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Snow Crash: Concept and Prop Design for the Entertainment Industry

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Snow Crash: Concept and Prop Design for the Entertainment Industry Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Theses 12-25-2013 Snow Crash: Concept and Prop Design for the Entertainment Industry Igor Sobolevsky Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses Recommended Citation Sobolevsky, Igor, "Snow Crash: Concept and Prop Design for the Entertainment Industry" (2013). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. !1 SNOW CRASH concept and prop design for the entertainment industry ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! SNOW CRASH ! ! concept & prop design ! ! for the entertainment industry ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Igor Sobolevsky ! ! ! ! ! ! ! A Thesis Submitted in Partial Ful"llment of the Requirements ! for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Industrial Design ! ! Department of Design ! College of Imaging Arts and Sciences ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY December 25, 2013 !2 SNOW CRASH concept and prop design for the entertainment industry ! COMMITTEE! APPROVAL ! ! _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________! ! ! Stan! Rickel Graduate! Director Industrial Design, Associate! Professor. School of Design. Senior Advisor Date ! ! ! ! ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________! ! !Shaun! Foster Assistant! Professor , ! ! !3D Digital! Design, School of Design Date ! ! ! ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________! Peter! Byrne ! Date Associate Professor,! AdministrativeChair School of Design! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !3 SNOW CRASH concept and prop design for the entertainment industry ! !TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ! PROBLEM STATEMENT ! INTRODUCTION ! RESEARCH -Entertainment Industry -Science Fiction in Pop Culture -Science Fiction and Modern Technology -Snow Crash! as an inspiration for design PRODUCTION -Goals -Concept Selection -Methods and Techniques -Production Pipeline Cosa Nostra Delivery Vehicle Cosa Nostra Pick-Up Docks Gargoyle Goggles Cosa Nostra “Pizza Cutter” Electromagnetic Harpoon FICTIONAL CORPORATE BRANDING ! ESTABLISHING ENVIRONMENT SHOT ! CONCLUSION -Moving Forward -Further Concept Development !4 SNOW CRASH concept and prop design for the entertainment industry ! ABSTRACT! ! ! Snow Crash! was written by Neal Stephenson and published in 1992.! The novel touches upon the topics of technology, ! information,! computer science, and philosophy. The main character,! appropriately named Hiro Protagonist delivers ! pizza for! Uncle Enzo’s Cosa Nostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse! (Virtual Reality Network) he’s a katana wielding ! warrior.! Hiro gets involved with the enigma of a new computer! virus that’s infecting hackers everywhere. He navigates! the neon-lit streets with a mission of locating and ! neutralizing! a new villain who is trying to bring forth the! Infocalypse. ! ! ! Neal Stephenson! paints a vivid world "lled with astonishing ! multifaceted! characters, diverse city states and uncanny descriptions! of future technology and global networking. For ! instance! a Google Earth-like system was described in great detail !with remarkably similar functionality to that common ! piece of! software we use to "nd directions, discover new places! and enjoy high resolution aerial images. Snow Crash ! also addresses! the issues of linguistics, history, religion as well as! politics, which are tremendously interesting and compelling,! however not as suited to my direction in this ! particular! project. ! ! ! For the! purposes of my industrial design thesis I had focused on the! development of the technology that was described in ! the novel.! Neal Stephenson provides rather detailed function and use! scenarios of these systems in the book. I chose to ! focus !on certain items described in greater detail since they would! hold a great amount of viewer interest in either a ! feature! "lm or a video game, while maintaining a style and visual aspects a modern consumer of entertainment expects. ! ! !5 SNOW CRASH concept and prop design for the entertainment industry ! When !the Deliverator puts the hammer down, shit happens. You want to! talk contact patches? Your car's tires have tiny contact ! patches,! talk to the asphalt in four places the size of your tongue. The Deliverator's! car has big sticky tires with contact patches the ! size of! a fat lady's thigh” Neal Stephenson. “Snow Crash.” 1992. This excerpt! talks about a pizza delivery vehicle operated by the main! character. Vivid descriptions like this one made my ! job as! a designer relatively easy since not only did I get the general! aesthetic direction but also some indication of the ! emotion! that the product evokes. