Orrery Mark 3

Based on the thumbnail, I decided to mock this up to see what it would look like in a 3D space. I quite like this but would need some work in its proportions. There is something about this and the thumbnail that I quite like.

Side View

Tilted View

Orrery And Mechanic Thumbnails

Based around our trip to the Royal Observatory, I have done some thumbnails around the design of mechanics of the orrery/music machine.

1

Based on the small orrerys we saw and there rings, I was thinking of getting rid of the poles with the object figures on top and simply replacing them with the rings. These rings would have the object on top and would be propelled by gears that also hold then in place.

2

Based around the last orrery we saw that had no visible gears or the working mechanics. This was more of toying with the idea of, what if most of the gears are not visible on the outside and how this would look? This is as so far, I have been very visible with the outer mechanics when possibly it may not be needed. 

Also the circle/ rectangle the the middle of the bottom image is a continuation with the idea of having the music player being visible.

3

Pushing forward with the idea of hiding most of the mechanics of the orrery inside it self. What happens is that all the workings are inside and unseen from the outside. The figures have there own layer/ring and follower a course around this layers.

 I also began to look at what could this be on top and again where the music player could be.

4

5

Here Im looking inside the machine. In particular, where the lone screw could sit and some of the layering and mechanics that could be seen within. The bottom left of no5 is showing the idea of this layering. Layer 1 is the screw, layer 2 is parts of the mechanic for the orrery and the last is the music player. It then goes outside of the machine to the last part of seeming the machine itself.

6

Here I did a mock up sketch of the middle layer of the machine of the orrery. This was also to push this idea of using layers to make the inside of the machine.

Catch Up Sketch For Orrery Development

Here was some of the working out sketches for the top of the orrery

Some Primary Research

Today Sammy and Chrissie took me to the royal observatory to both a nice day out and some lovely research. 

Here are some of the photos I took within the observatory.  Although they are not all orrerys and many are the innards of clocks, they have helped me understand visually of how such a network of cogs can be built up and presented. Some photos are purely looking at the cogs and gears while others are looking into the face and presentations. 

Timetable

Initial Storyboarding

Even though I have yet to fully design my orrery machine, I have done a basic storyboard to help visualise, get an idea around a time scale and help in the development in the design process.

Although there are improvements needed to this, it has helped in understanding of the time set, design and how it could work.

With this first section with how it zooms out of a hole within the music disk, I feel that, if i am going to go down the route of zooming out a hole (or something along those lines) it could be more of a decorative hole. By this I mean a possible view hole to which is there to show off the gears and workings within. I feel this would feel and looks nicer than a random hole within the music disk.

This last section has helped me get a better idea around the design of the orrery. I have grown the orrery  and how it uses the rings to rise and fall to get that unevenness. However I feel this should be made wider in diameter which would give more space for the objects which in turn would stop the feel of clutter. The stand or base under the orrery I see as more of a wooden cylinder to which has a music disk on show as centre piece.

Orrery Development

I am trying to create an orrery thats rings are tilted are not all one level as like before. This is to try and get the objects on various levels so they do not all clutter together. 

This has been difficult to work out how to vary the rings without one bar nocking into the other however I have come up this this design. 

Side View

Tilted View

Close Up

Stand Bar

(Explanation)

Theres not much to this design but requires some explaining. 

How it works is that there are rings fixed to the middle foundation. From these rings comes the tilt.

 As like the ones before, bars come out from the middle foundation which rotate around the base. Atop of these are where the objects sit. However, these bars have a mechanism to them which allows them to follow the tilted rings. They have two parts, the top half, which has a hook coming out of its side, and the bottom, which could be described as something like a container. Something along the lines of spring pressure within the bottom half pushes up the top half which is stopped by the hook that hooks underneath the tilted rings. When the ring is tilted down the bar is pushed back into its container and when the ring is tilted up, the spring pushes up the bar. With the hook, it fallows around the tilt. (The bar mechanism is shown in the video bellow)

Level Orrery Test

I have take the ring overview and made a small Pre_Viz to help in visualizing the orrery. It is also to see if it being all on the same level (like a basic orrery) would work with the amount of objects I have. I feel it looks a little crowded, not due to amount there is, but due to it being on a set level it makes it hard to see through the outer rings. This brings to mind of having tilted layers to prevent this clustering all on one level.


Still image

Still image close up

Flat View

Tilted View

Taking out some of the blue layer to see it looks any better. I do not think it works as the build up of how it effects become lager and lager leading to the world at the end, to just have one family seems a little anti-climatic. Although It makes it easier to see it feels like they need to be there.

Ring Over View

Here I am vissualising the ring over view to better show and understand the ring layout. I have taken the idea from no7 of the last post with having multiple objects on the rings.

1

Here Is the representation on no7 from the post before.

2

Here I have moved things around so that the plants and crops are on one ring and the food is all on another.

