Vikki Brown remembers when her animation professor asked if she was interested in working with scientists at Cal State Fullerton on black hole and gravitational wave research.
“He said, ‘Are you into that?’ and I said, ‘Sure. I don’t know what it means, but it sounds cool,’” said Brown, a senior animation major and computer science minor who had been focusing mostly on 3D designs and video game projects.
That was in March 2018. And now the 22-year-old is the resident artist for the Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy Center — a first for the center.
In her role she has taken gravitational wave data from students and transformed it into a 3D simulation of a neutron star being sucked into a black hole and disappearing.
She is also helping GWPAC scientists visualize the Cosmic Explorer, the next-generation gravitational wave detector that will be 10 times bigger and 10 times more sensitive than current detectors.
CSUF is part of LIGO, an international collaboration with more than 1,000 members around the world. LIGO’s observations are carried out by twin detectors in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, and are operated by Caltech and MIT.
Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time that travel at the speed of light, stretching and squeezing the distances between things in their path. They open up a new field of astronomy where scientists can use gravity to see objects like black holes, neutron stars and supernova explosions.
Brown, who was more familiar with software used in Disney and Pixar films, trained herself in the use of the software needed to create a 3D rendering of the proposed new detector that will have arms with lasers that stretch 40 kilometers, roughly the length of Chicago from north to south. The lasers bounce back and forth to measure the gravitational waves.
The rendering is a work in progress, she said. She also plans to help design the logo for the project.
“It’s been interesting,” Brown said. “The first couple of meetings, everything just flew over my head. I did not understand what anyone was talking about. But over time, as I asked questions, I got more of it.”
As resident artist, Brown has provided a new way of looking at science, said Joshua Smith, Dan Black director of gravitational wave physics and astronomy at CSUF, who has been working with her on the Cosmic Explorer rendering.
“Her background in animation has allowed her to use modern tools and methods that were completely unknown to us as physicists,” he said.
“Vikki has succeeded at something very challenging,” he added. “She has entered into a community of physics students, as an artist, and has made a great impact and developed friendships. She has brought some of our ideas to life, helping us to see what greatly warped spacetime and future observatories look like.”
A self-described nerdy college student who loves technology and storytelling, Brown said she wanted to pursue animation as far back as high school in San Diego but was also interested in environmental science.
“I started to delve into 3D animation to see how that works and I thought it was a really cool blend of art, which was a hobby of mine anyway, and science, which was something I was extremely interested in,” she said.
“I am very open to all kinds of opportunities. I love this foreseeing the future type of research. But I’m also interested in the technicalities of how they got ‘Toy Story 4’s” lighting to look so good.”
At CSUF she has worked on several video games. In the first, she teamed up with a 3D animation club to create a virtual reality carnival game that was showcased at CSUF Arts Week in 2018.
Her second, “Escaping Argus VR Experience,” was an escape-room video she co-directed where the user solved puzzles that determined whether they deserved to keep going or should be killed off.
Brown said she believes the flexibility of CSUF’s animation program helped prepare her for her role as GWPAC’s resident artist.
“The department allows you to explore 2D and 3D, the occasional stop motion as well as research and design,” she said. “I think the school has opportunities for interdisciplinary learning and because the professors encourage it, it is a lot easier to go for it.”
Smith said the idea to bring in an artist originated with John Spiak, director of CSUF’s Grand Central Arts Center. And that led to a meeting of physics professors and arts professors and prompted Andy Fedak, an associate professor in entertainment art/animation, to recommend Brown.
Brown expects to graduate in spring 2020, but she’s not taking it easy. Along with 13 units, she has three independent study projects going, including GWPAC’s. She’s also working on a computer graphics project where she’s programming a video game and working on a short animated film for her senior honors project.
The inspiration for the film came from her own experience with her father, an Iraq War veteran.
“It’s about a girl who has one of those insomnia episodes where you wake up a lot and you’re kind of between dreaming and reality,” she said. “Her father is deployed in the military and she is worried about him. She thought he would call, but he hasn’t.”
“It’s a really great concept,” she said. “I’m just concerned about executing it in the time I have left.”
She’s also looking at master’s programs in computer science “to build up more computer science knowledge and even it out with animation.”
But she’s not ready to say goodbye to black holes and gravitational wave detectors anytime soon.
“It’s a little nerve wracking, but it’s exciting, too,” Brown said. “I hope they will let me stay for the summer. I like it here a lot.”
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