Imagination on other Worlds
With Artemis II set to fly around the Moon, the challenge of landing safely on the lunar surface is back at the centre of space research. One of the biggest obstacles isn’t the rocket — it’s the dust. Lunar regolith is loose, abrasive, and violently displaced by engine thrust. This 3D animation was commissioned by a research group developing a system to solve exactly that problem of planet surface preparation : chemically treating and fusing the surface before any crewed vehicle arrives.
Our Process
Brief
The brief arrived as a written description and reference images.
Models
From that, vehicles and environment were modelled in Blender — no specific spacecraft design, deliberately generic to keep focus on the process rather than hardware.
Storyboard
Create
A storyboard established the sequence, an animatic locked the timing, then full animation followed: vehicle motion, particle effects, heat and chemical reaction simulations.
Final
Final shots were rendered, lightly composited, and edited entirely in Blender. The client also received a bundle of stills. Total timeline: approximately three months from first contact to delivery.
Why this is relevant now
Artemis II will take astronauts around the Moon in 2025. Future missions require permanent infrastructure — and that means solving the regolith problem this animation depicts. The science shown here is real; the visuals make it communicable.
Planet Surface Preparation: scientific 3D animation
Engineering in Motion
Storyboard versus Animation
Send us your files or brief — we’ll tell you what’s possible.