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steve-burg β Prometheus a.k.a.Magellan
Published: 2012-06-12 13:45:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 40822; Favourites: 1007; Downloads: 5517
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I have posted a more detailed series of images showing some of the development of this spacecraft on my blog.Please feel free to have a look: [link]
All images related to "Prometheus" are copyrighted to 2oth Century Fox.
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Comments: 193
I do like what this ship eventually morphed into but I must say this is impressive and I can only dream of what Prometheus would have been like if it were more gritty and looked much more similar to Alien apart from a set here and there. I wish we had a direct prequel instead but Prometheus wasn't terrible. I think I will appreciate it more in an extended cut. The visuals went by too quickly to appreciate anything. Poor editing. It just rushed by and didn't linger on anything. The beauty of Alien is that we had time to take things in.
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Thx for working on project, you did a great job!
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I think I like this a bit better than the film version. I know Ridley was a bit sick of the "used future" look, but I like how this one seems a bit less complicated and more akin to the basic design of the Nostromo (which was one of my major issues with the film: a lot of details were there, but for a movie supposedly taking place "before" ALIEN, it was more akin to ALIEN: THE NEXT GENERATION, and suffered from the same issues with the show ENTERPRISE, a show that took place before the original series but looked every bit like THE NEXT GENERATION).
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She was and is absolutely beautiful, inside and out.
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It's a really nice ship, I'll admit i thought it was longer from the shots I saw before the film, it's actually a quite short ship, but then that gives it a much more robust feeling. I think the only thing i wasn't that keen on with the design was the Thunderbirds bit (the bay that comes down), or atleast the version that hit the final film, I like the version in this concept more. Eitherway, I'm a huge fan of ship designs that look like they could be real in regards to modern day engineering.
Also really enjoyed the film as well, I think alot of people that disliked it forgot how the other Alien films were (especially the first one) in regards to pace, as well as mythology. It's nice to see a film where you need to actually think a bit to get it instead of the more common action films these days whose main focus is eye candy! There is huge ammounts of referances to religion in the film, such as the insinuation that Jesus himself may of been a creator (hence why they are pretty annoyed at humans!), it's also cool seeing how many old cultures, like the Mayans believed in sacrifice of life for life, which is a fundemental part of this movies plot.
I'm curious to see if they make a continuation of this film to followu p on the events from the end, although I think that might ruin it abit, sometimes it's nice to leave a mystery in place!
Anyway, great work Steve
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I know that I've already said this, but this ship is smocking hot. A really good job on mixing both the sleecker and industrial styles toghether. It actually reminds me somewhat of the Serenity with the VTOL.
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Thanks, I'm glad you like it.
Is Serenity the same as Firefly? (I don't watch TV so I'm kind of out of the loop on some of this stuff!)
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Similar shape between the both, the serenity is however smaller and has onl one pair of VTOL thrusters.
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Hah! Well, we were actually trying to do a sister ship to the "Nostromo". BTW 2 VTOL engines wouldn't work. And I've done things with two VTOLs, and mentioned this problem, but still for some reason people wanted two. But it would be unstable, except with something like the V-22 Osprey, but that's because it's a prop engine. Which of course wouldn't work too well for a spacecraft
Maybe now people will want four!
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I understand why, a)dividing the thrust between 2 is not enough for thrust and will not sufficient for re-entry. b) Aerospace physics requires that the force generated by the VTOL must be spread out all over the ship rather than just the middle section... otherwise the force generated wil tear it off. I 2 design something with just 2 VTOL engine, I kept on noticing the engineering problems between the wings and the VTOL, too much thrust and they will snap, too little and you're going to loose them in re-entry.
Don't you love physics, It can be so much fun when you are designing something 
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This is an absolute Gem of a Starship design for Cinema. You completely avoided the "flying scrapyard" look that's been popular in movie spacecraft concepts with a sleek, beautiful and smart looking design like this! I sure hope you get more projects and this becomes a trend.
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Thanks for the kind words! I don't know if this will make a trend or not, but I appreciate your comments.
Believe it or not, I'm actually not that aware of the current popular trends in sci-fi design in movies - I actively avoid the "CG effects blockbuster" stuff. But I take your word for it that it looks like flying scrap! I did enjoy "Moon" and "District Nine" though
I do love the classic science fiction films and stories, and that's really the source of my inspiration. I found "Prometheus" to be for the most part a return to that sensibility, so I quite liked it. Whether we'll see more stuff like that is really hard to say - I hope so. I like stories that leave you with questions, so usually I tend to watch dramatic (realistic) films. And I read a lot of books - that's mostly where I get my sci-fi fix these days!
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Those classics are such a wonderful inspiration. I myself love to paint Alien craft based on oldie's like George Pal's War of the Worlds, Star Trek, Babylon 5 etc. Smooth designs with no external plumbing,bumps,and boxes that I think were the best. Though the "scrapyard" thing is cool too!
I saw the Movie Magellan and she looks great and quite faithful to the one above. I prefer your concept above over it though. Mr. Scott should have given it a go, maybe with a paint job or something. Again great work!
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I really like designs that have simple shapes overall. The current style is for loads of details piled on top of more details, but that isn't my preference.
I was recently explaining to someone who I am working with that "simple" does not mean "bad"! Simplicity of design is harder to achieve, I think. All those details that people so often focus on can add up to confusion, especially if there is no clear reason for them. But again, this is not the prevailing trend of the moment.
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This is going to be added to a lot of people's top ten spaceships lists.
