h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey there Amy!
Love all your previous work, thought I'd request something myself.

I've always wanted a 'photo' taken of the Space Station Big C, you know, with the Observatory, ships flying around and so on...I'd like you to do it if poss...

I'l get back to you on the actual details, OK?

ooh, sounds like fun. Give me a description.



Amy the Ant

Woah! I'd almost plain forgot about this thread...

Great - now I've got something to do today! Sure, I'll go off and write a description now...

BTW, I might also be doing some renderings of my own in 3ds Max once I've got it, but it wouldn't quite look the same eh?

OK, first off, we need to get one thing straight - size matters. The Space Station is a gigantic cube, 3km high, long and wide. There are roughly 1000 floors in the place, the official middle being F500?thread="smiley - smiley" title="smiley" class="smiley" src="http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/Alabaster/images/Smilies/f_smiley.gif"/>

Cheers!!

Hmmm. Some of the details you describe will not show up at any sensible scale.

For example, if I represent the station with a 30cm cube (and that won't fit on most people's screens), the control room will be 1cm wide, 1cm deep and, presumably, 1mm high. The rocket jets will be 1.7mm in radius (pinhead sized). The hangar bays (how many are there?) will be 6mm high. The windows of the living quarters will be 0.5mm approximately (pin pricks).

Hehe...yes, I know - one of the problems with dealing with such scale...

Erm...I'll draw a quick sketch of how the hangars are laid out. Actually, I should have something from when I tried to buid it for Half-Life...

Just a mo...

A sketch will certainly help. I think I may have to do a distant shot and then close ups of significant features.

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And there are two rows of those?

Oh, sorry, no. Those are all the hangars...
Well, for the h2g2 version of the 'station anyway. The versions of all my enities in the book are a bit different, but I won't complicate matters...

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Blimey! You do work quickly don't you!?
Looks fabulous so far, that's for sure!
Two details though - the rails are right against the 'station, so they don't stick out, and the forcefield is a bit flatter as well. Otherwise, well hell, well done!!

There may well be the rails to which you refer close to the station but they aren't going to show up at this scale. The "rails" are the docking tubes for large space freighters and cruise liners.

The Amy-the-Ant designed forcefield (patent pending) is two intersecting cylinders and wont go much flatter. But I'll try.

Well, OK, but there aren't any rails that far away from the 'station...

All the same, you're doing a great job!

I do hope I'm not overworking you...take your time, do...

They aren't rails. Think about the scale. If I take them away it just looks like a box in space.

Hehe...that's what it is...

No, the only thing that need to be done with them, is for them to be moved closer to the 'station itself, so they're attached to the sides, but around it like scaffolding. That's all...

I'll give it a whirl at the weekend.

Amy

Thanks a heap! You've done swell so far!

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Are you sure that's not a picture of table 4 at the Aroma Café?

Sorry I haven't had the time to work on your picture. W*rk you know.