Space Battleship by LordDoomhammer

LordDoomhammer

Hey folks!

I start first with a huge apology: I know this forum is ment for games. I must admit, what I preview for the moment is not for games! But I have watched this forums for some time now and the people here seem to be more helpful than elsewhere - where I either get ignored, or the people are criticising on a too high level (I am an amateur, you know^^)

Well. If you don`t mind, I get this over with. Elsewise I`ll delete it at request

I am currently designing, and building a Space Battleship in Google SketchUp. Yes I know SU is suboptimal, but I never had the time to teach myself blender - maybe this summer. The main issue is with texturing, which is pretty bad in SU. I do my rendering in Kerkythea, which isn`t much better in it either - at least in terms of positioning.

About the design: Well, the ships were actually inspired by WWI+II vessels, but as I decided to design this one technically on a modern destroyer, I used elements of that as well. The Ship is to be around 300-350 meters in length. I don´t go too far into realism in terms of texturing, it shall look rather polished and not too harshly surfaced. Here the (actually quite kitbashed) cruiser, with the bridge:



and here some scenes of the, what once were freighters, but from the same manufacturer


So much for the reference. Here now comes the current status





and here the ground texture for the hangarbay:


I currently have trouble finding stuff to fill the area, especially at the aft part of the two towers. I don´t know if textures could fill the flat areas and appear convincing! But if you look at a modern ship, there`s quite a lot of flat space that is simply grey! And I also have trouble integrating the turrets (the small, anti-air turrets) with the rest of the ship - they still seem out of place somehow...

Well. I am grateful for any help and suggestions!

Vulgertarian

Ive always wanted to make a battle spaceship. It looks like a hell of a project, especially in SU. The design looks good so far. I don't think the turrets are out of place. The bare area could use some extra plating or windows that could provide some filler. Texturing would of course help as well. I strongly recommend learning 3dsmax or Maya if you want to achieve some fab results. There are other packages just as good, but those are my favs.

LordDoomhammer

Thank you very much Vulgertarian!
Yeah, it is a big project, but not my first one, though this one gains more thought than the old:

What I am not confident, is that applying textures is enough. I started making the textures for it yesterday, but I am still not confident, that the flat areas look good, even with textures applied!

And I so want to learn a real 3d program - but I neither had the time, nor the wisdom to pull it off on my own

LordDoomhammer

Did some detailwork! I really try to not make this thing look like my other kitbashed vessels - I put thought in it and give everything a purpose (well, more or less everything ) to make it look believeable

Here some sort of layout, to make things a bit more clear:

Red: Weapons. Torpedos in the front, rockets on the downside
Yellow: Travel-Axis compensators... just small engines in all directions to keep the ship at one axis, to limit fluctuations in the artificial gravity system.
Green: For Docking purposes- air locks and areas to grab the vessel (docking arms, etc.)
violet: hangar. Will be closable
Pink: Reactor.
Blue: Engines
Turquois: Bridge (Windows have additional armor, which will pull out in combat)





There are three types of engines: the main engines (round, BIG), the small ones (yellow) and the ones in the side, which are for Warpspeed.
Decided to put more faith in textures and leave some areas flat for that purpose. Gonna test it sometime soon.
Suggestions?

LordDoomhammer

I tested the current version texured, to get a feel of it, and what needs to be changed (which is quite a lot^^)

The engine in SU:

Decided to give the ship some markings. Here the PS Overpaints



And here the ship set in scene:


Suggestions?

LordDoomhammer

Made a twin-barreled turret and changed some parts at the hangar-area (including closing it for now




Suggestions?

Esther58

Thanks for your post.

KazeoHin

This is a win sandwitch. It is made of victory and accomplishment.

Seriously, post some AO renders. I wish I could design awesome ships like this. Good work,

LordDoomhammer

@Esther58: Thank you!

@Kazeohin: Thank you very much! I will post some Testrenders soon - had no time yet...

I designed a badge/logo/ whatever for the ship - may be put on the surface.
What do you think?

LordDoomhammer

Status: Ship was used in its current in a few pictures in order to check how it feels.
Here you can see her from various angles, rendered in Photoshop. There are some issues with some surfaces and some unexplainable objects. Probably due to the converting (from SU to Blender to PS)

As you can see, the model is completely untextured in order to fit into a more comic/anime based style.
And here some of the first pictures:

http://lorddoomhammer.deviantart.com/#/d5ccgfa


http://lorddoomhammer.deviantart.com/#/d5cgrfi


http://lorddoomhammer.deviantart.com/#/d5cyf47


Will be uploaded on DA tomorrow.

Right now I'm overworking some ares, increasing some of the curves significantly as well as adding some small details. The overall shape will remain as it is. Just minor adjustments and somee Details.
Well. Hope you like it!

DirkJan

I Like it alot! Brings back Homeworld 2 memories! As for the logo. I think you should ditch some of the photoshop blending options. A logo is usually pretty simple without alot of detail. Lose the Bevel and Emboss on those black letters, make it simpler so that it reads good even if its small (for example if its on the uniforms of its crew members! )

Mark Dygert

Cool stuff, I like it!
and...

"Someone likes ngons, A LOT" lol

LordDoomhammer

@SasoChicken: Thanks! Maybe a fresh start is better than continuing old staff. At least that's the case with most things I do. Would love to see a spaceship from you!

@DirkJan: Now that you mention it: The last piece is really quite similar to the HW2 Space. The similarity wasn't intentional, but I played it a lot in the past so ...
I'll take your suggestions for the badge and give it a try! You're right, the badge is too detailed ... but have to wait until the weekend when I get back home to overwork it

@Mark Dygert: Thank you very much! But SketchUp makes the n gons (had to look it up actually^^) on it's on, but I have to triangulate everything when I export it into PS.

At first, here's the last piece on DA with a bit higher resolution:
http://lorddoomhammer.deviantart.com/#/d5dr5n7

And I changed the design of the aft part a bit and increased the polygon count on courves drastically. The old model (the one used in the pictures) has according to PS 201.078 Polygons. My new limit for the model is 300k to increase the shading problems, so i can render it without any overpaint (I want to animate it).
Here the look on the aft-section:


I can't make it any more curvy than now, or it doesn't fit in the story anymore
Next on the program is to remodel the small turrets!
What do you think, is the change good or bad?

LordDoomhammer

I just uploaded the next piece on DA: This time the vessel is not the central focus point.


And here a lot bigger on DA:
http://lorddoomhammer.deviantart.com/#/d5dz9ux

I hope to get working again tomorrow evening when I'm back home.
Would like to hear your thoughts about it!