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My first step was to get some ideas together. For inspiration I watched all 6 episodes of the TV series back-to-back and leafed through my copy of the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy, jotting down ideas for little references to add to each image (21 in total!). Also, to make sure the locations I was drawing fitted the game, I used an online walkthrough to get an idea of each environment (I'm notoriously bad at the game - I've only got as far as being blown up on the Vogon ship!).
Each location image took about 3-4 hours to complete. I started off sketching out loads of small thumbnail images first, trying to work out which details to add, composition and perspective. I then picked my favourite and sketched out a larger version in pencil and then inked it in. This took about three quarters of an hour. The final stage was to scan it into Photoshop, add the background colour as suggested by the competition page and add the shading. This took around 3 hours for each image.
The couple of images I enjoyed creating the most would have to be Marvin's Pantry (drawing Marvin looking as depressed as possible and including the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation poster behind him) and the Presidential Dais on Damogran (drawing the crowd and adding Marvin in amongst them).
A big thank you to Roger Philbrick, Rod Lord and the guys at BBC Radio 4 Interactive. I look forward to playing the new version of the game in 2005!
Andrew Wyld: |  |
My favourite object is the Atomic Vector Plotter. I also have a soft spot for the Molecular Hyperwave Pincer and the Ionic Diffusion Rasp. My least favourite is the alien fruit, which was supposed to be a joke about the mattresses on Squornshellous Zeta and the way many magically useful objects were to be found lying around the galaxy flolloping or something. I didn't realize Arthur was going to have to eat it when I drew it. All I can say is, I hope he has strong teeth.
There are two things I especially like about the War Chamber. The first is that the warriors who run the war room are treating the whole thing like a game - with the Hi-Score, beer and pizza everywhere, and a nod to War Games with the electronic Tic Tac Toe on one wall. I find extreme belligerence ridiculous and I wanted to make it the source of the humour.
One of the hardest locations to do was the Engine Room of the Heart of Gold. I wanted it to be big and chaotic, and slightly dangerous-looking - like the loose wire on the Atomic Vector Plotter. I started by drawing a massive supercomputer in a room, then I stuck the power lines in. Then I put some washing over the power lines, because I wanted people to wonder how it got there ...
The supercomputer idea, although eventually ditched, started me off on a tangent. Hard disc units used to be known as washing machines because they were about the same size and had a large spinning thing inside. Some even loaded from the top like big industrial washers, so you could swap disc packs over. I thought it would be funny to have a hard disc unit and a washing machine next to each other, looking almost identical. Unfortunately the joke got lost slightly at scale, but it did help me get a handle on a difficult location (and I still think Washinator 7620 is a great name for a washing-machine).
The really tough problem was that once the design had exceeded a certain level of complexity, I realized I wanted the floor to be shiny. So I had to draw reflections for everything, then slide them underneath the originals! The computer was getting a bit slow by then, too.
The easiest location was undoubtedly Zaphod's speedboat on Damogran. I already had a drawing for a sort of tasteless space-limousine and some friends pointed out it would make a good speedboat, so I redrew it in purple and in it went ...
Andrew and Nolan visit the Hitchhiker studio
Artist Profiles - including Nolan and Andrew
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