We work closely with scientists — both within the NASA community, and within the broader academic research community — to create high-quality, data-backed visualizations. The core studio consists of a team of approximately 15 visualizers, some of whom have been working with the studio for almost 30 years. The SVS's visualizers specialize in a wide variety of disciplines — astronomy, planetary science, climatology, cartography, and 3D modeling to name a few — but are united by a common love of making science accessible.
Jim would soon be joined in by visualizer Horace Mitchell , who would go on to head the department all the way until his retirement in Around this time, the studio also began working closely with the NASA Public Affairs Office now Office of Communications to get our visualizations out to a wide variety of news outlets, film production companies, and academic institutions.
By , we had developed an extensive library of Betacam-SP tapes NTSC and needed a more easily-accessible way for the public to access our content. Thus, the SVS website was born. The website would formally begin hosting content from these two groups in Conceptual Image Labs focuses more on the artistic side of things — producing high-fidelity renders using film animation and visual design techniques. Where the SVS primarily focuses on making data-based visualizations, CI Labs puts more emphasis on conceptual visualizations — producing animations featuring NASA spacecraft, planetary observations, and simulations.
Goddard Media Studios, on the other hand, is more focused towards public outreach — producing interviews, TV programs, and documentaries. Throughout the late s and early s , the SVS experimented with a wide variety of nascent virtual reality technologies. The work from this time period would later be repurposed and spun off into the NASA Hyperwall project: a multi-screen, high-resolution, wall-sized display. The Hyperwall would later be adopted for NASA public outreach efforts: traveling around the world to various conferences and being used for museum exhibits, scientific presentations, and multimedia shows.
NASA's CI Lab is an award-winning studio with artists who work closely with astronomers, scientists and engineers to bring scientific theory, design and concepts to life in an accurate, yet visually compelling way.
