"Prison Exterior"

"Prison Exterior Walkway"

"Prison Tower Exterior"

"Prison Tower Interior - Elevator"

"Guard Tower Interior"

"Prison Exterior view from Central Tower"

"Prison Exterior"

For this project I was asked to create a prison complex that was set at night inside of an extinct volcano on an alien planet. The requirements were that the prison cells would surround the perimeter of the volcano with a main guard tower placed in the center of it. The main tower needed to consist of a glass tube filled with gas and some sort of elevator to reach the top of the tower. I was given free reign over the design from there which made this project most enjoyable to work on. This exterior area, including the main tower exterior, took approximately 100 hours to create.

One of my initial ideas in designing this area was to keep the bottom area of the complex open and to create walkways that extended from the perimeter of the complex to the central tower area. The reason for this was because the top of the volcano was exposed to the elements which meant that rain would fill the empty cavity and create a lake at the bottom of it. Because of the night time setting it is difficult to notice the lake water below the walkways so if you are interested in the details then I recommend viewing these images in the dark. ;)

Here is a view from one of the walkways as you approach the central tower. The game engine for this project was a 360' panoramic viewer developed by Kheops Studios which permits the use of pre-rendered images that are combined to create a simulated real-time motion within the environment from each of the camera locations. Although not as hi-tech as a modern-day 3d engine, it supports a much better image quality which is always pleasing for the artist. ;)

Here is a view from directly inside the lower central tower area. For the elevator, I decided to create a platform that extends to the upper guard tower room by passing through the shafts of the tower structure. I also created several animations for this project, one of which includes an elevator ride to the upper guard room which can be viewed by clicking on the link directly below. (see Elevator animation #1)

This upper area of the tower needed to serve as the main guard tower for watching over the exterior prison complex. The only other requirement for this area was to create a place to house several small "cages" or "traps" that could be plugged into the central gas tube for extracting creatures that were contained within the inner gas chamber. To implement the cages into this area I decided to cap the giant gas tube off at the top to create a dome-like structure within this area of the tower where the traps or cages could be plugged directly into the gas chamber for both storage and extraction purposes. My initial idea for this concept was to create a sort of central brain or nervous system with cylindrical tubes protruding out of it's entire surface. This area took approximately 30 hours to create. An animation of the elevator ride leading down to the lower level can be viewed directly below. (see Elevator ride #2)

Here is a view from directly inside of the central tower area on the lower level facing the main entrance located at the perimeter of the complex. I decided to implement the glowing gas theme throughout the entire structure to help tie the various structures together under one unifying theme.

I knew early on that I wanted to use a lot of curves in the overall deisgn of this area and one of my earliest design ideas was to fashion the prison cell structure after the likeness of a skin cell pattern. I guess my brain made a connection between prison cells and skin cells, but when it comes to gathering inspiration for designing something - virtually anything is welcome! I have said this before with other projects that I have worked on but without question; working for John Matheson of Earthlight on his Crystal Key 2 project was definitely the most enjoyable time I have had as a freelance artist. (Thank you John!!)