Four: Biolab Incubation Unit

 

  After some thought it was considered that for the plant and grub stages, an incubator was more appropriate for housing the creature than an isolation unit.(shown near the back). The subject can be observed from all angles and a layer of soil will provide the ideal environment to nurture Four in her mossy life-state while also studying her. The screens on the incubator can be used to convey information for scientists and the viewer.

  Today's session also gave me some practice with adding glass. Refraction was considered but first attempts resulted in more reflection. Later tests could refine the mechanic as these are set up primarily as two planes that fit into the grooves all the window models have.

  To demonstrate that Four is one of a number of experiments, the lab will contain several chambers. This will make it easier to view hers from the office and can show the company has several experiments going at a time, The rearrangement of features could also suggest relocation to different labs. A laboratory for nurturing plants or grubs might have different requirements compared to a lab designed to handle animals .

I had fun designing the LEDs and the knobs for controlling settings on the incubators. There is an air that part of the design could include clutter, though 1960s-period science fiction tended to be a lot cleaner, with pipes and wires being hidden. SOme variance in the LEDs could be given - blues, yellows and whites that would flash to give colour variance.

Four: More Biolab Furniture

  Work continues on the lab, enough that I can provide some rudimentary render/colour tests. Most elements have simple blinns and lamberts with an ambient occlusion ode, while the metal was given a basic chrome shader to make it look more properly metallic.

I felt my initial table designs were not the kind of science fiction atmosphere I was aiming for.

A first design I had was a more trestle-table look, but reflecting back this was the wrong kind of structure for the table I was aiming for so instead I looked into the design feature of metal tubing. I could either have built a frame that planted the table firmly on the ground although the desks that did this offered a gap for the seated's legs and chair.

  The alternative possibility was a more cafeteria bench, where the pipe-like legs went down and then curled up to support benches. This wasn't really practical, like the desks the seated's legs have full freedom and the pipe that supports their seats rise up to go under the seating. So I tried something inspired by the cafeteria bench.

  More UV maps, after looking at references the computer is more convincing. Though I may have to settle for a fully modeled keyboard at close-to-near-mid distance and a mock box at more distant ranges.

Four: Furnishing the Biolab

  With the corridor models done I've gone back to the biolab to build David's office and the corresponding articles starting with the largest furniture - the chairs and tables.

  As can be seen by the figure behind the chair, I needed a scale, which in hindsight I perhaps should have made first. It's only basic but it serves the neccesity of providing a means to brig in a more human scale for construction as this is an ultimately human environment. The biolab needed furniture that conformed to human ergonomics. For the furniture I went back to my references of 1970s designs

  So far the components I can call complete aside from UVs are a desk, an office chair, and a stool. While close to completion, the computer terminal in David's office (an attempt at designing a terminal with the elegant sleek side of the 60s while understanding that CRT screens were what people thought would always be used for monitors) needs a keyboard. Looking at my influences (the source of the CRT screen, all-in-one look and integrated keyboard area), maybe the computer is better off with more of a back to it as right now it more closely resembles a flatscreen pretending to be a CRT.

One of the elements of Four's isolation unit that I drew up in concept art was a bed that mostly resembled some kind of bean-bag. With some geometry tweaks, the moulded seats of the stools might work as a foundation for the bed's model.