Shapeways Community Member Part of the Team Nominated for Academy Award for ‘Passengers’ Spaceship Design

Designer Igor Knezevic named his business well, in my opinion. His Los Angeles-based design studio and consultancy, Alienology, is full of otherworldly, surreal-looking items that could have been excavated from another planet, worn by space travelers, or even drawn directly from the stars. (Check out this amazing costume that features his jewelry.) Much of Knezevic’s work is 3D printed, and he sells it in his Shapeways shop, also named Alienology.

Knezevic, however, is a man of many talents, and he’s also a successful CGI and film concept designer with a business called Flare Group. His work has been featured in several well-known films including Jupiter Ascending, Robocop, Oblivion, and more. Recently, he achieved what everyone in the film industry – or everyone who fantasizes about working in the film industry – dreams of: an Academy Award nomination. Knezevic was part of the Art Department team working on the hit film Passengers, in which Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt play space travelers who awaken from hypersleep too early on a 120-year journey into deep space.

The Art Department team, led by Production Designer Guy Hendricks Dyas, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Production Design. Knezevic was an integral part of the team, having been instrumental in the 3D design of the Avalon, the spaceship on which Lawrence, Pratt, and their still-sleeping colleagues are traveling.

[Image via IMDb]

“Congratulations to everyone who worked at Art Department of Passengers at Sony Studios,” a thrilled Knezevic posted on Facebook. “I was honored to be part of that team for several months, specifically working on original concept and many architectural iterations of the entire exterior of the spaceship, main ship concourse & engines. Design team lead, Production Designer Guy Dyas, was nominated previously for the Academy Award for ‘Inception’… and for me this is the first time to be part of such nominated team.”

The Avalon is a unique-looking spaceship, a dramatic departure from the spacecraft you may have seen in other sci-fi movies. According to Dyas, he was inspired by the look of the spinning, helicopter-like seeds that fell from a sycamore tree, and Knezevic and the rest of the team used 3D modeling and other technologies to help him translate his vision into the multi-arched, almost delicate-looking ship you see in the final production.

I’ve been wanting to see Passengers since it came out, but I haven’t yet, and I’m kind of glad – now I can go with a fresh eye for the brilliant design of the ship and the 3D technology that went into it. I’m quite broke at the moment, but I’m still very tempted to buy something from Knezevic’s Shapeways shop – not only because it’s gorgeous (I’m particularly entranced by this ring based on the behavior of sound waves in outer space) but because it’d be pretty cool to tell people I’m wearing jewelry designed by an Oscar nominee…or winner.

The Academy Awards are on February 26, so tune in to see if this successful and talented Shapeways designer gets to take home a gold statue. Good luck to you, Mr. Knezevic, and to the rest of your team! Discuss in the Academy Awards forum at 3DPB.com.