CGI gives us unique view of supersonic balloon jump

Baumgarner CGI

Baumgartner's stupendous supersonic balloon jump somehow didn't produce the outstanding video we were expecting. So they fixed it in Post.

Remember the original footage from Felix Baumgartner's supersonic ballon jump? We covered the technology behind it here, but, ultimately, the video coverage wasn't up to most people's expectations. This may be partly because most people expect there to be 12 person documentary crew covering every angle, but if that were the case with Mr Baumgartner's escapade, then the balloon would never have taken off and the resulting film would have been very dull indeed. So in the absence of real footage, the next best alternative is to make it up.

Moving Infographic

This short CGI account from Red Bull takes what's known about the circumstances and presents it as a kind of "Moving Infographic". And very effective it is too - with some stunning shots, intermixed with some real (post-event, presumably) images of Baumgartner in his space suit. As a means to help the viewer visualise the almost unimaginable hostile - and yet visually stunning - environment, and the sheer scale of the balloon, it totally succeeds. It's one of the best uses of cinematic CGI in a documentary context that we've seen.