3

Here I have pulled back a little from having so many object on each ring. Here I was thinking of having two on each ring so it would make two lines when they all line up; one line would be how it effects crops, which in turn, effect our fruit/veg and then to man. The other shows how it effects plats and then, the animals that eat the plants and then once again to man. This with the single globe which would move from line to line. 

Ring Of The Orrery Exploration

Continuing to look into the order of the rings and the best way to symbolism the domino effect.

Note that a "-" represents a new ring and if there is more than one image between these "-" they are on the same ring.

1

At the beginning ring you have pollen (the yellow round image). Spinning around the pollen you have plants and an apple to represent the food made by pollination. This is followed by a cow which would die out due to the plants and so on.

2

 Going off of if you don't have plants you do not have animals and so on. 

 After than animals I have put an apple to also show how we also would not have fruit and veg, however I was not quite sure if it fits here as its related to the pollen which is nearer the beginning.

3

I took out the pollen as I did not think it was needed to symbolism pollination as that is what the bee is meant to be. I move the beginning around to first show that plants what die out due to pollination and then on the next ring that it would effect food for both the animals and us.

4

I moved the apple with the cow so they symbolize our food.

5

Thinking that I may have been over thinking things with have multiple objects on the rings, I have made it a little more simple by adding crops and corn instead of an apple and a tree. I think this is a little to simple and a little boring.

6

Keeping with simple line up I changed the crops and back back to the apple as to me it looks a little better with the apple.

7

Here I have gone with the idea of building up the ring, so the beginning ring shows the fruit and veg represented by the apple and broccoli. It then moves out to the flowers, animals, humans all slowly adding in number and then finally the globe.

I quite like this idea of slowly building up in number rather then adding in, what seems, random places like the others. 

Quotes On The Bumblebee Extinction

While look for more information around the domino effect of the loss of the bumblebee and any other links or connections that I may have missed, I have come across some interesting quotes. Although these quotes tell a similar story there predictions are quite helpful in regard to backing up the domino effect and connecting more links such as cows and clovers.

Quote 1)

Professor Einstein, the learned scientist, once calculated that if all bees disappeared off the earth, four years later all humans would also have disappeared. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.
Abeilles et fleurs, June, 1965.

Quote 2)


The safety of England depends on the number of cats she keeps. He proves his proposition thus: Without the aid of bumble-bees the red clover could not be fertilised. Bumble-bees make their nests on the ground, where they are the prey of mice. Cats destroy the mice and give the bees a chance to live. Hence he reasons, no cats, many mice; many mice, no bumble-bees; no bees, no clover; no clover, no cattle; no cattle, no beef; and without beef where would the Englishman be?—Prof. W. W. Cooke—(American Bee(American Bee Journal.

Quote 3)

Because only plants can manufacture food, and because all animals must live on either plants or animals that live on plants, the law has been stated that “without plants, animals cannot exist.” Likewise some plants would disappear if animals were removed, for many flowers depend on nectar-seeking insects to pollenate the flowers—perpetuate the species. 
Massachusetts, 1934.

Exploring Texture

Using the images for the possible tops of the orrery, I have experimented with with brass and wooden texture to see if they would possibly suite and then the idea of the possibility of making the structure suite the material of the construction. I.E if the tops are wooden, the construction would be wooden based.

Brass

1

2

Wood

1

2

3

Surprisingly, I find my self liking one of the wooden and one of the bass. I had believed that the textures would not fit of make the objects look to hard (like no 2 of the brass and 1 of the wood) but I quite like no 1 and 3 of the brass and wooden textures. I like the wooden as it feels smooth and toy like while the brass feels like a collectable trinket. 

Exploration Of Ideas For The Top Of The Orrery

Here I am exploring the rings around the orrery. I am making the centre of the orrery the bumblebee being that it is the key point and then the domino effect there for. However due to the complex nature of the predicted domino effect with things intertwining, I am trying to work out the best way to symbolise this mass extinction.

Here is just the dead basic concept of the domino effect. Plants and crops die following with herbivores (represented by the sheep) which would then kill off the predators (represented by Man) and then finally the globe to show the end of the world.

Here I have done much the same but presented in rings to visually grasp how it would look. I have also added the tree (the green ring) as it was suggested to trees would also die out to lack of being pollinated. I have put it in close due to it being a result of pollination but is one I am not sure where it should go due to how long it lives.

Here I have done a small list of how the order could look. The first few are playing with taking out or moving the order of the images to try and work out the best way to symbolise the steps to dooms day, while last two (still playing with this idea) I have put the flower and the apple on the same ring as a way of showing the intertwine of these steps. 

This is due as if the we lose the bee, pollination will be the first step which effects plants and cops which is simultaneously effecting food for the animals and ourselves.

I then have the herbivore and then us the predator. In the bottom image I have put the tree before the human as the lack oxygen, due to the lack of plants etc would also lead to are downfall.