SOLACE

ABOUT

In 2007, Rune Davidsen asked me to design a starship for a short sci-fi film about the first humans to travel to the sun. The brief called for a massive solar-powered starship with a giant geodesic dome at its nose, futuristic and organic, but still resembling modern-day spacecraft design.

 

I went through several concepts before happening upon an unusual inspiration: a glimpse in a shop window of a chandelier built from frosted teardrops. The final design of the Solace incorporated an umbrella-shaped net of balloon-like solar sails. The sails refract sunlight that energizes a gas inside. The sails could expand or contract like a blossoming flower to control the ship’s speed and direction.

 

Some time later, the director was working to re-cut and expand the film when he asked me to flesh out my design as a detailed 3d model and execute a series of shots of the ship approaching the sun. See the completed shots for Solace.