Helix Nebula in 3D

3D model on the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) modelled by a volume shader from the initial image only. Rendering took 57 hours on 20 CPU threads and 2 GPUs in parallel.

Visuals & Music:
Kai Kostack

Rendered with Blender
Music composed in LMMS

Photograph credit (although in public domain):
NASA, ESA, and C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University)

[streetart]

its just SUPERB I have downloaded the video just to watch it again and again

[Krydojae]

It's stunning! It would be great to see this as a tutorial. Great job

[abhinavgarlapati]

ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT.... PLEASE MAKE A TUTORIAL

[KaiKostack]

+Мукаев Виктор +MiningNinjaOctopus +David McSween +maulCS
Thank you!
The rather complex volume shader uses color and brightness of the photograph in combination with various procedural noise textures to define color, emission, and density of the volume. The stars, however, are particles. Nothing in the scene is modelled by hand. It is rendered with Cycles and each image rendered in about 13 minutes on a higher than average system.

[MariusOberholster]

Absolutely stunning!!!! Amazing job! Really! Wow!

[rlaxi]

Hey, I love this 3D model! And I want to learn how to do something like this so could you please make a tutorial on how to create something like this? It would be very helpfull!

[khuhruzhsvethmeorv]

Wow. Well done!

Feel like I should have some Space Rock on while I'm watching XD

[RaphaelBeguin]

woaw very impressive, immersive, amazing, breathtaking, i really love it, too short unfortunately, i love space art both in 2d and 3d! Also played around with Lmms several times ago, i like this versatile soft :-D

little question: but if nothing was modelled, how the volume can hold by himself?

[IvayloGogov]

Nice representation, why not doing a tutorial :)

[Algobar]

It's amazing. Can I ask what instruments did you use in LMMS? because sounds really good

[OEHSX]

If the helix nebula was sideways then scientists would have thought it was a galaxy, A irregular galaxy

[davidmcsween]

Sweet! Nice effect, but I have to ask... is it cycles and how long to render a frame? Did you model the depth of the nebula and project the astrophotography?

[maulcs]

Just using the light areas as the most displaced, right?

[vitosk]

hey, kai! could you please share a file or tell about modeling volume from initial image, please!
Are you modeled by hand, or just used Luminance/hue data from image and mapped volume ?
I want to make similar video with other nebulas from orion :)

[RamSingh]

Looks fantastic.
Is there a solution to make it more grainless? even if we spiked up the render quality and hours?

[Thats_Cool_Jack]

That's really cool, how'd you do it?

[hunterscott]

What were the specs used for rendering? As in which cpu and which gpu?

[oxiigen]

nice, but camera movement is not smooth, is that a compression bug?