I should probably redraw my layout for the bridge, but it'd be interesting too. Big, lots of room for crew and activity, low ceilings, low lights, exposed pipe, big square chairs...
Haven't doodled cloud-inspired ships in a while. Some interesting shapes here... I like that ship with the big hanging dome, the "H", I want to explore that thing a bit more.
Another space station, this one I'm tentatively calling "The Iron Star," (another) intergalactic prison.
It could be space-based (since I was thinking of Deep Space Nine), but I can also picture it landing on a planet. Haven't decided yet. I can picture a shot of the inmate looking out her window and seeing the universe zip by in time-lapse style.
The "glass" in the center overlooks the yards, with the guard towers hanging like stalactites off the spines. The edges holding the cell blocks. The lower section houses the engineering decks and control systems, as well as cargo bays and ship docks (so the visitation rooms are down there, with the Trek-style slanted walls.
The points at the end are where the communal areas and skype-courtrooms are. The yard covers the cafeterias, gyms, and factory levels.
Love the scale of it, you made it bigger than mine, which is a plus because I was worried the angles might have been too tight for some of the inside sets.
And that texture... perfect for a prison! Like dirty, grimy tile. And that little inset area with all the windows, it's very 80s model looking. Imagine having a cell and your window only looks out into that depressing trench. But once a day if things line up right, the sun will shine right into your cell and refresh your soul.
Those spiky pipes... I can picture them tapping into a resource vessel like a needle and draining them dry. Holy cow, could that mean there's a vampire ship somewhere out there?
And the windows on top, exactly what I was going for! It looks like there's transparent solar panel collectors, so the sunlight that passes through also generates the power needed to keep the place running! What I love about it is that it also means there's enough room in there for the work farm, which was something I was struggling with (there's an episode where the resident stoner gets herself sent to the work farm so she can smuggle supplies back to aid in her drug-growing endeavors, and finds a missing inmate who's a living plant).
I wasn't sure anyone was still checking this thread out, what an awesome surprise to wake up to! I've been a bit down/sick the last few days, so this is exactly what I needed.
I never linked this, because it ain't ships/models, but here's some doodles of the weird inmates that populate the Iron Star.
Barricuda, the leader of the Aquatic gang . Quick, slippery, dangerous.
Seems to me I recall someone saying that it's the story that matters not the tech. And what are stories usually about? The best ones are about people (or beings of some sort) Your sketches of creatures are pretty cool, and should live here too.
I agree! But I can't help drawing the tech and gear that my characters use. Heck, I was brainstorming another idea last name and giving al those characters e-mail addresses (on fake services, Bee-Mail for Gmail, Icemail for Hotmail, and web4all for AOL).
Anyway, back to Iron Star...
I've done a couple doodles of Keeley, the lead, her bunkie/sidekick Page and a couple exploratory sketches for their stoner buddy, but Eden the living plant still eludes me.
(the "S" is Page's hand-done tattoo, which she got for her sister Sasha, who's interred at another facility. Sasha's tattoo, a "P," was made with a faulty skin-printer so it's interlaced lines that aren't parallel).
Thinking of the tech, though, in my research I found out that tech in prison needs to be transparent so the COs can make sure there's no contraband in it. So I started tooling around with some ideas. I wanted Page's screen to not look like an iPad, and so far it was just turning into a retro designed thing, but now I can imagine iPad-style parts in a sealed plastic magazine bag. Inmates would just stuff tech into pre-sized holders like baseball card sleeves for music players and games, etc. It also means they do their own repairs and modifications using whatever they can, so there's mix-and-match parts as well as drawn circuitboards, and mismatched batteries (AAs mixed with Ds).
Those cell phones from a couple pages ago... definitely see one of those as the contraband phone Page finds, it HAS to be an old fashioned flip-up burner, and we never see cell phones in space.
One thing that I want to do well is the books. One of the inmates is a journalist who secretly runs a school, teaching the inmates how to read and think critically, so she has to repair and make her own books. Hand-written pages in between copied pages between originals with all kinds of binding and protective covers... arguably the most valuable things inside the walls of Iron Star.
Thanks! But you wouldn't be saying that if you were stuck with it. I need to figure out the right face for the journalist, she'd have to be older and inside for quite some time, in order to make those books (I suppose journalists would be the first to go in the sort of upheaval the galaxy went through).
