Space Exhibition

A sixteen-minute journey inward from Neptune to the Sun, with every world's surface built to be stood in rather than looked at.

Nine worlds for a five-surface projection room, built for Infinia in 2024 and running sixteen minutes end to end — each one shown first from orbit, then from its own surface.

The planets were built in Blender and Unreal Engine 5, composited in After Effects to the installed 12000x1200 wall ratio with a matching floor pass, and mapped onto the room with HeavyM. Colour, atmosphere and surface material follow what is known about each world; the rest is authored for a room that has to hold a seated audience.

It is an exhibition piece before it is anything else: people come in, sit down, and leave knowing what the ground on Mars looks like at standing height.

By: Özgür Kahraman — 3D & Immersive Artist
Client: Infinia
Year: 2024
Role: 3D Artist · Immersive Content
Tools: Unreal Engine 5
Blender
After Effects
HeavyM
Links: ArtStation

In the room

One room, nine worlds

Every world arrives twice. First as a body seen from space — hanging on the far wall in the dark, the room reduced to a planetarium. Then the surface takes over: the ground runs out from under the visitors' seats, up the walls, and the horizon settles where a seated eye line puts it.

Floor and walls are rendered from one continuous environment so a rock at the base of the wall carries on across the floor without a seam. The seats are the only fixed thing in the room; everything else is light.

An audience seated in a dark room as Neptune's curve and a field of ice fragments wrap the walls

Seen from above: visitors on a floor of drifting particles beneath the bright disc of Uranus

A single visitor in silhouette before Jupiter on the far wall

A visitor facing a snow-lined mountain valley — the Earth scene — projected across the room

Visitors seated on the Martian surface, the terrain carried across the floor

Venus lit warm against the darkened room, a visitor silhouetted in front

An audience on the surface of the Sun, seen from above, the plasma texture running under their seats

A visitor seated alone inside the Martian surface, the rover visible on the far wall

A visitor seated alone as Saturn's rings arc over a cloud deck wrapping three walls and the floor

The Infinia edit

The journey

Neptune to the Sun

The sequence runs inward from the edge of the system, so the room gets warmer and brighter as it goes — from ice fragments in the dark to a wall of plasma. Each world is introduced with a short narration, and its surface was built to be stood in, not looked at. Each world opens on its view from orbit, then its surface as the wall content itself at the installed ratio — a full turn of the room that can be dragged round without end.

Neptune

The mysterious blue giant

At the farthest edge of the Solar System, spinning in icy darkness, lies the planet that was found on paper — predicted by mathematics before anyone saw it through a telescope.

Neptune from orbit: the blue giant on the far wall, ice fragments tumbling past on every side

drag to turn around the room

Neptune in the room: the blue planet above a field of tumbling ice fragments

Neptune floor pass — ice fragments drifting on black

Installed: an audience seated among the ice fragments of the Neptune scene

Uranus

The tilted ice giant

Discovered in 1781 by William Herschel, Uranus was the first planet ever seen through a telescope. At first it was mistaken for a star, or a comet.

Uranus from orbit: a pale cyan disc flecked with dark debris, the rest of the room black

drag to turn around the room

Uranus in the room: a pale cyan disc flecked with dark debris

Uranus floor pass — a burst of pale cloud

Installed: a visitor silhouetted against the cyan disc of Uranus

Saturn

Lord of the rings

The most magnificent crown in the sky. Its rings — seven main groups and millions of icy, rocky fragments — are a cosmic masterpiece.

Saturn from orbit: the ringed planet centred on the far wall, stars around the room

drag to turn around the room

Saturn in the room: the ring plane rising over a bank of cloud

Jupiter

King of the Solar System

The biggest, strongest, most majestic. Its mass is about 2.5 times that of all the other planets combined, and its atmosphere hosts a storm that has raged for centuries — the Great Red Spot, once three Earths wide, now about 1.3.

Jupiter from orbit: the banded globe and the Great Red Spot on the far wall

drag to turn around the room

Jupiter in the room: the banded globe above a pink cloud floor

Jupiter floor pass — rose cloud seen from above

Mars

Secrets of the red planet

Covered in iron oxide, red Mars takes its name from the Roman god of war. Its two small moons, Phobos and Deimos — Fear and Terror — are likely captured asteroids. Half the size of Earth, its surface area almost equals Earth's landmass.

Mars from orbit: the red planet alone in the dark

drag to turn around the room

Mars in the room: the red globe on the wall and its surface underfoot

Mars floor pass — rust-coloured rock and gravel

Earth

The blue haven of life

Now we come to ourselves. With 71% of its surface covered by water, we call it the Blue Planet; its atmosphere of nitrogen and oxygen holds the delicate balance that lets life thrive. Its single moon drives the tides and steadies the planet's spin.

Earth from orbit: the blue planet on the far wall, the Moon small on the wall behind

drag to turn around the room

Earth in the room: snowy mountains across the walls

Earth floor pass — a mossy rock face and treetops from above

Installed: the green end of the Earth panorama wrapping the room

Venus

The shining face of hell

The planet most similar to Earth, yet utterly opposite. Nearly the same size, but with hellish conditions — its surface can reach 475°C.

Venus from orbit: the yellow globe, lit from one side

drag to turn around the room

Venus in the room: the yellow globe and its baked surface

Mercury

The fiery messenger of the Sun

The smallest, closest and fastest planet. Its orbit takes just 88 days, but one Mercury day lasts 176 Earth days. Daytime temperatures reach 430°C; at night it drops to −180°C.

Mercury from orbit: the grey cratered globe, half in shadow

drag to turn around the room

Mercury in the room: the grey globe above its cratered surface

Mercury floor pass — cratered rock from above

Installed: a visitor on the grey Mercury surface

The Sun

Source of life

The heart of it all. It holds 99.8% of the total mass of the Solar System. Its surface is 5,500°C and its core 15 million °C; every second, millions of tons of hydrogen fuse into helium, releasing energy.

The Sun from space: the star on the far wall, prominences lifting off its limb

drag to turn around the room

The Sun in the room: the star filling the wall, its surface on the floor

Sun floor pass — convecting plasma from above

Installed: four visitors seated on the surface of the Sun

Setup

Twelve projectors, one workstation

A total of twelve projectors are driven by a single workstation equipped with three GPUs, with HeavyM warping and blending the outputs; the sixteen minutes play from an H.264 master at the installed ratio with its own floor pass.

One machine means one clock. Every surface advances on the same frame, so the seam where the floor meets the wall never drifts — which is the difference between a room and a set of screens.

Projectors: 12
GPUs: 3
Workstation: 1
Worlds: 9

Wireframe diagram of the room: twelve ceiling-mounted projectors covering the walls and floor, fed by one workstation with three graphics cards

Interactive extension

A floor that answers to footsteps

The project can be adapted into a floor-based interactive installation using Kinect or other point-cloud tracking systems, allowing viewers to explore planetary environments through real-time motion and spatial interaction.

A visitor's foot on the projected floor, a ring of point-cloud particles responding around it

Three visitors in silhouette in front of the Sun, projected wall-to-wall across the immersive room