Daniel Maas
Completed Projects
Updated August 2009
Contact: dmaas@maasdigital.com

Aerospace animation

• Mars: Making The New Earth (National Geographic, HDTV): Over 22 minutes of animation visualizing the transformation of Mars into an Earth-like world, featuring actual Mars terrain extended with procedurally simulated water and vegetation. Completed Fall 2009.


• Five Years on Mars: The Rovers (National Geographic, HDTV): 45 original computer-animated shots of the Mars Rovers (14.5 minutes). Premiered in November 2008.
  • Emmy Award Nominee, "Outstanding individual achievement in a craft: Graphic and Artistic Design", 2009.


• Triumph (Norman Seeff Productions, NTSC): 19 original shots of the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Work completed February 2007.


• Phoenix Mars Mission (NASA/JPL, HDTV): 3-minute visualization. Released in 2007.


• Roving Mars (Disney, IMAX): 12 minutes of computer animation at 4K resolution. Opened January 2006 in IMAX theaters. Released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2007.
  • Visual Effects Society Award Winner, "Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project", 2006.
  • New York Times review: Coming to a Theater Near You: A Close-Up View of Mars (January 25, 2006, pg E1 & E7)


• Deep Impact Comet Encounter (NASA/JPL, HDTV): Enhanced HDTV version of my earlier animation illustrating the Deep Impact comet encounter. May 2005.


• Ares Mars Airplane (NASA/Glenn Research Center, NTSC): 60-second animation illustrating the ARES Mars Airplane mission proposal. April 2005.


• Welcome To Mars (NOVA/WGBH, NTSC): Several new animated shots of Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity for the NOVA program Welcome to Mars, directed by Mark Davis. October 2004.


• Search for Life on Mars (Discovery Channel, HDTV): Scenes from the original 2003 Mars Rover animation appeared in this documentary directed by Mark Andrews. July 2004.


• NASA Ames "Reality Theater" (HDTV): The original 2003 Mars Rover animation was screened in high definition at the opening of NASA Ames' Reality Theater. (production by Afshad Mistri/SGI)


• Superbowl 2004: During the broadcast of Superbowl 2004, a "Choose To Vote" public service message included a clip from my NASA Mars Rover animation. February 2004.


• Mars: Dead or Alive (NOVA/WGBH, NTSC): Created 6 minutes of original animation featuring the Mars Exploration Rover this one-hour NOVA documentary directed by Mark Davis (MDTV). The animation focused on engineering challenges such as landing site selection, parachute design, and rover hardware. Aired January 2004.
  • Emmy Award Nominee, "Outstanding individual achievement in a craft: Graphic and Artistic Design", 2005.


• Future Frontiers: Mars (Science Museum of Minnesota, HDTV): Features scenes from the original Mars Rover animation. Produced and Directed by Joel Halvorson and Melissa Butts. 2004.


• The Original Mars Rover Animation (NASA/JPL, HDTV): A 10-minute HDTV visualization of the Mars Exploration Rover mission from launch to landing. Created November 2002 to June 2003. This video has been featured on national and international news programs, including CNN and ABC, and in science museums around the world. Available at http://www.maasdigital.com/gallery.html.
  • This video is on semi-permanent exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum (Washington, DC).
  • This video played at the Mars 2K4 exhibit in the National Geographic Museum (Washington, DC) January 22 - April 25, 2004.
  • The video was exhibited by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
  • The video appeared in a Children's Science Museum exhibit in Asakihawa City, Hokkaido, Japan, July 2005.


• Rare Earth (KCTS, NTSC): Created ~3 minutes of original animation for this PBS documentary directed by Colin King. The animation featured epic events in the history of planet Earth, including the formation of the solar system, bombardment by asteroids, and tectonic plate movement. January-February 2003.


• Satellite Toolkit® Promo Video (Analytical Graphics, NTSC): Created a six-minute video to promote and demonstrate AGI's Satellite Toolkit® (STK) software suite. Accomplished 100% of the animation using STK's real-time renderer. Advised AGI on improving STK's animation features. January-March 2002.


• Mars Entomopter (Ohio Aerospace Institute, NTSC): Created an original three-minute video to present OAI's work on planetary exploration with flying robots. May-June 2001.


• CONTOUR Mission (NASA/JPL, NTSC): Produced an original five-minute CG video illustrating the CONTOUR comet flyby mission - video available at http://www.contour2002.org/news3.html. September 2000 - June 2001.

