Air battleship feedback

zoombapup · Oct 2011

Hey all.

I'm working on some ideas for air-combat gameplay and figured I'd do a few different ship models. But I'm kind of thinking that I seem to be making ships that look a bit too much like pleasure cruisers with guns.

Wondered if anyone had any ideas to make the thing look a bit more warlike?

tonysladky · Oct 2011

For starters, I think at the least you need antennae and radar dishes and things like that all over those central "buildings". Part of why your ship looks like a pleasure cruiser is that it's streamlined. It looks like it's supposed to move fast through the water, and that's about it. It should look like it's bristling with equipment to handle a variety of jobs.

I also think you could benefit from a little more variety in the scale of the guns.

I'm also curious how it actually flies. Is it going to be something sleek and futuristic that won't change the silhouette too much from the basic boat shape, or will it be something more visible like a balloon or some rotors?

cdevens · Oct 2011

I would add a lot more ports, cargo bays, etc to the hull. Maybe even a retractable vehicle deck/elevator like you would see on an aircraft carrier. The sleek solid look of the hull makes it look more like a luxury yacht than a battleship.

zoombapup · Oct 2011

Hmm, I guess the clutter of the images does sell it as a warship doesnt it. I am trying to go for a sort of futuristic skies of arcadia feel, so maybe this ship isnt quite representative (I was really just playing with hard surface modelling practice and trying to figure out how to model a hull).

but that last image tonysladky posted really does feel warlike. The side of the ship is very flat too. Which is pretty interesting. The metal panel look to the sides (with the holes in etc) feels pretty warship like too.

Nice. Thanks guys. Anyone else got any ideas?

zoombapup · Oct 2011

Tony: I havent actually put the engines in that shot. I modelled those seperately. There are thrust engines at the back and VTOL like engines that mount on the sides in various shapes.

One of the things I was thinking was that having armour on the outside of the engines would be practical. Plus I want to be able to disable a ships movement via allowing engine targetting.

zoombapup · Oct 2011

mheyman wrote: »

1. do concepts or look at reference

2. your stuff looks happy because you smoothed the shit out of it. if you want something to look harsh and intimidating give it sharp angles and hard lines. you dont want bubbly flowy edges. Eventually adding details will help but you need an understanding of visual design before you start certain shapes and proportions make things feel a certain way.

I was kind of toying with hard surface subd stuff when I made it, so its probably more curvy than it should be. Honestly, I havent been able to find reference that does it for me yet. I guess fantasy airships end up more like final fantasy stuff than the skies of arcadia stuff I am interested in. I guess I'll look for a more steampunk direction, see if that helps.

Thanks for the comments.

Alex3d · Oct 2011

Hmm, cool project idea!
Any idea of style/time period you are going for? Here are a few concepts to stir some ideas :P
1100x519_3108_Air_Ship_2_2d_fantasy_ship_steampunk_airship_picture_image_digital_art.jpg

1100x519_3108_Air_Ship_2_2d_fantasy_ship_steampunk_airship_picture_image_digital_art.jpg

Good luck!

zoombapup · Oct 2011

I guess if anything, I'm going for something akin to steampunk, but I really dont want to copy that style too closely. So a sort of crossover between steampunk and sci-fi. That last image you posted is really great!!

I've been trying to find good image reference from last exile (an anime with some really big airship battles that I liked).

The thing is, I want to have a feel thats not totally sci-fi. Last exile has a nice vibe to it with a sort of "monarchy" thing going on. So I want to capture that. I guess in a way its a bit like the houses from Dune. Harkonen and the like. All good fun stuff.

Thanks for the images. Will post more if I find it.

Air battleship feedback

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