Captain Rob



I know flares are cheap - I just luv 'em so much an' wanna hug 'em for ever an' ever
an' squeeze 'em an' snuggle an' cuddle 'em...





Crew doodles

I'm working on the looks and traits of the crew on the space freighter - both in writing and in doodles, and I just thought I want to share some of the doodles... I haven't decided on any specific looks on the cast, though I like the short haired, bright looking female character though. She would fit in quite neat with the somewhat daft captain. Her name is McKenzie (just McKenzie) and she'll be the ships navigator. I think I got the captain somewhat worked out (he's the guy below, having a quiet drink). He's named Rob Roos, and he is not a people person. He doesn't like space either, but since you don't run into a lot of people out there, it's where he prefers to be. His motto would be "L'enfer, c'est les autres" if he could speak other languages than Terran Standard... Untill he learns, it's "Get the f*** lost, you mindless tosser!"

I always find it hard to settle for a final set of characters, so this time I've decided just to go with whoever I feel will work, and if it turns out they don't, then just get rid of them. Very holistic...

The universe and us...

Take the time to watch this. I promise - it'll be worth it...

The amount of Earth like planets in the galaxy...

I suck at math. I suck so bad at it, I had to become an artist. Or a bum. I choose the first. That's how much I suck at math.

Therefore I'm always in awe whenever someone like Phil Plait (the creator of Bad Astronomy, astronomer, lecturer, and author) solves questions like: How many Earth like planets are there in our galaxy?

Phil Plait came up with this surprising result: There's lots out there.We're not talking Earth mass planets, but the real deal. Planets roughly the same size as this pebble, inside the Goldilock Zone (where water will stay runny and wet, and not rock hard as mostly common out there) and orbiting the same type of sun as ours! The math behind it is quite amazing - nearly as amazing as the figure itself.

"The distance to the Gliese 581 system is what gets me excited: it’s 20 light years away. This planet is about 3 times the Earth’s mass, and it orbits its star in the right place. We don’t know what it’s made of, if it has an atmosphere, or really very much about it at all! But given its mass and temperature, it’s potentially habitable. Extrapolating from our one example, let’s say that habitable planets are roughly 20 light years apart in the galaxy (as we’ll see, that number can be a lot bigger or smaller, and the end result is still cool). That means there’s one star per cube 20 light years on a side:

In the drawing, each box is centered on a star, and the two stars are 20 light years apart. That means the cubes are 20 light years on a side, right? If we assume stars with livable planets are distributed throughout the galaxy like this, then there is one star per 20 x 20 x 20 = 8000 cubic light years. That’s the density of habitable planets in the galaxy.
So how many cubic light years are there in the galaxy?
A lot. Let’s say the Milky Way is a stubby cylinder 100,000 light years across, and 2500 light years thick. The equation of volume of a cylinder is
volume = π x radius of disk² x height of disk
so
volume = π x 50,000² x 2500 = 2 x 10¹³ cubic light years
Holy wow! That’s 20 trillion cubic light years!
Now we just divide the volume of the galaxy by the density of stars with planets to get
2 x 10¹³ / 8000 = 2,500,000,000 planets
Oh my. Yeah, let that sink in for a second. That’s 2.5 billion planets that are potentially habitable!

Even if my numbers are way off, there could be as few as hundreds of millions of planets, or as many as maybe hundreds of billions in our galaxy alone that we could live on!
Again, the point being that mathematically speaking, there may be a lot of habitable planets out there. And who knows; some may be marginally habitable and we can terraform them. And then there are moons of worlds, too… I don’t think I’m speaking too far out of school if I were to speculate that for every perfect Terra Nova out there, there might be three or four more planets we could live on with some work.

Of course, I’m ignoring how we’d get there! But that’s an engineering problem, and given enough time — oh, say, a century or two — I imagine we can overcome a lot of those issues." 

