Cinematic scientific visualization (CSV) is the visual presentation of scientific data in a way that is typically associated with non-scientific filmmaking techniques including cinematography, lighting, and composition.
Cinematic scientific visualizations are often created for purposes of science communication to the general public, e.g. through museum exhibits and documentary films.
[1] CSV is considered a subfield of scientific visualization, although the creation methods and visual outputs differ due to CSV's heavy emphasis on aesthetics and design.
[2] The term "cinematic scientific visualization" was first published by Donna Cox in 2008 referring to work created by the Advanced Visualization Lab[3] and was popularized by Kalina Borkiewicz of the same lab who published a series of papers, conference presentations, and interviews on the topic beginning in 2017.
[4][5][6][7][1] The term is now widely used to describe work done by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio,[8] Siemens Healthineers,[9] NVIDIA,[10] and others.