How NASA Uses VFX Tools for Scientific Data Visualization | AJ Christensen | Houdini Horizon
25In 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Act which chartered NASA called for the agency "to provide the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning NASA activities and the results thereof." Storytelling is a critical part of the scientific process, and filmmakers are some of the most advanced storytellers of the modern era. Learn some of the theories and techniques that the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio uses to achieve these goals by combining scientific data and filmmaking tools like Houdini.
AJ Christensen is a Senior Visualization Designer for the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS), where he develops data visualization techniques and designs data-driven imagery for scientific analysis and public outreach using Hollywood visual effects tools. SVS visualizations feature datasets from Earth- and space-based instrumentation, scientific supercomputer models, and physical statistical distributions that have been analyzed and processed by computational scientists. AJ's specialties include working with 3D volumetric data, using the procedural cinematic software Houdini, and science topics in Heliophysics, Geophysics, and Astrophysics. He previously worked at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications’ Advanced Visualization Lab where he made more than a dozen science documentary full-dome films as well as the IMAX films "Hubble 3D" and "A Beautiful Planet", and he worked at DNEG on the movie “Interstellar”, which won the 2015 visual effects Academy Award. He recently completed a science communication Master's degree that focused on science learning in movies and video games.