It has to start some time...

This site has many wonderful features to help improve communication and cooperation in the planetarium community, like this blog. We should all start using these great features.

I, for one, plan to blog for the good of the planetarium community as a whole.

One the recent conversation on DomeL involved the challenges facing an increasing number of planetariums, content for low budget, fulldome systems. The discussion brought to light different points of view on fulldome content.

The prevailing idea seemed to be that using the scripting capabilities of one’s fulldome system and digital slide scans, one can quickly and easily create fulldome presentations. And I agree. This method is fairly painless and is a great way for those new fulldome converts to create new material for their dome. I started out recreating shows in this fashion.

Don’t Duck Look Up! from the Davis Planetarium was my first foray, along with Gary Meibaum, into creating fulldome content. Using the scripting capabilities of our MEDIAGLOBE, we created a fulldome slideshow. It turned out great by our standards at the time. It has even been used on many other MEDIAGLOBE systems after they bought the slide show from Davis. But it is nothing compared to big budget productions and does not exhibit the “full” capabilities of a fulldome system.

After a while, one wants more from even small productions. One wants animations, movements, and effects that fulldome systems cannot do through scripting alone. One wants fulldome video. At that moment, small productions get a bit bigger.

And in my opinion, they get a bit more fun for the producer as well as the audience.

Case in point, Gary and I are current working on transforming Don’t Duck Look Up! from a fulldome slideshow to a true fulldome show for our dome. You can check out the working title sequence I uploaded here:

Duck fulldome title sequence

Let me know what you think, and I will post more about Duck and fulldome video later. But for now, it is late.
Good Night!