I do have some old stuff from this idea, though.
This is an old sketch for an alien inmate, she's meant to be this solid object, rather like The Thing or The Hulk. So massive that she doesn't fit right in the bunks. I had this idea that her species is already orange, so instead of the uniform, the markings are just spray-painted onto her. Her species are usually the tough guys of the universe, mob enforcers and the like, but I don't know if she is.
Oh, here's the first sketch of the stoner inmate I did, a mash-up of Kristin Stewert and Cara Delavigne. Not nuts about it, I think I might add some Vanessa Hudgens to the mix, especially hair-wise.
Keeley's alternate uniform for the H4D35 colony which I posted a couple pages ago, the hole-in-the-ground power plant. It's more exposed because it's so freakin' hot, think "Sunshine" or that similar episode of "Doctor Who."
I posted this back in November, the bottom ones are my faves to be the outside of the H4D35 complex.
I actually did a doodle somewhere for the AI of H4D35, appropriately called S4T4N. It's a couple polygons in the shape of a devil's head... I was also thinking the devil/joker face from a pack of cards, but I'm not sure. The S4T4N design, which I'll have to find, is also making me think that The Iron Star's AI might be 4NG3L (if only I could make it the first AI to terrify me as a child, Angelbrain! -- of which I also have doodles somewhere). But maybe the Iron Star is too old to have a personality AI in there, just racks of old processors and miles of cables.
Oh, and looking through my old art, I found this ancient piece and had to share. Not connected to anything above, just random and I think is still cool. Band-aid Marv!
Uploaded it to my tumblr, so it should work now. Gonna delete the earlier posts.
SLIGHTLY sci-if, what with the cyborg side of the face there. These definitely feel like they should be in a sci-fi story of some kind, though I'm not sure which yet.
Quick doodle for a coral reef inspired underwater facility... another weird space prison, perfect for the aquatic alien species. This is meant to be in the same icy moon that The Maw sticks out of, so I might redo this as a more jagged, gnarly thing. But I would want to keep it from looking like the Narada from Star Trek 09.
Output has been a bit low lately, particularly on the SF side, but I've got two little deets I'd like to share.
This is me trying to figure out the style of the cells in the H4D35 complex we've seen earlier. They're called "baskets" because of the metal grid walls. It's too hot and stuffy in the compound for there to be closed compartments. Of course, many baskets have improvised curtains and so on to create privacy. I quite like that corner pillar having all the "wall" stuff like mirror, lights, sink control and everything. The one thing I wasn't able to express correctly was the flourescent light rig hanging over the basket ceiling and how the vents stick between them, circulating air in. The floor... not sure what I'm going to do yet.
They're all going to be side-by-side... and on the far side, it'll be looking out far to the outer wall. I figure that this the entire cell block is suspended in the center, with the guard towers and patrol on the outer walls.
Okay, getting away from high concept space prisons for a bit (a bit), here's something I 'm not sure what I'm going to do with...
This dude is a water-cooled super genius advisor to an intergalactic bad guy, inspired by a voice in the first episode of The Tenth Doctor Adventures. This is what I thought he'd look like.
Oh, and like an idiot, I finally figured out what the video camera ship is for: it's the observers' ship. The ones who go around the universe making sure everything is working the way it's supposed to.
The Iron Star 2... or, seeing as I don't want to repeat myself and send my characters to a clone of the first facility, this might just be an alternate version of the original. I tried to retain the trench, but while the top diamond is still there, I don't imagine this facility having or needing the work farm biodome on top. I do like the docks at the end splitting open to allow the buses inside. The only thing that didn't come out right was the force field, it was meant to look like steam or smoke against a laser... you only see it at the edges, but it surrounds the whole facility.
I haven't had much in the tank recently, but I finally put down this idea... I had it a while ago, but never put it down: a one-person scout ship that cracks open like an egg. I want to add some more "sports car" to the design, but I like this rudimentary concept.
Rogue One inspired me to get off my butt and try to doodle some of my designs in the narrow window of free time I have.
This isn't my first attempt at drawing Eden, a living plant, but it's the first time where I think I have the basic idea for her down, though I still don't like the execution of the petals.
