Ocean Quigley Projects: Spore’s Black Holes, Protoplanetary Discs and the Galactic Core

Thanks to InfiniteSims for tipping me off on a new update from Ocean Quigley’s Project Blog.  This time he shares with us some insight on the black holes, protoplanetary discs and the galactic core found in Spore.

Here are some animations of astronomical features I built in Spore, using Andrew Willmott’s effect system.

I was going for an aesthetic of caricatured reality. These things had to look more like people expected them to than like they (probably) really do.

Here’s a black hole:

And the galactic core (with huge jets shooting out from the poles)

And a protoplanetary disc, where a cloud of dust and gas is collapsing to form an infant star and solar system:

Creating animated, interactive versions of the things that I read about in Our Universe in fourth grade was a total blast. It’s pretty much the best job I could have imagined having as a 10 year old.

(I loved that book when I was a kid! Especially with those amazing Michael Whelan paintings of aliens floating in a Jovian atmosphere)