Hookie Tardigrade: Nasa Concept Motorcycle with J. Konrad Schmidt
The Tardigrade is the world’s first moon concept motorcycle.
Inspired by future and past adventures to orbit, original CGI by Andrey Fabishevsky, built by Hookie, photographed by J. Konrad Schmidt, retouching and post-production CGI elements by Recom Stuttgart.
The Inspiration
Andrey Fabishevsky dreamed up the original idea for a creative sketch challenge with a friend on Instagram, and developed it into a CGI concept. The idea took social media by storm, with features and speculation about the possibilities.
“I’d seen some very stylised and cool concept sketches of NASA motorcycles, and I wanted to make a bike in CGI that felt like a fully functional concept, not just a cool stylised idea.”
– Andrey Fabishevsky
Bringing the dream to life
Among those who saw the idea and loved it was Nico Mueller of Hookie – a Dresden based design company working on custom motorbikes, components and accessories. Inspired by Andrey’s visual, they contacted him with the idea of making the bike for real. The project was named “Tardigrade” after the tough little organisms that have been known to survive even in space. Andrey made new CGI drawings, exploring the construction in more detail in preparation for the build.
“Together with Hookie, we made something really cool and fresh. I haven’t seen the motorcycle in real life yet…I hope this will happen soon!”
– Andrey Fabishevsky
The Construction
At Hookie, the process of the build began – intricate welding, careful machining and many late nights brought the Tardigrade into reality.
“A thought experiment that also raises questions about our future: What would life beyond planetary boundaries look like? What demands does outer space make on a bike that can travel in the darkness of space and largely from the shackles of gravity over icy lunar dust? And how far away are we from such scenarios?”
– Nico Müller, Hookie
Read more about the construction on their dedicated site here: Hookie Tardigrade.
For even more details on the build, there’s an in-depth article in BikeExif here.
With the long and detailed build and development complete, they now needed the imagery that would convey the idea and fire the imagination.
The Shoot
The search was on for a location that could stand in for the moon, and friends of Hookie knew the perfect space – a porcelain clay mine in the Czech Republic.
The bike travelled by trailer from Dresden and was lovingly assembled ready to be captured in action for the first time. The fine pale dust of the clay worked brilliantly for both the texture for the bike’s trails, and the lighting and structure of the lunar surface.
” It was surreal. Andrew and Hookie did such an amazing job. Standing on this location with this bike felt like – What else could anyone wish for. It looked right from the first second on.”
– J. Konrad Schmidt
Post Production
Back in Stuttgart, Recom worked with Konrad to achieve an otherworldly atmosphere, referencing real life lunar photography in the contrast and grading. Some details were tidied up, such as removing the bike’s stand and remaking the wheels in CGI in order to have a realistic feeling of speed.
” To break out of every day life, it is always cool to jump into space travel, to create an outer space lunar feel for such a beautifully designed – out of this world! – object as the TARDIGRADE. Recom is ready for the moon.”
– Thorsten Jasper Weese, Recom Stuttgart
Reception
The bike has been featured widely already with features in Designboom, Stirworld, Uncrate,and many more.
Future trajectory
With the world premiere as a part of the ADV:Overland exhibition at Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles in late 2021, Hookie wants to prove that even fantastic ideas can mature into a real, tangible object. All it takes is a vision and curiosity about the unknown.
Keep in contact with the continuing story of the Tardigrade on Hookie’s dedicated site here.
Selection of Images
A selection from the project. See the full series on recomfarmhouse.com here, on recom.de here, or on Behance here.
See the full series on recomfarmhouse.com here, on or on Behance here.
Credits
Client: Hookie.co
Photographer: J. Konrad Schmidt
Assistant & Location photos: Jeneba Komma
Original CGI concept: Andrey Fabishevsky
Model: Karolína Machová
Video: David Ohl
Post-Production Credits:
CGI Direction: Thorsten Jasper Weese / Recom Stuttgart
Post Production: Thomas Saalfrank / Recom Stuttgart
CGI Artist: Ronja Wafzig, Thomas Neumeier / Recom Stuttgart
More work at recomfarmhouse.com and our blog madlove.net.