3D Modelling - Time Machine Design

Straight away when we were told about the Time Machine project, I saw everyone was designing a futuristic or technological Time Machine, I wanted to do something completely different. Straight away I thought about doing a Mayan type of concept, originally I was thinking of doing a statue of the Mayan God of time but after some research found out that Mayans didn't have a god of time, the closest relation to that is the God of Night and the God of Day which made me change my plans slightly since making up a God of Time wouldn't have been accurate to Mayan history.

My plan then changed to doing an old stone altar, which in our present day people just assumed was a place of worship or just a decorative part to a temple when in actual fact it is a time machine, it just requires great knowledge about it to use correctly. Even though I really liked this idea, I thought about the altar needing some sort of key for it to be used, something that you could place on or slot into the altar to turn it on which is when I then thought on my final idea which is a Mayan Skull made out of stone. I was originally going to make the stone skull and the altar, but set my priority as just the skull because I wouldn't have had enough time to do both, making the skull an independent time machine to the altar (the altar is no longer needed). 

At first glances, I wanted it to look like a decorative Mayan Artefact, people would see it in a museum in our present day for example and just assume its a decorative skull carved out of stone. In actual fact all the patterns on the skull can be pressed, turned and rotated, its essentially a skull shaped rubiks cube for a time machine, the buttons and shapes have to be pressed and twisted in a certain pattern for it work. Its also very similar to the Golden Orb/Key from the film Treasure Planet, a Golden Orb covered in patterns but nobody knows how to use except for the main character since it needs to be pressed and turned in the right sequence for it to work.

Whilst coming up with these concepts I researched Mayan Gods on Wikipedia and looked at a lot of Mayan patterns. A friend also recommended to me that I look at the concept art for the film 'Road to El Dorado' since theres a lot of similar designs and styles in that film to what I was going to do for my Time Machine.