As a child of the ’70s, I was probably one of a great many kids who had posters of vast airbrushed spaceships on their bedroom walls. These ships were usually very organic, covered in various cavernous intakes, and were often brightly coloured, with bold, geometric markings, alien texts, panelling and thousands of tiny window lights. And if they weren’t rumbling through the depths of space, they were lowering the statues onto Easter Island, or hovering menacingly overhead, while some other smaller vehicle tried to flee. Chances are that if you had one of these posters (or at least if you know some kid that did!) it was probably designed by Chris Foss.

Chris was, without doubt, one of the great pioneers of science-fiction art, specialising in creating visions on a grand scale never really seen in the genre before. You can clearly see the influence his work has had on his peers (past and present), as well as in many epic science fiction films, including Star Wars.

For this issue’s tutorial, I have set about creating a ship that might not be out of place in Chris Foss’s repertoire. To do this, I have used Maxon’s excellent Cinema 4D application. Cinema 4D is a professional 3DA application, which opens up far more creative possibilities than other 3D programs like Bryce. But don’t let its added sophistication put you off, since as well as its enormous power, it’s one of the friendliest, and arguably, easiest of its kind to get to grips with – without inducing you to pull out much (if any) of your hair! This tutorial is a basic introduction to some of the modelling aspects of Cinema 4D, which will hopefully help demystify the program a little, and enable you to experiment at creating your own organic Foss-esque ships.