Looking for Inspiration 2004-02-21 - By Dave Angelini
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Raveen, Valgar, Stan,
Thanks for the links and the ideas. The "3D Shop" (www.3dshop.com) really
has a wealth of great ideas on all fronts, not just Sci-fi. The galleries
are deep and full of content (some of it tS) with some pretty neat
animations as well. So with Valgar's suggestion, I broadened my search at
this site to more than just Sci-fi.
The "Pop Fiction" site also some neat material, but by the time I got to the
bottom of the page, I had to close it as my children were in the room and
the bottom has some rather "child un-friendly" links.
In any case thank you again for all your help.
Kris,
Interesting argument on sci-fi buildings doing the impossible but with
common every-day materials. I think this has more to do with human
pyschology than with bad engineering on the part of the artist. Usually,
futurists try to ground their imaginative works in common framework that we
can relate to. Doug Chiang (Star Wars concept artist) used this principle
quite effectively in the "Phantom Menance". He had to create some pretty
fantastic sci-fi gear but wanted the viewer to still relate to it. Almost
evoke a "where have I seen that before" type of response. That is why he
made the robot troop carriers look like elephants and the large space ship
which they travel on look like a dragonfly.
For the same reason, artists making future structures use common everyday
materials so that we can relate to the building and interpret it as
"believable". If he made them shimmer like gold spun statin, we would look
at it and think "fake" rather than "Wow! look at that space age material".
Thanks,
Dave Angelini
-- -- Original Message -- --
From: "Kris Krieger" <pterochromics@(protected)>
To: <truespace@(protected)>
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 6:05 AM
Subject: Re: [TSML] Looking for Inspiration
> At 11:32 PM 20-02-04, Dave Angelini wrote:
> >I am currently working on a my longest WIP ever (yes...we are talking
> >years here). It is a sci-fi architecture scene and I am about 80% done.
> >
> >I am a bit stuck for some sci-fi spire type of architecture...preferrably
> >with a walkway between towers....
>
> Ravenn's list of links was good, but I also like Valgar's idea. Also good
> are micrographs of Diatomes/Foraminifera, which have some spectacular
> shapes. X-ray crystallography, electron miscropy of insects and other
> natural structures, even molecular structures, might bring some unusual
> things to mind. Insect wings, leaf "skeletons", cocoons - the universe
> hold more marvels than the human mind can think of. And since the
> sturctures exist, you know thay have to work on at least some scale and
> with some materials. Your job is to then extrapolate the sructures to
> different materials etc. and try to think whether they might be possible.
>
> Oh, also, depending upon the style you're doing, pics of places like
Arches
> Nat.l Park, and ice caves, lava tubes, and other geological structures
> might be useful.
>
> The hard part IMO of SF architecture is having a sense of the possible
> capabilities of materials. My personal gripe with many SF-scapes is that
> the materials look/"feel" like familiar materials, but they're doing
things
> that familiar materials simply don't do, because the person just drew
> shapes with no thought re: whether they'd be possible or
practical/workable
> as human spaces (for those that are supposed to be human spaces). And for
> non-human species, too many of the buildings look the same as the human
> ones. IOW, if you looking to create spaces/structures in your image for
> non-human beings, look to nature for analogs, look into the biology (to
get
> a better sense of their perceptive processes, which in turn helps one to
> think of an appropriate Aesthetic), and that sort of thing.
>
> HTH!
>
> - Kris K.
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