Just Plain Beautiful Spaceships

[Stofsk]

It's almost as if some people have different standards of beauty than others.

Uh no, but nice try. The OP is specifically asking for a discussion about aesthetics in design and the balance between form and function, NOT about 'imma post my favourite spaceship and bugger your thread'.

[Shroom Man 777]

[Simon_Jester]

That's pretty sweet-looking. What is it?

[Rabid]

"Earth, Final Conflict", a Gene Roddenberry production (5 seasons, 110 episodes) that started airing in 1997.

[Ahriman238]

Atlantis from Stargate Atlantis, it's a snowflake city the size of Manhattan that's also a spaceship.

The Legacy from Treasure Planet, not remotely practical, but very pretty.



The Minbari Sharlins and White Stars from Babylon 5, aesthetically pleasing and so very alien all at once.

[Cowl]

The Taelon mothership.

I remember how the television networks in my country refused to air the fifth season, because it was simply that bad. Most of the creative 'real estate' of the series had been razed at that point, there really was nothing left but a barren wasteland. Great looking ship though, their language was also unique, at least how it was described at the time.

[White Haven]

I think the fact that it's been part of such a media blitz leading up to ME3 has almost made people forget how goddamned beautiful the Normandy really is.

[Cowl]

^ oddly reminiscent of a droid head in the Starwars Prequel series.

[lordofchange13]

^ oddly reminiscent of a droid head in the Starwars Prequel series.

Just cuse it kinda looks like a banana.

To everyone: I actually do find simple "solid" designs like those for the Serenity to be quite aesthetically pleasing.

Love the Fountain tree ship!

[lordofchange13]

Larry Niven's Ring world, a "Blue ribbon in space", and his General products hull ships.

[Vympel]

There are a lot of "atheistically pleasing design" ideas out there- you can take the chrome-rocketship Golden Age look, or the multicolored Chris Foss things that look like space insects that Shroom was pointing to, or a bunch of other options. But yes, I was hoping that people would avoid just saying "my favorite ship," and possibly that we might see discussion of aesthetics. What do people like in ship design, in terms of appearance? Geometric simplicity, or complexity? Straight lines or curves? All the ship's functions integrated into the hull, or a modular appearance with things like engine nacelles?

Yeah, I like ugly ships too, but in furtherance of this goal, consider the previously posted Brunhild:-



In terms of general shape, I think its quite simple, but its got lots of fine detail where by just looking at it you can imagine the function of the various greebly bits. Though its not visible on that particular picture, I especially like the placement of all the obvious sensors/equipment in the ventral "bulge" which one can see, say, here:- http://gineipaedia.com/wiki/File:Brunhild.jpg - that's important to me. Its the reason I like Star Destroyers (which don't count as "beautiful" IMO - a ship has to be curvy to be beautiful to me).

[Havok]

I find fat Mexican girls with pants two sizes too small mashing their little guts out into muffin tops and horribly overdone make up "atheistically pleasing", as well as Amy Winehouse. I'm not going to post pictures of them in a thread about beautiful girls.

[Shroom Man 777]

Fuzzy Modem's



And... something

[Shroom Man 777]

[LaCroix]

I like her lines...


The design is sound. Crew compartment and everything in the front, long connection to distance it from the engine section where shit could happen, and two 'wings' to improve angular momentum for nav thrusters.

There is this tiny problem with the mechanics of the drive, though....

[Thanas]

The Andromeda Ascendant:

andromeda01.jpg (24.77 KiB) Viewed 5245 times

[Shroom Man 777]

Spoiler

[Connor MacLeod]

The chrome is nice and shiny and it has that sleek SR-71 like look I've always liked. The one in AOTC looked a bit too much like a B2 bomber for me (deliberate choice to reflect the increasing tensions/war?)

Amidala's cruiser from AOTC was pretty nice tho



Again nice and shiny and it has that rocket/racer feel... it stands out and it seems like it would just zap through space. I also admit I tend to like more organic, flowing curves like that than blocky or chunky.. it just 'feels' more spacy to me. the Brunhild and some of the other LoGH Imperial flagships had a similar aesthetic.

I always liked the aethersprite too


More military like than the other two but it has that seeming 'sleekness' that just cuts through space. It's also not nearly as blocky or military looking as an ISD (and no fucking bridge tower sticking out like a sore thumb.) Probably because of ISDs but I've always liked a wedge shape for ships. I always had this mental image of Jedi using their speeders to illegally conduct drag races out in outer space or something.

On the other hand its less organic and more angular than the previous two (again like an ISD) but it doesn't really register on me for some reason.

Oh and the Romulan Warbird


The way its designed just looks like a ship designed to swoop through space rather than just fly.. more like a bird of prey than the Klingon BoP really. Also much prettier than White Stars IMHO in the 'organic looking' department.

[Cowl]

The see-through aesthetics of the D'deridex-class Warbird go well with the decloaking phase, where the ship shimmers into the visible spectrum. In the picture above the ship is overexposed, which detracts from the beauty of the design.

It's a shame they were never really seen in combat during the TNG era.

[Connor MacLeod]

Well the 'see through' bits really work because it conveys that 'birdlike' aspect well. Its got a sense of being large and size without being buky or ponderous.

The Andromeda Ascendant had similar appeal, but I didnt like that quite as well as I like the Warbird. *does not look at Thanas*

[Ahriman238]

How about War-rocket Ajax from Flash Gordon? Or any rocket from Flash Gordon.



Before Shroomy gets to it, how about the refit Des Moines and inevitable follow-up ships from Eye of the Storm? You know, the one shaped like a golden, naked woman with wings and a fighter bay between her legs? Tasteful, it probably isn't, but a thousand generations of men could probably agree that it has very pleasing lines.

@LaCroix, yeah, just one tiny little problem with the FTL. I'm sure they'll have it straightened out in the beta version.

[madd0ct0r]

Battlefleet Gothic:

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/i ... Gothic.jpg

and tintin

[Darth Tedious]

I mentioned it in the other thread, Sagan's Spaceship of the Imagination. Here's a pic for those not familiar:



And the interior:

That picture of the warbird shows two interesting things too. You can see the bird feathers etched into the back, and you can see a Roman helmet like shape in the front.

that tricky artist, it's so clear now that I see it, that I'll never be able to look at it without noticing again. It's like the FedEx logo.

You really never noticed that before?

[Thanas]

Before Shroomy gets to it, how about the refit Des Moines and inevitable follow-up ships from Eye of the Storm? You know, the one shaped like a golden, naked woman with wings and a fighter bay between her legs? Tasteful, it probably isn't, but a thousand generations of men could probably agree that it has very pleasing lines.

WTH? I refuse to believe that exists.

[Batman]

As opposed to a bigass warship that turns into a giant housemaid with a vacuum cleaner? I know which one I like better