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3DAlpha 7 reimagine (Barbarella movie)

psCargilepsCargile417 Posts: 620Member
Another project I started last year I hope to get around working on again.

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One thing I like about late 1960s sci-fi is how gonzo they were. I mean, Zardoz had a flying head. I suppose if your technology can let you ignore drag and gravity you can build aircraft that are giant heads. With an open mouth. Why not? The Alpha 7 from the movie doesn't have a conventional spacecraft look. And in Jean-Claude Forest's comic the spacecraft don't look much like spacecraft either. More like balloons. When you theorize that technology is so advanced as to not be considered, you can let the aesthetics take over. No idea what powers the Alpha 7, or how it moves superluminal. It just does what it does, that includes moving through solid rock as well.

A Barbarella project is perfect for Blender. You can do the ship exterior, the character (Using the MBLab add-on if you don't want to spend time building and rigging your own) and the interior with all the shag carpet thanks to the hair particle system. My initial intent was to do the Alpha 7 as presented in the movie. All I could go by was screen caps. If there are any prints, I didn't find them online. And as one might expect, I ran into the same problem that plagues most movie/television ship, the interior set is scaled higher than the exterior set. And the closet aft of the side window does not have an exterior component. Plus headroom issues with the angle of the viewscreen. And once I have to modify the design to make it work, I might as well modify the design all over. Why not make it a little more spacecraft-y?

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These engine modules are a design I've been drawing and using since the 1990s. These are low-poly stand-ins that will be rebuilt. The domes rotate to project their propulsion force, whatever the hell that might be.

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I like a good blackbody heat glow.

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I want to add some artistic flare to the design as well so that it doesn't just look boiler plate. The arc panels flanking the keystone will have some bas reliefs, maybe of Barabarella's exploits and victories. And over all filling blank space with functional details and panels. As I do not like iris doors as pressure doors, and because making an iris door that opens and closes is more work than I want to do, these simply roll open.

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Maybe the last thing I do is make an actual outfit for the poor girl. Give her some boots. How does Barbarella get into and out the Alpha 7? Stairs? Ladder? Nope. In the movie, she crash lands, so all she has to do is step down. But there would have to be a means to get up to the door. I like the idea of the ship floating above the ground, like in Star Wars, so this platform extends out which she can step down onto, and then the platform floats away and down to the surface. I use keyshapes to stretch the outboard face of the platform away form the inboard face. The part you stand on is material that expands and contracts, because gonzo sci-fi. I have an animation that shows this.

That's it for now. Maybe in a couple of months I'll get back to it.

Lizzy777ashleytingersrspicerAtolm
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  • publiusrpubliusr550 Posts: 1,746Member
    edited April 2021 #2
    Don’t forget her comic conquest...a robot companion named Diktor, of course.

    She looks more like Chanel West Coast...good!
    Post edited by publiusr on
  • psCargilepsCargile417 Posts: 620Member
    Good ol' Diktor. The sky cabbie that's fully functional with great care. Hey kids, Barbarella was pansexual long before Lando Calrissian. Haha.

    I prefer the Franco-italian look of her from the comics than Jane Fonda.

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    Looks more like

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    Bridget Bardot.



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