  We present a method to simulate color, 3-dimensional images taken with a
space-based observatory by building off of the established shapelets pipeline.
The simulated galaxies exhibit complex morphologies, which are realistically
correlated between, and include, known redshifts. The simulations are created
using galaxies from the 4 optical and near-infrared bands (B, V, i and z) of
the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) as a basis set to model morphologies and
redshift. We include observational effects such as sky noise and pixelization
and can add astronomical signals of interest such as weak gravitational
lensing. The realism of the simulations is demonstrated by comparing their
morphologies to the original UDF galaxies and by comparing their distribution
of ellipticities as a function of redshift and magnitude to wider HST COSMOS
data. These simulations have already been useful for calibrating multicolor
image analysis techniques and for better optimizing the design of proposed
space telescopes.