 Then there's all the other details - as one reader intelligently replies:

Remember that the Earth itself was incapable of supporting modern humans until almost 500 million years ago — that is, for 8/9ths of its existence. The rest of the time there was no oxygen in the atmosphere, or not enough, or there was no ozone layer, or carbon dioxide levels were so high that humans would be unable to breath.
Then there is the problem of composition. A world where sulfur dioxide or hydrogen sulfide are part of the planet’s respiration system would kill terrestrial life off pretty quickly. The planet’s crust might have a lot of toxic compounds that, if they didn’t kill terrestrial plants, would kill animals who ate those plants. Where there is only a vanishingly small chance that an exo-world would harbor a toxic virus or other pathogen, there is a much higher likelihood that the planet would have annoying — even fatal — allergens. And how many soaps, solvents and preservatives have we invented that mimic estrogen and other hormones? It is unlikely that other worlds would have naturally occuring compounds that pose a similar risk to human health?

 
Check it out here.

James Gurney

I think, I'll just leave the pictures to do the talking here...

But for the record Mr. Gurney was the man behind "Dinotopia" - Just in case you think, you've seen his name before...

 

Illustration "Asteroid Miner" for the novel "Out of the Sun"

(Note the "Right stuff"/blue collar attitude)...

 Unpublished work (happens to all of us...)

 Illustration "Etruscans" for National Geographic(!)

Dinotopia

(First I didn't want to put up any Dinotopia related pics, but the depth in this

picture is sooo very nice...)

And the maestro himself - now that's what I call a study!

Ok - so I couldn't keep my blabber all shut to let the pics do all the talking, so what! It's my blog!

Check out his website at www.jamesgurney.com and his blog at gurneyjourney.blogspot.com.

Battleship - Corvette Class



My newest ship - the HMS Hood - the famed battleship is now SketcheUp'ed, and I'm rather pleased with it.

I like the wrench shape of it, like a tool designed for a function an not to look good.

I want to make a battleship - a cruiser or dreadnaught class ship - based on the shape of an axe or a cleaver, but that might be a bit of a challenge to get that one exactly right...

Here's the corvette again:

David Attenborough and the BBC

I just love the BBC and David Attenborough, whose life long dedication to show the rest of us, just how amazing this planet really is, has been one of my strongest inspirations. You'll never expect one dull moment in a BBC production, starring Sir David Attenborough.
Just watch...

Freighter: Lightcutter Class

Still looks too much like my computer cabinet, but I kinda like it.

This is the Lightcutter Class Freighter, equipped with standard ion engines (Hauser ltd.), and a single, minor jump engine (Shang Zhou Engine Corp.) Quite comfortable for a smaller crew.

Freighter - Hauler Class

I'm currently working on the design of the cargo freighter, belonging to my main protagonists - but I still haven't worked it out yet. This one is somewhat in the right direction, but it does looks like something you've seen before. And I think it's a bit too big. I still like it, and that's why I decided to post it here. 

The ship I need got to have a little more personality, but nothing like the Millenium Falcon (where do Han put the cargo on that ship???) and a bit more together than Serenity (it does look like they mashed 5 ships together into one)...

And thanks to Google SketchUp...

James Horner - theme from Willow

James Roy Horner is an American composer, and the writer behind scores for movies like Avatar, Braveheart, Apollo 13, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Glory, The Mask of Zorro, The Legend of Zorro, Enemy at the Gates, The Missing, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, A Beautiful Mind, The Perfect Storm just to mention a few. 

And he did the score for Willow (1988), which I personally think is great - especially the theme of Elora Danan. I wouldn't hesitate for one moment to equal it to John Williams Star Wars Score (which of course still gives me the thrill every time I hear it) - It really is that good. 


Take a good moment and listen to it - maybe even make yourself a good cuppa before listening. I'm not pulling your leg when I tell you, you can literally see the whole movie unfold right in front of you - just by listening with your eyes closed.

Written by James Horner and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Kate Beaton

Sometimes you just strike gold without actually making the effort of looking for it.