I also don't really think that I want her head to bloom like that, it's just something you'd expect to happen. It feels derivative of Star Trek Beyond.
These are some rough ideas for the Iron Star's cell doors. I did a couple before, that I don't think I posted, but these are the first that are starting to feel right. The one with the orange LED triangles seem to be the closest to "right," they have to be simple but also look futuristic.
And finally, some costumes"
Let's be honest, I was inspired by Orson Krennic's awesome outfit in Rogue One. While the Iron Star guard uniforms are still eluding me, the idea of cool, simple futuristic suits (or at least suit jackets and vests) seemed like something I could tackle. The one touch I really like is the LED line pocketsquare, a bit Tron-y... seems like the kind of thing that would pop up in the future. The red ones are my favourite, dark suits and glowing red, belong to the most ruthless of individuals. Maybe they have to earn the right to wear them.
I did, like, two freaking pages of these before I remembered that Gentry's suit doesn't have that. But he wears old fuddy duddy professor clothes, so I figure the sharp glowy suits would be a recent thing, a hallmark of the fascist human gov't that he's hiding from. Of course he wouldn't dress like that.
Nothing TOO impressive here, just a basic inmate jumpsuit concept for Eden, Lorelei, and a couple of the others. Don't have too much to say about this one.
LOVE the concept of Eden! I can just imagine the flower blooms or wilts according to her mood, maybe even a bit of mood ring in that it changes color too...
Eden's real interesting. She's one of the aliens who lived in a Black Sunflower (the stealth space stations seen earlier here), and she's meant to be a bit of a Nelson Mandela figure, fighting for the dignity and right of her people to exist. The blooming came from an idea for the end of one episode, where she manages to get hold of a sun lamp while in the hole and can recharge herself, blooming and doing this weird naked yoga that we would see in silhouette. The idea of her progressively wilting, changing colour, the longer she's in there is quite an interesting one, though.
The mood-change is interesting, though I think she tries to be in charge of her emotions. She releases spores, so her mood does have an effect on those around her. Plus, thanks to the spores, her girlfriend is never sure if she's really in love with her or if it's mind control (it's love, btw).
She's green (I wanted something like the Orion Slave Girls or the dancing girl from Return Of The Jedi), but I had this idea that she leaves these funky purple flowers behind... something unlike what we have on Earth. They can be used as a simple message, Keeley gets handed one by someone or she finds one growing in the yard, it's a signal that Eden is alive or needs her.
The jumpsuit is designed for her , mostly, so that the prosthetics and fake arms can be slipped on and the seams hidden more easily. Plus, unzipping that thing and peeling it off feels more flower-like than the traditional scrubs. Though it's going to be FX heck when she takes it off, but that's one of the big draws of the concept, to me: more alien FX than we've seen before, aliens who can get wet or dirty, have tattoos, and show us way more of their body than Star Trek or Star Wars would.
I also just remembered, right this moment, that Eden has to wear a suit in an episode, for her Kangaroo court. Definitely going to take a design page from the ones I posted here.
Posts
It could be space-based (since I was thinking of Deep Space Nine), but I can also picture it landing on a planet. Haven't decided yet. I can picture a shot of the inmate looking out her window and seeing the universe zip by in time-lapse style.
The "glass" in the center overlooks the yards, with the guard towers hanging like stalactites off the spines. The edges holding the cell blocks. The lower section houses the engineering decks and control systems, as well as cargo bays and ship docks (so the visitation rooms are down there, with the Trek-style slanted walls.
The points at the end are where the communal areas and skype-courtrooms are. The yard covers the cafeterias, gyms, and factory levels.
Love the scale of it, you made it bigger than mine, which is a plus because I was worried the angles might have been too tight for some of the inside sets.
And that texture... perfect for a prison! Like dirty, grimy tile. And that little inset area with all the windows, it's very 80s model looking. Imagine having a cell and your window only looks out into that depressing trench. But once a day if things line up right, the sun will shine right into your cell and refresh your soul.
Those spiky pipes... I can picture them tapping into a resource vessel like a needle and draining them dry. Holy cow, could that mean there's a vampire ship somewhere out there?
