2001 - A Case Modyssey

[ASPHIAX]

2001 - A Case Modyssey

I can still remember the first time I saw the movie when I was 11 years old.

It was on an old black and white antenna tv, the sound turned almost off so my parents wouldnt hear it as I wasnt supposed to be up that late, but it didnt matter... I was there, I was at Clavius Moonbase, I pulled HAL's memory modules, I was the monkey that cracked the skull of the rival leader. This is the movie that got me hooked on SCIFI . Stanley Kubricks's EPIC interpretation of the vastness of space, The sense of reality with which the film is shot, the 2 minute blackscreen intro, the special effects, the far reaching concepts, and good god ... the books by Sir Arthur C Clark were even better!

Anyway, after the build of the USS EURISKO - Intrepid Mark II Class (It only needs a good paintjob) I got in contact with the Dutch Modder Nixjuh. We started talking about our passion for SCIFI on the SCIFI OCD group and he showed me some of his work. His artistic skills are off the charts and we soon started brainstorming on how we could use his drawing and sculpting skills on a tribute pc to one of our favorite movies.

Here's what came out of those sessions :



3D model of the inside of the case

The shape of the Case resembles the Monolith TWA-1 from the movie. We could not keep the 1².2².3² dimensions without making the case huge or to thin for any hardware, so we ended up with a design that was 80cm high, 43 cm wide and 18 cm deep. In real life the monolith shape does come out a bit better then in this 3d render.

So what's inside: (some of these are not confirmed yet)

BlackIce GT Extreme 560 Radiator

6 x 140 mm fan (4 for the 560 rad and 2 for intake)

Motherboard AMD

watercooled AMD 1090T processor

2 x watercooled 580GTX in SLI mode

2 x SSD

Custom reservoir with picture of Arthur C Clark

Bitspower fittings

Aircooled RAM

1200 Watt PSU



The inside of the case has been designed to resemble the inside of the HAL9000 computer. The scene where Dave Bowman disconnects HAL's memory modules and makes him sing a song as a means of a factory default is nothing short of brilliant.!



The frame will be made of Pine and MDF. We would have liked to use ALU but we dont have any means of working the metal. The visible inside of the case will be designed around a full cover plexiglass sheet covering most of the hardware (creating a closed well ventilated room) with numerous frosted red/white illuminated plexi memory modules and black/red shades to finish it off. The 580GTX 's will be covered by a plexi encasing resembling the HAL9000 interface.



The outside is where Nixjuh will show his considerable talent! Special engravings of 10 of the most impressive scenes from the movie will cover the clean and featureless black metal hood that will be placed over the internal frame. We have something special in mind for the on/off and reset buttons and side window but we cant tell too much about that yet. We can tell you that the casing will be put onto a rocky platform with several USB ports integrated into it and that "the dawn of man" is its main design criteria. We cant tell you how much fun we already have had designing and preparing for the build and hope that you'll be as eager as we are to find out how the concept will evolve and grow.

Here's an update on the work done so far !



ASPHIAX en NIXJUH

[ASPHIAX]

Ok so here goes !

First, we have changed the buidling material from MDF and PINE to Aluminium. And boy did that make a difference. I build a large part of the frame but the feeling it was to light creeped up on us and after doing some homework we decided to go for alu. This did ment having to invest in some tools but I AM SO HAPPY we did. What a material, I know I will probably never go back to MDF again (except when there's a good reason)

Anyway , here is the MDF / PINE frame



The 3D design did come in handy now, easily got all the measurments from the design and was sent to the ALU vendor.



So what have we got? 12x12 mm square rod ..



And 2mm ALU panel ..



First sized up one of the major defining elements, the massive BlackIce GT 560 Extreme !



It should fit with a couple of mm left after the rods have been placed, we will see !





I already have most of the hardware so a quick test fitting to see how she goes ..





Only had green and 120mm enermax fans , they will be exchanged for 140mm red's !

One of the toughest things (IMO) to do if finding the right locations for the fan holes and screws ..



Couple of hours later, and a whole lot of sanding and filing ...








Couple of hours later, man that aluminium works great !



And the final state for tonight, got a good day tomorrow also ! Will be traveling to Nixjuh (30KM) and work on the frame from there. He has got something very (VERY) cool to show !





And the monolith is born, Imagine all black alu and red enermax behind the rad ... Could look cool I think !



Laters !

