NCSA and the eDREAM Institute present what may be your last chance to see Terrence Malick's award-winning film "The Tree of Life" on a giant cinema screen. The cinematographic masterpiece includes scenes created by the Advanced Visualization Laboratory, a team based here in Champaign-Urbana at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The event will include a talk by the visualization team and a Q&A. The event was created by Tugg, a company that works with theaters to show films as long as a minimum audience size can be reached. 

Reserve your ticket through the Tugg website as soon as possible to ensure the event can happen! http://tugg.com/events/512

The LA Times blog, Company Town THE BUSINESS BEHIND THE SHOW, featured AVL work on the Tree of Life in their coverage of the 2012 Oscar coverage. Cristy Lytal spoke with AVL director, Donna Cox about NCSA's Advanced Visualization Lab and the group's work on the film. 

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A growing collection of debris is orbiting the earth, creating hazards that jeopardize both space exploration and the satellite network that powers modern communication systems. These cluttered orbits are the subject of the new film "Space Junk 3D," which features data-driven scientific visualizations created by NCSA's Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL).

"Since no actual images exist of the most spectacular orbital debris events," explains director Melissa Butts, "we set out to recreate them with scientific accuracy and mind-blowing visualization."

Building on previous animations developed for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope project , AVL created two sequences based on scientific data from computer simulations. The first shows the evolution of filamentary structure in the early universe, using data from Princeton astrophysicists Renyue Cen and Jeremiah Ostriker. The second features a dramatic collision of galaxies created based on simulations conducted by Brant Robertson at the University of Arizona.

"Not only is it cinematic, but it's in 3D, and it's pretty powerful to see these galaxies coming at you, and filling the screen and the room," Butts says.

The AVL team designed these scenes using their ultra-high-resolution 3D visualization environment and two key pieces of software they have developed: Virtual Director for interactive scene design and Amore for rendering both volume and particle data. They also used one of NCSA's supercomputers to complete computationally demanding tasks by the production deadline.

"It's a real treat to be asked to participate in the making of 'Space Junk 3D'," says Bob Patterson, AVL senior research artist. "It's an opportunity to contribute cinematic scientific visualization to a giant screen science documentary to tell the larger story of natural phenomena in the cosmos."

"Space Junk 3D" opens beginning Jan. 13 in IMAX® and other giant screen theaters in 2D and 3D.

"Space Junk 3D" is presented by Melrae Pictures, in association with Red Barn Productions. Produced by Melissa Butts and Kimberly Rowe. Distributed globally by K2 Communications, the 38-minute film is available in both 3D and 2D, for Giant Screen and Digital Theaters. For more information, including theater locations, see www.spacejunk3d.com .

AVL team members
Donna Cox
Robert Patterson
Stuart Levy
Matthew Hall

Creating 3D Technology for the Sake of Science.

Date Oct 31, 2011
Time 4:00 pm  
Location 2405 Siebel Center
Sponsor CS @ ILLINOIS and eDream

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In terms of aesthetics, CG character animation has become a victim of its own success.Twenty years ago, recreating human beings in virtual 3D space was a fantasy, a "Holy Grail" of computer animation. Today, that fantasy is a reality that surrounds us in films, games, and even TV commercials.

The modeling, animation and rendering of characters as photorealistic human substitutes has become almost commonplace in popular culture. But, an unintended side effect of this success is that audiences are largely alienated from, not attracted to, these characters. This seeming paradox is often called the "Uncanny Valley". The Uncanny Valley is a consequence of a very basic but incredibly refined human acuity–perceiving honesty, or the lack of it, when we observe people.

The photorealistic characters in many contemporary CG-animated films are not honest. They pretend to be real humans, but we can feel that they're not: their eyes don't move properly, their movements are slightly too fluid. We instinctively realize weíre being hoodwinked, and we stop trusting.

In Chris' films Bingo, Ryan and The Spine, he's dangled his feet over the Uncanny Valley and sometimes fallen into it. From his experience in creating these films, he will be sharing my observations about realism, believability, empathy and trust in CG character animation.