And the windows on top, exactly what I was going for! It looks like there's transparent solar panel collectors, so the sunlight that passes through also generates the power needed to keep the place running! What I love about it is that it also means there's enough room in there for the work farm, which was something I was struggling with (there's an episode where the resident stoner gets herself sent to the work farm so she can smuggle supplies back to aid in her drug-growing endeavors, and finds a missing inmate who's a living plant).
I wasn't sure anyone was still checking this thread out, what an awesome surprise to wake up to! I've been a bit down/sick the last few days, so this is exactly what I needed.
I never linked this, because it ain't ships/models, but here's some doodles of the weird inmates that populate the Iron Star.
Anyway, back to Iron Star...
I've done a couple doodles of Keeley, the lead, her bunkie/sidekick Page and a couple exploratory sketches for their stoner buddy, but Eden the living plant still eludes me.
(the "S" is Page's hand-done tattoo, which she got for her sister Sasha, who's interred at another facility. Sasha's tattoo, a "P," was made with a faulty skin-printer so it's interlaced lines that aren't parallel).
Thinking of the tech, though, in my research I found out that tech in prison needs to be transparent so the COs can make sure there's no contraband in it. So I started tooling around with some ideas. I wanted Page's screen to not look like an iPad, and so far it was just turning into a retro designed thing, but now I can imagine iPad-style parts in a sealed plastic magazine bag. Inmates would just stuff tech into pre-sized holders like baseball card sleeves for music players and games, etc. It also means they do their own repairs and modifications using whatever they can, so there's mix-and-match parts as well as drawn circuitboards, and mismatched batteries (AAs mixed with Ds).
Those cell phones from a couple pages ago... definitely see one of those as the contraband phone Page finds, it HAS to be an old fashioned flip-up burner, and we never see cell phones in space.
One thing that I want to do well is the books. One of the inmates is a journalist who secretly runs a school, teaching the inmates how to read and think critically, so she has to repair and make her own books. Hand-written pages in between copied pages between originals with all kinds of binding and protective covers... arguably the most valuable things inside the walls of Iron Star.
Edit: Here's the books!
I do have some old stuff from this idea, though.
This is an old sketch for an alien inmate, she's meant to be this solid object, rather like The Thing or The Hulk. So massive that she doesn't fit right in the bunks. I had this idea that her species is already orange, so instead of the uniform, the markings are just spray-painted onto her. Her species are usually the tough guys of the universe, mob enforcers and the like, but I don't know if she is.
Oh, here's the first sketch of the stoner inmate I did, a mash-up of Kristin Stewert and Cara Delavigne. Not nuts about it, I think I might add some Vanessa Hudgens to the mix, especially hair-wise.
Keeley's alternate uniform for the H4D35 colony which I posted a couple pages ago, the hole-in-the-ground power plant. It's more exposed because it's so freakin' hot, think "Sunshine" or that similar episode of "Doctor Who."
I posted this back in November, the bottom ones are my faves to be the outside of the H4D35 complex.
I actually did a doodle somewhere for the AI of H4D35, appropriately called S4T4N. It's a couple polygons in the shape of a devil's head... I was also thinking the devil/joker face from a pack of cards, but I'm not sure. The S4T4N design, which I'll have to find, is also making me think that The Iron Star's AI might be 4NG3L (if only I could make it the first AI to terrify me as a child, Angelbrain! -- of which I also have doodles somewhere). But maybe the Iron Star is too old to have a personality AI in there, just racks of old processors and miles of cables.
Oh, and looking through my old art, I found this ancient piece and had to share. Not connected to anything above, just random and I think is still cool. Band-aid Marv!
I'm liking the Interceptor, Stingray, and the Cyclops.
SLIGHTLY sci-if, what with the cyborg side of the face there. These definitely feel like they should be in a sci-fi story of some kind, though I'm not sure which yet.
I've never drawn her before, I think she came out all right. I love when she's in human mode, she makes great expressions.
This is me trying to figure out the style of the cells in the H4D35 complex we've seen earlier. They're called "baskets" because of the metal grid walls. It's too hot and stuffy in the compound for there to be closed compartments. Of course, many baskets have improvised curtains and so on to create privacy. I quite like that corner pillar having all the "wall" stuff like mirror, lights, sink control and everything. The one thing I wasn't able to express correctly was the flourescent light rig hanging over the basket ceiling and how the vents stick between them, circulating air in. The floor... not sure what I'm going to do yet.
