Research into Aesthetics: Part 5 (Mood boards)

I want the assets that i design to be an interesting type of the game design for phenotype. I also want it to be a man made structure, as this is an area of both 2D design and 3D modelling that i feel i need to improve on, and wish to test. For BA4 Nathan Russel created a 3D model of one of the types of tunnels that connect the main parts of the building together. 

(map design by Nathan)

i will roughly be basing my room/area design off Nathans Map design, but with greater emphasis on my own vision for the world. I want to design a unnecessary part of the environment, as i feel that focusing on designing the tunnels was a bit of an unnecessary way to display our design ideas. An important part of the game design of "Phenotype" focuses on the customisation of characters. this is done in an "engineering room" in the game, which players must enter in order to update and or alter their characters appearance or moves in any way. the pretext of this in the game would be that when the creatures enter a specific device (like a cloning tank) their tissue and DNA dissolves (of the limb they are replacing) and is re-constructed onto the body out of fresh tissue and DNA.

I am using this scene from Prometheus as inspiration for what goes on in this tank, i think having different kinds of media will help me in creating a design that is iconic.

(clip explaining how the DNA corruption scene in Prometheus was created)

The assets that i am going to design will be part of this room set up. i want to design a variety of of props to populate the room, though i only intend to produce the engineering chamber itself as as a 3D model. it will be useful to have contextual designs of other props and the setting pf the assets to show a coherent design style and design progression.

I have started to collect inspirational images, and create mood boards. this is my progress, and thoughts so far:

(The Force Unleashed 2 trailer: still) 

(The Force Unleashed 2 trailer: still) 

I have looked at the game "The Force Unleashed 2" as my first inspirational material. I thought that the prevalent themes of cloning in the game would provide some interesting references. I like the use of color blue colored lighting in this environment, it provides a contrast between the dark metals and darker shadows in behind them.

I do however want to be considerate in my use of design cliche's, as i have mentioned earlier, the use of lighting in this way is common in science fiction, and i think, bordering on over-use.

I also like the design of the cloning tanks themselves, though the form is based on a simple cylinder, the large area of glass viewing screen frames the body's in the tanks well. This is an important functional aspect within the game that i need to consider. Part of the porousness of the tank is to display the players creature in an easily readable manner so they can make aesthetic adjustments through the customisation systems within the game. It would be poor design if the creature was obscured by part of the tank, impeding the players view. 

There are 8 different playable races, each with 4 different style variables, and each of those with a further 4 variations of form (in the form of stages of the life cycle). I want to make sure my design can comfortably accommodate these designs, so that the design of the chamber will can remain consistent, therefore the containment space within the tank must not be too constrained.

(an example of the variations of one faction- Ba4)

Again, blue glowy lighting is a common theme here. This is kind of a visual prompt for myself to look closer at the art and design of avatar, initially at the industrial design aesthetic, but also at the use of human- machine interface. this will become very important for my later design work. 

i like the shapes used within these objects (the tanks) they look simple and functional, yet clearly serve the purpose of framing the avatar inside. The top image is something i must try to stay away from, the container hugs the form of the character like a coffin. this design seems to be created from an ergonomic perspective, trying to comfortably contain the human within. A design of this type is too limiting of the shape of the occupant, as such it wouldn't work well as a vessel to house a wide range of differently shaped creatures. 

This is my first mood board, for this collection of images, i wanted to put specific emphasis on form and shape. I envisage the main bulk of pod/ chamber i design to be symmetrical through both the x and y axis. i tried to look as related objects for the most part, with some more obscure images  as inspirational shapes. 

I first searched for objects related to the subject of my design, containment "pods" i gathered references of "cryo pods" from both alien and Prometheus. i wanted to keep a common, coherent theme through my research. To that extent i looked for imigary of "sleeping pods" as well as medical devices that are designed to "contain" the human form such as ct scan machines. from there i followed on with further images of medical equipment because of the visual links to operation and clinical environments.