Nation Geographic Channel’s Alien Earths, created by director/producer Dana Berry of Skyworks Digital, has been nominated for an Emmy® in the category of Outstanding Animated Program. Point 360 West and animation director Jason Hearne, as well as animation director Dave Jerrard of Radical 3D, worked with Berry creating stunning animated effects of Super Novas and exploding planets adrift in the universe. The nominations were announced early July 8 2010. This nomination puts National Geographic Channel (NGC) up against heavy hitters in the animation field. Alien Earths contends with Disney’s Prep and Landing, HBO’s The Ricky Gervais Show, Fox’s The Simpsons, and Comedy Central’s Southpark.
The idea behind the show was to stretch our imagination and ponder the existence of other planets in the universe that were similar to our own, such as planets with iron rain and hot ice, with diamonds everywhere, and endless oceans of gas. Planets with abnormal orbital patterns and planets with no pattern at all that drift alone in the Milky Way. Planets so strange we never could have predicted them before. Planets so bizarre that they could have identical habitable environments and support life?
Edited with a mixture of interviews from astronomers and geologists, the show primarily centers on strong visuals of planets with their seemingly uninhabitable surfaces and conditions. In usual NGC style, the footage is realistic and ominous, yet beautiful and exalting. For example through the use of CGI, NGC helps us imagine a planet that gets thrust out of its solar system and caught by another. This event can cause a prodigious effect on it’s environment. The gravitational pull of the new host star slings the planet around and propels it into an elliptical orbit. The planet becomes what is otherwise known as a “Yo Yo Planet” for the back and forth motion it makes to it’s new sun. The effect that is produced on the planet is severe cold and unimaginable heat. But within 93 million miles from the star, roughly the same distance as the Earth from the sun, what is known as the “Goldilocks Zone” provides comfortable temperatures for the planet and activates lakes, oceans, streams, rivers, and waterfalls. The surface of “Yo Yo” becomes extremely familiar in those pockets of Spring and Fall. With the Hubble-Telescope-like animation it’s easily understandable how life could be sustainable here.
Skyworks Digital first began work with Point 360 West on a documentary for the Hubble Space Telescope in 2007 where the association blossomed into a full vendor relationship that culminated in the creation of Alien Earths. When Berry first approached West about Earths, the show was called Infinite Worlds. “The concept of creating unstable planets for national broadcast was exciting and provocative”, recalls Hearne. “Other than shows for SyFy, how often do animators get to create other worlds, and then blow them up with neutron stars!”
The pseudo reality form of the show did not allow for much wiggle room however. To maintain the National Geographic standard of excellence, the images required almost photographic quality and could not be too outrageous. With the right tools and team, the expected product could be delivered. Skyworks worked with West and Radical 3D to produce the newly nominated footage. The software used was Autodesk’s Maya, Maxon’s Cinema 4D, and Adobe After Effects for additional compositing. With advances in this software and the teams knowledgeable execution of high bit resolution rendering for HD output, the expectations of NGC were exceeded.
Be sure to watch the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy® Awards Ceremony on NBC, 8-11 PM ET August 29 2010.
The Emmy Nominees: Dana Berry, Dave Jerrard, Jason Hearne
ABOUT Skyworks Digital:
Skyworks Digital is a Privately held company that specializes in the creation of computer generated animation of space. Skyworks works closely with NASA.
ABOUT POINT.360 (NASDAQ,PTSX):
Point.360 (PTSX) is a multifaceted post production solution with multiple facilities to handle all aspects of film and television.
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