They're all going to be side-by-side... and on the far side, it'll be looking out far to the outer wall. I figure that this the entire cell block is suspended in the center, with the guard towers and patrol on the outer walls.
Okay, getting away from high concept space prisons for a bit (a bit), here's something I 'm not sure what I'm going to do with...
This dude is a water-cooled super genius advisor to an intergalactic bad guy, inspired by a voice in the first episode of The Tenth Doctor Adventures. This is what I thought he'd look like.
Oh, and like an idiot, I finally figured out what the video camera ship is for: it's the observers' ship. The ones who go around the universe making sure everything is working the way it's supposed to.
The Iron Star 2... or, seeing as I don't want to repeat myself and send my characters to a clone of the first facility, this might just be an alternate version of the original. I tried to retain the trench, but while the top diamond is still there, I don't imagine this facility having or needing the work farm biodome on top. I do like the docks at the end splitting open to allow the buses inside. The only thing that didn't come out right was the force field, it was meant to look like steam or smoke against a laser... you only see it at the edges, but it surrounds the whole facility.
This isn't my first attempt at drawing Eden, a living plant, but it's the first time where I think I have the basic idea for her down, though I still don't like the execution of the petals.
I also don't really think that I want her head to bloom like that, it's just something you'd expect to happen. It feels derivative of Star Trek Beyond.
These are some rough ideas for the Iron Star's cell doors. I did a couple before, that I don't think I posted, but these are the first that are starting to feel right. The one with the orange LED triangles seem to be the closest to "right," they have to be simple but also look futuristic.
And finally, some costumes"
Let's be honest, I was inspired by Orson Krennic's awesome outfit in Rogue One. While the Iron Star guard uniforms are still eluding me, the idea of cool, simple futuristic suits (or at least suit jackets and vests) seemed like something I could tackle. The one touch I really like is the LED line pocketsquare, a bit Tron-y... seems like the kind of thing that would pop up in the future. The red ones are my favourite, dark suits and glowing red, belong to the most ruthless of individuals. Maybe they have to earn the right to wear them.
I did, like, two freaking pages of these before I remembered that Gentry's suit doesn't have that. But he wears old fuddy duddy professor clothes, so I figure the sharp glowy suits would be a recent thing, a hallmark of the fascist human gov't that he's hiding from. Of course he wouldn't dress like that.
Nothing TOO impressive here, just a basic inmate jumpsuit concept for Eden, Lorelei, and a couple of the others. Don't have too much to say about this one.
Eden's real interesting. She's one of the aliens who lived in a Black Sunflower (the stealth space stations seen earlier here), and she's meant to be a bit of a Nelson Mandela figure, fighting for the dignity and right of her people to exist. The blooming came from an idea for the end of one episode, where she manages to get hold of a sun lamp while in the hole and can recharge herself, blooming and doing this weird naked yoga that we would see in silhouette. The idea of her progressively wilting, changing colour, the longer she's in there is quite an interesting one, though.
The mood-change is interesting, though I think she tries to be in charge of her emotions. She releases spores, so her mood does have an effect on those around her. Plus, thanks to the spores, her girlfriend is never sure if she's really in love with her or if it's mind control (it's love, btw).
She's green (I wanted something like the Orion Slave Girls or the dancing girl from Return Of The Jedi), but I had this idea that she leaves these funky purple flowers behind... something unlike what we have on Earth. They can be used as a simple message, Keeley gets handed one by someone or she finds one growing in the yard, it's a signal that Eden is alive or needs her.
The jumpsuit is designed for her , mostly, so that the prosthetics and fake arms can be slipped on and the seams hidden more easily. Plus, unzipping that thing and peeling it off feels more flower-like than the traditional scrubs. Though it's going to be FX heck when she takes it off, but that's one of the big draws of the concept, to me: more alien FX than we've seen before, aliens who can get wet or dirty, have tattoos, and show us way more of their body than Star Trek or Star Wars would.
I also just remembered, right this moment, that Eden has to wear a suit in an episode, for her Kangaroo court. Definitely going to take a design page from the ones I posted here.