Textures of Psyche

Jessica Hall

October 28th, 2024

Major: New Media Design

Genre/Medium: 3D Render; Cinema4D; procedurally generated models and textures using noise algorithms

About the work:

“Textures Of Psyche” explores the mysterious Psyche asteroid and what it may look like. Journeys into space are full of exciting and unknown possibilities that always defy our expectations, and I aimed to capture the scope of what our future images of Psyche might be.

After modeling the skeleton shape of the asteroid, I used procedural noise algorithms to add displacement to the models, adding physical terrain variations. However, the largest portion of this project involved creating textures. By layering, blending, and mathematically compiling a wide range of noise algorithms, I was able to build a variety of textures for Psyche that had exciting and subtle variations in color, surface texture, roughness, bump, reflection, and metal-ness. The final component involved lighting each scene to reflect the massive scale of Psyche, despite its lonely nature out in space.

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Psyche Inspired is a program that brings undergraduate students from any discipline or major together to share the excitement, innovation, and scientific and engineering content of NASA’s Psyche mission with the public in new ways through artistic and creative works. This year’s Psyche Inspired cohort is known as the Iridium Class. These works are posted in the gallery and highlighted on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. View the full resolution images in the image gallery. There are many ways to get involved with NASA’s Psyche mission. Learn how you can be a part of the Psyche mission through our “Get Involved” pages at https://psyche.asu.edu/get-involved/ and https://science.nasa.gov/mission/psyche/ways-to-participate/. To learn more about the overall Psyche mission, visit nasa.gov/psyche or jpl.nasa.gov/missions/psyche.

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