Ask an Astrobiologist Returns!

During its holiday hiatus, the team behind Ask an Astrobiologist was hard at work redesigning the show’s look and sound from top to bottom. Enlisting the help of the NASA Internship program, the team collaborated with Melissa Flower, an illustration major at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena.

The redesign process began with reimagining the logo; creating a distinct, colorful image that encompasses all the facets of astrobiology, which in and of itself, contains a multitude of disciplines and endeavors. “It was a combination of my personal style that I’ve been developing,” said Melissa. “I also did a lot of research across NASA… the exoplanet poster series, especially… I was really drawn to the very colorful, more graphic approach. I also just love the Astrobiology Graphic History series. I wanted to keep that playfulness.”

In a nod to NASA Astrobiology’s partner in Ask an Astrobiologist, Blue Marble Space, the logo begins with a bright blue planet, with plants, vines, and DNA strands flowing around the periphery. Animal-like entities crawl and reach out from the orb, as swirling microbes and molecules surround it in orbit.

However, this was just the tip of the iceberg. Melissa then began the process of redesigning the entire introductory animation sequence for the show, taking the audience on a tour of the solar system and beyond, highlighting some of the most important NASA missions for astrobiology.

“It was a fun challenge,” said Melissa. “I enjoyed the research side of it, making sure there’s a level of accuracy, but also balancing that with the creative side.”

As the new artwork began to take shape, Melissa also began to brainstorm on how the different scenes would flow from one to another. The storyboard grew in size, using extra frames to demonstrate how certain elements would move within and beyond the scene. “I learned a lot about transitioning,” recalled Melissa. “How do we move from one scene to another. It’s really challenging!”

And finally, the last and most difficult step: putting all the pieces together. In order to make each scene ready for animation, Melissa took each scene and broke out every element into its individual parts. For certain elements, like the wheel caps of the rover, she had to redesign them from the “front-on” perspective so they could be rotated along the proper axis. All these pieces were handed off to Mike Toillion and brought back together to recreate each scene with motion in After Effects.

Throughout this process the theme song was also getting a makeover. Drawing on inspiration from the new art style, Mike Toillion took the melodies and motifs from the previous theme song and reimagined it from scratch.

“I wanted to tap into the playfulness of the new designs from Melissa. Something jazzy and funky that would match the look and feel she created with her fantastic artwork.”

Ditching the heavy, electronic sounds of the previous version, Mike used only sounds from real world instruments: upright bass, vibraphone, piano, flute, saxophone and trumpets.

With the new theme song established, the rest of the animation could follow, with key movements mirroring the beats of the music. After many hours of back-and-forth collaboration, tweaking, and other adjustments of the more than 500 individual layers created by Melissa, the final intro sequence was complete.

The entire project was created in the span of less than three months and also marks the first full 4K production for NASA Astrobiology, ensuring that Melissa’s wonderful artwork will live on for quite some time.

“Working with Melissa was an absolute pleasure,” says Mike Toillion. “She has an incredibly creative mind and a gift for science communication. Watching her take complicated concepts and scientific instruments and distill them to their core elements, balancing playfulness with scientific accuracy, was truly a wonder. I wish her the best in her future endeavors and can’t wait to see what she works on next!”

Melissa is completing her final year of art school at the ArtCenter College of Design and is hoping to continue applying her skills in education. “I’m really drawn to public education,” says Melissa. “Science has been awesome, I really love this!”

Check out more of Melissa’s wonderful work at her website: melissaflower.com

And don’t forget to check out Ask An Astrobiologist!