Tie Interceptors strike back!

lordsme

This is a new version of a very old personal project, a Star Wars classic, a squadron of Imperial Tie Interceptors.
I revamped an old model in order to practice (and have some fun) with HDR painting and compositing. I've always been inspired by 2D science fiction illustrations and movies from the 70s, so I tried to convey a little bit of those ambiances in this image.
Modeling in Maya, it was the first attempt I did to an hard-surface model. Texturing using procedurals in 3dsMax, rendering with V-Ray, Painting and more compositing in Photoshop and a bunch of other software: Looks, HDREfex, AfterEffects for the flares. Final color grading in Lightroom.

Breakdown and more info on my website:
http://www.davidedigiannantonio.com/tieinterceptor.html

Comments and critiques are very welcome!

Deathstick

I know I should probably critique, but the heck with it.

I love it.

pixelpatron

I'll critique! While I love this, I preferred the fighters before your final color grading. The tanish color is destroying the star wars color pallet I'm used to. I miss that dark gray contrast b & w associated with the empire. I'd also love to see some subtle red lights and glows coming off the ships, don't go crazy, but little touches like that will pull this over the top.

lotet

I think it looks very static and boring.
Tie fighters are really fast, thats their thing, get some motion blur in there
maybe some engine trails. also the final angle/shot is not that dynamic.

EDIT: also checked your step by step on your webpage, I think the second to last step, before the color grading is probably your best shot.

pixelpatron

Lotet said what I said, but said it better.

"EDIT: also checked your step by step on your webpage, I think the second to last step, before the color grading is probably your best shot."

lordsme

Thanks for the constructive feedback!
With the color grading I tried to "pull everything together", but maybe I killed too much colors.

Nuclear Angel

Yea as said earlier, it is very mute, and not so empire or star-wars in regards of color. But really great modeling though.

PogoP

I'm not a big fan of the materials. It all looks very matte and I can't tell what it's made of really. I know its probably meant to be matching the original film's look but I think it'd have been cooler if you'd tried to get a few more metals and other materials in there to really push it.

Nice stuff though overall

lordsme

Thanks for the constructive critiques, I looked for a flat 2D look (now I think I was more influenced by Warhammer 40k artwork than Star Wars...), anyway I understand the points.

Next project I'll focus on materials and photorealism of a little prop, so I should have the chance to show some progress on that points

jewski-bot

Ah Squints! While I do enjoy Star Wars fan art, especially the military machines of the Galactic Empire, there are a few nitpicks, and it's probably me being more of an ultra-nerd than anything lacking in your work.

The two things that I noticed immediately are that the Interceptors should have more of a gunmetal blue-gray color rather than white-gray. The only time we really see any white-gray TIE Fighters are in A New Hope and that was a compromise with the use of blue screen at the time. In both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the TIES go to blue-gray. The second thing is that on the ILM models, the cockpit instrumentation is visible throughout the canopy window.

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060705184051/starwars/images/6/65/Tieinter2.jpg

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080321161631/starwars/images/2/23/TIEcockpit_btm.jpg