The New Earth - Concept Art & Worldbuilding

These are a series of concept artworks exploring the world after we leave Earth. As mankind leaves Earth and settles amongst the stars, we reach all kinds of paths.

“Bah-ping!”

The crowd erupted into a cheer as the helper bot tumbled into the earth dust, kicking up a cloud before laying still. Many feet away, Annie Oakley unloaded her iconic Winchester Jr. rifle, a spent cartridge joining the small pile next to her. A thrill ran through her as she tipped her hat to the crowd.

“Look, it’s trying to escape!” Annie looked back to see a helper bot rolling away in a zigzag fashion. Probably from damaged circuitry, they usually only moved straight. She put the Winchester’s iron sights up, noting the artificial breeze. An adjustment of 2 inches to the right. She ignored her visor’s shrill warnings, “Aim Off Target! Adjust! Adjust!”

“Bahm!”

“Tiiiing”

Perfect, she thought, twirling to curtsy at the cheering New Earthers.

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Space cowboys aren’t a new concept by any means, but I wanted to challenge myself to keep Annie Oakley’s traditional shape language and clothing, while integrating sci-fi visual language. As a New Earth clone of Annie Oakley, she’s meant to perform and inspire nostalgia among the history-philes of the New Earth elite. It seems like New Earth Oakley’s existence confirms the success of a certain organization’s indoctrination.

With corporate and government pressure, NEO is faced with the challenge of rekindling interest in space.

One of its plans is partnering with Greenleaf Toys, subtly slipping space-themed toys into existing product lines. The first of these products is Astrobuddy Norman, an astronaut collectible toy.

Featuring a projector backpack and several celestial body disk choices, the toy integrates into Greenleaf’s BuddyBox play-and-collect theme. The toy line’s reputation will help NEO evade the eye of anti-space organizations and parents, leading to the next generation of space enthusiasts.

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I thought a toy design would be an interesting way to world build. Norman's innocent visuals contrasting the sinister backstory makes for a great narrative. It took a bit to figure out the joint movement and toy design to make it production ready, but it was definitely worth it!

New beginnings. New horizons. New promises.

Yet even the new becomes old.

As space travel quickly loses its novelty, it’s not uncommon to find abandoned space-scrapers such as the Victoria Luna.

At least the building can boast a population of 1: the ever-cheerful butler-bot. Not needing oxygen is handy in space.

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This piece was much more focused on the background, communicating the ominous background behind the New Earth Organization's mission. The perspective was challenging, but I really wanted to convey the scale and emptiness afforded by space buildings.

Thank you!