Special Effects Video Discs
Many years have passed since the planetarium video revolution began with the introduction of our Special Effects Video Disc #1. The efforts continue to bear fruit: Our collection now spans seven hours of material on 14 discs — with more on the way.
Planetarium Video Basics:
A properly-adjusted CRT-type video projector emits no light from the "black" portions of an image. We've created a series of stunning special effects, mastered on super black backgrounds. They appear to "float" in your starfield, with no discernible frame or border. They become part of the grand illusion.
These discs are incredible bargains. For the price of a single special effect projector, you get 30 minutes of wide-ranging effects. Compare this to what typical "stock footage" suppliers charge: a minimum of $50 per second for this kind of material (that's $90,000 for 30 minutes), and their license is good for one show only. Then you pay again for your next show. Our discs cost less than 1% of what they would charge (assuming they had material like this)—and you can use them over and over in all of your in-house productions for 50 years!
A matrix of video projectors under SPICE Automation control makes possible multiscreen scenes such as this one. Here a line-doubled Barco projector projects across the dome diameter while smaller units cover smaller swatches of the dome from the central projection pit (inset).
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Our Special Effects Video Discs are mastered to the highest technical standard, with black background levels suppressed below normal broadcast standards. Projected through a properly-adjusted CRT projector, the special effect images appear to "float" in your starfield, with no discernable border or frame box. (In addition to special effects, most discs contain a number of "formatted" sequences, such as planet surface flyovers rendered by JPL; in these sequences the images fill the entire frame. ) Each sequence fades out of black, plays, and then fades to black. Imbedded Chapter and Picture Stop codes let you access sequences smoothly even if you don't have a SPICE Automation system. Detailed production notes provide helpful background information, along with precise frame numbers. The discs have been pressed in the NTSC format. NTSC and PAL tapes, copied directly from the masters, are available in any format. |
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Special effects video discs available in DVD, laserdisc and MPEG2 formats!
Did we say free music?
Well, not exactly. But when you buy our laser discs or DVDs, you also receive production music and sound effects created by composers such as Mark Petersen and Jonn Serrie. Although the audio is synchronized to the visuals, you're free to use it any way you wish in your in-house planetarium presentations. Each disc comes with 30 minutes of stereo music and sound effects (except for Disc #1, which has 60 minutes of monophonic music on audio tracks 1 and 2).
Why would anyone want to buy this material on tape?
Mainly for editing together show tapes or master tapes for custom videodisc pressings. It can sometimes be more economical to have the material you need for a show all on one or two discs, than to have all seven (or more) of our discs on-line.
We offer tape copies of each of the discs, available once you have purchased the discs themselves. They're made directly from our masters for the highest possible image quality. We can make tapes in any NTSC or PAL format.
Will I need to sign a licensing agreement for my theater?
Yes. When you purchase a disc, we include a license form, which grants you limited usage rights for your planetarium theater. International customers may wish to contact their sales representatives directly for more details.
You'd like to make a custom video disc for a show. Can Sky-Skan help?
Yes! If you need some advice, feel free to call. If you wish, we can handle the entire project. Just furnish your video material, let us know which segments of ours you need, and we'll take over from there. We can even produce custom video effects to your specifications.
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We brought together one of the world's foremost spacecraft model builders (Brian Sullivan), a cinematographer with Hollywood special effects credits, and Academy Award® winning Ultimatte® green screen technology to create 30 minutes of beautiful spacecraft model animations. Contains zoom approaches to all the planets, in addition to a series of zooms and moves of objects such as a Space Shuttle, MIR Space Station, and LEM landing. Also included: a rising Saturn, 3D Phobos probe, astronomical photographs, and a magnificent fractal-generated comet nucleus with effervescence, which alone cost over $30,000 to render. 3D stellar models and a beautiful Hubble Space Telescope, Supernova 1987A, a brilliant blue rotating sphere which then explodes and forms an expanding debris shell, a close-up rotating neutron star and more. A long and complex Solar System Formation Sequence, a rotating Sun, stellar evolution, the large and small Magellanic Clouds, the JPL Earth flyover, and a lovely lunar eclipse sequence. A Solar System effects gallery of distinction is featured in Disc 4, with an array of solid modeled planets Tumbling fractal-generated asteroids, Triton with erupting black geysers, a fully 3D modeled Alpha Centauri and Castor, the Galileo probe and Jovian moon encounters, animated planet rotations, including an Earth rotation obtained from Galileo. An Antarctic flyover, a Quasar with jets, a Galaxy with active nuclear region, rotating black hole, rotating Venus with dissolve through clouds to Magellan radar globe and JPL flights over the Venusian surface. A beautiful "Christmas Star," sporadic meteors, a meteor shower, an orbit over Martian pole, and -- for those underwater scenes (use our blue Ylem projectors!) -- 3D JASON and ALVIN submarines. |
A 3D rotating galaxy which moves to an equatorial view showing a halo of globular clusters; the rotating Sun featured in both white light and false-color X-Ray view; a Solar limb and prominence effect, animated solar wind, Earth magnetosphere, and Ulysses probe; Earth weather sequence over a rotating Earth, and new images from the Hubble Space Telescope. An all-new collection of animations and effects, a 3D animation of the original William Herschel 20-foot telescope in Cape Town, a TV-format solar system fly-through, and a solar flare jet for projection atop your solar surface panorama, and more. Special Effects Video Disc #9 includes alignment and calibration images, a huge Jupiter rotation, an animation depicting the dust trail left behind in a comet's orbit, a close-up of the Sun rotating, with Mercury and Venus, plus individual full-screen rotations of Mercury and Venus, and more. SPECIAL EFFECTS VIDEO DISC #10 3D animated views of Mimas, starfield and nebula fly-throughs, and a black hole "swallowing" a blue giant star, and much more. SPECIAL EFFECTS VIDEO DISC #11 The ultimate collection of disasters, explosions, collisions, and general cosmic mayhem, colliding galaxies, the Ulysees Solar Polar Explorer spacecraft, Leonid Meteor Storms of 1933/1966, and Volcanic Lava Eruption (for your volcano panorama). SPECIAL EFFECTS VIDEO DISC #12 Newly forming planetary system sequence, radio telescope array animations, the 3D stellar distribution around the Sun, a spiral galaxy with bipolar jets, a large impact explosion for use with your own panorama, additional terrestrial and planetary impact animations, a "time-lapse" of Mars as viewed by the Hubble Space Telescope, and a simulated telescopic view of Mars. SPECIAL EFFECTS VIDEO DISC #13 An excellent collection for enthusiasts of Mars, sequences cover surface exploration, its relation to Earth, and some entertaining imagery from 50's Hollywood. Trace the icy orbits of comets around the Sun and view spectacular video footage of Hale Bopp. Examine asteroids, their proximity to Earth, and imaginative plans to avoid cataclysmic impact; more animated spacecraft sequences and a captivating flyby of Eta Carinae. |
| Choose a category to see what sequences exist on which discs in the library. | |||
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Astrofilm |
Astrophoto |
Cosmology |
Deep Space |
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Galaxies |
Miscellaneous |
Nebulae |
Scientific Research |
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Solar System |
Space Hardware |
Stars |
Telescopes |
| Download a combined alphabetical listing of all videodisc effects sequences in the library: | ||
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TEXT file ssvdtxt.txt (91K) ssvdtxt.zip (23K) |
dBASE database file ssvddbf.zip (23K) |
Excel spreadsheet ssvdxls.zip (56K) |