Aerospace illustrations

• National Geographic (magazine spread): An original illustration of Mars Rover Opportunity for a fold-out spread. July 2005, "Making a Splash on Mars," page 68.
• Roving Mars (Hyperion, book illustrations): ISBN 1-4013-0149-5. 2005.
• Mars: An Eyewitness Book (DK Publishing, book illustrations): Cover and inside title page. ISBN 0-7566-0765-5. Uncredited.
• Life in the Solar System and Beyond (Springer Verlag, book illustration): Cover image. ISBN 1-85233-101-1. Uncredited.
• The Mars Rovers (Kid Haven Press, book illustration): Cover image. ISBN 0-7377-3074-9. Uncredited.
• The Ithaca Journal (newspaper illustration): Front page image. "Rover Control shifts to Ithaca", November 5, 2004. Uncredited.
• The Ithaca Journal (newspaper illustration): "'NOVA' offers report after a year on Mars", January 1, 2005.
• USA Today (newspaper illustration): "Mars rovers uncover more water evidence", November 9, 2004. Uncredited.
• Mars: The NASA Mission Reports Volume 2 (Apogee Books, book illustrations): Various Mars Rover renderings. ISBN 1-894959-05-1. 2004.
• The Smithsonian Book of Mars (Smithsonian Institution Press, book illustration): Author Joseph M. Boyce. ISBN 1-58834-0-074-0, page 289. Uncredited.
• USA Today (newspaper illustration): "Space science agency", April 11, 2005. Uncredited.
• JPL Press Release (press release illustrations): Various images created using my Mars Rover model. November 21, 2005. Uncredited.
• Astronomy Picture of the Day (website): A Rover rendering created with my model appeared as Astronomy Picture of the Day, December 14, 2005 (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051214.html).
• Cornell Research Newsletter (magazine illustration): Cover image, Scaling New Heights. August 2004. Uncredited.
• Psychology 101: Frontiers of Psychology (Cornell University, textbook illustration): Cover image. July 2004.
• The Space Explorer's Guide to Mars ...in 3-D! (Scholastic, book illustrations): Several illustrations from my Mars Rover animation were featured in this childrens' science book. The images were modified for stereo 3-D by Jim Sharp/Pinsharp 3-D Graphics. July 2004.
• Pulsar (International Association of Astronomical Artists, magazine illustration): Cover image. July 2004.
• Scientific American (magazine illustration): Cover image. March 2004.
• Cadalyst (magazine illustrations): Cover image and inside illustrations. February 2004.
• TIME (magazine illustrations): Created three two-page spread illustrations of the Mars Exploration Rover for TIME Magazine. June 9, 2003, "Destination Mars" pages 64-65; September 8, 2003, "Closing In On Mars" pages 60-61; January 19, 2004, "Return to Mars" pages 54-55. An image was repeated in January 26, 2004, "Mission to Mars" page 49.
• TIME for Kids (magazine illustration): January 16, 2004, "Touchdown!" pages 4-5.
• Stern (magazine illustration): January 22, 2004, "Mars Fieber" pages 68-69, plus a small image on the cover.
• Astronomy Picture of the Day: Mars Rover RocketCam imagery, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030728.html, 28 July 2003. Also http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030922.html, 22 September 2003.
• The Planetary Report (magazine cover): Cover from RocketCam imagery. Vol. XXIII No. 4, July/August 2003.
• Delta II Rocket: Created a high-res rendering of the rovers to be painted on the Delta II launch vehicles that carried them to Mars. June 2003.
• The New York Times (newspaper illustration): May 27, 2003, "Science Times: Soon, Three New Travelers to Mars", page 1F.
• Discover (magazine illustration): May 2003, "Mars Express: The Future on Mars" sidebar, page 40.
• GEO (magazine illustrations): May 2003, "Mission Mars," pages 42-43.
• GEOLino (magazine illustrations): August 2003, "Mars," pages 28-29.
• U.S. News & World Report (magazine illustration): Cover image, 2003 "Mysteries of Outer Space" edition, and inside image on page 75.
• Space 2100 (Popular Science, book illustration): 2003. Pages 96-97.
• Sky & Telescope (magazine illustrations): January 2004, "Mars Attacked!", pages 44-47.
• USA Today (newspaper illustration): December 31, 2003, page 7D, "Mars landing looms as made-for-TV event". Uncredited.
• Science (magazine illustration): December 19, 2003, Vol 302 page 2037. Uncredited.
• The New York Times (newspaper illustration): March 21, 2004, "Off-Off-Off-Roading on Mars In a $414 Million S.U.V.", page 25B. Uncredited.
• Sky & Space (magazine illustration): February 2004, "The right 'Spirit' and lots of 'Opportunity'", page 18. Uncredited.
• Los Angeles Times (newspaper illustration): April 11, 2004, "A quantum leap", page E1. Uncredited.
• Disneyland (museum exhibit illustrations): Provided renderings of the Mars Exploration Rover for a Disneyland exhibit about the MER mission. Imagiverse reports on the exhibit. September 2002.
• Astronomy Picture of the Day (website): Mars Rover rendering, 26 November 2002, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021126.html.

Other animation

• Quantum Quest (太極/Digimax, IMAX 3D): Lead technical direction and shader development. 2008-2009.


• Sea of Sound (Cornell University, HDTV): 60-second animated scene visualizing whale echolocation and feeding. March 2007.


