This Short Film Is Made Entirely of Stills From NASA's Project Apollo Archive

What's better than a massive photo library of rare space images from the Apollo missions? How about a beautiful short film that transforms those stills into moving images and pairs them with wonderfully composed music and actual mission audio from NASA? Filmmaker Chris Coupland took advantage of the treasure trove of public domain imagery and used his Photoshop and After Effects talents to edit and animate them into a video that he titled simply Apollo.

Coupland writes that his film is a tribute to the NASA Apollo Program, and explains that Photoshop was used to separate the elements that make up each photo, while After Effects was used to "create movement and parallax between the layers in the image." He added that there were other effects and textures applied to the photos in order to "create a sense of action and transition between the scenes," and says that he hopes the project will inspire others to learn more about space exploration.

Fans have been sharing their adoration for Coupland's video in the comments section on Vimeo. One user stated that his father worked on the Apollo missions and thanked the filmmaker for his work, to which Coupland responded that making the film gave him a "renewed appreciation for what an incredible achievement it must have been for all involved."