[ASPHIAX]

At the moderation team, as I am building this baby with another user, can he be added as a topic starter also

[Nixjuh]

Hi everybody,
First of all I will introduce myself a little and tell you my place in this build. I ran into Asphiax when I came looking for the EURISKO. Then we started talking about our passion for SCI-FI and came up with the idea for this build. The first weeks we only did a lot of brainstorming to come up with a good and unique concept. As you saw in the start post above, Asphiax made some awesome 3D renders and started building the case. Yesterday I saw it for the first time and it really shows some craftsmanship and quality! This case will be about the fun of building and learning new skills.

And this is where I come in, I will be doing most of the artwork on the outside of the case. There will be 10 engravings on the outside of the case, which will all resemble a scene from the movie. Also there will be some real 3D features on the outside, but that’s something for later (hence the censored on the photo) But remember, this is just a mock-up for the placing and the content of the engravings, the final engravings will not feature shadow or colors or anything ofcourse.

We want to give our special thanks to Simon Atkinson, who let us use some of his artwork for the engravings, he does some amazing artwork, model making and drawing! Be sure to check out his website

Today we will show you our plans for the engravings so here we go!

This is a 3D render of the case including the outside casing.

The front will show a picture of the apes touching the monolith, and the astronaut inside a tunnel.

On the top we will have an engraving of the Discovery 1.

And in the back it will feature the rising moon and the astronaut inside the centrifuge in Discovery 1.

Now for the two largest panels.
The one on the back of the motherboard plate will be fully covered and show a picture of earth, the star-child looking down to earth and station V shooting out the Orion spacecraft

And the last but most certainly not least side will have a plexiglass window in the shapes of some tears in the metal. This has to do with our own chimera, in which the ape finally manages to damage the monolith. Hence the theme “The rise and fall of men”. It will also feature an engraving of the EVA .

And an overall layout of all the engravings to give you a better understanding.

And the final feature will stay a mystery for now, but we will keep you posted!

[INSTG8R]

Very Cool! Subbed and look forward to the progress.

[qubit]

2001 - A Case Modyssey - I love the name!

And welcome to TPU.

[ASPHIAX]

Originally Posted by INSTG8R

Very Cool! Subbed and look forward to the progress.

Thanks ! We will update regularly !

Originally Posted by qubit

2001 - A Case Modyssey - I love the name!

And welcome to TPU.

Thanks, we thought it be appropriate !
And thanks again, was leeching for some time, finally *have something to share, lol!

[Chryonn]

I am a HUGE fan of the films and books, and i can't wait to see this finished!

[PopcornMachine]

This is very cool. One of the best movies ever period. Not just SciFi.

Interesting design. Looking forward to more.

[ASPHIAX]

Originally Posted by Chryonn

I am a HUGE fan of the films and books, and i can't wait to see this finished!

Originally Posted by PopcornMachine

This is very cool. One of the best movies ever period. Not just SciFi.

Interesting design. Looking forward to more.

Thanks, we will try our best to do them honour!

[DannibusX]

I love the films.

Greatest name for a case mod ever. I'm following for sure.

[Nixjuh]

So here we are with another update!

We wanted to keep a little surprise, instead of give all away in the first post.
The monolith will be standing on a baseplate. On that plate, in the place where we put the “censored” in the picture we will put an ape.

First of all, I see you think….. an ape?!? Remember the sequence in which the ape gets evolved by touching the monolith? The idea behind the monkey and the tear in the monolith comes from the human nature to break the things we don’t understand. Kubrick and Clark pictured Dave Bowman as our ambassador in the alien world, but what if we actually managed to break the thing…..??

Asphiax found this awesome picture online, and we just had to use it in some way.

In one hand he will be holding a stone tool (which will function as the power button of the pc) and in the other he holds a broken bone.
To start building the model, which I made in clay. We bought a wireframe and shaped it.

Then I put lumps of clay on it to get the basic shape. This was the first time I worked with clay, and at this point I really thought “what have I got myself into?”

But after a few hours of work it started to take shape like I wanted.

Then I made the hands and the upper body.

And put on the head.

This is where the wire to the mainbord goes.

So here is the final model, it only needs painting to be done, before we can place it on the baseplate.


And today I went to the store to buy some tools to get started on the engravings! Don’t really know what to use yet, so I bought some engraving tools for the Dremel multitool, but I also bought a special engravings machine. So this weekend we will start working on that!

Until the next update!

[DanishDevil]

Looks like a really in-depth and detailed theme build! Subbed.

