Celestia Forums

Chris,

It crossed my mind that Celestia would be ideal for use in television shows or movies, for at least limitted effects. I am interested in incorporating elements of Celestia into a low-budget movie and was just curious if you would have any objections to Celestia being used as such. I chose to post this message to the forum rather than directly to you in case anyone else was thinking likewise.
I would have no issue paying royalties to you for use of the program in a production, if that is a concern of yours.

Cheers,
Fleegle

Fleegle wrote:Chris,

It crossed my mind that Celestia would be ideal for use in television shows or movies, for at least limitted effects. I am interested in incorporating elements of Celestia into a low-budget movie and was just curious if you would have any objections to Celestia being used as such. I chose to post this message to the forum rather than directly to you in case anyone else was thinking likewise.
I would have no issue paying royalties to you for use of the program in a production, if that is a concern of yours.

Cheers,
Fleegle

Go ahead and use it Celestia in the movie. There's also no need to worry about royalties, though mentioning Celestia in the credits would be cool.

--Chris

Movie? You mean with a real actors or 3D Modeled one's? Anyway, will you make it public once you finish it?

(Maybe too early...to ask this)

Naturally, I would put Celestia in the credits. To answer Borg's question, I would probably use human actors. My intention is to use Celestia to establish locations in the movie and possibly to show shots of ships and such orbitting planets and so forth. For combat scenes and that sort of thing I would need to use another package, but my first few films probably wouldn't be that ambitious. I shouldn't expect that you'll see or hear about them in the near future. Still a lot of work to be done, as I'm still in the planning/scripting stage. Haven't even though about casting etc. Also, I wouldn't expect them to be known outside a very limitted community. Naturally, I will mention any productions I complete in the forums (that use Celestia), to give Chris and others an opportunity to see how Celestia works out as a "special effects studio". I was attracted to Celestia's possibilities for movies from the instant I saw it. I have always been impressed by the visual qualities of Celestia. It truly is the best-looking astronomy simulator I've ever seen.

Cheers,
Fleegle

I have thought of this at times...Someday when I have the resources I want to remake a few of the old novels into movies...Namely Ringworld amd Ringworld Engineers...

If you need some special alien planets in your movie I would be happy to ablidge any of my current ones or make any you would like...Anything to do with movie production count me in

Count us in too for any help you need. We will give out best!

I'm pleased with the feedback I've been getting from my post. Whenever I start production I will definitely enlist the help of those interested. I imagine I will need some alien planet textures.
BTW, I have a question about textures... how do you draw a rectangular jpeg in such a way as to connect up all the geodesics in the right place when you translate it onto a sphere? Do you use a template jpeg with the geodesics drawn on, or do you just have a really good eye? I've been tempted to try my hand at planet textures but I'm not sure how to do it properly.

Anyways, look forward to working with you guys if my project(s) ever get off the ground.

Cheers,
Fleegle

Using Adobe Photoshop I use the offset filter...If the texture has a width of 1024 I offset horizontally 512 pixels then using the clone brush blend the segments together...Generally it takes a bit of an eye for detail to blend the two parts together to make it look natural...sometimes it doesnt...depends on the texture I suppose...

At the poles I use lunar cell template then erase the middle horizion of the texture and blend the layers together using hue saturation and colorize...Sometimes a bit of other fx...its a bit of work starting out but generally I have np blending em within several minutes...starting out might take an hour maybe less...depending on how well you want it to look

i have seen an asteroid collision movie where the story is about the controversy of the comming asteroid. it was pretty bad. they stole an avelanche from discovory channel, a scene of running outside and seeing an erupting volcano from dantaes peak (it as mirror imaged to try to make it look like it was new) and an explosion from master of orion 2. (the missile explosion was the spatial converter weapon).

How's movie progressing?
Remember, we are here if you need us. Anything! We will try to help.

I'll let you know when I start! The project is on hiatus for the time being as I am very busy right now. Don't hold your breath, this is a long-term deal. When I'm ready to begin you'll hear about it, never fear.
Anyways, I hope I haven't been misleading anyone about the project. My original post was just to find out if Chris would mind my using Celestia for some location shots. It could be a long time before I get to the production phase of my little (read no-to-low-budget) movie.

But I'll let you know!
Regards,
Ted