I was ambling along on-line, minding my own business, when suddenly this amazing webcomic popped into existence on my ViewSonic - completely out of the blue! (And here's a big thanks to Neatorama for posting an illustration done by her to lead me on!) The very talented Kate Beaton, who is awesomer than awesome, is the woman behind this hilarious and well drawn comic. Go look if you don't believe me, but don't come a-blaming me, when you suddenly realize that you've spend most of your working hours reading witty comics, broadening your views and challenging your intellect with sharp satire.

Just selecting which strips and drawings to represent her work here on Astrocities has been quite a challenge, since there's so many goodies, but I think I got a fair bunch selected. Judge for yourself...


Well... they are!

This one I picked, because I once wrote an essay about the norman invasion of England - Sorry for being self centered...

Anyway, Kate Beaton origins from Nova Scotia, has a history degree and lives in Ontario and fancies to draw pictures. Her website is http://www.harkavagrant.com/.

Sistema Solare: Trooper

I'm currently on holiday, so I won't be able to update the blog until sometime after the 31st of juli.

Anyway - here's a little doodle from my project Sistema Solare:

Soldier equipped with standart equipment for a private of "The Royal Expeditionary Force"- this particular soldier is stationed on the planet "Hideo".

The design is ancient, but I kinda like it.

If the Earth really stood still...

Scientist using geographic modeling software wanted to see what effect it would have on the planet, if the Earth stopped it's rotation. And the impact would be huge!

"If earth ceased rotating about its axis but continued revolving around the sun and its axis of rotation maintained the same inclination, the length of a year would remain the same, but a day would last as long as a year. In this fictitious scenario, the sequential disappearance of centrifugal force would cause a catastrophic change in climate and disastrous geologic adjustments (expressed as devastating earthquakes) to the transforming equipotential gravitational state.
The lack of the centrifugal effect would result in the gravity of the earth being the only significant force controlling the extent of the oceans. Prominent celestial bodies such as the moon and sun would also play a role, but because of their distance from the earth, their impact on the extent of global oceans would be negligible."

"If the earth's gravity alone was responsible for creating a new geography, the huge bulge of oceanic water—which is now about 8 km high at the equator—would migrate to where a stationary earth's gravity would be the strongest. This bulge is attributed to the centrifugal effect of earth's spinning with a linear speed of 1,667 km/hour at the equator. The existing equatorial water bulge also inflates the ellipsoidal shape of the globe itself."

"If the earth stood still, the oceans would gradually migrate toward the poles and cause land in the equatorial region to emerge. This would eventually result in a huge equatorial megacontinent and two large polar oceans. The line that delineates the areas that hydrologically contribute to one or the other ocean would follow the equator if the earth was a perfect ellipsoid. However, due to the significant relief of both the continents and the ocean floor, the hypothetical global divide between the areas that hydrologically contribute to one or another ocean deviates from the equator significantly. "

 

 
Link to ESRI

The amazing Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was one of the biggest visual storytellers the US ever bred. And one of the easiest to like.
Through his paintings he romanticized the simple life and values of the Americans and made sometimes rather complicated issues quite simple.Not many will acknowledge him as a great artist, but he is certainly one of the best known. 
Among the best-known of his works are the "Willie Gillis" series, "Rosie the Riveter", "Saying Grace", and the "Four Freedoms" series.
I just can't help feel drawn into the greasy poetry in his pictures and linger with a thirst for a simpler time, that possible never were. And a feel that I ought to go buy some war bonds right now...

Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld - Scottish cartoonist and illustrator - is the man behind books such as "Guardians of the Kingdom", "3 Very Small Comics (Volumes One to Three)", "Robots, Monsters etc", "Hunter and Painter" and "The Gigantic Robot". He's also the guy behind the cartoon "Move to the City", which ran in London Time Out 2001-2002 and is currently producing a cartoon for The Guardian. I just love his subtle and underplayed style.

