In a project spanning 9 months, BARABOOM! Studios served as previsualization supplier for Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, assisting in the design and execution of numerous complex visuals for the groundbreaking National Geographic Channel series, which recently won 4 Emmy Awards. The Los Angeles-based studio contributed to all 13 episodes of the series' first season, as the hub of a virtual production model, creating previsualizations used in planning visual effects, set design, stage and locations shoots, and post production processes. BARABOOM! Studios is one of the industry's leading specialists in previsualization, a service that is gaining increasing use throughout the production cycle to save time and money, and improve creative options.
BARABOOM! Studios' previsualizations were used in planning more than two dozen shots for the show's final episode where host Neil deGrasse Tyson pays a virtual visit to the ancient city of Alexandria, Egypt.
BARABOOM! used preliminary Sketch-up files provided by production designer Seth Reed and art director John B. Josselyn to produce 3D models of the city's legendary library. These models meshed with the live action set and served as a planning tool for visual effects; a process known as post-vis.
The models allowed the production designer and visual effects supervisor Rainer Gambos to experiment with their designs and make changes on the fly, explains BARABOOM! Studios creative director Pepe Valencia. They could add more columns, enlarge the library and otherwise modify the space. In addition, Baraboom! built models of the city itself and mapped out complex camera movements with Gambos, to be utilized by the visual effects vendor for final renders.
BARABOOM! also previsualized more than a dozen shots for the show's fourth episode A Sky Full of Ghosts. The shots were part of a segment about gravity and showed what would happen to a New York City street if gravity were reduced to zero or raised to 8 or 9g, or 100,000g. At zero g, for example, people and objects would fly off into space; at 100,000g, a fire hydrant would be crushed by its own weight.
For that sequence, BARABOOM! was given a Sketch-Up file of the sound stages at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, where live action elements were to be shot. Previs was used to plot camera and crane positions, camera movement and lighting (position of the sun and shadows), and also to determine which elements could be shot practically and which should be produced as CG.
Similarly, BARABOOM! produced a virtual replica of a New York street where backgrounds were shot. We were able to illuminate many aspects of the production before crews arrived on the set, observes Valencia. We were able to indicate sunlight, and show what the lighting conditions would be depending on if they were shooing in the morning or in the afternoon. If it was going to be shady, they knew they'd have to shoot from a different direction.
To move a crew around takes a lot of time, so if you can figure things like that out ahead of time, it saves crew hours, adds executive producer Mike Pryor.
Production knows how many extras they are going to need, and how many cars, Valencia says. We give them a lot of information.
In a task involving Tech-viz, the BARABOOM! team produced high resolution (42K) 3-dimensional star maps, representing the night sky from both the northern and southern hemispheres. The maps were based on data supplied by National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) detailing the positions and movements of more than 300,000 stars, and were verified for accuracy by Cosmos's scientific advisors. BARABOOM! provided the maps to the show's production team and to visual effects vendors to ensure that representations of stars were accurate and consistent throughout the show.
Valencia notes that applications for previsualization have grown markedly in recent years as film and television production has migrated to fully digital means. For Cosmos, previsualization was used as a planning tool to aid the director, the production designer, the art director, the cinematographer, visual effects vendors and others.
Since everything is digital, we speak the same language as every department of production, Valencia explains, referring to a recent presentation he gave on Virtual Production at the film conference FMX in Stuttgart Germany. Film and television production used to be a linear process, but today it's more circular. As the production designer is building the set, the visual effects team is already adding to it. Previsualization is a tool that can help different departments communicate better and work together more effectively. Cosmos is a perfect example of this tool in action.
Based in Los Angeles, BARABOOM! Studios works locally, on location or virtually, depending on the needs of the individual production.
http://www.baraboomstudios.com
###
Most recent headlines
01/01/2026
Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation Announces 2026 Noel Schajris Scholarship The scholarship will cover tuition and housing for one Berklee College of Music stud...
01/01/2026
New year, new games, all with RTX 5080-powered cloud energy. GeForce NOW is kicking off 2026 by looking back at an unforgettable year of wins and wildly high fr...
31/12/2025
Back to All News
NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix Scores Again With the Lions-V...
30/12/2025
As the College Football Playoff Enters the Quarterfinals, ESPN Blows Out Its Meg...
30/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Original ArticlesTake a look back at all our coverage of big-time productions, game-changing technologies, and state-of-the-art new faci...
30/12/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., Dec. 30, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its fourth quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, J...
30/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
30/12/2025
It marked the first civilian operational authorization for a HAPS flight in Europe, led by Space42's subsidiary, Mira Aerospace
The flight demonstrated HAP...
29/12/2025
San Francisco 49ers Strike Gold With Halftime Laser SpectacularStunning display caps $200 million renovation of Levi's Stadium techBy Dan Daley, Audio Edito...
29/12/2025
The Cup's Around the Corner: An Inside Look at Broadcast Preparations for th...
29/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Longform VideoWatch the standout keynote conversations, deep dives, and panel discussions from the year for free on SVG PLAY!By Brandon ...
29/12/2025
From crisper Lossless audio and immersive music videos in beta to new Audiobooks+ plans, custom transitions between tracks, and in-app Messages, we keep levelin...
29/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
27/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
25/12/2025
Holiday lights are twinkling, hot cocoa's on the stove and gamers are settling in for a well-earned break.
Whether staying in or heading on a winter getawa...
24/12/2025
What is AI good for? Posted by MTI Film on December 24, 2025
What is AI good for?
What is AI good for?
It's been three years since ChatGPT first cap...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
The Boyfriend' Season 2 Unveils Heartwarming Trailer, Key...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2
Entertainment
24 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied t...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today!By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
P...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's The Great Flood and Culinary Class Wars 2 Top Gl...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things By the Numbers: How the Global Phenomenon Shap...
23/12/2025
Experience the power of WO Automation for Radio's newest service, the System Effectiveness Review. Designed to help you achieve more, a System Effectiveness...
23/12/2025
23 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan and Rakuten Symphony Collaborate to A...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Pre...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Ant...
In a project spanning 9 months, BARABOOM! Studios served as previsualization supplier for Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, assisting in the design and execution of numerous complex visuals for the groundbreaking National Geographic Channel series, which recently won 4 Emmy Awards. The Los Angeles-based studio contributed to all 13 episodes of the series' first season, as the hub of a virtual production model, creating previsualizations used in planning visual effects, set design, stage and locations shoots, and post production processes. BARABOOM! Studios is one of the industry's leading specialists in previsualization, a service that is gaining increasing use throughout the production cycle to save time and money, and improve creative options.