[Solaris17]

/sub


you 2 are crazy talented great work so far!

[Nixjuh]

Originally Posted by DanishDevil

Looks like a really in-depth and detailed theme build! Subbed.

Thanks! we really want to pay attention to the details

Originally Posted by Solaris17

/sub


you 2 are crazy talented great work so far!

Thank you a loot!

[PopcornMachine]

I like the proto-human. Very cool.

[Sinzia]

in for subbing, I love the idea and look you two are going for!

[15th Warlock]

You guys have some mad skills!!

I'm a big fan of this movie, gotta love the Voyager posters in the background also!

Thanks so much for sharing this awesome project with us, I just subscribed to this thread, best of luck with your project

[ASPHIAX]

The Poster are the designs I worked from for my previous build the USS EURISKO - Intrepid Mark II Class>

[micropage7]

wow, it looks pretty good
tall casing with alot of detail
sub

[mediasorcerer]

Wow very interesting, ive worked with clay nearly all my my life, not long ago i hand made a full size djembi drum out of clay no joke, it sounded great too.I love sculpting , great post to be able to see your work, not so sure you can fire clay with wire in it, unless its some sort of self setting clay, otherwise if you dont fire clay in a kiln, its very weak and brittle, easy to crumble.

Im sure your aware of that tho, love both 2001 and the sequel although many dont appreciate the sequel as much as the original.

Stellar idea mon, done a very nice job too,inspiring, thanx.

[Nixjuh]

Originally Posted by PopcornMachine

I like the proto-human. Very cool.

Originally Posted by Sinzia

in for subbing, I love the idea and look you two are going for!

Originally Posted by 15th Warlock

You guys have some mad skills!!

I'm a big fan of this movie, gotta love the Voyager posters in the background also!

Thanks so much for sharing this awesome project with us, I just subscribed to this thread, best of luck with your project

Originally Posted by micropage7

wow, it looks pretty good
tall casing with alot of detail
sub

Thanks to all of you!

Originally Posted by mediasorcerer

Wow very interesting, ive worked with clay nearly all my my life, not long ago i hand made a full size djembi drum out of clay no joke, it sounded great too.I love sculpting , great post to be able to see your work, not so sure you can fire clay with wire in it, unless its some sort of self setting clay, otherwise if you dont fire clay in a kiln, its very weak and brittle, easy to crumble.

Im sure your aware of that tho, love both 2001 and the sequel although many dont appreciate the sequel as much as the original.

Stellar idea mon, done a very nice job too,inspiring, thanx.

Wow cool! I can imagine that's a pretty precise job building a djembi drum
And then to get a good sound of it when it's done must be a good reward!

We used clay that drys in the air, no need to bake, just keep it wet when you are working on it and it will stay flexible. Next time I just need to put it in a room that is a little bit more moist. It dried a little too fast so it showed some cracks, but I managed to fix those pretty well

Mostly we chose that because we don't have a kiln to bake the clay, and probably the wire would melt too!

[15th Warlock]

Originally Posted by ASPHIAX

The Poster are the designs I worked from for my previous build the USS EURISKO - Intrepid Mark II Class>
http://asphiax.files.wordpress.com/2...pg?w=590&h=330

You guys are real artists you should work for a special FX company, not many ppl left who work on real world models as detailed as yours, I truly appreciate you guys sharing a snippet of your awesome work

[ASPHIAX]

Originally Posted by 15th Warlock

You guys are real artists you should work for a special FX company, not many ppl left who work on real world models as detailed as yours, I truly appreciate you guys sharing a snippet of your awesome work

Thanks man
I am working on a 3 feet long NAS in the shape of the Resurrection ship from Battlestar Galactica and on the design stages of a 3 feet watercooled Deep Space 9 ..
Just need to find the time to work on them !
Look here for other stuff I am working on !
www.asphiax.wordpress.com

[15th Warlock]

Originally Posted by ASPHIAX

Thanks man
I am working on a 3 feet long NAS in the shape of the Resurrection ship from Battlestar Galactica and on the design stages of a 3 feet watercooled Deep Space 9 ..
Just need to find the time to work on them !
Look here for other stuff I am working on !
www.asphiax.wordpress.com

Thanks for the link, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who's admiring your work right now; congratulations, you show a level of dedication to detail seldom found, takes me back to a time before daily mundane activities interfered with my passion for all things Sci-Fi; thank you so much for sharing