Games, movies, anime – they show us fictional worlds filled with intriguing and beautiful details. Oftentimes it’s just sets and props that look cool, but sometimes artists use works of fiction as design sandboxes to explore creative ideas that could very well be part of this world. Let’s seek them out and make them real!
The idea
We can call it Cross-Reality Design (or XRD for short). It’s about bringing fictional objects into this world, beyond what’s already being done with cosplay and toys. But that’s not all. XRD movement aims to encourage more artists to practise their design skills in fictional worlds – kind of like virtual beta-testing for real-world products.
Incidental XRD
A lot of the time artists don’t dream of their on-screen designs becoming real products, they just do a really good job creating every object with function in mind, and drawing the tiniest details.
It’s our job to find these works and help them become reality.
- Seek out virtual objects that could exist (and be popular) in the real world.
- Contact the author to get permission to recreate the object, and offer collaboration to design a real-world version.
- Contact a company that has the capability to manufacture the item.
- Make it real!
Purposeful XRD
Draw something up in CAD and try to pitch it to companies – that’s difficult. Many designs end up sitting in the author’s portfolio and help boost their employability, but have little hope of becoming real products. But what if someone is already working for a studio making games or anime? In that case the designs, if done well, could have not one but two lives: in media and in reality.
It’s a virtuous circle: an artist works harder to produce more thoughtful and compelling designs, which make the game/anime better, and the popularity then helps the on-screen objects break into the real world, generating extra income, encouraging the artist to keep working hard, and making the studio more attractive to top talent.
Curious examples
Virtual concept cars
Vision Gran Turismo is a program where car manufacturers design virtual concepts for the Gran Turismo game series.
Game inside a game
Geometry Wars is a series of retro-style video games with an interesting story: it first appeared as a mini-game inside Project Gotham Racing 2 (a bigger, more “serious” game). This neat little trick generated enough hype for the mini-game to break out
into the real world and become a series of standalone titles.
Engineering fictional tech
Hacksmith Industries is a company (or a group of enthusiasts – not sure what to call these guys) who specialise in recreating movie props and other pop-culture objects by engineering real-world versions that work (kind of… as far as our world’s physics and technology allow, anyway).
Anime aircraft coming to life
OpenSky M-02J is a jet-powered motor glider inspired by the Möwe aircraft from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
Before “virtual” meant “computers”
In 1963 (long before CAD became a mainstream tool in architecture), LEGO created Modulex, a type of bricks made specifically for architects to use in modelling. Therefore, architectural ideas were explored in the domain of toys, and then embodied in real buildings.
Suggested XRD targets
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Madoka Magica is not only a visually stunning anime with a deep story – it also served as a designer’s playground. Things like architecture, interior design, urban planning, industrial design, and even UI are depicted in meticulous detail and showcase some fresh ideas. It’s a treasure trove for XRD!
Viewfinder
Viewfinder is a reality-bending game which is, in essence, itself an exercise in XRD: the story revolves around a team of scientists who created their inventions inside a simulation, ultimately hoping to bring them to reality. It would make an enormous amount of sense to bring their designs an extra level: to OUR reality!
Submitted by: Ilia Leikin
Hashtags: #Anime #Art #Design #Fiction #FictionalWorlds #Games #PopCulture
Looking for: artists, consumers of pop-culture, studios
I can: help identify promising artworks
Status: research ongoing
