Scifi Desert Rebel Hideout
polycounter lvl 9
I'm about to start a new scene that I've been planning for a while, so I figured it would be a good idea to start a thread and get some feedback early on. It's gonna be a not-too-futuristic sci fi outdoor desert/city/cave environment.
I came up with a really rough story for the sake of generating art ideas:
One morning, a rebel fighter from a war-torn city wakes up in his cave hideout to the sound of his comm equipment blaring alarms. He rushes out of the hidden mouth of his cave to see that the enemy has finally decided that the ground war is no longer worth the effort, and they are bombing his city from the upper atmosphere with capital ships.
I decided based on nothing in particular that the rebel stuff would have a Native American theme, and the invading forces would have a U.S. military theme. Hopefully this will give me some direction as I design things.
The environment itself will consist of the cave hideout, the ledge/cliff outside the cave mouth, and the distant plains/mountains/city with the ships above.
Here are the ideas I've hashed out so far. These are all really sketchy and really just intended as modeling aides for me and not stand-alone paintings/drawings, but hopefully they're enough to get some feedback if anyone has any!
The cave interior. There will be another section of cave to the left of this angle, and the cave as a whole will contain a cot, a comm desk, some shelving/crates for clothes, ammo, and supplies, a water collection area, a kitchen area and cold storage section, a gun rack/gun maintenance area, and possible an armor case if I feel really motivated. The overall size of the cave will be pretty small. The satellite dish under the ceiling opening in the background of this shot is supposed to be evocative of a dreamcatcher, and the rugs will have Native American patterns.
The city vista. I think this will be a sunrise/early morning scene. The ships are super temp in this because I haven't nailed down their design yet (more below).
The always-necessary crates and some ideas for the cot. I looked at a lot of Paul Richards' crates and assorted random sci-fi objects while doing these. I don't know where that dude gets his ideas from but he's awesome.
Super-sketchy, but some ideas for the ships. I'd like to use some general shapes from Nimitz aircraft carriers here. I was playing with taking the top-down silhouette of an aircraft carrier and using it as the side profile of the ship. I will definitely be doing more design passes on the ships.
Ammo boxes. I'll probably go with the top right one.
Ideas for shelving and a computer tower.
I debated even posting this one since it's so messy but what the hell. Initial ideas for city buildings. Based on vaguely Native American shapes - from left to right, a bow, a teepee, another bow, and a flint knife.
This probably won't be used unless I really feel like going crazy, but I may create fighter ships that come out of the capital ships. This is supposed to look like a diving eagle. MERICA!
So that's the plan! Obviously this will be a huge undertaking and I have a number of other things on my plate so I can't promise that my progress will be super fast. Also I've intentionally chosen subject matter that will force me to level up in certain skills (lots of sculpting) so that will slow me down too. But I will post regular updates and I'd be super appreciative of any feedback yall can offer!
I came up with a really rough story for the sake of generating art ideas:
One morning, a rebel fighter from a war-torn city wakes up in his cave hideout to the sound of his comm equipment blaring alarms. He rushes out of the hidden mouth of his cave to see that the enemy has finally decided that the ground war is no longer worth the effort, and they are bombing his city from the upper atmosphere with capital ships.
I decided based on nothing in particular that the rebel stuff would have a Native American theme, and the invading forces would have a U.S. military theme. Hopefully this will give me some direction as I design things.
The environment itself will consist of the cave hideout, the ledge/cliff outside the cave mouth, and the distant plains/mountains/city with the ships above.
Here are the ideas I've hashed out so far. These are all really sketchy and really just intended as modeling aides for me and not stand-alone paintings/drawings, but hopefully they're enough to get some feedback if anyone has any!
The cave interior. There will be another section of cave to the left of this angle, and the cave as a whole will contain a cot, a comm desk, some shelving/crates for clothes, ammo, and supplies, a water collection area, a kitchen area and cold storage section, a gun rack/gun maintenance area, and possible an armor case if I feel really motivated. The overall size of the cave will be pretty small. The satellite dish under the ceiling opening in the background of this shot is supposed to be evocative of a dreamcatcher, and the rugs will have Native American patterns.
The city vista. I think this will be a sunrise/early morning scene. The ships are super temp in this because I haven't nailed down their design yet (more below).
The always-necessary crates and some ideas for the cot. I looked at a lot of Paul Richards' crates and assorted random sci-fi objects while doing these. I don't know where that dude gets his ideas from but he's awesome.
Super-sketchy, but some ideas for the ships. I'd like to use some general shapes from Nimitz aircraft carriers here. I was playing with taking the top-down silhouette of an aircraft carrier and using it as the side profile of the ship. I will definitely be doing more design passes on the ships.
Ammo boxes. I'll probably go with the top right one.
Ideas for shelving and a computer tower.
I debated even posting this one since it's so messy but what the hell. Initial ideas for city buildings. Based on vaguely Native American shapes - from left to right, a bow, a teepee, another bow, and a flint knife.
This probably won't be used unless I really feel like going crazy, but I may create fighter ships that come out of the capital ships. This is supposed to look like a diving eagle. MERICA!
So that's the plan! Obviously this will be a huge undertaking and I have a number of other things on my plate so I can't promise that my progress will be super fast. Also I've intentionally chosen subject matter that will force me to level up in certain skills (lots of sculpting) so that will slow me down too. But I will post regular updates and I'd be super appreciative of any feedback yall can offer!
Replies
To start things off, here's an experiment I've been messing with to figure out how I'll be making the cave. Pretty much everything in these screens is temp and will be replaced (cave geo and textures), but I think this technique looks promising for the cave.
In the final version I'll probably add more definition to the cave mesh aligned with the macro details.
Despite the temp-ness, any feedback is more than welcome!