This is a 3D animation created by a digital artist, not NASA

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 29, 2021 at 10:01
Updated on October 29, 2021 at 10:13
3 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

A video is circulating in social media posts that claim it shows a staged "space collision" video created by NASA. The claim is false; the clip is actually a 3D animation created by a digital artist.

"Another video created in an invented space at NASA’s studios. Mocks human intelligence," reads a Korean-language Facebook post published on October 21.

The video appears to show an object colliding with a satellite or space station hovering above the Earth.

Screenshot of the misleading claim shared on Facebook captured October 27, 2021

The video was shared in similar posts on South Korean platform Naver Blog here and here.

Comments on the posts suggest people believed the video was made by NASA.

"They [NASA] are working hard in their studio. They cannot go out anyway. Until when they are planning to put such a show like that?" one user on Naver Blog wrote.

"How can they create such fabrications", another Facebook user wrote.

However, the claim is false.

A Google reverse image search revealed a longer version of the video posted on Instagram on July 27 by Alexey Patrev, who describes himself as a "CG artist."

The Instagram post features the hashtag #animation.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ⲁⳑⲉⲕ⳽ⲉⲩ (@aleksey__n)

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared in misleading posts (left) and the original video posted on Patrev's Instagram account (right).

Screenshot comparison of the video shared on Facebook (L) and the original video posted on Patrev's Instagram account (R)

Patrev said he was inspired to make the video after watching the movie "Gravity".

"I liked the moment with the destruction of the [space] station [in the movie]. And the thought came to do something similar," he told AFP.

"I created the project in the 3ds max program. I used the TyFlow plugin to create a destructive process. It took about one week to create the animation. The final render was done through the Corona Renderer. I collected the finished material in the After Effect."

AFP could not find any credible statements from NASA or any media reports about NASA staging a space collision in a studio.

AFP has previously debunked posts falsely sharing animations as real life, including here and here.

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