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! modeling! of Snow ! ! ! Crash! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !6 SNOW CRASH concept and prop design for the entertainment industry ! PROBLEM! STATEMENT ! ! Interpretation,! design, and modeling of Snow Crash ! equipment,! machinery and environments with the purpose! of visualization intended for the entertainment ! industry! while utilizing iterative process as well as design theories! and practices. ! ! ! This goal! kept me invested in applying the industrial design ! process! to "ctional equipment. Within the context of modern! entertainment where the consumer expects high ! quality! production as well as some degree of believability, the designer! must treat "ctional technology, environments ! and characters! as if they had some chance of existing in our reality.! ! ! ! Providing! common point of reference, or in other words some! hints of tangible that we "nd in our everyday lives ! creates! immersion and relation to what is happening on the screen.! ! ! ! “Keeping! the player invested and finding those keys to keeping ! him or! her immersed is our goal. “ - Kenneth Scott, Senior! Art Director at 343 Industries, a studio that brought ! us HALO.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !7 SNOW CRASH concept and prop design for the entertainment industry ! INTRODUCTION! ! ! “Science! fiction is the most important literature in the history of ! the world,! because it's the history of ideas, the history of our civilization! birthing itself. - Ray Bradbury ! ! ! When! discussing science "ction and our current technological! state this quote perhaps says it best. Neal ! Stephenson’s! Snow Crash stands on the cusp of science "ction! and science fact. Technologies and the world ! described! in the book are templates by which modern systems! are sometimes inspired. Although at times gloomy ! and apocalyptic! these ideas are ripe full of interpretation and development! in both entertainment and real world ! applications.! Products like Oculus Rift, Google Glass and Earth !as well as the internet have striking similarities with ! the tech! described in the book. This is why this science "ction! work is well suited for conceptual development for a ! game! or a "lm, since we already established technological points! of reference. ! ! ! The world! described in Snow Crash is vast, however the technology! described held my interest. I was constantly ! referencing! modern inventions as well as systems and tried to visualize! them in use. This presented an interesting ! challenge,! since I was interpreting technology presented! in the book and trying to add modern science ! "ction! aesthetic that the consumer expects. ! !I was looking towards modern science "ction in games and !"lms, due to their striking visuals and conceptual !development. Films Like District 9, Elysium and game titles !like Unreal Tournament and Halo inspired my the most, since they showcase systems and environments that are not entirely implausible. !8 SNOW CRASH concept and prop design for the entertainment industry ! RESEARCH! SCIENCE FICTION IN POP CULTURE ! In addition to the descriptions in the book, I was looking to the entertainment industry in general as well as current technologies and systems to inform my design process. Books, "lms, concept art, and games were a big part of the research process; as they tend to re#ect the current science "ction trends and provide a benchmarks for the design and aesthetic. ! Science "ction entertainment, like feature "lms and games, bring a huge amount of revenue. For instance, according to Gamespot (Gaming news site), Halo since its "rst launch in 2001 has sold 50 million copies. The latest title from Bungie Studios, Halo 4, generated $220 million in the "rst 24 hours on the consumer market. ! The success of the title can be attributed to great gameplay, online multiplayer matches, but most importantly the design of the whole experience. The latest addition to the franchise, Halo 4, has stunning visuals including environments, vehicles, characters and of course a massive arsenal of weapons. ! Such visual richness and variety has to be attributed to great designers such as Nicholas “Sparth” Bouvier, Kenneth Scott, John Wallin Liberto and others. In my research I tried to emulate the style of the design process, which I will address in greater detail further in the paper. ! !9 SNOW CRASH concept and prop design for the entertainment industry Snow Crash itself contains a mass of information about "ctional tools and devices which are described in great detail. What struck me the
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