Imperial 528's Starship Thread [No 56k]

[Imperial528]

I know this is a rather inactive section of the boards, probably because it is dominated by rather inactive posters, but I really do need comments. My process goes like this: Post model-> Read Comments -> Acquire Creativity-> Post model, etc.

[fractalsponge1]

If you just want to improve your modeling skills and get better at detailing vehicles, I'd suggest actively trying to re-create a section of an existing model, rather than trying to come up with it yourself. The Star Wars studio models, for example, have been exhaustively photographed online. Learn the software package by doing something difficult, and as you go, you'll get a better sense of what constitutes good detailing and modeling. Trying to start from scratch with a big starship and a bajillion square meters of space to greeble is not really a good idea for learning, imo.

[Agent Sorchus]

Well... honestly the high level of symmetry is a turnoff for me. You have symmetry in both top bottom and left right areas (mostly anyway since the sensors are a move away from.) The detailed sections are alright, though kinda sparce on the model. There isn't that much to say though. One thing that all of your models have lacked is negative space. Things are solid with no empty areas between sections of the form. Part of the reason I like your engines is that they actually utilize negative space decently, with some held away from the model and others with empty zones around them. Thing is I don't do detailing very well so I can't help you too much.

[Imperial528]

If you just want to improve your modeling skills and get better at detailing vehicles, I'd suggest actively trying to re-create a section of an existing model, rather than trying to come up with it yourself. The Star Wars studio models, for example, have been exhaustively photographed online. Learn the software package by doing something difficult, and as you go, you'll get a better sense of what constitutes good detailing and modeling. Trying to start from scratch with a big starship and a bajillion square meters of space to greeble is not really a good idea for learning, imo.

Okay, that sounds like a good idea. I think I'll start with smaller models, since I do the majority of my modeling on a netbook . I've always liked the design of the X-wing, I'll look up the models used for it and see if I can reproduce it.

Well... honestly the high level of symmetry is a turnoff for me. You have symmetry in both top bottom and left right areas (mostly anyway since the sensors are a move away from.) The detailed sections are alright, though kinda sparce on the model. There isn't that much to say though. One thing that all of your models have lacked is negative space. Things are solid with no empty areas between sections of the form. Part of the reason I like your engines is that they actually utilize negative space decently, with some held away from the model and others with empty zones around them. Thing is I don't do detailing very well so I can't help you too much.

You bring up a good point. I've never really liked negative space because it appears structurally weak to me, but I do it with engines because they will be large radiation sources. I have an old model that uses negative space in an OK way that I can get into a presentable form and post here, and there's also a ship I've been trying to model but whenever I do a solid body it doesn't look right, I'll try using negative space more in it too, which will probably help since I am doing it from a side drawing I made years ago, and I've realized that the shape I thought it had in my head doesn't exactly exist in three dimensions somehow.

[Grahf: Seeker Of Power]

Hey Imperial, did you get my PM i sent you?

[Imperial528]

Just read it now. If you can PM me your e-mail I can send you the most recent model of it I have. (I've been cleaning it up a little bit, nothing major.)

[Imperial528]

Here's something I whipped up as an exercise in negative space and because I had it in my head and I couldn't stop thinking about it:

Front:


Side:


Top:


Bow shot:


Stern shot:


Thoughts?

[Agent Sorchus]

Really like the bow and stern shots. I think this has some promise. I'd work on adding little details like sensors and stuff, detail at the moment is low, which is good for a prototype. But I think it has enough promise to not remain a prototype.

[Imperial528]

Here's some pics of progress:

Perspective view from side:


Parasite fighters:


Underside deflector array:


Underside radar array:


Primary Communications antenna:



The round bulb on the underside mount is a multi-sensor apparatus, I didn't give it a closeup because it is clearly visible from the main shot. Also, I say parasite fighters because they cannot operate out of anything that is not built to specifically carry them, IE, they're not really classifiable as spacecraft on their own.

[Agent Sorchus]

Fighters are excellent. Deflector is pretty decent, and if it were the standard level of detail across the ship I'ld consider it done as a sketchup model. Radar is serviceable, but nothing special. The Antenna is just bland so far, yet it could be made not, so I am reserving judgment. Same goes for the Underside antenna. The small guns I like, the bigger ones on the engines not so much.

The fighters are real nice though. They kinda blow the rest of the model away at the moment. Hope you keep it up.

[Imperial528]

Bigger guns...?

Oh, you mean the retrothrusters? Yeah, I should've specified those.

