Recently our friends over at
Ender's Ansible published an image of a framed storyboard that was a gift to Jimmy Pinchak (Peter Wiggin) from the movie's director, Gavin Hood.
Picture taken down at request from Summit PR
The storyboard appears to show the exterior of the Battle School. I've known for sometime that the look was not going to reflect the design outlined by
Steve Sywak in the
Authorized Ender's Game Companion, so it is interesting to see what the Movie Art Department cooked up.
Here is a close up:
Picture taken down at request from Summit PR
From that image I was able to create a 3D model to help clarify the design. Take a look:
It looks to me that there is one Battle Room in the center, not nine as they outline in the book
Ender's Game. Aside from that there appears to be three other major parts to this design. I used the image below and some color coding in a couple sections to show you how I interpreted the design.
Picture taken down at request from Summit PR
1. Habitation Ring (Not Colored)
The doughnut to the left of the picture where all those arrows are going around. I assume that this is a rotating structure.
2. Power Plant or Propulsion Section: (Not Colored)
The rectangular structure on the far right end. I am speculating that this where they might put the power source to run the Battle School or house the propulsion system that would move this thing around in orbit.
3. Equatorial Ring: (Red)
The large structure in red that I estimate that see that it connects the Doughnut to the Powerplant Section. I have no idea if it rotates or not, but I don't believe it connects to the Battle Room directly. I do believe this ring connects at two endpoints to a ring that is connected to the Battle Room.
4. The Battle Room Ring (Green)
The green structure that wraps around the circumference of a equator of the Battle Room. It has a common point at each end that connects to the Equatorial Ring
at a circular hub that the Habitation ring rotates about. This hub is the access way to transfer between rings.
Picture taken down at request from Summit PR
In the image below you can see how the sections correspond to my model. Click the image to enlarge it.
You will also notice that I have attached some dimensions to this model. Since I had no clue as to what size the designer was making this version of the Battle School. I scaled the model to reflect the long side length of the Battle School outlined in the
Authorized Companion which was approximately 550m (1,804 ft) This meant that the Habitation Section is approximately 474 ft in diameter and the Battle Room is approximatel 578 ft in diameter.
I also sized the "Movie" Battle School model to reflect dimensions my friend and "First Battle School Engineer",
Steve Sywak was able to deduce given his great knowledge and experience in physics, and engineering science calculations. I refer you back to
comments at Ender's Ansible to understand what real world forces and calculations would make this version of teh Battle School to work in reality.
Doing a side by side comparison of the two Battle Schools.
Now let's look at the Battle Room.
The Battle Room Ring in green is the place where armies would travel through to get to their respective gates. I hope they have some motorized transport, this room is huge, and I would hate to be the army that would have to travel to the far gate for a battle. If you look in the room I have place 2 40 person armies. Each of those person's in that rectangular formation are at least 5 ft in height. So you can see how vast that room would be in relation to an individual.
Well, that's an overview of my model. Give me some feed back what do you think of the proposed designs for the upcoming Movie. How do you think it will work?
Until then, since this is my blog...enjoy my Battle School Art!
