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Teun van der Zalm : 3D Nebulae creation built from particle physics

Visual artist Teun van der Zalm takes viewers on an intimate tour of computer-simulated nebulas — enormous cosmic clouds gas and dust.

The artist developed a process using physics and algorithms to creating nebulae in games, VR, and film and TV, including Star Trek Discovery.

“I began to research an new project; “What lies beyond the edge of the Observable Universe?”. I began an experiment to visualize this through our universal language: Mathematics.”

“Everything inspires me in the cosmos. From really big like nebula structures to monocular. It was a logical decision for me to create these stellar nurseries. I began simulating abstract forms as a sort of art project. Then I wanted to develop these to a more stylistic approach. This way I could merge my old passion (astronomy) and my skills that I developed the last couple of years.

Creating these nebulas began mostly looking at Hubble images as an artist. Always answering the question, how would I do this in the computer. I began the research by dissecting all the parts that makes a nebula, while reading many information about the supernova process. Combining these I begin to develop the look and feel of the nebula by only using mathematics.”

Teun van der Zalm

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Instagram: @teunvanderzalm