Jeroen Lapré, Senior Technical Director of the Visualization Studio at the California Academy of Sciences, talks about science-based storytelling for planetarium show production, and other media at the Academy. The “VIZ” Studio adapts tools and techniques from the film production, visual effects, digital animation, and real time computer graphics industries; to produce science media that is accessible to the general public. This talk covers how the procedural power of SideFX Houdini has become an important part of the studio pipeline over the years. Jeroen Lapré, has held the role of Senior Technical Director of the Visualization Studio in the California Academy of Sciences since 2008. He led the research into and adoption of Houdini as a core tool for the Academy’s Visualization Studio. On the most recent planetarium production, Lapré has worked on the powers-of-ten dive into a coral—showing the community of polyps at the microscopic level to reveal the processes of symbiosis, photosynthesis, coral bleaching and spawning. A longtime Industrial Light & Magic veteran, in his personal time Jeroen is producing his own digital short film based on Arthur C. Clarke’s short story, “Maelstrom II.”
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