- Blender - Planet models, Milky Way, lighting, date, and planet name.
- Python - Script to increase the date and scale planets.
- The GIMP - Introduction and end credits texts.
- mencoder - Create video from PNG images.
- OpenShot - Mix sound, image, and video tracks.
Nice planets and I liked the voice and text/font work in your video.
Must say its quite a test in patience after the first few planets (and I failed horribly as I fast-forwarded a good 10 min). Wonder if I have ADHD :spin:.
I think it would have been cool if during the journey between planets some factual info about the last planet visited (its moons, etc) and/or some info/facts regarding the distance to the next planet were shown as an overlay over the Milky Way background.
Or maybe just something simple like a distance accumulator (in miles) to go along with your date/timer… as I was kinda curious how far one had traveled during the journey
Good ideas, nybuddy.
Considered them all, even a distance odometer and accumulator. Other ideas:
- Inset video (Carl Sagan?)
- Audio voice-over with science
- Planetary moons
- Spacecraft tour
- Plea to save James Webb telescope
- Comparative size of planet to Earth
- Longer (more fluid) shots of the planets themselves
- Show planet orbits with marker for path
- Animate storms on the planets
- Improve animation for the Sun
Lots of good ideas, definitely.
Personally i really like this video, because a lot of people have a misconception in their minds about the scale of our solar system, thinkning that if you could step back and take a look at you could see it all nice a closely, as if planets were only a couple thousand miles apart. This really puts the size of things in perspective.
My only niggle (and its a small one) is why start the date on 24th Jan 2153? Unless your actually John Titor 
To me it would have been easier to follow and comprehend if the date was something like 2000-1-1 maybe.
Apart from that anyway i loved it job well done, check out my vid on planet size comparison if you like, wish i could write blender scripts cos had a nightmare with the scaling of that lol 
Hey, z.
The dates correspond to when neighbouring planets are closest to each other. This minimizes the distance that the imaginary spacecraft would have to travel. The grand tour happens once every 178 years. Voyager I and II were launched in a similar window decades ago (to reach the Jovians).
I rendered this one a while ago, which is the same concept as your video:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star-sizes.jpg
Talk about an image with room for improvement, eh? 
Learn Python, though. It’s quite worthwhile.