How do you make a show on climate change interesting for school children? You put dinosaurs in it. The story revolved around the idea that climate changes in Earth's history affected the habitats of dinosaurs enough to in some cases cause them to pass into extinction. Four different dinosaur eras were chosen and a forensic-like investigation was implemented to discover what may have happened to cause the demise of a species found in that time frame. Each era required our team to travel to a specific dinosaur dig site to gather information to complete the story. Sites in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico... Liaoning, China... Copper Ridge, Utah... and the Badlands, South Dakota were selected. Photography using a special fisheye lens camera setup was used to document the dig sites, some even with tracks left by the dinosaurs... resident scientists were interviewed and the stories began to unfold and were scripted and storyboarded.

The KT asteroid impact, flooding, volcanic eruptions, and varying weather patterns causing climate change were scenarios visualized. Home Run Pictures was comissioned to create sequences for these various events in a life-size-on-the-big-dome, immersive feel to dramatize the experience. Dinosaurs from the various periods were modeled, rigged for motion and textured with some of the latest theories as guides. Paleotologists gave input during the production process to insure that the scenes were scientifically accurate based on current evidence.

Dinosaurs prior to this show, had not been extensively attempted in the fulldome environment and the challenge was to create animals that compared to what audiences have grown accustomed to seeing in movie theaters. It was quite a challenge our team of animators discovered as four scenes totaling about ten minutes were produced. The fulldome view, which does not have any frame edges, means everything is always in view and the typical scene is preferred to be one continuous take with no cuts. Large scene files, beyond what was typical at that time even for film resolution animation work, were common as more and more detail was added to the fulldome views that were storyboarded. The project was produced in a one year schedule with six animators and technical directors working on various aspects of the visualizations.