[WIP] Reaching the stars (plant-based edition) environment
polycounter lvl 3
Hello Polycount! After my previous project was an escape into medieval times, this will be an escape into space. This sentence might already be enough to have you roll your eyes and remember the thousands of ever-same sci-fi hallways you stumbled upon while looking up this unique idea for an environment, before scrapping it forever. I've been there, but instead of going for the sometimes badass, sometimes just bad looking humanoid spaceship, I pose the question: How would a spaceship look like, if it was plants who were going to space?
Now, that's my goal with this project, designing a space ship environment that could have been designed by plants. And you can follow along, if you want. It's definitely gonna be fun and maybe even educational.
I aim to give weekly updates, so stay tuned.
Some references for the environment. I won't reinvent the wheel, so the overall vibe of the spacecraft will be "futuristic greenhouse". Lots of white plastic, lots of glas, lots of plants.
The rough layout of the area I plan to design: The mandatory hallway, leading to a lounge to the left and a lab/nursery to the right.
And to get the main production work out of the way, I already created all necessary building blocks for the surrounding (see greybox above). Next off I'll start researching how plant life support could work (based on references from ISS) and model the necessary props.
Now, that's my goal with this project, designing a space ship environment that could have been designed by plants. And you can follow along, if you want. It's definitely gonna be fun and maybe even educational.
I aim to give weekly updates, so stay tuned.
Some references for the environment. I won't reinvent the wheel, so the overall vibe of the spacecraft will be "futuristic greenhouse". Lots of white plastic, lots of glas, lots of plants.
The rough layout of the area I plan to design: The mandatory hallway, leading to a lounge to the left and a lab/nursery to the right.
And to get the main production work out of the way, I already created all necessary building blocks for the surrounding (see greybox above). Next off I'll start researching how plant life support could work (based on references from ISS) and model the necessary props.
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Update on the blockout. Added quite some props and lights. Still a long road ahead, but it's great how lighting can make a scene have a certain feel immediately.
In case you're interested in the ideas behind some of the things in the scene:
My approach to enabling sentient plant life to survive in space is having them use other plants to produce CO2 and HO2 for them. That's what these pink boxes present, basically sealed-off environments from which water, CO2 and energy is being extracted (which is being produced during plant respiration, a kind-of-inversion of photosynthesis, which would arguably be the most sustainable method for sentient plants to sustain themselves). The dramatic lighting is a result of just one of the lids of the glass ceiling being slightly opened, as the plants have to be kept in darkness in order to get their respiration going.
You could imagine the sentient plants as humanoid (like Groot for example) as it has shown to be a big evolutionary advantage to walk upright etc, but their "body" would probably not have specific organs and rather work as hydro-pneumatic construct. This all could be controlled by some intelligent fungi or micro-organisms living in symbiosis with the plant, communicating through chemical messanger substance not unlike an ant colony.
Of course the probability that these beings would design a spaceship (if at all) that looks VERY MUCH LIKE A CERTAIN HUMAN DESIGNED IT is negligibly small, so that's where I take the freedom to use my human-biased concepts
As sentient plants travel space, they are in need of certain life support systems, just like us humans. Just like us, they need water and energy (warmth, light) and CO2 and, to a degree, O2. The most sustainable way of getting a regenerative supply of these resources would be keeping lower plants, which would be specialised (probably even genetically manipulated) to generate CO2, water and energy. Luckily, plants already produce these things during their respiration phase, usually during night time. Below you see my take on optimized plants, producing water, energy and CO2.
Adding materials, tweaking lighting setup and restructuring certain parts of the greenhouse.
Some plants can survive just with the moisture of the atmosphere. Also there are plants which produce water fruit like coconuts watermelons etc. Having plants in a closed environment can create their own ecosystem, assuming they allready have a premade n amount of water,a certain amount of minerals in the water (which can also be superficially made and kept in a storage room) certain bacteria, and certain bugs/worms.So you could add a "pest control/bacteria control" department which specialises in that and is recruited by bug-eater plants which survive solely by that
Also, if it has one storage room of space, plants can survive hundreads of years just by recycling the water, decomposing their dropped leaves and providing a certain amount of nutrients, even in dust form
After some weeks of relaxation and some work fueled by newly awoken enthusiasm, I'm proud to present the final product. Make sure to head over to Artstation for the full project!
Thanks to anyone who followed me. Cheers!