Syd Mead is a major science-fiction artist, famous for his vehicle designs and futurological visions from the 1960s and 1970s, and also for his work on numerous famous movies. His alluring visions of a prosperous and immaculately-designed future Earth are still very influential today — as evidenced by the kind of prize money ($35k) put up for the recent Images of future transport: in the style of Syd Mead competition.
You may not have the draftsmanship skills of a Syd Mead, but — with a little help from Photoshop and DAZ — could you nevertheless create a Syd Mead -like CG artwork?
Well, perhaps. Syd doesn’t yet have his own line of branded DAZ Studio or Poser models. But until then, here’s my new survey of DAZ and Poser content, in which I dig out the best of the most Mead-like items…
CS City might provide a suitable background or two for vehicles and heavy-lifters…
Some of the Dystopia City Blocks buildings might also come in handy, and the first two packs of blocks are free.
The amazing Mars Vehicle is perhaps the most Mead like I’ve found…
Dystopian Aircar Aeronica V18…
Some of the Flying Cars set could also serve very well in a Mead-like scene, although sadly they’re for Bryce…
The Pacificator is also a good choice if you like the more Tron like models by Mead…
If you prefer flying motorcycles over cars, the J-Scooter 2 might suit…
Need figures for your artwork? The Bot Armor (id 8101) is for Victoria 4.2 Morphs++, and (apart from the high heels) has a pleasingly Mead-like retro-future look…
The JICC 3000 looks like he might just be a bot that belongs in a Mead painting…
If you have to get a curvaceous girl into your artwork, then 110.1 may be the one to have…
A couple of the heavy-lifter items in the Psi City Sector 2: Jat Cargo Set pack look like they might belong in the background of a Mead painting…
The Cargo 2 also looks like it has potential as a cargo-port craft…
The Gargola 901 could also serve as a heavy sky-tug for a sci-fi cargo yard…
A good heavy vehicle might be the Sci-Fi Truck – Heavy Duty…
… or the Ursus hovertruck…
By combining the wheels from the Storm Buggy with “Dino Truck” and removing the ‘dino inspection platform’, and flipping the whole thing around, you could get a fairly Mead-like heavy vehicle…
The Super Lorry is a 3DS model that looks like something from Mead’s famous U.S. Steel paintings of the 1960s…
For Moon scenes, there’s a cool Moon Rover…
And a free Survey Seeder for Google SketchUp. (Also converted for iClone).
Some of the Retro-Futuristic Furniture set could be retextured for less grime…
Finally, the GIS Orion interior has Mead-like tables and chairs…
You could also look at prop and vehicle models extracted from the Mass Effect videogames series. I’ve only played the first in the series, but I remember that the game takes some of its art design inspiration from Mead.
That’s it. Enjoy!