2001 EVA Pod

This model was completed over a 2 week period. It seems a simple object at first - mainly a sphere with 'bits' attached, but I wanted something that resembled the original film model, which was highly detailed. Complete reference for this ship is difficult to compile as there is so little of it around. Stanly Kubrick had the models and schematics destroyed because he was afraid of their potential use in low budget sci-fi flicks. Judging by some sci-fi in the 70's and 80's, he was probably justified :)

I haven't modeled an interior to the ship yet, but the model is fully rigged with the robotic arms able to move in a variety of ways. The lack of texturing makes it very hard to render without using radiosity - it doesn't look real enough otherwise. A full texture with radiosity burned into it might work very well for such a model, and I'll maybe do it for a version 2. In the main beauty shots for this ship I'm using the simple technique of rendering with radiosity with a black background image applied.

There are a few potential light setups for such a craft. The front lights can look good with nothing more than a reflective surface, or can look great with lensflares and starfilter applied. I'll leave this for the end user to determine.

As I can't find any schematics of this ship around, most of the detailing was artistic license, but I don't think the model suffers for it. HAL still looks menacing on the front of the ship, and the pod generally has the NASA look about it - many years before real spacecraft began to take on this clean, white look. This ship could be built and put into operation with only a few design tweaks, a testament to Clarke and Kubrick's dedication to authenticity.

Here are my WIP shots as I went along: