The iconic mission patches for the Apollo moon landings have come to life in a new clip created by a professional animator.
Cincinnati-based artist Neil Smith revealed his take on the historic NASA emblems in an animated short he published on YouTube and Vimeo on Thursday (April 2).
"I have always thought it would be cool to animate all the mission patches from NASA's manned moon missions," Smith wrote in his video's description.
sts205cdr Member
Posts: 649 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Jun 2001
posted 04-05-2015 04:05 PM
WONDERFUL! That was very well done!
randy Member
Posts: 2176 From: West Jordan, Utah USA Registered: Dec 1999
posted 04-05-2015 04:25 PM
Echoing the post of sts205cdr, very well done!
prontouk Member
Posts: 68 From: Scotland Registered: Feb 2012
posted 04-05-2015 05:16 PM
Absolutely fantastic, great animation and imagination.
4allmankind Member
Posts: 1043 From: Dallas Registered: Jan 2004
posted 04-05-2015 06:40 PM
Too cool, especially Apollo 13!
J Blackburn Member
Posts: 224 From: Riner, Virginia USA Registered: Sep 2011
posted 04-05-2015 11:07 PM
Great job! Very entertaining.
Rocketman! Member
Posts: 121 From: Redmond, Washington, USA Registered: Dec 2007
posted 04-05-2015 11:40 PM
Outstanding piece of work! The graphics, the animation concepts, the music and audio clips … the whole package.
I had considered trying something like this with the collectSPACE insignia. I would love to see what Neil could do.
butch wilks Member
Posts: 333 From: Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK Registered: Mar 2007
posted 04-06-2015 01:53 AM
Outstanding. It brought tears to my eyes.
Love the deep blue moon background on the Apollo 7 patch. It just added to the patch that is missing from all the embroidered patch. I think it looks better like this.
I'd like to add my enthusiasm to Rocketman's to see the collectSPACE insignia animation, with the spacecraft moving a long the orbits. It would look fantastic and make the insignia pop out.
nasamad Member
Posts: 2121 From: Essex, UK Registered: Jul 2001
posted 04-06-2015 03:47 AM
Outstanding job, he certainly know how to animate now!
astrorero Member
Posts: 42 From: San Dimas, CA USA Registered: Jan 2014
posted 04-06-2015 10:50 AM
Beautiful! Radio transmissions and Kennedy's speeches were very appropriate. A job well done!
posted 04-06-2015 03:20 PM
What a great idea and very well executed too!
p51 Member
Posts: 1642 From: Olympia, WA Registered: Sep 2011
posted 04-06-2015 03:31 PM
I agree of course that it's very well done.
I hope someone contacts him about this thread...
KSCartist Member
Posts: 2896 From: Titusville, FL USA Registered: Feb 2005
posted 04-06-2015 07:31 PM
This is absolutely fantastic. I can imagine the work involved but I would love to see the Space Shuttle and ISS Expedition patches done as well.
Ronpur Member
Posts: 1211 From: Brandon, Fl Registered: May 2012
posted 04-06-2015 09:50 PM
I could have seen those being used for the opening of the TV broadcast if they had the technology to do them back then. It is beautiful.
astroborg Member
Posts: 200 From: Woodbridge, VA, USA Registered: Nov 2000
posted 04-07-2015 06:03 AM
Very nice work! At the time of the Apollo 15 mission, didn't one of the US Broadcast networks have an animation of the Apollo 15 emblem? I seem to recall this was the case.
Posts: 42984 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 04-07-2015 03:15 PM
Neil Smith has gone into more detail about how he animated the Apollo mission patches on his blog here.
The eagle featured in the Apollo 11 patch presented quite a challenge – both in a design sense and in a 3D modeling sense. First of all, of all the mission patches I wanted to somehow incorporate the lunar module (LEM) sitting on the surface of the moon – which was not a part of the patch itself. Secondly, I wasn’t sure I could animate a 3D eagle very well. I’m fairly good with hard surface objects like machines and space ships; but I’m not all that great (read: crappy) at organic things like people and animals and yes, eagles. I had an eagle model that I attempted to animate landing on the moon and striking the pose as seen in the mission patch. Wow. Did that suck...
Posts: 194 From: Citrus Heights, CA - USA Registered: Jan 2006
posted 04-07-2015 11:13 PM
Neil, Absolutely great... including your Apollo 11 eagle. Keep up the good work. I'm sure we'd all like to see what you could do with Skylab, ASTP and shuttle mission emblems.