Murtaza Bukhari - Geektastic Trek

A Creative Activity

In the past few months, I began to develop a mixed medium of scaled dioramas as a hobby. As someone who enjoys artistic expression, I began to utilize my hobby as a cathartic exercise. My cognitive thoughts would be channeled through with visual imageries. Any latent feelings that I may be holding on to would be released after completing them.

As we still remain within a Pandemic world, I strongly believe in the importance of stimulating our minds with a hobby, on top of exercising our physical body. It helps to section off the monotony, when days feel like they are merging into one another. This hobby has been beneficial for me as I get to spend time on something that is part of my persona.

Dioramas of Miniature Delights

Dioramas are 3 dimensional display of objects that are enclosed within an environment. The word itself means "Through that which is seen" and was first developed in Paris, France by Louis Daguerre and Charles Marie Bouton.

Building these dioramas primarily requires the use of miniaturized scale models. These models are representative of objects that are at 1:1, true to life sizes. The miniature objects can be relative in size compared to their full scale counterparts. There are many scaling sizes and this site would give a better explanation of them. Suffice to say that the models I've used within the scenes are anywhere between 1:12 to 1:64 scale ratio.

The environments of dioramas are endless as they can be created in any format. Environments can range from landscapes, to interstellar space. They can be displayed within a historical context or fantasy. Whatever the diorama maybe, users can opt on a method to how they create them. Some select traditional methods, where physical sets are exclusively created. Others go for non-traditional, mixed medium format. I chose to pursue the latter of the two when it came to arranging my diorama compositions. Blending physical models with digital.

Little ships, big dreams. 3D scale print by Gameprint

'Vesta Class' by Mark Rademaker

Fandom Discussions

With the aforementioned subject matter, I must point out that the images that I've worked on, are not 'works of professional art'. If I am to be candid, there is a train of thought that amateur related content should not be placed within a portfolio environment. That line of thinking can very well be valid, but I chose place it here regardless. This page serves to inspire folks who may not feel confident enough just yet to work on their own creativity. It is to inspire those who don't have hobbies, to search for one. I myself, cemented in continuing my hobby after a conversation with a digital designer whom I greatly admire.

In 2010 Mark Rademaker designed a starship for Star Trek : Ship of the Line calendar. That very design also served as the leading ship for its protagonist within a novel series. The ship design itself is among my favourites within fiction.

We both belong to a group that shares mutual affinity of starship aesthetics. As his schedule tends to be very busy, any conversations that we've had were brief, but enlightening. When I had shared some my earlier works, he appreciated the pureness of my content. He reflected on how as professionalism goes, everything he's designed now is very 'polished' and 'engineered'. "One forgets to dream," as per his words. That conversation was a humbling experience.

Design within Constraints

When comes to working on my diorama as a cathartic exercise, I purposely limited myself to what I had on hand. As a UX/UI designer, I have a lot creative software tools at my disposal. I could have used Adobe Creative Suites for more dynamic results, but that was not my intention. I wanted my exercise to be bursts of creative thought. Whatever I was reflecting on, was to be done in a more rapid motion. And so on average, each picture I worked on took anywhere between twenty minutes, to an hour. The only thing that had no limits, was that of my imagination. Each picture was as unique as the next one. The following paragraphs outlines on the constraints I worked with.

For photography, the only camera available is the one on my smartphone. Subsequently any of the selected shots would only utilize the preinstalled picture editing tools . Smartphones generally don't carry the same amount of robust editing tools as seen on Adobe. That being said, the average smartphone does carry enough features to execute my needs.

Prefabricated models were used within each composition. While I am skilled in the abilities of building models, it takes a great deal of time and space to construct them. Not to mention there is a hefty expense involved too. A price some would gladly pay for. Fortunately, there are companies out there like Gameprint and Eaglemoss Collections who have superb models that are ready for display.

My bedroom bookshelf is the primary space I use to take majority of the photographs. I do not own any photo studio equipment, not even a miniature tripod. Only steady hands and foam blocks of varying heights served to position the models at different X / Y axis points.

Lighting was at the mercy of daylight and so I never worked past early evening. I have pillows to serve as diffusers to minimize any over exposures.

After all the photos are sifted through and selected, the time comes to editing my work. To maximize the touch screen sensitivity, I employed the stippling technique. This technique is where individuals dots form to make larger images. They can be in different sizes to generate shading or texture. Adaptable in all forms of medium, this technique lent itself well to the subject matter. In my personal opinion, if I ever allotted more time to perfect this technique, some effects would definitely come out much better.

With those constraints in place, the next section will highlight some of my favorite diorama compositions.

Model Arrangement. Eaglemoss (R,L) Gameprint (M)

Model Arrangement 2. Bandai

'Wagon Trains to the Stars'

The photos seen below are inspirations and homages to the universe of Star Trek. Tidy and contained, they harken to something more 'simpler', a display of photo "fingerpaintings". Perfection often gets in the way of atmosphere/mood. I for one wanted to savor my models within a diorama of their fictional universe. There may come a time where I will take on new techniques to compliment my collection. At present the rest of my work can be found on my instagram page, Geektastic Trek.

Thank you readers for taking the time to view this content. I hope that this serves as a catalyst to pursue a hobby of your desire.