Cosmic Origins Part 1 of 2

Part 1 of 2
This 12-minute movie mixes computer animation with archival and original videography, from cosmic origin to the present time. Treating look-back time logarithmically, we compress the early Universe in order to emphasize the later role of life, humanity, and culture.
Therefore: * the early Universe lasts for mere seconds of the movie * the solar system forms within the first 2 minutes of the movie * life originates ~3 minutes into the movie, diversifying thereafter * humans appear throughout the last third of the movie.

Technical credits for the film, "Cosmic Origins," copyright ©2001 by, and used with permission of, the Foundation for the Future, go to:
Jon Palfreman, producer
Kathleen Boisvert, director
Will Lyman, narrator
Dana Berry, animator
Schwartz-Giunta, compositor
Erich Roland, cinematographer
Robert Secret, music
Eric Chaisson, science content

Cosmic Origins was produced by the Palfreman Film group in Lowell, Massachusetts. ©2001 Foundation for the Future

Archival film footage is used with permission from WGBH/Nova (PBS) and from the British Broadcasting Corp (BBC).

Original film footage of biology/fossil subjects was shot at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University and of anthropological/archeological artifacts at the Peabody Museum at Yale University.

Animations were created in the Science Visualization Lab of the Wright Center at Tufts University. Silicon graphics Indigo, Extreme, and Octane workstations were operated in parallel, each with 32-bit microprocessors using Alias, Waveform, and Maya modeling software. Rendering was done on Abekas digital disks, output to Betacam-SP tape, using NTSC, PAL and Secam formats.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• cosmic
• origins
• evolution
• logarithmic
• time
• universe