The Art of Space: Planets and Moons

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The craft of creating planet visuals started in the production of our science-fiction film “Syntactic Labyrinths”. Syntactic Labyrinths is a 3D animated short film—every frame you see is made on the computer. This means that we had to recreate every planet of the solar system from the ground up in 3D. 

Thanks to the lovely folks at NASA we were able to access a variety of datasets that would help us in creating 3D-renders of space at a new level of realism. By building physically-accurate systems inside of the computer we gained the flexibility to place the camera anywhere we wanted, with the settings of our choice and we would get a consistent result every time. 

But there is quite a bit that goes into creating art of space. 

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Cinematography in Space

Space cinematography is a craft in itself. In reality, planets are giant orbs floating in relative nothingness. From a lighting perspective we are dealing with an incredibly strong and harsh light source, our sun. While everything that is not directly lit by the sun is surrounded by total darkness. 

Compositionally, there is only so much you can do with a sphere. However, each planet has key points of interest that, in different times of day, can look completely different. For us this meant taking on the role of a nature photographer. 

With an accurate setup we are given the freedom to search and discover the right frame. And for each planet in our solar system we looked for something special that evokes the natural beauty of that planet. 

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Planet Earth 

Starting off at home, planet Earth is arguably the most complicated planet of our solar system to render in 3D. Due to a living biosphere and a highly complex landscape and atmosphere, planet Earth requires lots of bespoke systems to look right. It is the first planet we attempted to recreate for Syntactic Labyrinths—and we’re still improving it as we speak. 

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Although we don’t currently have any planet Earth prints available, there are countless Earth visuals to be found on our website. All of these visuals have been made with our 3D setup called Earth Digital, which is free to Download for those who want to play with it themselves. 

You only need Cinema 4D and Chaos Corona Renderer for the setup to work for you. 

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The Moon

Even though we have not yet created art prints of planet Earth, we did create them for our satellite, the moon. This was mainly a challenge of data-management. The satellite and topography data we used resulted in multiple 92K texture maps. That is 92.000 pixels wide, about 50 times the resolution of your average computer screen. 

However, this amount of data was crucial to extract the detailed craters and surface imperfections our moon has. This blog explains all the technical details of how our Moon set-up was created in 3D. 

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Our moon prints were exhibited in combination with a video art installation. The Time and Space exhibition showcases the moon slowly going through all of her phases and allows for a moment of rest and meditation. This video art experience asks the viewer to actively perceive time while seeing the cosmic clock changing right in front of them. 

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Venus

The brightest planet in our solar system is Venus. In a physically accurate setup this comes with a whole set of unique challenges. After framing the planet in the compositions we wanted it was time to expose the shot. However, due to the extreme brightness one has to choose whether to expose to the planet surface (thus eliminating all the stars from the image), to the stars (completely over-exposing the planet into a big glow) or attempting to find a middle ground. 

With lots of tweaking and just the right camera settings and time of day we managed to get some detail onto the planet while still seeing a few stars. This contrast helps to truly showcase how bright Venus really is. 

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I have to briefly mention the importance of high-dynamic range stars for those who want to attempt creating realistic space shots. Stars are relatively dim compared to the sun. They are almost infinitely far away, so the light that reaches us is very weak. To achieve bright stars when exposing up and almost no stars when exposing down, we created a HDR Star Asset Pack which you can Download from our Resources page. 

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Mars

When we look at “the Red Planet”, Mars, the first iconic location we had to capture is the Valles Marineris. This canyon creates a sharp and distinct pattern in the middle of the desert landscape. And especially when the planet is fading into the shadow, the Valles Marineris catches the light in a unique and beautiful way. 

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For the Mars art prints we decided two very different designs. The first composition showcases the Valles Marineris in a close-up of Mars. For the second composition we decided on a backlit planet, subtly showcasing the craters and patterns on its backside. 

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Jupiter

The largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, is nothing but impressive. Its many moons and gaseous atmosphere makes it a wonderful subject to capture in 3D. 

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What we noticed is that the further we travel away from the sun in our solar system, the weaker the sunlight becomes. There is actually quite a measurable difference between the sunlight’s intensity at Venus and Neptune for example.

This gives us the choice to compensate for the loss of light by opening up the aperture, letting more light into the lens. Thus not only getting a brighter exposure on the planet, but also revealing more of the stars in the background.  

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Saturn 

Over the years we’ve made hundreds of space renders. And every time, there is something new to learn and to appreciate. Saturn is one of those planets that has such iconic natural beauty, that it can be fired up on Chaos Corona and very quickly you’ll get a beautiful render.

The art prints we created for Saturn are especially important to me on a personal level. As they are an exploration of my foundational skills as a graphic designer and the pursuit of natural cinematography at Blauw Films. 

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Saturn is a very special planet. So special in fact that there is a whole history of the cultural meaning of planet Saturn about which we wrote a blog as well. 

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Uranus

As mentioned before, the further away we get from the sun, sunlight gets visibly weaker. In the case of Uranus, the sunlight is about 400x weaker than on Earth.

If we keep the star-light values consistent with the other renders—and open up the aperture, we get to see a softly lit Uranus with bright stars in the background.

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Uranus also has a multitude of faint rings around the planet. These ring rings are almost invisible to the naked eye and they required quite a bit of experimentation to become just visible enough for the art prints. 

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Neptune

The bright blue Neptune is the furthest away planet in our solar system. Creating planets for Syntactic Labyrinths is all about creating a natural sense of grandeur. 

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A lot of it is based on feeling. And exploration is the most important aspect in the process of making art in space. With practice, experimentation and taking a moment to put yourself in the frame of mind of “being in space” you start seeing the planet as a beautiful subject ready to be captured. 

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Mercury and Pluto

And now there are only two planets left. Or one planet and one…Pluto. These are the only planets for which we still have to build an accurate setup—after which we will most definitely explore them in a series of art prints :) 

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Shop our Planet Art Prints

We offer a selection of planet art as art prints in our Store. You probably have an empty wall in your room or apartment that would benefit from a bit of space (pun intended). Nothing really beats gazing at a faraway planet. 

Need ideas on how to display prints in your home? We put together Five Things to Consider when hanging Art Prints in your Home.

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Our prints are Giclée art prints, printed on museum-grade, 310 g Hahnemühle paper, which makes sure that the colours do not fade over time. This is essential as these artworks contain lots of tiny details. In this blog you can learn more about storing and archiving art prints.

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And I’ll let you in on a little secret… With every print purchase we add a free 5K screensaver version of the print. You can really zoom in and see all the details on these images. These Free to Download 5K wallpapers showcase the detail that our planets are capable of.

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