Research

I began to gather images of oil refineries and oil rigs as well as other present day facilities. I also started to research the mining industry itself. By researching the mining industry I was able to gain an insight to the way in which these mining corporations extracted various raw materials such as coal, silver and diamonds. These industries rely heavily on machinery and transportation vehicles. many of these mines took on the form of massive trenches and craters. Some were cave like that had been carved out of the rock. Some of these mines used cranes to extract the materials safely. 

By looking at the images and information available to me I was able to get a better understanding of the idea behind a mine and the way in which they were run. Mines themselves are extremely dangerous. The sites are usually littered with machinery and there is always the danger that the mines could collapse. Conditions are severe and miners risk their lives to extract the raw materials that are eventually sold and refined to produce useable products.

I gathered as many images as I could find so that the group could decide on a single unique look that would be applied to the mine. The images include many references to oil rigs, oil refineries as well as Second World War facilities. I also looked at various films such as Blade Runner, Star Wars and 2001 A Space Odyssey and Dune. These films have many futuristic but aesthetic designs we could use for our project.

Mines themselves employ vehicles to transport and extract the raw materials from the ground.

I had a look at many vehicles ranging from tanks, lorries and aircraft from different time periods which the group could use later to construct some vehicles we could animate. Although some of the vehicles do not relate directly to our project we can use some of the designs to create some futuristic yet aesthetic machinery.

We must be careful that these vehicles do not take the primary role however. Vehicles are secondary to the mine itself and must not overshadow the task in hand.

Style

Once we had a solid backstory we began to pick elements within the story to help funnel ideas and thoughts. We knew that the environment would be set in the future and that the mine itself would be situated on a remote, hostile rock. However, we needed to agree on a style that would suite the environment and the story. We deduced from the story that the mining installation had to be industrial, used but modern. The climate and weather were both equally hostile and the mine itself needed to show symptoms of ware and tare.

On my last project I had researched oil refineries and oil rigs. These installations would be perfect to achieve that modern feel but at the same time feel used and industrial. Oil rigs and refineries are riddled with piping, conduits, cranes and other high tech machinery. Using elements of these present day facilities we could produce our own mining facility that would have an aesthetic feel to it.

Backstory

2215 

Earth's resources are depleted all that remains are the low yielding wind, tidal and light farms. Yet Earth has been turned into a Galactic homeland for the rest of the EC (Earth colonies), in essence an expensive holiday resort treated like a pilgrimage.

With the introduction of inter galactic travel in 2098 Earth's answer for energy came in the form of Intronium a high yielding energy resource that seems limitless in supply. It is found on planets and moons with harsh weather conditions ranging in polar opposites and as such it was seen as a useless venture. 2120 the EC roles out space technology with increased enthusiasm and introduces Terra-forming, previously uninhabitable atmospheres are now breathable and the weather conditions on many moons have been greatly improved making Intronium accessible.

2142 Lance Carter, Earth's richest citizen, establishes Inter Planetary Mining (IPM). IPM uses the EC's imprisoned convicts to work his mines, conditions are too harsh to open to the general populous-no one would apply. The Galactic Defence Force (GDF) is introduced in order to keep control over the convict workers, some of the small mines faced rebel uprisings but Carter's answer to this was to glass the planet. The mines vary on the planet or moon they are working on and how the Intronium is reached, common ground usually being that of depth.

2214 our mine is situated on the moon Utor 8 which orbits a huge storm planet.

Utor 8 is under IPM hold and directly under the jurisdiction of Dr Fritz, his style of leadership is that of the iron fist – one foot out of place and you disappear. The GDF is notorious here as 3 years ago there was a rebel surge but Fritz insisted to Carter that he would deal with it, and so he did a huge death toll that fills one of the abandoned mines on Utor 8. So the GDF use this as an excuse to  exact their own authority.

Given enough food and water to survive and worked long 10 hour days in deep mines the convicts are given no choice over the situation. The convicts live in temporary buildings set up in and around the mines, as there is no money trading is essential and what is traded is either stolen or scavenged.

A small rebel force is amassing amongst the convicts, who are slowly gathering weapons and vehicles along with usable technologies and supplies, with the aim of overthrowing the GDF and claiming the planet for themselves.   

Mining facility:

One of our first ideas was to create a mining installation set in the future when most of Earth's resources have been depleted. The atmosphere is saturated with the smog of burned fossil fuels. Set in a post apocalyptic world the few remaining humans work as miners under the control of fascist regimes who police the mines and its inhabitants. 

We agreed as a group that writing up some kind of back story that would not only inform others of our ideas and workings, but help our idea generation as well. By inventing a story it helped us to produce a unique style and look to our project. The back story was the backbone of our assignment. It allowed us to extract elements and work from strategic points. By including some characters within the story it gave the environment purpose and weight. The story itself could suggest why the mine looks the way it does. 

We felt that by adding characters and places people could relate with the project more easily and ideas would flow fluidly. The backstory itself is a necessary element of the project as it is where all our ideas originated.

Initial Ideas:

On our first group meeting all team members presented some ideas to the whole group and recieved feed back from part members. Andy Kinnear came up with two ideas that I thought had a lot of potential for creativity and design. We realised that to make the environment work we had to come up with a solid backstory that would explain why the environment looked the way it did and come up with some characters you could relate to within the environment.

Project Brief:

For the brief this term students must design, model and animate an environment of their choice.

The environment can be anything set within any time period. It is important to use reference material when researching to get the best out of the environment you wish to create. You must work with at least 4-5 people. It has been recommended that we collaborate with the IDEAS students when designing our environment. Working with these students may give us vital skills and techniques when constructing a three dimensional environment.

Team Name:

Havoc

Team Members:

Tom Ritchie

Ben Keswick 

Andy Kinnear

Chris Caldow

Alex Caldow