About Chris Landreth
Chris received an MS in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois in 1986; but before long, the siren call of Art beckoned.  So in 1989,  Chris studied Computer Animation under Prof. Donna Cox, at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).  This period of time doomed Chris to a lifetime obsession with this field.

Illinois scientific visualization teams helps show impact of "The Great Flood" for premiere at ELLNORA

September 10, 2011, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Members of the Illinois Emerging Digital Research and Education in Arts Media Institute (eDream) and the Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) collaborated with Obie-winning experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison on "The Great Flood," a 75-minute multimedia work of original music and film inspired by the 1927 Mississippi River floods, creating data-driven visualizations of the Mississippi River Valley showing the extent of the destructive floodwaters.

"The Great Flood" premieres on Sept. 10 at ELLNORA | The Guitar Festival at the University of Illinois' Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Full Press Release

This early parameter study shows an exploration by AVL and Dan Glass of the Volker Bromm supernova data with added density and detail layers. After further visual development, final high resolution layers were provided to Double Negative Visual Effects, London for further processing.

Filmmaker Terrence Malick is often praised for the beauty of his films and their resonance with nature. Roger Ebert talks about his "painterly images." For Janet Maslin, it's his "visual genius" and his "intoxication with natural beauty." In Malick's new movie, "The Tree of Life," some of that natural beauty came from an unlikely source—the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

NCSA's Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) has enlivened documentary television and IMAX movies for years. But their contribution to "The Tree of Life" marks the center's first work in a feature film. And perhaps the first time that a scientific supercomputer simulation has appeared in a feature.

"In 2006, we started discussing the film with Terrence Malick and his team. We began to explore how NCSA could employ state-of-the-art supercomputer science to help create an experience beyond what any other film could provide," says Donna Cox, who leads NCSA's AVL.

"Cosmic events are powerful visual metaphors for the human condition, and we wanted to combine accurate science with artistic sensitivity."

Signed poster from Terrence Malick thanking NCSA.

For "The Tree of Life," the AVL team collaborated with Malick, Dan Glass (visual effects supervisor), and others to create two animated visualizations that are based on scientific data. The collaborative journey included exploring the data and testing a variety of camera moves, visual looks, and approaches. The NCSA team also developed new software to add detail and realism.

"Donna and her team at NCSA were terrific to work with, bringing heart and soul to the scientific visualizations. We collaborated closely over many months to design the shots in question, deeply respecting the underlying science while shaping it into emotional imagery," Glass says.

One visualization shows an awe-inspiring flight through a highly detailed galaxy model created at NCSA.

Shown here is an early version of the NCSA University of Illinois Milky Way galaxy model. AVL worked directly with Dan Glass to customize the flight and visual settings for the "The Tree of Life" shot.

The team also visualized a supercomputer simulation by Volker Bromm, an astronomy professor at the University of Texas at Austin. It shows how the very first stars appeared, illuminating the previously dark universe. Bromm simulated this event at the Texas Advanced Computing Center on their Ranger supercomputer over the course of 42 days. The calculation would have taken 114 years on your laptop. The results of the simulation are so significant that they were published in Astrophysical Journal last year.

AVL took the scientific data and turned it into visualizations for "The Tree of Life." AVL's Stuart Levy processed the simulation results and extracted features that they chose to make visually prominent. Alex Betts developed custom capabilities for using scientific data to visualize cosmic gas and dust with great realism. Bob Patterson orchestrated the camera move and the design of the visualization.

They worked on a cluster of computers dedicated to the AVL with about 200 processors. When they needed more power, they used NCSA's 9,600-processor supercomputer, called Abe.

"Scientific visualization helps to infuse 'The Tree of Life' with an authenticity that goes beyond any other movie," Cox says. "We've employed the most advanced supercomputing, networking, and visualization technologies to bring some of the compelling, ferocious beauty of the universe to the big screen."

"Cox and Patterson are the hosts of filmmakers Paul Fierlinger and Sandra Schuette Fierlinger, who together made the animated movie, "My Dog Tulip," to be shown at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, April 28 at the Virginia Theatre, the main venue for Ebertfest, a special event of the UI College of Media."

Link to full article.

Dynamic Earth Hurricane Katrina simulation excerpt from Spitz Inc on Vimeo.

Dynamic Earth program information