I liked the film. It seems there is a strong parallel being made between the Engineers creating Humans, and Humans creating robots. Ultimately both find their creations too 'alive' and try to destroy them (as in Blade Runner).
The opening scene of the film, and the design of the pyramid and it's murals, suggest that the Engineers may have been highly religious and saw the destruction of humanity as a holy duty.
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Thanks for the compliment on the spaceship.
I had to see "Prometheus" a 2nd time to begin to appreciate it on its own merits. I find myself liking it more as it sinks in.
Your thoughts are perceptive. I think the Engineers hold purity of life as their highest value. When they reached the point where they realized they couldn't repair what they had made (i.e. humans) they decided to start again. The Engineer that gets woken up is appalled to discover that David is not even a real human - and obviously he decides there's no time to waste in shutting us down - not if we've already managed to spread out into space.
I find thinking about stuff like that very interesting, as opposed to having everything spoon fed to me. But I'm not sure if modern audiences have the patience for that kind of storytelling. For my part, most movies these days are aimed at such a low common denominator that I rarely look at them. In particular the visuals are becoming increasingly horrid in most of these "CG blockbuster" films - at least the last time I made the mistake of looking!
Generally, I prefer dramatic films with a thoughtful story. I found "Prometheus" interesting for precisely the reasons most people seem not to like it - so I guess I'm out of synch! But I like contemplating mysteries - I can't help it!
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A lot of criticism the film is getting is based on how the new creatures in the film don't fit into the Alien's known life-cycle, but I think the point is that the bio-weapon isn't doing what it's supposed to do. It's become mutated somehow, which is how it escaped and infected the Engineers, and it's not infecting the humans in the way it was designed to.
My best guess is that the weapon is initially supposed to reconfigure human DNA into the facehugger eggs (as seen in the restored cocooning scene in the Alien directors cut).
When it infects an Engineer directly it breaks down their DNA but can't re-configure it into the new form so they die.
When it infects worms the resulting mutation tries to act like a facehugger, but just ends up suffocating the victim.
When it infects a human directly it creates a mutant-hybrid that inherits some of the full-grown Alien's strength, agility, and hostility.
When it infects a human via sexual reproduction it has reached the implantation stage of the life cycle but is still trying to make an egg so it ends up creating a mutant that has the basic function of a facehugger, but the growth rate and size of the full-grown Alien.
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I found myself wondering why they had placed canisters in their cathedral (with the giant head). The Engineers seemed to have a definite spiritual side to their activities. Perhaps the black substance had become corrupted, and part of their efforts to sort out the problem involved ritual of some kind.
I'm not sure what the black goop is - but it seems to be reactive, doing different things depending on what it comes into contact with. Though the details are left unclear, it seems that somehow there was an accident (presumably a leak or spill) that wiped them (the Engineers) all out before they could escape. Was the substance a weapon? Or was it simply a very powerful material that had to be handled very carefully because of the potential for disaster?
I feel like that black material had an intended purpose, perhaps it could be "programmed", but in its raw state - "unsupervised" - it would simply interact with whatever genetic material it encountered in a haphazard way. Which of course would make it extremely dangerous.
I took the movie as an original story, only distantly connected to the "Alien" films. The life cycle of the Alien might be just one manifestation of the technology the Engineers employed. Maybe that ship in the original "Alien" had crashed on a neighboring planet and its cargo had altered a low-level creature native to that world to produce the Alien species we know from the earlier films (?)
The spaceship, and its mummified pilot were never explained, and led to a lot of speculation. I think "Prometheus" answers some questions about the nature of that pilot, while raising a lot more questions. I actually enjoy turning my mind over on mysteries like this - so it doesn't bother me! Maybe too simple of an answer would be less satisfying somehow...
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I'm in agreement with what many others have said. While the final film version has its merits, I prefer the size and details of your original concept. It just feels more like a member of the Nostromo family tree. Thanks for sharing this one and the ones on your blog. They serve as a nice complement to the art book and lend great insight on the ship's evolution.
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Superb!! So glad you had a hand in this film along with Mr Giger, another hero of mine. I havent seen it yet but will enjoy it all the more now, The artwork in your blog is Fantastic!! Nice one bud!!
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Is it the spaceship from the film? It's better than the film was.
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It is an early version of the one that appeared in the film
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Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Burg. Brilliant work, it's a shame I cannot say the same about the film...
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No problem! Thanks for the kind words.
I saw the movie a 2nd time, and started to like it more. I guess time will tell. I still remember it took me a few years to start to like "Blade Runner" - me and everybody else. So, that can happen - it's too early to tell for me!
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Yeah, perhaps you're right.
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We'll just have to see
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Nice ship, shame about the film.
More seriously it is a grim and foreboding picture.
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Yeah. Very hyped and turned out to be standard, blatantly obvious Christian propaganda with little substance to it.
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Christian propaganda? How?
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wow that's awesome steve!!! i drew the prometheus ship myself check it out.
wish i knew 3d as well as you though haha.
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Good to see you back in action Steve!
Keep up the amazing work!
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Very nice Steve. I love the scale with the figures walking around at the bottom of the spacecraft. It was a great movie!!!
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Thanks! I'm glad you liked the film too!
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Wow...I'm totally speechless but oh
You forgot and Bob lol.
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Any plans to merchandise this in ANY way?
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I really don't know. I hope so though - I'd love a display model to put on my shelf
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Wow, I wondered why I hadn't seen any updates from you in a bit. This makes me want to see the movie even more.
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