In connection with the book "The Gigantic Robot" Lego Robots were made (by himself I presume) as publicity for his agent Heart. Probably the most robotic automatons ever build in Lego! Cool eh?

Valérian & Laureline

The SciFi comic book series Valérian, the SpatioTemporal Agent, created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières, was launched as early as 1967 in the french magazine Pilote.

"World Without Stars" (1971) was the first Valérian album I ever read.
It starred the-not-the-brightest-but-very-likable-lad Valérian and his fellow protagonist the-independent-and-intelligent Laureline, and I fell instantly in love with the series. It was amazing. I had the feeling of actually visiting another, almost real place, or maybe even more exact: to witness a study in Extraterrestrial Anthropology. A slice of Life on the planet Zahir, where a serious battle of the sexes took place (A full resume can be read here, though I strongly suggest you buy the album).

The main characters were both agents in time and space in the 28th century, boldly going where only few men (and women) had gone before them. But this wasn't just Star Trek version Française - This was the more gritty kind. The kind without people with huge, balled heads in tin foil suits, shiny plastic bubbles all over the place and a horizon 13 meters away. It was mud and oil. Huge planets and rocky landscapes. And two people far away from home.

But what really makes Valérian and Laureline stand out, is the profound humanism, that seems to be leaking out between the pages. The story would typically take it's beginning in some ideological differences between various alien groups, and the differences would be resolved through reason and perseverance. Not by firing nukes or photon torpedoes.

People has been known to accuse Christin and Mézières of being too much inspired by George Lucas and vice versa. It's hard to tell who's inspired by who, though I'm not aware of George Lucas ever having been introduced to Valérian, whereas Star Wars on the other hand is quite hard to miss. It is said though, that Doug Chiang, design director on The Phantom Menace, kept a set of Valérian albums in his library.

Mézières' response upon seeing Star Wars was that he was "dazzled, jealous... and furious!". As a riposte, he produced an illustration for Pilote magazine in 1983 depicting the Star Wars characters Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa meeting Valérian and Laureline in a bar surrounded by a bestiary of alien creatures typical of that seen in both series. "Fancy meeting you here!" says Leia. "Oh, we've been hanging around here for a long time!" retorts Laureline.

The Millennium Falcon may to some degree look like their ship - the XB 982, but it's purely coincidental. There are some recurring details in the designs, but none I'd say were evidence of design theft. And that goes for the alien designs too. They may just be a visual expressions of the period the designers themselves were living in.

Valérian ran for 43 years(!) years until it's conclusion in 2010, which in my opinion were quite some time too late. Since "On the Frontiers" (1988) reading Valérian had been like watching an old relative slipping into dementia. You'd think of all the good times you used to have together and not really looking forward to whatever would come next. In the first album of the series "The City of Shifting Waters" (1968) the Earth infrastructure had collapsed due to nuclear detonations in the year 1986 - an occurrence that in the 28th century had lead to the establishing of the future society and Galaxity (the home of The Time and Space Agency)- but as time caught up and the eighties came around, Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières agreed to let Valérian and Laureline travel back in time to stop the nuclear disaster, and thereby destroying Galaxity! Suddenly the two main characters were left without any purpose in deep space, and since then the quality of both the story line as well as the art has gone drastically down.

The lesson here should be, that if you ever want to destroy the world as we know it (narratively speaking), stage it to happen after you're dead, so you won't end up in the same, embarrassed situation.

Art of Francis Tsai

Francis Tsai is an American comic book artist, illustrator, author and conceptual artist, whose work includes contributions to Star Wars, Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering trading cards, Marvel Comix, ImagineFX magazine and several games. He has written and illustrated 3 books "Fantasy Art Academy: 100 Ways to Paint the Coolest Fantasy Figures"(2008), "Extreme Worlds" (2009) and is currently working on his third how-to book "Anatomy: The Fantasy Artist's Bible" (2010). 

But even though he is an extremely talented artist, I must admit that it's his ships that really makes my day here... Just take a looong look at these two eerie vessels! Great design. Check out his website here.