and he had this interesting story idea about the whole process. How someone would go about having everything in their brains turned into gigabytes and uploaded into an robot body. The story deals with the ramifications of that sort of technology (e.g. data viruses), the idea of self and sort of a 'visions of the future' vibe. It was a cool story, which I won't get into here because it's his.
However, recently I've decided that I would like to make graphic novels. I have some ideas floating around in my head and I have some sketches down for some characters and scenes; basically concept art. I had jokingly told said friend that I could be his illustrator, because aside from the robot idea, he says some pretty funny shit that would be great in picture form.
Personally, I've felt called to do some story-telling. I've been working on a Skyrim Fan-fiction for a couple of months now. It's odd because while I have written, it's mostly poetry and I've never written fiction before. Last year at a writers circle meeting I wrote a short piece for a story idea during uor prompt section and the other two authors really liked it. One of them said that it also sounded really lyrical in a poetic way. This was really encouraging, so I've starting thinking hard about what sorts of stories I want to tell.
I tend to have phases for different media. Fresh out of high-school, I drew a lot. A few years ago, I was super into photography, then there was a lot of poetry. Now, story telling through various means seems to be my thing now. *shrug* I'll just have to see where it takes me. For now though, I think I'm going to practice drawing and drawing people specifically. I was flipping though an old sketchbook from 2004 and I was mildly impressed. I wasn't bad, but I drew a lot more back then. I recently bought a watercolour moleskine book and I've decided that I'm going to do a drawing a day. I will post the results here. Also, more specifically to the graphic novel plan, I'm taking the Wyndham Art Supplies Graphic Novel Class next month and that should be really useful for better understanding the medium and getting ideas about layout, etc.
Below are some of my concept sketches of what androids would look like. Sort of the Mach 1 version. It's very iRobot-esque but as opposed to the very generic-looking faces of those robots, I really would like the facial features of the human to be evident in their new robot body. The argument could be made that it may help with the adjustment period or that people really identify with their face, so having a new body that has a face you recognize as your own may be helpful during the transitional phase. Something like that.
I realized while I was drawing that people could in theory inhabit any kind of body they want. It doesn't even have to look human. However, at the end of the day, this (the android body) will become a 'product' in this world. Therefore the Company's PR people emphasize that 'human-looking' will sell better.
Anyway, here you go:
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The bodies will be a metal alloy covered in a silicon sheath. Right now, buddy has not been uploaded, but the body has on-board balance and stability sensors. So even without a mind, the body can do basic functions. I also realize that the posture seems a bit 'off' on the side-view. The reality is that bipedal movement is incredibly difficult and I imagine that the Mach 1 will have to be oriented in a certain way to accomodate for this. |
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| I wanted to keep any exposed tubing and wiring as streamlined as possible. As a chronic klutz, I feel that anything extraneous will get caught on something. |
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| The idea of the balls at the joints is two-fold: 1) They will actually help with mobility and range of motion; 2) Each 'ball' has an internal processor for balancing and such. |
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| The feet and leg design will be really important. I may need to consider this some more. |
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| I'm thinking that the data-drive will be in the chest cavity. There's a lot of data that needs to be stored and there will need to be space for more memories and information to be stored. The android will also need a lot of processing power, otherwise what's the point. Since I would like the androids to appear as human as possible, the head will in theory contain lots of motors for facial expression and may not be integral to data collection and storage. |
This was really fun to work on. You may have noticed the crotch triangle. I wasn't sure it androids would have genitals. Would they still have sex? They wouldn't need to, but they may like to.
I also had an idea for food stuff. While the robot body doesn't need to eat, the human mind would still like to. I was thinking that perhaps when human friends are eating and drinking, androids buy little single-use data chips for food and drink to feel the pleasure associated with such activities.
Anyhoo, hope you enjoy.
-A
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