Unit 8 Part 2

The brief for this unit was to design the ship from The Tempest. We had freedom over what time period and environment it's set in, so I decided to design a spaceship for a version of The Tempest that is set in the distant future.

I first put together a mood board. I looked at sea creatures, birds and insects as inspiration for the form of the ship. I also looked at a variety of spaceship designs from media, video games and film. I looked at The Nautilus from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea as a reference for a ship with a sea creature inspired structure. I also looked at a few space ships from Star Wars, such as The Death Star and The Millennium Falcon.

After collecting images of a variety of sea creatures, insects and birds, I sketched out some silhouettes inspired by these and drew some spaceship details over them.

After doing a few sketches and experimenting with different shapes and styles, I picked which design to go forward with. I decided to go with the spherical, armoured ship, as I felt that it was the most interesting design that is obviously inspired by a sea creature but doesn't look too "natural".

I then did some more sketches of the ship, along with some sketches for ideas for concept art compositions.

I decided to create a mood board for the concept art in order to clarify the atmosphere and mood of the scene. I wanted the island to look threatening and moody. I looked at Icelandic beaches, as they have jagged rocks and black sand.

I did a first draft of a piece of concept art. I was happy with the colours and overall mood of the drawing, but I felt that the composition was boring and I wanted to add more details in the rocks and other natural elements.

When I redid my first piece of concept art, I tried to add more details in the rock - I looked back at my reference photos to help with this. I also tried to change the composition slightly to make it look more interesting and add more depth. However after completing it, I still felt that it didn't have enough detail and depth.

For my third piece of concept art, I decided to do a more close up drawing of the ship, so that I could show the details and texture of the metal. I was happy with this drawing and felt that it showed the colours and details of the ship well. However, I still wanted to create a final piece of concept art with a more exciting composition, which showed the ship and the island in a cinematic way.

For my final piece of concept art, I used a different composition - showing the ship from a different angle. I also included a character to show the size comparison between the ship and a human and also to show how the ship would maybe be used in a shot in a film. I referenced my mood board when drawing the mountain and rocks. I also decided to add two suns to add a sci-fi, other-worldly feel to the scene.

Next, I did the blender model of the ship. I used mostly spheres and torus's for the main body and shell of the ship. I used the sculpt tool to model the pointed tip of the ship.

After finishing the modelling, I textured it, using mostly metal and glass textures.

Finally, I added an HDRI and lighting to make the whole scene more realistic. I also adjusted the RGB curves and contrast levels of the overall scene to make it more blue toned and a higher contrast.

Lastly, I did my technical drawing. I decided to do this last, as I first wanted to fully establish the shape of the ship, so I could visualise it in 3D from all angles before figuring out the dimensions.

I did the plan and elevation drawings in AutoCAD and also figured out the dimensions, scale and paper size to make sure that it would be accurate. I then exported those drawings into Photoshop to lay them out and organise it all. I also added a title block and a human reference.

Overall, I am happy with my work for this unit. I feel that I was able to create a unique design, inspired by nature and also create an atmospheric piece of concept art.

If I had more time, it would have been nice to look more into the mechanisms and functionality of the ship - I was hoping to create an animation of the ship landing and taking off to show this, but found that I ran out of time. I also would have liked to create another piece of concept art in Photoshop, experimenting with photo-bashing a screenshot of my blender model and drawing details over it.