In need of some sci-fi inspiration

[torstan]

I'm looking for inspiration. I need some good example of sci-fi city maps. Anyone got any they like? General sci-fi maps work too - I need some inspiration on look and feel, and styling.

[waldronate]

Are you looking for the bright and shiny futuristic cities or the dark and dystopian ones? The traditional megalopolis, an elite floating (or even orbital) habitat, an off-world city or something like a middle-class suburb? The problem with "sci-fi" is that it means something very different to different groups of people, I think.

I have this suspicion that city layout won's be too much different from the ones that we have now. Perhaps take an existing city and replace a random blob with a megablock or three (chrome spires with bubbles and tubes for the happy future, dirty gray cubes for the unhappy one). http://joannapary.files.wordpress.co...1/dystopia.jpg nicely sums up the unhappy one, I think.

[torstan]

It's more the 'chrome' that I'm after. I need examples of a style that says 'sci-fi' rather than inspiration on layout. It's a utopian, benevolent interface between technology and the world kind of future.

I was thinking of the kind of HUD graphics overlaid over terrain, or other general zoomed out schematic maps - lots of blue glowing lines and grids, but my google-fu is deserting me this evening.

[waldronate]

You're looking for sort of an augmented-reality aerial view of a city, then? I'm not sure that I've ever seen one much like that, unfortunately.

[Korash]

have a look at something that is only JUST sci fi, and only because they haven't built it yet...I think. Anyway, it might be of some inspiration use...

[ravells]

Lot's of inspirational pictures here

Mi Cyberlaberinto

[Jaxilon]

I'm guessing you already did a search on dA? You might get the juices flowing from some of those. What about movies you can think of that are near in concept, you might look them up and check out some of the images.

[arsheesh]

Well here's something that may be of use to you: 100 Imaginative Cities of the Future.

[krasimir]

I'd recommend some book covers from the 50s and 60s sci-fi books. I think the rocket-era vision for citiescapes with futuristic shapes appeals to me the most.

You can also check out Blade Runner if you like big, beautiful, and... corporate.

[Deaghaidh]

You don't see all that much of it, but I like the style of the "utopian" colony of Miranda in Serenity.

I'd troll through the city-planning/urban design/architecture blogs on line, as there are usually pretty high-concept images there.

Or do a quick google image search for City of the Future, lots of people drawing there ideas. These days the trend is tons of green space, smooth curves, and car-free transportation. Earlier eras favored huge, "efficient" highways and rows of identical super towers spread across vast vacant parks. Extremely tall and/or self-contained buildings seem to be a common feature in one form or another, as do agressively humble rural or psuedo-rural enviornments. Burying transit under ground is an idea that won't go away, as is the idea of airborne transportation landing on skyscrapers, be they zepplins, helicopters, or flying cars.

I like this 1925 Popular Science cover:



They actually didn't do too bad, as these things go. Many/most big cities (at least in the US) do have underground electric railways (some have them elevated or at street level) and we do indeed vertically seperate fast car traffic (on highways) from slow (on surface streets). Modern buildings also frequently have the basement garage and garden areas on roofs and terraces they predicted.