[Agent Sorchus]

Yeah the way they are mounted looks a lot like the tank turret and the big guns on one of your previous ships. I wouldn't worry to much with big retros if it isn't supposed to be super maneuverable.

[Imperial528]

I've been working on the warship, but unfortunately I've not yet had the chance to upload pictures of it due to being constrained to my netbook. However, here's a lander/troop carrier I worked up today as practice in asymmetry:



Thoughts?

[Imperial528]

If anyone remembers that Dreadnought I submitted awhile back, I decided to go back and work on it. However, every time I tried to improve it, I realized what I had was nothing like I had originally drawn (this one I worked off of from a sketch). What I have bellow is closest to what I can do from the original drawing, unfortunately it has exceeded the capability of my netbook to model, so I will have to transfer it to my desktop, but I think it is a good start:

[Imperial528]

Details details details...

[Imperial528]

Just a question, for those who (maybe?) follow my thread here. In your opinion, would my thread attract more comments and such if I textured my models with custom-drawn textures and put up full-renders with lights and such?

[Agent Sorchus]

It would interest me if you can do it, I have tried and repeatedly failed on figuring out how to do it in sketchup.

But your most recent ship is looking good. (I mostly haven't commented because rl)

[Imperial528]

I've done simple ones earlier in the thread, the trick is to make a texture for each side of the model. Unfortunately, I suck at drawing anything at the high resolutions that would make the textures look nice, but there's no time like the present to start learning something.

[Imperial528]

Some images of two of my previous ships flying in very close formation with the Dreadnought, be warned, large images:

In this we see how the Warlord and Andromeda battleships compare to their larger cousin, the Dreadnought.

Full shot off the front of the Dreadnought:



Side-view for those who like to scale things:

[Imperial528]

I've decided to stray away from my current design philosophy, and I give you this!

The Halberd-Class Battleship:

Front:


Side:


Top:


Back:


Iso:


And a ground-up rework of the rather bland destroyer I made earlier in the thread:

Front:


Side:


Back:


Iso:


And the two ships together:

[Imperial528]

Okay, so, just recently I decided to try and learn to use blender. So far so good, although I don't have anything picture worthy yet, but there's been one thing bugging me.
I've tried to export my sketchup models into blender to render them. Unfortunately, I've run into a few problems, namely: the imported model usually doesn't show up, and when it does it's too big to manipulate inside the software. I'm also terrible at manipulating the cameras for rendering, so if anyone knows of any good modeling/rendering tutorials, I'd appreciate it if you linked them to me. I've gone through the basic video tutorials, but I haven't found any free in-depth modeling tutorials as of this post.

In other news, it appears Imageshack doesn't like making thumbnails of my sketchup screenshots, so I'll just post them as links until it does, here's an update to the Halberd battleship. http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/7426 ... leship.jpg

EDIT: When I imported the Halberd, it worked perfectly, here's a very simple, single-texture render I made of it just now:

[Rabid]

It is strange, but this last ship's general appearance seems rather... phallic... to my inexperienced eyes.

Is that a voluntary effect ?

[Imperial528]

No, I designed it to be a beam-weapon ship, styled after the Taiidan ion frigate from Homeworld, which is a rather long ship, I guess. The render is in perspective and at an odd angle, since I'm still getting used to Blender's camera system, so it distorts the dimensions a bit, which may make it appear more phallic than a long object usually would. If you look at the screens from Sketchup it looks much more like a ship.

[Imperial528]

Well, after playing Homeworld 2 for a bit for inspiration, I've finally done something which my other designs were not, a ship that is only symmetrical across one plane. I present, the Super Dreadnought!

Shot off the bow from below:


Shot from the rear, to give an idea of what the shape is like:


The three holes on the front of the three big pylons are spinal beam weapons, and the holes on the front of the upper hull are missile tubes. I plan to work on it when I can use my desktop, since my netbook is sluggish with this model loaded, plain as it is.

[Imperial528]

My recent images have gone above Imageshack's thumbnail capabilities (somehow...), so until I find a better uploader, I'm just posting them as direct links.

Progress so far:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/85 ... ught3.jpg/

As you can see, I re-did the turrets (they looked stupid before), and added a bunch of stuff.

Close-up of a heavy turret:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/85 ... rretc.jpg/

The domes that come in rows of three are shield generators, and the four simmilar domes on the turret itself are smaller generators. The three cylinders on the back have to do with cooling, and the three-piece details below the turret on the side are radiators. You can also see mounts for the smaller turrets here as well.