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April 17, 2007

lsgl: more beacon models

by sven at 11:59 pm

More work on the Intergalactic Distress Beacon today.

oriental vase

I did dozens of ballpoint pen sketches, then tried out a couple in LightWave. The first one is the closest to what I want.

I didn't mean to have it light up like a paper lantern... I'm still figuring out how translucency works. I may use a more subtle version of this effect when the machine gets turned on. If I give the light inside an animated texture and a reasonable fall-off, I think I can get something pretty delightfully bizarre going on.

vertical ribs

I'm still trying to figure out how the explorers will interact with the beacon. It seems like there needs to be a control panel or buttons of some sort.

Had a new idea today: have a magic mirror. Like Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I can imagine the Elders staring into a palantir...

dalek / The Fly (1986)

I like the last model of the day least of all. It looks too much like the transportation chamber from the 1986 version of The Fly -- crossed with a dalek.

I've been fiddling with scale. I want the beacon to big even compared to the Elders -- but the explorers also need to be able to interact with it. Figuring out how to make it functionally eye-level for both species has been interesting.

posted by sven | April 17, 2007 11:59 PM | categories: let sleeping gods lie