The design theme I'm working on is a Bretonian idea, with plans to add extra armour plating around the torso of the beast with the batwing like angling you see on the clyde and hussar.
The engine emerged out of a concept I had about making a bret ship very much around the big ball engines they use as capitals, as a sort of transport with a small crew component and a large number of modular cargo units strung between the ball and a set of armour plating.
Anyhow, any ideas/pointers/critiques are appreciated. I'd like to move this more and more into the bretonian theme without kitbashing a ship.
The body looks Nomad-ish. Especially since its so rounded. Maybe a specialized Nomad-thingy? A portable Nomad hypergate that summons Nomads ships to battle? (Nomad Carrier)
Still, for a miner look, I feel it needs to be more edgy. Sharpen the body and such.
For now, it doesn't seem to fit into any faction ship conventions.
' Wrote:The body looks Nomad-ish. Especially since its so rounded. Maybe a specialized Nomad-thingy? A portable Nomad hypergate that summons Nomads ships to battle? (Nomad Carrier)
If I were going to create a bretonian-built mining ship... I'd start out with the bretonian destroyer, remove the bottom 'platform' that connects the wings, add some inward-facing claws and green mining jets to the wings, add several storage tanks attached to the underside of the main body (the rear section), square up the main body details a bit, and move the engine pods from the underside to the top rear of the ship.
This ship just looks like an arrangement of certain geometric shapes, which, when put together, make this thing... it doesn't seem to fit in with the style of any (human) ships.
The ship could also use more details to emphasise whatever particular role you had in mind for it.
You guys are all trying to look at this and critique it like it's a finished product. Stop that right now. If it's his first model so it's not going to be a finished product, it's probably close to what he imagined but not polished or flushed out the way we imagine things.
Break it down, look for shapes and not details, apply what you know about the line and the role, think about what it's trying to show you. And this next one is a big one; stop trying to apply a concept or role to the design, it has an intended identity so respect that. It's totally okay to offer alternative ideas about the design but there's nothing constructive about running off on tangents when the artist has an idea and is looking for critique on that.
My thoughts on it are Bretonian GB that's been re purposed, it has the big front scoop I'm sure we'll all recognise, the longer body too. The drive looks like a gyroscope to me which I find cool, it makes me think of new drive technologies so I think that's something to work on. Steven_manson was right about using boxes instead of the high poly organic shapes you're using now so keep that in mind, it's a good start though.
Play with with your primitives and work on roughing out more complete designs instead of grouping those primitives as you go along. If it helps you lay out the rough shape with them and colour code them bright so you can use it as a "jig" while you work on the final mesh(es), try your best to avoid using subdivision in your models too. I know that might seem funny since it's Wings but you really don't need that many polys so starting low is a good idea. And don't be afraid to fail and restart either, it's part of the process.
I'd like to see this textured before offering a final opinion. My first thought... it does not -feel- Bretonian, but texturing might change that. It needs work:)
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Guys, this is my first attempt at a ship. I'm about to post my second model ever, so please keep that in mind.
The concept is a mining craft that has a ring of mining equipment on it, attached to a large engine sphere with cargopods surrounding it.
The vessel busts up larger asteroids and then hauls smaller ones into the ring, where it tears them apart for veins of ore.
These are very rough mockups of shapes that can fit the idea, while I learn the modeling software. Please keep that in mind.
Here's Ominer2
All but the two images in the top left are images from the bottom of the model, which is where most of the details are apparent. Please keep in mind that the ring is the lowest hanging portion of the model.
Some responses: Tenny, I understand where you're going with that. I'm not attempting to build a civilian industrial vessel that matches the military capital craft. The designs for fightercraft and capitals are quite divorced from one another, and the freighter takes a direction rather different than the capitals. My concept is to take the rounded nature of the clyde and compare it to the engine section on the largest ship, and make that engine sphere play a major role in the shape of this design.
To all the other people saying its too smooth for a human design, please go observe the smaller bretonian ships. They are very, very smooth, organic shapes, not like the rougher edged shapes of liberty. Often, where the armour extends out of the hull to form crisp edges is a dramatic design element of the bretonian line, where a large plate is cut with batwing curves.
Turkish: thanks a lot.
My feeling about this iteration is that it needs something on the top, but I don't know quite what. Something to sew the cargoboxes into the major hull...but there isn't really a major hull yet, and I'm not sold on the idea. Largely, I want the model to display that sphere in the middle (which is the engine) as a major design element. I may go out and oversize the engine even more in the next attempt, to the point that most of the ship's mass is in the sphere, as though they've taken a Dunkirk engine and built a few cargopods around it.
The thing chews into asteroids, that's a high energy pursuit, and I'm particularly taken with the idea of making this thing about the engines.
The ring itself I want to eventually carve batwing style, as I mentioned was a major design element above. The curves will face back, toward the hull, and a smooth, reasonably sharp edged ring will face forward. It should be as if someone took eight of the Clydesdale wings and attached them end to end to form a circle.
I'd love more comments on the design, concept, produced models, and progression. Thanks a lot for your comments to date.
My first thoughts are to try replacing the circular O with a hexagonal ring, much like the lower wings on the Bretonian destroyer. Bretonian design has a lot of curves in it, but they are usually on the chassis of the ship. I like the concept of the cargopods trailing behind it, but i'm not sure about the way they are arranged currently. I don't have any ideas where to move them right now, but i'd try fooling around with there position a bit. Also, I'd like to suggest making the engine a lot smaller, less ball shaped and putting a cone around the end of it.