NASA Space Shots Inspire This Brilliant Video Of Universal Wonders

Moons pass by Saturn’s rings. An eclipse takes place on Jupiter. We see these shots every day in images from space agencies, but how would it be to actually float in a nearby spacecraft and watch these in action?

An incredible new Vimeo video called “Space Suite” shows off what it actually could be like. And here’s the neat thing — it is heavily based on those very same jaw-dropping shots space agencies regularly release.

“I created the video above as a visual proof-of-concept for a project I’m currently working on with Two Story Productions. The project relies heavily on space visuals, and I wanted to demonstrate that compelling footage could be created quickly and easily by mining the impressive image libraries of NASA (and others) for stunning photography, and then bringing them to life with simple 3d ‘tricks’,” wrote creator Lucas Green in a blog post last week.

Editor’s note: It has come to our attention that some of the visuals used in this video were taken from previously pre-processed files by Stephen van Vuuren, who used a painstaking proprietary method for creating the feature I-MAX Film, “In Saturn’s Rings.” The files were acquired and re-purposed by Lucas Green, without permission.

Green has now added notation on his webpage that ” In addition to the libraries of NASA and ESA, some of the more striking imagery was created by Stephen van Vuuren, who meticulously stitched together thousands of raw images to use in his film ‘In Saturn’s Rings’. Watch some clips on his website – his work makes ‘Space Suite’ look like a fuzzy picture on an old television screen.”

“In Saturn’s Rings” is still in production, scheduled for release this year, and Universe Today will provide updates on the film.

“The demo footage probably won’t make it into the final project, so I wanted to show it off here, and give a short breakdown of some of my favorite shots. All of the imagery in the video is sourced directly from actual photographs, with minimal retouching. Most of the shots make use of photogrammetry, or ‘projection-mapping’, in order to rapidly block out the source images as virtual scenes.”

His blog includes details of the shots he chose and how he converted them to the incredible 3-D effects you can see in the video above. Enjoy!