Miner 75
Resource Design
2019 - 2020
Through text and images the design and considerations of Miner 75 is detailed as follows. Special thanks to Colter Wehmeier for design consultation.
Some film/narrative set up
As the BIR investigated the site they found that the Resource behaves a bit like lava. As fresh Resource material is exposed to the open air, it off-gasses like smoke. It flows in vinelike shapes towards things it can corrupt, stretching like a conduit. Where the Resource sits exposed, it begins to harden into a chalky, hard, salt-like surface. When a Resource vine touches any tool, it gets very excited, as if plugging into a battery. It then latches on and spreads on the surface of that tool curiously like an octopus. Once it understands the capacity of a tool, it then modifies it to enchance its characteristics and function. Because the resource has a naive understanding of how tools are used (or what it means to use them), its modifications are chaotic and unintuitive. The Resource is trying to learn about our world through this interaction, but it can't learn about something without assimilating it and modifying it.
To see how this was made check out the
Miner 75 Prop Fabrication Page
Resource Design
2019 - 2020
Through text and images the design and considerations of Miner 75 is detailed as follows. Special thanks to Colter Wehmeier for design consultation.
Some film/narrative set up
As the BIR investigated the site they found that the Resource behaves a bit like lava. As fresh Resource material is exposed to the open air, it off-gasses like smoke. It flows in vinelike shapes towards things it can corrupt, stretching like a conduit. Where the Resource sits exposed, it begins to harden into a chalky, hard, salt-like surface. When a Resource vine touches any tool, it gets very excited, as if plugging into a battery. It then latches on and spreads on the surface of that tool curiously like an octopus. Once it understands the capacity of a tool, it then modifies it to enchance its characteristics and function. Because the resource has a naive understanding of how tools are used (or what it means to use them), its modifications are chaotic and unintuitive. The Resource is trying to learn about our world through this interaction, but it can't learn about something without assimilating it and modifying it.
To see how this was made check out the
Miner 75 Prop Fabrication Page
Resource Design Film Stills
VFX work by Christian Pepper and Colter Wehmeier
Resource Design Concept Art and Realization
All concept art by Christian Pepper
The Resource has the capacity to corrupt anything that humans perceive as being a tool. Even a tree is a tool for our use to become paper or lumber. This process is called enframing. The Resource will corrupt an object like a water trough or cactus and enhance its core capacity to store and transfer water. The design of the Resource shifted drastically from first being a corruption of an object’s existing characteristics to becoming a sort of slime that influences other objects. The design of the Resource evolved to draw more characteristics from materials like gold and oil. However the fundamental hive-mind like intelligence of the Resource is depicted almost as a slime mold.
Resource Design References
All reference images downloaded from Google
As the design of the Resource evolved so did the associated references. Each time a new function or aspect of the Resource was designed a new grounded example was necessary for its aesthetic evaluation. The intelligence and formal branching of the Resource is drawn from the slime mold, vining, and lychen. The white and gold dual nature of the Resource is drawn from the Japanese Kintsugi process of repairing dishes. The Resources physical movement finds its roots in ferrofluid and lava flows. The stacking nature of the Resource is cake-like and geologic; while the pillars are found in various salt deposits. But most importantly, drawing from the philosopher’s stone is that the Resoruce has the capacity to become almost any material we can imagine, and for the BIR this is all that matters and every other characteristic is perfunctory.
