Rise of Niburu - The myth of planet X

#1

This is my first post here in digital matte painting - cgsociety forum…

Maybe I should introduce me…

ABOUT ME:
My name is Frederic St-Arnaud, I’m a visual effect artist with 12 years of experience, focusing on high-end photo-realistic digital matte painting, set extension, concept art and art direction in the film industry. I’m from Montreal, Canada.

During the last 12 years, I contributed to more than 25 feature films, dozens of commercials for television and a few TV series. My film credits include Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Death Race, Babel, Silent Hill, Sin City, Sky captain and the world of tomorrow, Once upon a time in Mexico, Spy kids 2 & 3, The Golden Compass which won the best visual effects Academy Awards in 2008 and more.

You can check out my website here: www.starno.net

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:
Rise of Niburu is a personal matte painting inspired by the myth of the planet X, also called Niburu. This hypothetical astronomical object become more popular since the arrival of 2012. I though it could be funny to do an image about this story. I made it in 6 hours, inside the same day.

From Wikipedia:
Sitchin's theory proposes the planets Tiamat and Nibiru. Tiamat supposedly existed between Mars and Jupiter. He postulated that it was a thriving world in a much differently shaped solar system, with jungles and oceans, whose orbit was disrupted by the arrival of a large planet or very small star (less than twenty times the size of Jupiter) which passed through the solar system between 65 million and four billion years ago. The new orbits caused Tiamat to collide with one of the moons of this object, which is known as Nibiru. The debris from this collision are thought by the theory's proponents to have variously formed the asteroid belt, the moon, and the current incarnation of the planet Earth.

Beginning in 1995, websites such as ZetaTalk have identified Nibiru or "Planet X" as a large brown dwarf currently within our planetary system, soon to pass relatively close to Earth. Sitchin disagrees with the timing of passage.

To the Babylonians, Nibiru was the celestial body or region sometimes associated with the god Marduk. The word is Akkadian and the meaning is uncertain. Because of this, the hypothetical planet Nibiru is sometimes also referred to as Marduk. Sitchin hypothesizes it as a planet in a highly elliptic orbit around the Sun, with a perihelion passage some 3,600 years ago and assumed orbital period of about 3,750 years; he also claims it was the home of a technologically advanced human-like alien race, the Anunnaki, who apparently visited Earth in search of gold.

Frederic St-Arnaud
www.starno.net

#2

Really great work there, I’m sure the matte is based on a photo that’s part of a jigsaw I have at home:)

#3

Thanks for comment Tangster, actually this matte painting is based on photos I did from a summer trip to New York City. The preview post does’nt show my attach file but anyway, here is a link where you can see the image I start with: http://www.laberge.qc.ca/fred/gallery/displayimage.php?album=20&pos=0

Frederic St-Arnaud
www.starno.net

#4

I expect you and the jigsaw photographer used the same vantage point then. Small world…

#5

…Never heard about the jigsaw photographer, but it’s possible I used the same point of view since New York City is full of great spots for cityscape photographers.

Frederic St-Arnaud
www.starno.net

#6

Hello Frederic,

Nice to see you here, and welcome to the forum. It is a bit quiet here at the moment. But there is some fantastic work coming through.

My favourite part of the painting is the reflected face in the glass. It makes me want to see what he is looking at.

I have not painted in a while got some fantastic books for christmas that I have not been able to put down.

One is by the late Stan Winston who helped me out when I was at art college, I rang his studio direct trying to find out a technique, expecting one of the studio employees, it was Stan himself who answered and was really supportive. Which is why I am quite vocal here,
anyhow welcome to the forum.

look forward to seeing some of your work and hearing your comments.

Rich

#7

Edit: sorry, i misunderstood your image…i get it now. It looks good

keep it up!

#8

Hey Frederic,

Thanks for dropping in :slight_smile:

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of this mythical planet, i read about it some years ago, was an interesting idea. Though if it passes this close i wonder what kind of gravitational effect it would have on the earth. When the moon was orbiting much closer to the planet the effect was pretty devastating on the surface of the earth, dread to imagine what effect Nibiru would have.

Regarding technical observation, the over all concept works, and the reflection is a nice touch, though probably wouldn’t reflect the face at that angle. I’m not too sure about the composition of the sky, stars, planet and moon … given the time of day and direction of sun i think there would be more atmosphere, especially at that angle, maybe the planet would be a little weaker too. For example how you sometimes see the moon in the day, it appears much weaker due to the atmospheric effects, light etc…

Again, love the idea and visual concept. :slight_smile:

Edit: Oh, now im confused, is this looking from the perspective of planet X? i was thinking this was showing the planet coming into earths orbit and the inhabitants coming over for a visit?

Dave.

#9

Yeah Dave you’re i think you’re right, my bad. I guess i should read up on this story, sounds interesting

#10

Hi Rockhoppermedia,

Thanks for comments. Hope your new books will inspire you for some new great images. Stan Winston was an amazing man. So sad about this.

Frederic

#11

Dave,

Thank you for your technical observation. I agree with the reflection issues. And you’re right about the fact that the planets should be more hazy since it’s still the after noon. My idea was to do an apocalyptical image, very dramatic and scary by the size and the bright colors of the planet. It’s the end of the world and there’s no doubt!

Concerning the subject, I discovered this concept few weeks before Christmas. There’s a ton of links on the net, sometimes it’s mythical and esoteric and sometimes it’s science wise. It’s hard to believe it but it’s interesting to see how much people believe in this planet X.

According to what they say on the net, if it’s true, this planet will be a little bit smaller than the moon when it will be closer to the earth in 2012. Of course, there should be some influence on the earth and unfortunately, there will be a lot of meteors following the planet, which would probably fall on earth.

Again, my image is a poetic vision of the subject and the there’s a lot of mistakes related to “how it would react in the real world” like you mentioned before and the size of the planet X is way to big! …but it’s more dramatic!

And yes, it’s the point of view from the earth, watching Niburu and the real moon in the sky and not the opposite.

Thanks again

Frederic St-Arnaud
www.starno.net

#12

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