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Before IMAX went mainsteam and expanded into movie theater chains throughout the country to present big-budget epic movies to the masses, it was a tool used to show nature and space documentaries at science museums. It's still used for that, but it doesn't seem as much these days. I remember taking field trips to the Science Museum in Downtown Los Angeles when I was in elementary school and Jr. High to see some of those documentaries, and I always loved it. I actually recently saw the documentary Hubble there, which contained some pretty mind blowing stuff.
There's now a new documentary for the epic IMAX experience called In Saturn's Rings, and there's a new trailer that is watchable in 4K. The film was directed by Stephen van Vuuren, and it features millions of photos of Saturn. None of the images included in the doc were aided with the help of CGI or visual effects. This is the real thing, and it's awe-inspiring.
Here's some information on how the filmmaker ended up bringing these images to life on the big screen. It actually went through a pretty interesting process.
The film is 100% created using only flat 2D photographs (often hundreds or thousands per frame) stitched together for massive hundred megapixel+ resolutions that are scaled and zoomed using techniques developed by the filmmaker, based on Ken Burns and 2.5D photo animation processes.
A computer is actually not even required to do this – it could all be done exactly using photoanimation techniques from 100 years ago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoani…).
No 3D models, texture mapping, 3D CGI, camera projection, cloning or painting or any other VFX techniques are used – every pixel is what was captured in the photograph. The photographs are processed as minimally as possible – much less than your average Instagram photo.
The movie is set to be released sometime next spring. Now watch the awesomeness of the trailer for yourself!
