean off to the East. And then, dramatically, an impossible view with real life cameras, following the rocket up through the clouds as it heads towards orbit.
View in the software showing the cloud layers...
The long shot of the pad area and the follow-up as clouds float by view...
And the final view mimicking the NASA telescopic imagery captured showing the vapor cone formed when the rocket reaches the sound barrier. In the finished scenes, camera shake was introduced to add some real camera feel to the sequence.
Rendering was at 4K x 4K with dozens of layers created separately and composited for the final.
That completes another Home Run Pictures' "Inside the Production." If you would like more information on the Apollo 11 Saturn V launch sequence , just give me a call or drop me an email. The sequence is available to license to planetariums for their own Apollo 11 50th aniversary presentations.
-TC
CLICK TO VIEW A MOVIE OF THE FINAL SEQUENCE