Schoolchildren See Their Aliens Come to Life in 360 Detail
School children Harrison Hardy and Sophie Harris watched their creations come to life in a new 360 immersive show at Newcastle’s Life Science Centre after winning a competition.
Life: The Greatest Story is a new fulldome show being screened in Life’s state-of-the-art planetarium, narrated by actor Alex Kingston, star of Doctor Who, ER and just announced as a contestant in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
It has been written and produced by the same talented in-house team behind the acclaimed show What Santa Sees, which received international attention after being bought by planetaria across the world.
The 25-minute show pushes the boundaries of fulldome film production, combining 3D animation with live action filming. Starting with a tour of the ocean floor to discover the earliest forms of life, the show goes on to cover the evolution of plants, fungi and animals. Viewers visit dinosaurs and explore forest and lava landscapes before venturing into space to explore the big question… does life exist elsewhere in the universe!
Life launched a competition inviting children to design an alien life form that could exist on another planet, with details on how it survives in a strange environment, to be included in the new show.
Thirteen-year-old Harrison from Birtley and 11-year-old Sophie, from York, were selected from dozens of entrants and the creative pair were invited into the science centre to see their aliens on the big domed screen.
Their winning sketches were animated and brought to life by Life’s Digital Producer Tommy Howell, and feature in the show which will be seen by thousands of visitors to the science centre over the coming months.
Tommy said: “We were really impressed by the creativity of the entries and the winning designs really stood out for their originality and imagination.”
Sophie added: “It was amazing to see my alien come to life and it was just the way I had imagined they would look and move.”
Harrison added: “The show was great and I loved seeing my alien animated in the show.”
Life: The Greatest Story is on in Life’s planetarium and is included in the price of entry to the science centre.
