VISITOR ATTRACTIONS
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By branching out into other fields such as microbiology, planetariums can leverage greater commercial reach, particularly for schools
our primary tools, with V-Ray as our main render engine. Each has ways to empower our content creation needs, since the big adjustment we need to make is that final frames need to be warped for planetarium projection. “Technically, we work on the top half of the full 360° sphere, but adjust how much of the full view we use depending on content. This can entail rendering 3D scenes with fisheye or equirectangular lenses or using VR tools in Nuke and Resolve to composite elements together. Unlike traditional film production, where you can easily add text or 2D elements to a shot, every single element or effect needs to be processed or distorted to look correct on a planetarium dome.” The team have also created a replica of Morehead Planetarium in Unreal Engine. “We use a VR headset to accurately review our shows, right at our
workstations,” describes Fox. “This is an essential optimisation, since the proper placement of content on the dome needs to be just right to ensure the audience’s comfort and engagement. Shifting content one or two degrees can really make a difference, and being able to easily preview these adjustments in a virtual replica streamlines this process.” HIGH-CONTRAST COSMOS Larry Paul serves as executive director of technology and custom solutions at Christie. The company’s projectors are deployed in planetariums all over the world, including the Planetarium of Bogotá, the Infinity Dome at the TELUS Spark Science Centre and Urânia. Urânia, a pioneering Brazilian company in educational technology, is transforming the way students across the country learn about astronomy
Shifting content one or two degrees can really make a difference; being able to preview these adjustments in a virtual replica streamlines this”
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