Stunning Supernova Footage Isn’t What It Seems

Instead of sticking his camera’s lens in the eyepiece of a powerful telescope peering into the heavens, filmmaker Thomas Vanz captured this stunning footage of a giant star going all supernova by actually pointing his camera at a glass aquarium filled with colorful inks and water.

His low-tech approach to simulating one of the universe’s most spectacular occurrences skips the computer graphics and is better for it. Even the sounds Vanz used in his short film, Novae, all come from pre-recorded sources. There’s nothing created with digital manipulation—kind of like the universe itself.

[Vimeo via Neatorama]