Thursday, July 1, 2010

AllSpark Almanac closer look: The Steelhaven

So, I love the Steelhaven. I think that the ship is just gorgeous. So, when Bill and I were brainstorming about what the organizational scheme of the book was to be like, one idea was to give a whole chapter to Project Omega. We had all the Omega Sentinel color schemes that, unfortunately, got cut out of the show. (Oh, and they would have been in muted Flashback colors, but Javier Reyes punched them up for us) We also had a bunch of info on the Steelhaven - we got to see a lot of the interior. We had this crazy idea of doing a cutaway design showcasing the engines and whatnot. One problem; neither Bill nor I knew how to do anything close to that.

Enter TransFan Chris 'Kurisama' Vera,  a professional 3-D modeler. He wrote to us and asked if there was anything he could do to help. When he told us about his skill set, I asked if he'd be interested in tackling the Steelhaven. He jumped in with gusto! The fruits of his labor are evident for all to see, on pages 154-155 of the new book.

(More trivia - the Steelhaven was completely redesigned for season three. Compare the model of the ship from the first book to the model in the second book. I explained this away, in universe, by referencing a retrofit.)

If you'd like to see the full-resolution ship 'in the buff', completely unadorned with my text and call-outs, head on over to Kurisama's deviant art page. You'll be glad you did. A tip of my hat to this hard-working and talented TransFan.

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