Early Early morning thoughts on how to design spacecraft

[Kellogg]

Good morning!

Woke up and had an epiphany this morning on tasteful design of fictional vehicles.

Scott
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Early morning thoughts on designing spacecraft for
fiction:

Many of today's space ship designs are, well, ugly.
Big blocky things with projections coming off at
random directions with little sence that any of it
was laid out properly. Looking at some of the ships
in various movies and TV shows, they're just like
boxes that have been stuck together with steel pipe
frameworks all over them with that break up the
lines of their surfaces like a grey industrial
camouflage.

The people who design such ships will tell you, it's
because the ship is extremely functional. But, since
in fiction, you're designing for the eye, not actual
engineering use, you end up with something that is
not pleasing to the eye and visually un-pleasing.
But, for the eye of a human being, it needs some
appeal.

The consensus is that if it's functional, it's ugly.
Streamlining isn't necessary in space, so there's
no reason to have smooth lines.

But, I just realized it doesn't have to be that way!
I can point you to a structure that is extremely
rugged and functional, yet smooth in shape:

Steam trains.

If you've ever looked at old steam locomotives, vs
new diesel locomotives, the steam powered ones are
*much* more interesting visually. Why? Because
all the workings are on the outside. But, a steam
locomotive doesn't have projections sticking out at
random angles, nor does it have blocks and plates
along it's surface that break up the outline like
camouflage. The way a steam locomotive is set up,
it was all done with big, visually interesting,
highly *symmetric* bolts, flanges and external
pipes that ran along the length of the main boiler
*emphisizing* it's shape, rather than obscuring it.
Where an external pipe doesn't run along the length,
it bends *at right angles* and skirts the diameter
of the cylindrical boiler, emphisizing it's roundness,
rather than it's length. Nearly every line of an old
steam locomotive emphisizes the shape of the big
cylindrical boiler.

I think *that's* how you can be blocky and beautiful
at the same time.

I also think this is why so many of the old Victorian
era science fiction is pleasing to the eye. The old
'Nautilus' from "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" was all
covered with bolts and plates that *emphisized* it's
shape rather than broke it up. Even the blocky
'Sphere' from "The First Men In The Moon" had a design
to emphisize it's shape with all the flat plates and
angles.

The "Blocky Look" of fictional spaceship designs has
been going on since the late 1960s. More recently,
design people have rebelled against that with the
"Organic Look" of spacecraft, where the ships look
like smooth, streamlined sea creatures.

I'm afraid I'm not a fan of this type of design either.
It's more like a complete rejection of the reasoning
behind the functional "Blocky" look, without good
reasoning for the new one. I think spaceships do need
a bit of blockyness, but you need to find a compromise
that is workable between the two polar ends of design
philosophy.

Now, if you want to use a bit of blockyness in your
space ship designs, I think I've got a better handle
on how it might be done and still have it fairly smooth.

The reason for the big blocks on the outside of a ship
is because of the function of what's inside. The engine
compartment(s) should be somewhat to fairly blocky, with
lines that emphisize rather than break up the shape of
the ship. While the passenger compartment(s) should be
somewhat to fairly smooth. What do you need blocky
projections for on an area of a ship that's main function
is to hold in air? On the contrary, the more joints
you have there, the more likely you are to lose air.

Around the bridge, yeah, there you may want a bit of
blockiness, but mainly with aerials, dishes and antenni
sticking up like eyes, ears and whiskers.


I think with this sort of approach, designing spacecraft
should be pretty neat. The purpose of camouflage is to
break up outlines so that they're not recognizable. But
a design that is pleasing to the eye is one that has
nice flowing lines. By cloaking fictional space ships in
blocks, pipe frameworks and randomly done lines we've
broken the capacity to be pleasing to the eye.

Scott Kellogg

[LaserBeams]

Some good musings there, Scott!

The first ship I thought of when you described such a ship...

Discovery. 8)

[Icefox]

It's an interesting thought (s?). Maybe I should sketch a bit and try some experiments along those lines, or even put an evening aside to break out the ol' rendering program. I have a friend who likes to draw spaceships and who's a thousand times the artist I'll ever be; I'll send it to him and see what he thinks.