Hey guys, work to follow very shortly, for now here is my story I'm focusing on for my production design major project.
Its not book conversion though, It's a PC game from 1999 called 'System Shock 2'.
A little bit different in that im designing from an experience rather than written material although there is some of that too.


This a condenced version I wrote myself of the plot.


In 2072, earth and the colonies throughout the solar system are no longer under governmental control but instead by vast megaconglomerates, the largest being TriOptimum Corporation.

Life is good and people have little to complain about although there are public rumours
surrounding research projects on human mutation.

That is until a TriOptimum employee, Edward Diego and a hired hacker (the player) remove ethical constraints on a powerful artificial intelligence who controls all the systems aboard a very large space station, ‘Citadel Station’.

The AI known as SHODAN (Sentient Hyper-Optimised Data Access Network) went rogue, in an act of self preservation she saw all human life as a threat to her own and began to set in motion various plans to destroy everyone. The actions of the hacker who was overlooked by SHODAN at first, managed to avert the destruction of earth by eventually destroying the space station and SHODAN herself.

Earths close call sent a shock wave throughout the people in the solar system and lead to the discovery of similar rogue activity in numerous other corporate AI’s.

These events lead to a rebellion against megaconglomerate government. The ineffectual governments of earths nations were now banding together to form the Unified National Nominate (The UNN) and standing up to megecorporate control.

Newly built up military forces and bureaucracy took control over almost everything and technological development slowed considerably as everything had to now be countersigned in triplicate.

The UNN attempted many takeovers of corporate holdings but were met by well-armed TriOptimum soldiers.

After some time a truce was settled between governmental and megacorporate forces and the solar system became stable for some time.

2107, thirty-five years later, technological development still very slow and the solar system has evolved into heavily armed rival regions.

The UNN has strategic control, but has failed to win the hearts and minds of the lower classes and the truce is holding shakily in place.
Then, UNN Nobel Laureate Marie Delecroix working under funding from the skeletal TriOptimum corporation, publishes preliminary research findings of a Faster Than Light (FTL) mechanism.
Ms. Delecroix has serious concerns about reliability and unexplored side effect of the device.

Once rumours of the device were leaked, public enthusiasm became out of control. The UNN
allows TriOptimum to develop a working prototype, which tests successfully. TriOptimum begins work the first FTL starship they named the Von Braun.

The UNN refused to allow the starship out of the naval yards citing various regulations about prerequisite tests that must be carried out.
Popular opinion is that the UNN doesn’t want to let TriOptimum gain the amount of power that having the only working FTL starship would grant it.
By 2111, the device clearly works as expected but the side effects of extended use are still unknown. The condition in the solar system is worsening and hopes are high for a better future outside of it.

The UNN refuses still to let TriOptimum leave on a maiden voyage and after months of
debate, negotiation and threats a decision is finally made.

The Von Braun is allowed to leave for the trip into the unknown, but with a UNN escort. A UNN military heavy destroyer (UNN Rickenbacker) is to escort the Von Braun on its first FTL trip, tethered to the Von Braun via a complex interlock system.

2114, A few months into the historical journey, the situation is deteriorating. Ms. Delecroix’s predictions prove to be accurate as the Von Braun is plagued with malfunctions.
“And then, the remarkable happens. On June 10, 2114, the transceiver onboard the Von Braun begins receiving fragments of a distress beacon emanating from the Tau Ceti system, billions of miles outside the boarders of colonized space”

The Von Braun crew decide to fully test to FTL drive by jumping to the Tau Ceti system to
investigate the distress beacon.

Once arrived at the destination, the Von Braun detects a large signal coming from the surface of a planet ‘Tau Ceti V’.

A joint force of crew members from the Von Braun and the UNN Rickenbacker goes down to investigate. Once on the surface old ruins are found of a massive circular disc-like structure
which was almost completely destroyed sitting inside a very large crater.

The crater contained hundreds of eggs in close proximity to the center of the ruins.

After a few hours on the surface, the crew experienced blackouts not remembering hours of the time just passed. The captain of the Von Braun chief executive officer Anatoly Korenchkin orders a number of the eggs brought back to the ship against all protocols regarding quarantine.

William Diego, son of the infamous Edward Diego questioned his actions ‘Are you crazy, Anatoly?’ Korenchkin smiled and said back to him, ‘Oh, Captain... WE are not Anatoly...’

The creation that SHODAN had spawned back on Citadel Station 42 years ago in 2072 had somehow reached Tau Ceti V and evolved into something frightening, an entity who called its self ‘The Many’.