• Adventures in the National Palace Museum (太極/Digimax, HDTV): Lit one shot and provided RenderMan pipeline support. October 2006.


• Tom Clancy's Netforce (Station X Studios, NTSC): 3D modeling, FX animation, and compositing for the jail tower explosion shot. June-August 1997.


• Jergens Snow Dome TV Ad (Station X Studios, NTSC): 3D modeling for the beauty product ad. June-August 1997.


• Vortex (Foundation Imaging, NTSC): 3D modeling, lighting, and FX animation for the pilot episode. January 1997.


• Satellite Recovery Network (Pete Schlatter, NTSC): 3D modeling, FX animation, and compositing for a TV infomercial. 1997.

RocketCam™ Video Editing and Enhancement

• Astronomy Picture Of The Day: Edited video of the inaugural Delta IV Heavy rocket launch. This clip was featured as Astronomy Picture of the Day, 26 January 2005.


• Ecliptic Enterprises, Inc: Digitized and edited MER-A ("Spirit") and MER-B ("Opportunity") RocketCam^TM videos. Digitally enhanced and recovered video from the partially-failed second-stage camera on MER-B. Video available at http://www.eclipticenterprises.com/gallery_rocketcam.shtml. June 2003.


• Ecliptic Enterprises, Inc: Digitized and enhanced STS-112 Space Shuttle External Tank camera footage to restore details lost when SRB separation motors damaged the camera lens. Video available at http://www.eclipticenterprises.com/gallery_rocketcam.shtml. October 2002. Also featured as Astronomy Picture of the Day, 23 October 2002.


• Ecliptic Enterprises, Inc: Digitized and edited legacy video sequences from the RocketCam^TM line of spacecraft onboard imaging systems by Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation, Inc. April 2002. Parts of this work were shown at the first annual Space Tourism Pioneer Awards Night, just before keynote speaker Dennis Tito, the world's first space tourist. Santa Monica Community College, April 27 2002. Sponsored by the Space Tourism Society; Jason Klassi, Event Producer and Director.

Presentations

• National Taiwan University: Presentation on space mission visualization (in Chinese). March 2008.


• SIGGRAPH 2006 Course #25: Co-taught the "RenderMan for Everyone" course. I gave a 45-minute presentation concentrating on tips and tricks that are not easily deducible from the RenderMan spec. Course notes available from RenderMan.org (gzipped PDF). August 2006.


• SIGGRAPH 2005 Sketch: "Spirit and Opportunity: Animating NASA's Mission to Mars". August 2005.


• SIGGRAPH 2004 RenderMan User's Group: Presented a novel technique for processing and rendering Mars Rover terrain data. August 2004.


• SIGGRAPH 2002 Electronic Theater: An early cut of the Mars Exploration Rover animation was featured in this juried film festival. August 2002.

Interviews and Articles

• CG Magazine: I was interviewed (in Chinese) for a feature article in CG Magazine, a Beijing-based computer graphics magazine. (May 2004, "Glory and Dream"/"光榮與夢想" pages 18-23)
  
• Popular Science: I was featured in Popular Science magazine, March 2004, "Meet NASA's Martian 'Cameraman'," page 52.
• IdN Magazine: I was interviewed in IdN (International Design Network), a Hong Kong-based design magazine, accompanied by several Mars Rover renderings (V11N1, "Dan Gives Space Probe Maas Appeal"/"Dan 給太空探索注入Maas的引力", pages 76-80, plus back cover of English edition). March 2004.
• NASA Astrobiology Magazine: Featured information on the Mars Rover animation and interviews with me ("Digitally Directed, the Mars Missions", "Unreal Film-maker of Martian Reality"). March 2004.

Software

• Interp: Developed an integrated multimedia production platform which brings everything from modeling to shading, rendering, compositing, and video compression into a single script-based system. The core library is written in C++ but most tasks are accomplished in a high-level scripting language based on LISP. This system has been used to manage all Maas Digital animation projects since 2004. Patent pending.


• StarPro™: Developed a novel algorithm for rendering star fields with analytical anti-aliasing and "stepless" motion blur. Marketed a Lightwave 3D plugin using this technology (http://www.maasdigital.com/starpro/). 2005.


• ffmpeg: Added DVCPRO50 and DVCPRO HD (due March 2007) to the open-source ffmpeg codec library. 2006-2007.


• Linux kernel: Contributed the dv1394 driver for transmitting and receiving DV video over FireWire. Also enhanced support for isochronous FireWire operations in the raw1394 and ohci1394 drivers. 2001-2005.


• HDR Shop (USC Institute for Creative Technologies): Co-developed HDR Shop, a high-dynamic-range image-processing utility. Ported HDR Shop from Windows (MFC) to Linux (GTK). Developed an interactive OpenGL-based demo of Paul Debevec's reflectance-field lighting technique for SIGGRAPH 2000. Administered ICT's Linux network and guided new equipment purchases. Summer 2000.