Back in May 2011 we completed work on a project involving a massive high resolution video display.

This is a breakdown movie, illustrating the processes and resolution involved in producing ‘Making Space Work’ and a selection of scenes from the show.

Making Space Work

Client: ISIC, STFC
Duration: 14 Minutes
Resolution: 9536 x 3072
Format: Video Wall

One of NSC Creative’s main areas of business involves creating high resolution video that exceeds all modern day standards. ‘Making Space Work’ is a real testament to that; with an ultra high resolution of 29 mega pixels it provides a mind blowing experience that immerses the viewer in a world of data and stunning imagery of our planet.

ISIC

The International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) is the first facility of its kind in Europe. ISIC has been created to facilitate collaboration between industry, national laboratories, academia and government. It works to enable the UK to maximise and exploit opportunities in space research and technology.

The Story

NSC Creative worked closely with ISIC and the partners involved to discuss how to communicate the scale of their objectives. Using real imagery provided by ESA, DMCii, The Met Office and other Space industries, the team set out to explain the meaning and worth of space innovation and how we can benefit from developments in this industry.

The in-house space communication team at the National Space Centre worked alongside the pre-production team to create a compelling narrative that would compliment a visually immersive experience whilst retaining scientific integrity. “We are uniquely placed within the National Space Centre, with a team of science communicators and educators on hand” comments Paul Mowbray, Producer at NSC Creative. “When working of these kinds of projects, the science needs to be accurate but presented in a way which is easy to understand by the desired audience.”

The Challenge

NSC Creative’s role wasn’t only to create two exciting videos to communicate the mission of ISIC. It was to take advantage of their state of the art 28 LCD panel array to deliver the videos at ultra high resolution. Each panel in the array has a resolution of 1366×768, which gives a total resolution of 9562×3072. This is a staggering 14 times the resolution of a standard Blu-Ray film. As with any high resolution project, the challenge isn’t only a matter of more pixels to fill but how to take advantage of that resolution creatively. From storyboard through to concept artwork many considerations were made to create an overall experience of the video and several layers of detail that could be explored only when seeing it at full resolution.

“One of the biggest challenges we faced was getting the show to work as a whole and also when viewed close up.” Ian Smith, Concept Artist.

A resolution comparison of formats showing the immense resolution of the video wall. Click the image to see a full-res image.

Another aspect of the show was to use real data from the partner companies involved in the UK space industry. Vast amounts of data are seen throughout the video, from weather and climate simulations to disaster monitoring and sea surface temperatures. This required a huge amount of coordination between the scientists and creatives working on the project to ensure data imagery was used in the appropriate places. The team worked with scientists from the University of Leicester to interface with a network of scientist around the country to gain access to data that would otherwise be inaccessible via the web.

“It was important to understand the data we were given. When selecting the correct image for the shot you have to weigh up what works best visually with what best demonstrates the point” Said Liam Wardle, CG Artist. “You have to know what satellites, study what science, before you can apply that data visually to a scene”

The Result

The final result is two videos that provide an insight into the space industry, and a privileged look at the data we are collecting from our planet in immense detail. Not only does this demonstrate the dynamic and complex environment we live in, it also captures the fragility of Earth and the importance of the work ISIC is doing to safeguard our planet for future generations.