Psyche Inspired: Jessica Hall

Jessica Hall Headshot

Institution: Rochester Institute of Technology

Major: New Media Design

Psyche Inspired Class: 2024-2025

Textures of Psyche

Jessica Hall

October 28th, 2024

Major: New Media Design

Genre/Medium: 3D Render; Cinema4D; procedurally generated models and textures using noise algorithms

About the work:

“Textures Of Psyche” explores the mysterious Psyche asteroid and what it may look like. Journeys into space are full of exciting and unknown possibilities that always defy our expectations, and I aimed to capture the scope of what our future images of Psyche might be.

After modeling the skeleton shape of the asteroid, I used procedural noise algorithms to add displacement to the models, adding physical terrain variations. However, the largest portion of this project involved creating textures. By layering, blending, and mathematically compiling a wide range of noise algorithms, I was able to build a variety of textures for Psyche that had exciting and subtle variations in color, surface texture, roughness, bump, reflection, and metal-ness. The final component involved lighting each scene to reflect the massive scale of Psyche, despite its lonely nature out in space.

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The Story of Psyche

Jessica Hall

January 2nd, 2025

Major: New Media Design

Genre/Medium: 3D render; Cinema4D & Redshift Rendering Engine

About the work:

“The Story Of Psyche” is a narrative motion graphics piece that illustrates the story of both the Psyche mission and asteroid through time. It begins as a mere concept, before blooming into discovery. Around it, a mission is built to study and explore this mysterious metal world. A dramatic launch calls the spacecraft into the sky, and the Psyche craft begins its journey through space. After slingshotting past Mars with its gravity assist, the spacecraft travels a lonely path before finally arriving at the enigmatic Psyche asteroid, which waits to reveal its knowledge and mystery. Read more…

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Sending Letters Home

Jessica Hall

March 24th, 2025

Major: New Media Design

Genre/Medium: Collage/Acrylic painting on canvas; magazines, thrifted childrens’ books, science books, book board, tinfoil, aluminum wire, copper wire, popsicle sticks, acrylic paint

About the work:

“Sending Letters Home” is a collage that represents the carefully structured, collaborative effort of the Psyche mission, as well as the emotional experience of launching this spacecraft to an unfamiliar place and awaiting its feedback. The piece evokes feelings of nostalgia, inspiration, and hope for what’s yet to come from the Psyche mission.

There are a lot of intentional details, many of them very obscured by the painting’s multitude of layers, that are built into this collage. The base of the painting was made from pages of old science books and texts about space travel, the solar system, the Earth, and other similar scientific topics. Additional texts and images of the stars were all taken from childrens’ books about space, reflecting the childlike wonder and curiosity that inspires humanity to study space. Finally, the 3-dimensional aspect of this project represents the depth and layers behind the science and exploration of space. The concept of collage itself represents the idea that space exploration isn’t just an answer to a question, but rather a resource to supplement us with the data and ideas to further a picture that we are only beginning to understand.

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