American Museum of Natural History
Macs from start to finish
The data visualization on Arctic sea ice shows how ice expands outward and retreats back each year...
AMNH produces two new data visualizations annually, and updates its existing visualizations when new data is available. Working with Trakinski, content experts from the museum select science projects for Science Bulletin topics.
Data comes to Gardiner in many forms: raster image data from satellites; Geographic Information Systems (GIS) vectors such as points, lines and polygons; and map data such as roads or landmarks.
“At the very outset of a project, my training as a scientist comes into play,” says Gardiner. “In the case of ozone studies, I’ll read in a month’s worth of ASCII files just to get a single image. Simplifying something complex takes creativity.”
The Mac platform helps. Gardiner recently began moving much of his work from UNIX and Windows systems to a 17-inch MacBook Pro. “I use the Mac for image processing, to take the raw data and make it presentable for working up by an artist.”
Mac also helps process large data. “Satellites can capture a composite image of the earth every 30 minutes,” he says. “By visualizing this, we can watch 15 hours pass in just one second, or a month in less than a minute. But that might produce 50GB of data, which is why image processing is essential.”
From his office in Georgia, Gardiner processes images locally on his MacBook Pro or remotely via the Internet to the AMNH’s Linux servers in New York. He uses the Mac to run IDL software from ITT Visual Information Systems to visualize raw data, and processes the resulting images with Adobe Photoshop.
Better productivity with Mac OS X
Though last in his group to use a Mac in his work, Gardiner immediately saw the benefits. “For me, Mac OS X is actually a more productive environment in many ways than Windows. I write a lot of scripts, and the ability to get to the UNIX shell for Mac OS X is a big advantage over PCs.
“I was trained on UNIX, but with Mac, I get a UNIX kernel on a system that takes less effort to administer.”
The platform also impressed Arlene Ducao, a 3D animator and production designer for Science Bulletins.
“Mac OS X is the best, for so many reasons,” she says. “It’s stable, and you can work in the UNIX space. For tasks that can’t be handled by our tools, I can go to SourceForge and download open source code.”
Ducao animates the 2D source files using Autodesk Maya software on a Power Mac G5 Quad system and 30-inch Apple Cinema display. She then adds text and motion graphics using Adobe After Effects, accessing the movies using VirtualVTR, a QuickTime-based non-linear recording application for Macs. The final MPEG-2 product scales from 1080i HD video in MPEG-2 to QuickTime 7 movies.
Collaboration made easy
The team is more productive now, particularly thanks to AMNH’s Xsan network, which is replacing the tape-based infrastructure. “We use Xsan as a production resource, which makes it easier to share projects,” Ducao says. “Instead of all of us having to take turns accessing a project, we can all access it at once. We live on deadline, so this is a big advantage.”
...but viewing decades of satellite data reveals how sea ice has dwindled over time.
“As a producer,” adds Trakinski, “I can access the Xsan filesystem to screen footage the editor will be using. I can see what’s working and what isn’t. I can work on any machine, and I get direct access to the content.”
Time savings can be significant: extracting HD content from tape can take an entire day, but only minutes online. “When everything was on tape, the pipeline was painful,” Ducao admits. “Now, with the Xsan network, I have more time to be creative.”
Into the hands of millions
In the end, the value of AMNH talent and Apple technology is evident in the stories AMNH tells in its own halls, in 41 museums, and on the Web. And their impact isn’t limited to museum visitors.
“Before the Arctic sea ice visualization, our work was primarily communicated to other scientists,” says NASA climatologist Parkinson, a longtime Mac user. “Certainly when we first started out, there’s no way we ever thought it would end up in the hands of millions of people. It’s terrific to think that all the work pursued over so many years now has such a huge audience.
“Considering where we started, it’s remarkable that this is even possible.”