SURFACE EXPLORATIONS

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THE SEARCH FOR LIFE

I have been fascinated by images of the moon and other planets captured by NASA satellites for as long as I remember. I began utilizing them in my work to create displacement and normal maps to be used within cinema 4d. I work with a variety of renderers including Arnold, Octane, and Redshift. Originally my studies were done with Arnold because of the level of detail and accuracy within the renders. However, for this exploration I used Octane to generate my images because of its speed and ease of use.

This original exploration of displacement maps quickly escalated in to a more complex study. I let my imagination take me down a path of these “micro moons” being views of planets. Humans had stopped looking at the vastness of space and were focused on the tiny details of natural satellites. They were searching for bits of life on these gigantic planets. The scan lines are slowly criss crossing the surface while bits of data are simultaneously being sent back to the mothership. The bits of data and the scan lines coexist and work together in the search.

In its most basic and rudimentary concept this short film is nothing more than an exploration of displacement maps. However, I prefer to think of these “micro moons” as holding a key to our future.

SFX: Jason Klos