Earth & Moon - A Tribute to Artemis
The Artemis Launch
A few weeks before NASA’s Artemis-I launch in 2022, I wanted to celebrate space exploration in a quick-turnaround social media post. This expression began with creating the most photorealistic Earth and Moon visuals I could render, paired with satellite imagery of the Bay Area, as I was working on-site at Intrepid Studios during this time. The end composition was a drone shot out from Intrepid Studios transitioning to Earth, and resolving with the Moon through the shadow-play.
Lighting/Texturing of Earth and Atmosphere
References: NASA’s Blue Marble Project (2002)
NASA’s Blue Marble collection was used extensively for both reference and use of topology and bathymetry. The Blue Marble imagery allowed me to assemble the texture and detail of Earth, as well as create an accurate volumetric representation of the atmosphere. Specifically, these references helped me in creating a functional light tracing solution to the hue shift that occurs during the ‘sunset’ experience of the atmosphere. The moon was also developed using the height maps provided from NASA’s extensive library of Moon imagery and scans.
