Designing graphics for 8K

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Couple of suggestions:

1-Render out several simple test animations and ask them to let you see how the final result looks like- there’s nothing like first hand experience.

2- If you can use vector elements only ( AI or Shape layers) you’ll be able to work at a lower comp size and then just use the Script that comes with AE to scale up to 8k with no loss in quality.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Glen Jennings]

Great suggestions, thanks.

[Walter Soyka]

[Glen Jennings] “Hey have any of you designed graphics for 8K? “

Yes, pretty often.

Get as much RAM as you can, and get a fast SSD for the cache.

Use proxies while you work.

Render to image sequences, not movies.

[Glen Jennings] “They want me to deliver my image sequence to them flat and they will ingest it with their software (Dome Master) to the curvature of the dome. So I essentially get to work in After Effects and then they handle to dome specific part.”

Ok… I’d be sure to do a test. Even better if you can build a couple tests and see them in person.

[Glen Jennings] “I am aware that the lower part of the frame will be the front of the dome theater. I’m still wrapping my head around the notion of designing in a format that will be projected to a circular surface…I’m curious how my 3D effects will look once they’re warped.”

One way to build real fulldome content in Ae is by working in 3D space with a hemicubic camera rig — though you would still need some software to stitch this into a properly mapped hemisphere.

There are some dedicated plugins for working with domes in Ae.

In either case, it may be best to press your planetarium contact for more information on producing proper fulldome content.

Some good terms for Google searches: dome, fulldome, hemicube, hemicubic, (alternately hemi-cube and hemi-cubic), fisheye.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Glen Jennings]

Thanks Walter. Seriously valuable information. The gravitas of this undertaking is sinking in….

[Walter Soyka]

[Glen Jennings] “Thanks Walter. Seriously valuable information. The gravitas of this undertaking is sinking in….”

You’re welcome.

Alternate suggestion for working with flat graphics: put flat graphics near the center/top of the dome where the distortion is relatively mild and put abstract or smeary stuff around the edges where the distortion is most severe.

Optionally bulge the center stuff a bit to try to offset the distortion. This will require some testing or math to get right. Send them a grid, have them run it through their software, and have them send it back to you to get a sense of what you need to reverse.

Test!

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events