Serenity layout

POSTED BY: TallGuy
UPDATED: Sunday, February 8, 2004 22:28
VIEWED: 16567
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TALLGUY

Sunday, March 23, 2003 7:44 PM

So I (like you) am watching our 10 epsiodes over and over and over again. And I'm wondering... Does Serenity "fit"?

What I mean is, do her insides match her outsides?

My two biggest worries on that score are the hall and stairs leading from the dinning room to the cockpit (don't seem long enough compared to the outside) and the dining room itself (doesn't look tall enough or long enough to match the windows we see on the outside). You gotta figure that the dining room (from the outside) looks big enough to fit over the entire hold.

Of course, if the official site had ever been able to finish it's virtual set (for Unreal Tournament I think it was) that would have gone powerful far to answering these questions (maybe).

Does anyone have set drawings or any kind of schematics (other than what's on the Fox site)?

http://www.synicon.com.au/sw/mf/falcon.htm is a frighteningly (SCARY!) exhaustive look at the Millenium Falcon (Serenity's long lost uncle). Wouldn't it be great to get something like this for our girl?

Bill
"We all know I'm the funny one."
"You ain't all that funny."

KOBAYASHI

Sunday, March 23, 2003 8:05 PM

I am thinking about modeling a 3D Serenity cross-section... would anyone be interested in this? It might take a while, but I'd like to do it for myself, if not for the rest of you.

I wonder if Zoic had ever worked out all the 'insides' of the ship?

ALEXANDRIA

Sunday, March 23, 2003 8:39 PM

I would definatly be interested in seeing a 3d layout of Serenity. I've been looking all over for one (I want to build a house for my Sims based on Serenity).

-------------------------------------------------Postholer: For digging holes for posts

TALRIUS

Sunday, March 23, 2003 10:02 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kobayashi:
I am thinking about modeling a 3D Serenity cross-section... would anyone be interested in this?

Very interested. Can't help you though, I have no idea how to use 3D modeling. Always wanted to learn.

Quote:
I wonder if Zoic had ever worked out all the 'insides' of the ship?

Probably not. They constantly change the outer appearence of Serenity. Just look at the Wallpaper of Serenity on the Fox site versus the the image of Serenity on the article about Zoic Studios. You'll notice that the head of the ship is entirely different.

Another point, Serenity's exterior and interior cannot be matched up. The fore deck hall connecting the cockpit, crew quarters and galley should be inclined.

NOOCYTE

Monday, March 24, 2003 8:00 PM

Hey, Browncoats!

Ever since a variant of this thread appeared on the FOX (grr. arrgh.) Official Site, I've been scrutinizing the eps I watch (and re-re-re-watch) for agreement between the interior and exterior. My conclusion is that there IS a match. You know these rendering types; they'll sweat for hours on the hidden musculature of a fictional (or extinct) creature, just so THEY know they got it right. Yes, I know, the muscles have a direct bearing on the movement and exterior appearance of the beastie, which would not be the case through the hard carapace of a spacecraft. Still, if I understand the culture correctly, they're not the sorts who would let this go.

Speculations on the psychology of CG artists aside, though, I have looked very carefully at the limited number of screencaps, and at the eps themselves, and have a few notes to share:

The mess hall needn't cover the whole hold, and indeed can't (though it is quite a roomy space, the cozy way it's shot notwithstanding). It lies slightly up the sloping dome sides of the central ("thorax") pod, its floor beginning slightly above the shuttles' berths, and as such would have a smaller footprint than the cargo hold beneath it. As for the roof/hull discrepancy (i.e., the mess hall's roof does not appear to be dome-shaped), Serenity's designers were marvelously aware of the need for hardware (life support, etc) space, which, IMHO, occupies the dome-shaped space between the mess' roof and the outer hull (indeed, we glimpse this in one of those vertical tracking shots in OiS, where Early's eavesdropping from the outside). Also, you can see that the TIE-figher-window-looking skylight is recessed when viewed from the inside.

As for the corridor leading from the mess to the bridge, it needn't be inclined (as if such things need have any meaning in a ship with artificial gravity...but that's another conversation!). Actually, while the deck is parallel with the ship's longitudinal (long) axis, the cieling inclines upward (decent number of stairs up to the bridge, don cha know). If you look at a profile of Serenity (good view on the "sunset" shot of a grounded Serenity from the pilot, located somewhere on this site), you see that the ventral (bottom) portion of the ship's "throat" steps down twice. The first step allows space for that mysterious equipment room belowdecks from the main bridge area (accessed from the corridor through that hatch to port of the bridge staircase). The second "step" in serenity's profile is the space for the crew's berths (below the corridor's floor level, recall).

I would LOVE to see a 3D model of the interior. Actually, I seem to recall glimpsing just that, in OMR. When the chop-shop guys are discussing Serenity as it goes by the first time (the "you got a mechanic's half-awake" conversation), I think you can see a scan (akin to the holo-Imager in Ariel) which gives some fleeting looks at the relationship of interior to exterior. I must have another look at this, but I've never had the heart to stop the episode and break the narrative flow long enough to peer at a frame-by-frame, and can't get the "zoom" on my DVD player to work anyway. Others (e.g., those with DVD ROMs) might have a look and let us know if mine eyes did deceive me here. And maybe post some caps, if they're especially industrious (cf. my "WTD: shiny Serenity Screen-caps" thread...).

Do others agree with me on these rambling observations, or are my notoriously twitchy spatial skills mucking with me again?

Keep flyin'!

Department of Redundancy Department

KNIGHTNAVRO

Monday, March 24, 2003 9:29 PM

I've been trying to piece together Serenity's layout myself, but I haven't had a lot of success. I'm missing OMR and OIS, which are prpbably the two best episodes for getting an understanding of the layout. It would help out if I knew the dimentions of a few things. For example, how long does everybody think Serenity is?

NOOCYTE

Monday, March 24, 2003 9:41 PM

Knight;
I'm really bad at estimating such things. A good sense of scale could be had from looking at Jayne's tiny frame (and doesn't *that* sound like an oxymoron!) dangling from Serenity's "bomb-bay" doors in TTJ.

Department of Redundancy Department

NOOCYTE

Monday, March 24, 2003 10:05 PM

Whoop. Just went back and looked at the screen from the chop-shop in OMR. No interior layout. Just some flashes of structural members, etc., with no depiction of interior partitions, floors, or the like. Looks like we need those 3D models after all.

Department of Redundancy Department

KNIGHTNAVRO

Monday, March 24, 2003 10:07 PM

Actually, I've been basing my estimates on the shots of Jayne, Mal, and Zoe in front of Serenity in the teaser of Train Job and then comparing "known" sections to unknown sections in exterior shots. The thing is I don't trust my own estimates and want to see what other people are coming up with for length, width, height, length of the enginer pods...whatever.

NOOCYTE

Tuesday, March 25, 2003 2:22 AM

Knight;
A bit of caution: It does not appear that all exterior shots with people in them are quite to scale. Most appear to be right, but there is one shot in OiS (BTW, some relatively low-res, RealPlayer copies can be found at http://versaphile.com/download/firefly.html Or else, I think TRS-80 might have a few DVD sets left), in which River drifts back from Early's ship, where it really looks like she and Mal are too large with respect to Serenity. In short, try to base your scale on a mental composite of as many shots as you can, and don't rely too heavily on any one shot. Just FYI.

Keep Flyin'

Department of Redundancy Department

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