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Tree of Life TUGG event

April 19th, 2012

tree of life, terrence malik

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

LA Times features AVL work on Tree of Life

February 27th, 2012

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. 

full article

Creating 3D Technology for the Sake of Science

November 30th, 2011

Local television show C.I. Living featured members of the Advanced Visualization Laboratory in a recent episode. Joe Barlow spoke with team members Robert Patterson, Stuart Levy & A.J. Christensen about the science & art of 3-D visualization.

Creating 3D Technology for the Sake of Science.

Cox & Patterson host Ebertfest guests

April 28th, 2011

AVL/eDream director Donna Cox and Bob Patterson volunteer as host for Ebertfest guests.

"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.

AVL Katrina vis featured

March 24th, 2011

A new visualization showing the dramatic evolution of hurricane Katrina, the storm that wreaked havoc along the east coast of the US in August 2005; created by Advanced Visualization Laboratory, is featured on the blog, New Scientist TV and on the NCSA homepage.  The animation is part of a full-length planetarium film called Dynamic Earth which explores the inner workings of the Earth's climate engine.

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

Dynamic Earth program information

Turning Scientific Data into Cinema

January 24th, 2011

PopSci, the online arm of Popular Science magazine, highlights cinematic aspects in the work of the Advanced Visualization Lab.

In his article, Clay Dillow, features AVL's unique combinaton of science and art.

"Those productions aren’t born simply of creativity but of complex computational science, and at that intersection the AVL has found a comfortable role. Tapping the supercomputing power at its disposal at the University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications (the mythical birthplace of HAL 9000), the AVL can make sense of massive data sets that others cannot, making it among the best in the world at turning complex data into science-driven cinematic art."

Link to Full Article

Bigger is better at CineGrid International Workshop

January 5th, 2011

At the CineGrid International Workshop on Dec. 14, 2010, Robert Patterson & Donna Cox presented “Scientific Visualization: domes, large-format, 3D”.  Their talk was part of the panel discussion "Bigger is Better: Large Digital Pictures"  – moderated by Larry Smarr, Calit2.

Scientific Visualization in Domes and Large Format 3D
photo courtesy: Tom DeFanti

 

The workshop was hosted by the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

CineGrid is a non-profit international membership organization administratively based in California. Its mission is to build an interdisciplinary community that is focused on the research, development, and demonstration of networked collaborative tools to enable the production, use and exchange of very-high-quality digital media over photonic networks.

 

Bringing cinematic science to CyberInfrastructure Days

December 2nd, 2010

At CyberInfrastructure Days http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/cidays/index.cfm, eDream director Donna Cox presents the keynote, 'Hubble3D – IMAX movie and Data Visualization for Public Outreach. She will show NCSA Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) collaborative scientific visualization projects for museum and movie outreach. She will focus on the 'making of' the Hubble3D IMAX movie in collaboration with the Space Telescope Sciences Institute (STsI) and IMAX corporation.

AVL scientifically translated, modeled and rendered STsI high-resolution two-dimensional Hubble imagery into three-dimensional virtual spatial tours for an IMAX stereo movie. AVL collaborated with the IMAX Director, Toni Myers (Blue Planet, Destiny in Space) who flew to NCSA to work with the team to design and choreograph the virtual flights. AVL used clusters, 4K stereo system, and an Illinois supercomputer to render nearly 25% of the movie in stereo at over 5K pixels per stereo eye. Hubble3D" IMAX film is narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio and was released April 2010. It has been translated into more than 14 languages and shown to more than three million people world-wide. ("Hubble3D" material copyrighted by IMAX corporation and Warner Bros)
http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/News/10/0317NCSAvisualizations.html

Sharing the Glory: Hubble 3D IMAX Wins Three GSCA Cinema Awards

October 5th, 2010

Hubble 3D IMAX has won three Giant Screen Cinema Association Awards (2010) for Best Film Produced Exclusively For Giant Screen Theaters, Lifelong Learning, and Cinematography.  GSCA's Lifelong Learning award criteria are:

      (a) The educational program shall originate from the giant screen film utilizing exhibits, educational materials, and other media or materials.
      (b) The educational program enhances and introduces new perspectives for films, exhibits, educational materials, and other means or materials.
      (c) The educational program uses familiar starting points, but stretches viewer interests and extends their knowledge.
      (d) The educational program motivates viewer interest in the film's topic and related subject matter.
      (e) The educational program is entertaining and compelling.
      (f) The educational program provides a variety of experiences to meet the needs of viewers of different ages and from different backgrounds.
      (g) The educational program contains an effective educational component identifying resources for further learning.
      (h) If applicable, the educational program reaches out to diverse ethnic/racial groups, world cultures.

AVL is truly pround to have contributed to this IMAX Warner Bros. production that shares scientific knowledge with the public so memorably and meaningfully.

 

"Hubble 3D\" ©2010 Warner Bros. Courtesy of Warner Bros. and IMAX Corporation"

Creating a Buzz in Computer Graphic World

August 17th, 2010

AVL's work in Black Holes is featured in a July 2010 Computer Graphic World (CGW 33.7) article on "Scientific Visualization" by Karen Moltenbray.