The original concept was to render a kind of "Solar Sail Ship", a space ship able to use the solar wind to between planets. The bubble-cabins could be detachable so when the butterfly ship lands in a planet, it actually does it on the sea surface and the cabins could go off and move around like little submarines.

In the end, I decided to make the design of the boat more distinc (In my original sketches it look more like a cross between upsided down ship and xmas balls...). And the thought of a space ship survived after some fashion... Now the Butterfly Ship goes through a more fantasy, dream-like idea of the outer space: If it were the real space, the sails would have to be a lot more bigger!