A FICTIVE FLIGHT ABOVE REAL MARS

The anaglyph images of Mars taken by the HiRISE camera holds information about the topography of Mars surface. There are hundreds of high-resolution images of this type. This gives the opportunity to create different studies in 3D. In this film I have chosen some locations and processed the images into panning video clips. There is a feeling that you are flying above Mars looking down watching interesting locations on the planet. And there are really great places on Mars! I would love to see images taken by a landscape photographer on Mars, especially from the polar regions. But I’m afraid I won’t see that kind of images during my lifetime.

It has really been time-consuming making these panning clips. In my 3D-process I have manually hand-picked reference points on the anaglyph image pairs. For this film I have chosen more than 33.000 reference points! It took me 3 months of calendar time working with the project every now and then.

The colors in this film are false because the anaglyph images are based on grayscale images. I have therefore color graded the clips. But I have tried to be moderate doing this. The light regions in the clips are yellowish and the dark regions bluish. The clips from the polar regions (the last clips in the film) have a white-blue tone.There are a lot of opinions and studies of what the natural colors on Mars might be. But the dark regions often seems to have a bluish tone. Please study this issue on e.g sites by NASA.

This film is not scientific. As a space enthusiast I have just tried to visualize the planet my way.
Please watch the film in 2K if possible for greater details.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Referenses for the locations on Mars: PSP_007769, ESP_018859, ESP_012435, ESP_034285, ESP_011648, ESP_045091, ESP_020878, ESP_045634, ESP_037704, ESP_046725, ESP_037705, ESP_018548, ESP_016641, ESP_027236, ESP_011729, ESP_045571, ESP_047503, ESP_023464, ESP_013049

More samples of panning video

ESP_011648
ESP_045091
ESP_02346
ESP_011729

21 Comments

  5. […] Jan Fröjdman painstakingly parsed through thousands of images captured by NASA’s HiRISE camera to recreate the topography of Mars. While his aim wasn’t to create a scientifically-accurate representation of the planet’s arid surface, the result is still stunning. […]

  6. The floating music with the soft panning images, giving the sensation of where would be the best site for landing…or just enjoy the view. Congratulations!Great work!! (I did also a small clip and would be great if you could give your suggestions https://youtu.be/8Zas3cELn_8)

  7. Thank you. I started from zero with only a little knowledge of making a blog. But I got good support from the theme maker and my host provider.

  14. Congratulation Jan ,

    Really impressive 3 D video work , a great tool for Astronomy Outreach Courses on the Martian Geology .
    Thanks Again ,
    Eric Recurt / Cosmos Tenerife

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