At first, parasites, or ‘worms’, find their way into the bodies of numerous crew members taking control of the host body and killing off crew members. This escalates to a point where nearly all the crew are dead.

You as the player are part of a squad from the UNN which has been in cryo-sleep since the launch of the Von Braun in case anything went wrong. Your squad is awakened one by one to help fight The Many as is runs rampant throughout the starship.

The player is the last soldier left in cryo-sleep and a drastic decision is made by commanding officers to modify and equip his body with an experimental R-Grade cybernetic interface system in the hopes of stopping The Many.

An error occurs while reinitializing his body and his memory is almost completely erased.

(The game begins roughly at this point in time.)

Now awake, soldier G65434-2 finds himself with no memory and completely alone on a very large starship. With the help of a Dr. Janice Polito a systems analyst hidden away on another deck, you are able to begin unravelling what happened and to stop The Many.

Via audio logs sent to your cybernetic interface, Dr. Janice Polito guides you through a series of tasks to cripple The Many as it now transforms into a much larger single being that is forming around the ship.

To your surprise Dr. Janice Polito is dead,
everyone has been since the beginning. It was SHODAN using the crew member avatars to manipulate you for her own purpose all along!!

The signal coming from Tau Ceti was actually a trap SHODAN had laid. The last small fragment of SHODAN had escaped on a piece of Citadel Station after it exploded and crashed on Tau Ceti V with the human mutagen she had created to destroy earth.

Once close enough SHODAN uploaded to the Von Braun and learned about the possibilities the FTL drive yielded. She learned that by creating pockets of Proto-Reality she could spawn her own world to escape from humans and now her own creation, The Many, which now threatened her existence.

The player eventually destroys her again, or so he thinks. The end-game cinematic reveals SHODAN
somehow manages to upload herself to a woman in cryo-sleep aboard an escape pod.

End.

This post was last modified: 06-21-2007 01:14 PM by Michael Jones.

too much crap to read. post some work

Fukin ay. No ones gonna read that novel. Post some work.

Bam! Here is a few bits of stuff, some context work and some starships

Bam! Here is a few bits of stuff, some context work and some starships

This post was last modified: 06-21-2007 01:20 PM by Michael Jones.

Great stuff Mike. My favourite is definitely concept 3, the sculpture around the rear nozzles is done well. If anything I'd say move the bridge forwards so it's on the thin part of the prow, just to balance the whole design out more. The logos are all very good, you really get a feel for the look of the universe they're set in. Are the red patches damage? They look quite nice as patterning.
Looking forward to seeing what you do in the next semester

The red stuff is actually another design element to the ship which is a creature that calls its self 'the many'. It’s basically the crew minced up and re-animated into its body. Its attacking/drawing power from the FTL drive. I’ll go find my criteria and paste it here; in a nutshell the thing has to look scary. C3 is my favourite too although a few people have mentioned similarities with Star Wars designs which I kind of want to steer clear from. C1 turned out to be the 'best' concept after screening.

Story related (Aesthetic)

• Single starship
• True to the original game aesthetic
• 950m in length
• Combination of two distinct visual styles (TriOptimum & the UNN)
• Large FTL drive to place emphasis on the importance of it
• Half battleship, Half peaceful explorer
• "Sleek, Fast, Revolutionary.”
• Dark coloured
• 'The Many' enveloping the ship

Experience related (Performance/Experience)

• Appear creepy, scary
• Convey history and origin though the aesthetic alone.
• Have a strong ‘wow’ factor
• Avoid cliché’s of past starships

This post was last modified: 06-22-2007 08:09 AM by Michael Jones.

Cool, yeah the third concept looks great. You could probabley do with a bit of the darker more sinister look from concept 1 - just based on what you've put in your criteria set. This should be easy to do with the detail development.
The first concept looks like it would be classed as a mercenary, stealth or pirate ship.
The form model looks like a capital ship sort of like the pillar of autumn from halo or one of the rebel frigates from starwars rotj

I don't know if you've seen the starship size comparison chart http://www.people.iup.edu/pnwm/comparison.gif but this could be a good reference material to help differientate your designs.

The studios looking very tropical

I must admit when I first saw the red patterning I thought of the reefer ships in Serenity, so I think it comes across. Concept 1 fits the criteria set best, as it's quite gothic in a way, especially around the cut out. You could script some interesting action/ camera angles around that negative-space too. I didn't see the Star Wars connection of 3 until you pointed it out. If you want to use some more inspiration from deep sea fish there's a fantastic book called 'Deep New Zealand' by Peter Batson worth finding