Earth Unveiled

Thirty seconds that open a science series. It starts in orbit, drops through the clouds onto a terraced hill in West Java, follows a survey line across it and ends on a question. The planet in the first shot is built from satellite data, so Java sits where Java really is.

the whole film, thirty seconds.

the numbers

3
public datasets behind the planet. NASA imagery, Copernicus elevation and Natural Earth coastlines.
1
camera move from the command room out over the forest, nearly fifteen seconds without a cut
2.3M
points in the seismic cutaway, each moved by a simulated wave
8
geophones tracked on the plate, each lighting up on its own simulated arrival

The planet is real

The opening Earth is a Blender scene built from NASA Blue Marble imagery and Copernicus elevation data, checked against Natural Earth coastlines. The continents, Java and the line between night and day are where they really are.

The globe turns and settles with Indonesia facing camera, and the dive is aimed at West Java, where the site is. The finished frame is painted over that render.

blender
the render, straight out of Blender
in the film
the opening of the film, painted over it
  1. The opening frame, draft
    01draft
  2. The opening frame, blender
    02blender
  3. The opening frame, keyframe
    03keyframe
  4. The opening frame, in the film
    04in the film

the draft set the look and the Blender render set the geography. the keyframe joins the two, and the film starts from it.

Drafts, then keyframes

every shot starts as a draft still. the keyframe is the frame the video is generated from.

Draft still, the ridge, through the cloudsdraft
Final keyframe, the ridge, through the cloudskeyframe
the ridge, through the clouds
Draft still, the hill on the light tabledraft
Final keyframe, the hill on the light tablekeyframe
the hill on the light table
Draft still, the terraces from abovedraft
Final keyframe, the terraces from abovekeyframe
the terraces from above
Draft still, the strike on the survey linedraft
Final keyframe, the strike on the survey linekeyframe
the strike on the survey line

One move, two generations

the room, the forest and the survey line are one camera move, with no cut between them.

the second half of the move. the clearing on the light table glows, daylight grows the real forest out of it, and the camera carries on over the big tree and down to the survey line. the join between the two generations sits inside it.

Graphics made in code

rendered frame by frame and tracked to the plates.

the lock-on display finds the site through the clouds and the real coordinates resolve
the ground opens along the geophone line, and each geophone lights up as the wave reaches it

The lock-on grid

  1. The lock-on grid, the plate
    01the plate
  2. The lock-on grid, its depth
    02its depth
  3. The lock-on grid, in the film
    03in the film

a depth map of the plate drapes the grid over the real relief of the hill, so it locks onto the terraces instead of floating above them.

The seismic cutaway

  1. The seismic cutaway, painted rock face
    01painted rock face
  2. The seismic cutaway, the cutaway layer
    02the cutaway layer
  3. The seismic cutaway, in the film
    03in the film

a painted face of topsoil, rubble and columnar rock, lit to match the plate, then the wave, the geophones and the first-arrivals plot on top.

Nothing in the cutaway is a measurement

It shows how a refraction survey works. The wave comes from a travel-time model of layered ground, so it bends at each boundary and reaches the eight geophones in the order the physics says it should.

It makes no claim about what lies under the hill, and the caption on screen says so.

How it is made

  1. 01

    look

    every shot was drafted as a still first, then rebuilt as a final keyframe. the host and his colleague come from the character sheets in the brief and stay the same two men in every shot.

  2. 02

    the planet

    a Blender Earth built from NASA imagery and Copernicus elevation, checked against real coastlines. it settles with Indonesia facing camera, and the dive is aimed at West Java, where the site is.

  3. 03

    the move

    from the room to the field is one camera move across two generations, with every keyframe pinned to its exact frame. drafts were judged small, and only the picked takes were finished at full size.

  4. 04

    the edit

    the long move is speed-ramped to the score from measured camera motion, and nobody on screen is ever sped up. the retiming is optical flow, which also hides the join between the two generations.

  5. 05

    the graphics

    built in code and tracked to the plates. a lock-on display finds the site through the clouds, and the ground under the survey line opens onto a cutaway driven by a model of how the shock of a hammer travels through rock.

  6. 06

    the sound

    one score written for this cut, edited only on bar lines. its crash lands as the hologram opens into the real hill and its hit sits under the hammer strike. the effects are made from the score itself, in key and kept low.

What was generated, and what was not

Picture
the Earth, the clouds, the site, the room, the people and the survey, generated with Seedance 2.5 from Midjourney and Seedream 5.0 Pro keyframes
Host and colleague
cast from the character sheets supplied with the brief
Site layout
from a reference video of the real site, with no footage from it in the film
Earth geography
NASA Blue Marble and Copernicus elevation, both public data, through Blender
Display, cutaway, caption, end card
designed in code and composited. the rock face in the cutaway is painted with Seedream 5.0 Pro
Narration
a MiniMax voice through Higgsfield, deepened in post
Host dialogue
generated with the picture
Music
one Suno take, edited to picture on bar lines
Effects
designed from the score and the clips’ own audio
Logo
the client’s own
Edit, grade, finish
Palmier Pro

Java is whereJava really is.