Firefly fans inside NASA? by Catalyzer

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Firefly fans inside NASA?

POSTED BY: CATALYZER
UPDATED: Saturday, February 7, 2004 11:41
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Friday, February 6, 2004 7:54 PM

Sorry if this has been discussed in the past, but when I was poking around NASA's marsrover site I found this quicktime movie (warning 4MB file): http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/video/movies/RoverAnimPart2.mov

Watching it I saw a number of similarities to Firefly with regards to the CGI work. (focusing, camera following object, air buffetting, zooming, Newton's rings)

Got me thinkin' that there might be some Firefly fans within NASA.

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Friday, February 6, 2004 9:07 PM

ZAPHODB

Maybe Zoic did some of the movie sims for JPL.

Industrial Looniee & Madness - http://www3.telus.net/vchrusch

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Saturday, February 7, 2004 9:03 AM

JASONZZZ

Well. the credits give us

"Dan Maas" as the Animator.
"Steve Squyres" as the Tech Consultant.

And looks like the rendering is done at Cornell.

See if we know anyone who works at Nasa, have them contact Dan Maas (hopefully he is a Nasa proper employee and not one of the myriads of different contractors) and bring him here for 10 questions.

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Saturday, February 7, 2004 9:07 AM

JASONZZZ

I doubt that they would bring in a complete commercial company for this contract. First of all, JPL probably wouldn't pay pennies for the subcontract; second, there are plenty of academic institutions in those circles (working with JPL) with the rendering capabilities to do these simple stuff. But that doesn't mean that the same people didn't work on the same kinda equipment though. Graphics rendering and working on supercomputers tend to be a *small circle* of friends.

Quote:
Originally posted by ZaphodB:
Maybe Zoic did some of the movie sims for JPL.

Industrial Looniee & Madness - http://www3.telus.net/vchrusch]

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Saturday, February 7, 2004 9:09 AM

DORAN

No, Dan Maas is a well known Lightwave user that has been doing Nasa animation for sometime. Zoic is pretty new. Most of the artist at Zoic came from Foundation Imaging, the folk who brought us the original B5 and Starship Trooper Roughneck stuff. They're all a talented bunch of guys.

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Saturday, February 7, 2004 10:02 AM

ZAPHODB

I wasn't being serious about my response when I posted it. I know JPL and NASA do most of the sims in house, so to speak.

Industrial Looniee & Madness - http://www3.telus.net/vchrusch

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Saturday, February 7, 2004 11:41 AM

MISGUIDED BY VOICES

Well, there are a few SF fans over at NASA - and as I recall, JPL were brought in to assist with making the worlds seem "real" on Crusade. And there was talk of them looking at the Starfury designs really closely.

"I threw up on your bed"

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