... now with 35% more arrogance!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Geomorph A1: Clone Tanks

I hadn't planned on doing two geomorphs today, but I've been shamed into it. So, I'm coming up with a few ideas for an A-series: Atomic-Age and Alien Installations. I'm not sure how many I'll do this month, but I may post one or two in addition to my planned continuation of the G-series. The A-series will assume a more open style (no walls between geomorphs,) so that they are usable in warehouses or on floorplans for alien saucers.

This one is called "Clone Tanks". Big glass cylinders of bubbly liquid with bodies inside. They could also be regeneration tanks, or android manufacturing centers, or suspended animation chambers. There's a catwalk running around the perimeter of the area.

5 comments:

  1. Wonderful. Very evocative of the genre. I've done some sketches for geomorphs representing spaceship interiors, but I'm well away from doing anything with them. One or two also use split levels and gantries, and there's a lot of fun to be had with that, as we can see here. The upper level has great detailing too.

    On the subject, I have a request. Could you point me in the right direction for the standard proportions you guys are using for your series? I'm assuming a single side is one unit from the first corner to the first entrance, half a unit for the entrance, two units to the next entrance, half a unit for that entrance and more one unit to the corner. I could well be out...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I worked out the proportions from Dyson's geomorphs as 10 squares by 10 squares, 4 squares to the inch. Each entrance is 2 squares from a corner and 1 square wide, which works out to the same proportions you give, I suppose. When placing items other than architecture, I'm going on the OD&D/AD&D standard of 1 square : 10 feet, but I'm eyeballing it rather than working it out exactly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks very much! Looks like the numbers match up. There's a lot to be said for the humble eyeball, and that's good news for the B-movie monsters who only have the one! I'll bear in mind the thinking on placement too. No watertight excuses now I suppose - time to think about slowly transferring those sketches to screen.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the quick walk-through on the dimensions/sizing. dyson has effectively set a standard for online geomorphs now that there is quite a bunch of people producing them and the tiles are getting used by extra-handy online utilities like Dave's Mapper. When reducing the tiles for online use, the Mapper uses 300px x 300px for the main tiles, 300px X 150px for the edges, and 150px X 150px for the corners, as per Dave.

    Didn't mean to shame anyone into anything, but these Atomic Geomorphs are wonderful, as are the entire G-Series. Great Stuff!

    We ahve a few to scan-in when things settle down some more, and we're setting up a batch that'll be strictly digital. 10x10/4squares to the inch will be the standard size for us now as well.

    Have you considered doing hex-shaped geomorphs? Those looks cool!

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Netherwerks: Hadn't planned on hex-shaped geomorphs (I'm surprisingly hex-avoidant in general...) but it does occur to me that hex-shaped geomorphs would work really well for the saucer sections you suggested in another comment, and might be a better fit for A-series in general.

    ReplyDelete