Ah, there it is. The page I started using Blender to model environments. You can tell because the backgrounds stopped being mushy nonsense with wonky perspective.
Transcript
The large exit door rolls up, showing bright light outside the hallway.Idrisah: If Gillie’s still working with the ferrets, give her a wave from me.
Talita: Sure thing.
Idrisah: See you tomorrow!
Talita walks out of the personnel exit into the massive exterior space, which is, ironically, another interior. An opaque geodesic dome ceiling covers the sky of a small city habitat with a utilitarian mixture of industrial, residential, and agricultural buildings. A large central pillar features the current time in human and avian timekeeping methods. Bug ferrets form an ant line emerging from the vehicle exit door onto the circular center road, driving forklifts carrying Calcery's server units. A few avian residents can be seen flying laps in the airspace above the buildings.
39 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 26”
Ruby
Man, look at that place!
Belladonna
So are we going to see Calcery later in the comic Jay ???
Jay Eaton
….Much, MUCH later….
belladonna
how many webcomics pages later??? Jay
Jay Eaton
:^)
Sunstorm
I… may have slightly underestimated the size of those plant worms from the diagrams…
Jay Eaton
They come in a wide range of sizes, from moss to tree!
Septemberdale
It makes sense, so do plants!
dokki
Gosh I love this panel. The avian bike symbol!!!
Random Clod
Ough this background is incredible. Those black flower-looking things are avian worm-plants, if I recall? They’re pretty!
BatteryMaster
Glad I’m not the only one who thought of using Blender for backgrounds!
arf
I appreciate the effort that goes into drawing scenes like this.
Nevertheless, I regret to say I have a niggle… who authorised the factory exhaust venting into an enclosed space? (I will assume it’s water vapour)
Jay Eaton
That’s the climate control facility, the humidifier is running. Factory/refinery/manufacturing equipment is all in the recycling plant that Talita just left.
notanocelot
I am eating up all of the background details like candy.
Gar G
Also I recognize the organisms outside of the building; sessile photosynthetic animals right?
Jay Eaton
Yeah, avian plant worms :^)
Gar G
*Wow* that is incredible!
rdm
Nice to see recumbent tadpoles getting a look-in!
Solanuma
So it’s March 21st 2233 5:15 pm right at this moment in the comic. I don’t know what that means for the story but the details nevertheless are fun to discover
Jay Eaton
This made me go ??? because in later pages I decided it was May. Forgot about the calendar in the Cetaser’s cubicle. I will edit that later
Fallingfeather
Ohh, I realize its a big dome still, but I didn’t realize this facility had anything that counted as an “outside”. That must make it a lot less claustrophobic for the inhabitants.
40
Oh my god I want to live here.
Solidago
Yeah that’s definitely a scene to motivate one to learn Blender. What a nightmare to draw by hand. It looks awesome, can hardly imagine how much time having those models saved you in the long run.
Robin
I appreciate that you stuck with practical transportation channels instead of succumbing to the scifi urge to install monorails
Mr. Son
Oh of course, you’d put the big trees on the outer edge because when you’re down at ground level it gives the subconscious impression that there’s more in that direction behind the trees instead of just the edge of the done. Psychological trick to make an enclosed environment feel less stuffy!
…it also keeps their roots away from important stuff in the center.
Curona
Love the beautiful wide view of the habitat! And I see what appears to be greenhouses! Did native soil for the plants need to be imported in for them to grow in, or are they more like hydroponics setups? (Either sounds mega expensive.) Are Avian, Terran/Jovian, and Ferret homeworld plants able to be grown together or must they be strictly separated? How much of the plant life is for food production and how much is just for aesthetics?
Jay Eaton
The farming setups are primarily hydroponics, but there are avian and human parkland areas with a mix of imported organic matter and tumbled (i.e., jagged edges removed) regolith. The parks are separated by a wall barrier and alien invaders are weeded out, though plants usually don’t do that well in soil that’s missing the biota that they evolved with. Most of the plants grown in the dome are for eating, or they are grown to be fed to the livestock (like the roughage and clippings from the parks).
TotallySomebody
WOAGH
Trees
Like the detail of the taller trees bending as they push against the glass. Gotta get that light!
.
I will admit I had some difficulty parsing the bird-alien body shape before but seeing one fly is very clarifying; their ‘legs’ act as wings and their ‘arms’ become sort of like tail fins. Fascinating.
Jay Eaton
Less like glass, and more like several layers of sheet metal and crushed rock. The light is better up there though.
Yeah, avians are functionally not that different in bauplan than Earth birds. They just walk on their wings and use their feet as hands.
Synthaphone
Ooh- what color is the ceiling? I just realized that I’ve never really thought that hard about it. Sheet metal and crushed rock makes me want to guess grey (the comic being greyscale probably also contributes, lol) but idk if its reflective, or perhaps painted some other color for the mental wellbeing of the inhabitants or something?
Jay Eaton
I think it’s probably just white to make it feel higher and absorb less of the lighting, and matte-ish to reduce reflective glare.
Amanda/OwlBear
ooh dome!
anon
well sized bikes lanes and pedestrian lanes lets fucking go!!!!
Trees
And properly constructed stabling for the imported bicycle herds; vital for healthy, happy bikes that will get you to work on time.
Maia
I need to learn blender someday. My girlfriend who draws and does game dev uses it to block out scenes as well. Also what are those bug ferrets doing in the bike lane? This scene looks pretty lived in.
Jay Eaton
The hidden text there is actually “Fire Lane,” that’s the motorized vehicle corridor. They’re part of the procession removing Calcery from the recycling plant.
Maia
OH! That makes a lot more sense!
Rubicon Art
ohjhghhgh hhhh big STRUCTURE. My god. It’s funny you say the previous ones were wonky bc I didn’t notice, but man, these sweeping views are just, so gorgeous, I wanna lick em.