Jijo Moonshot A Scene From Heaven's Reach		A strange scene from Heaven's Reach: a crewed (and crude ;-) ) rocket, made of a huge alien bamboo-like native plant named boo, makes its way to Jijo's moon, Loocen, while a more conventional spacecraft looks on. I'd explain more, but it would probably be a spoiler... so read the book! :-)
	NavInst Survey Ship from Heaven's Reach		Neo-chimp Harry Harms uses this survey ship to brave the freakiness of E-space for the Galactic Institute of Navigation. (Note the Great Library symbol. The ship is now legal!) Design Description
	Galactic Library Symbol Bump Map		Every legal ship crewed by oxygen-breathers in the Five Galaxies must show the symbol of the Great Library on its bow. (This bump map was generated entirely inside POV-Ray! Source comes included.)
	Walking Chimp (Model by Daz3D)		Animation in Poser, of the Zygote chimp walking. I know chimps don't really walk like this, but I used a canned human walk motion that came with Poser. As I learn Ray Dream, I hope to create neo-chimp morphs, including a bigger skull, and maybe the walk will fit then.
	Needler		Tom Orley's weapon of choice. Charlie Bell was a big help during the design process. Design Description
	TCS Streaker		Before Infinity's Shore, Streaker passed through the heavy stellar wind of Izmunuti, leaving a heavy coat of black carbon on the hull, in addition to previous battlescars. Streaker.pov allows the coating process to be animated.
	Sample Animation		Ready to animate: The dry ring rotates, and the hull can increase its "wear and tear", and gain a thick layer of carbon.
	Neo-Dolphin Work Sled		Ready to animate: The arms can be posed by adjusting their angles.

Needler Design Philosophy I wanted a weapon that looks different from today's guns, but still looks like a useful, well-balanced weapon. I wanted something simple, with few *external* moving parts, since the thing would have to be useable underwater, and be able to keep working even after being doused in Kithrupan muck. I looked around at various free 3D model collections, but none of the guns there looked quite right, so I decided to create my own. I figured Streaker was not *officially* a military mission, so the weapons should have a non-lethal option -- but also be ready for some real fighting if necessary. Plus, since the mission was supposed to be a test to see how fins handle crewing a starship, there should be a way to stop an anxious fin undergoing stress atavism without killing him. So, the needler normally fires single needles coated with anasthetic, but it can also shred an enemy target with rapid bursts of needles. External Features The downward-hanging gray cylinder is a vial for the anesthetic. It's positioned so the user can quickly swap in a new vial if the old one runs out. I originally put it in the back of the gun, but Charlie Bell suggested putting it in the front, so it's in position to coat the needle as it leaves the gun. The front bulge on top of the needler, that looks sorta like the headlight of a VW Beetle :-), is the targeting sight. It's a small multiple-wavelength camera lens that relays its image to the bulge in the back, which is the targeting display. Ammo I haven't decided whether it uses clips of pre-manufactured needles, or uses some adapted fancy-schmancy Galactic tech to fabricate the needles from a chunk of unrefined metal placed in the grip. NavInst Survey Ship From re-reading Heaven's Reach, I got several impressions: Stasis flanges are common on ships based on Galactic technology The survey ship is sort of a polygonal flying saucer shape with two decks. The upper deck is all louvered windows. When a ship morphs in E-space, changes to each ship part tend to reflect the part's original function I reasoned that when the survey ship was in spider mode, the legs must have morphed from the stasis flanges, since stasis flanges propel a ship and keep it anchored to reality, a little like legs. The spiderweb Harry used to descend the giant table must also be a type of stasis flange, because it also anchored him to something. So, the survey ship probably has a ring of stasis flanges around its midsection, and one on its roof. I designed the stasis flanges to look a little different from Streaker's, since they belong to a small Institute ship, but similar enough to perform the same functions. I also designed the stasis flanges so that they will be easy to change into spider legs if I ever want to render the ship in E-space.

Last modified: November 10, 1999

E-mail me: ssloan@HiWAAY.net