Very nice designs, Smithy! A unique but simple take, but the prominent bridge section on the Asp is just too prominent - it ruins the elegant lines of the design.
They're too "clean", though! They look like showroom models! Maybe some dirty textures and some signs of wear and tear would bring those models to life.
There are some tutorials in the Expansions section of the forum that should show you the ropes in getting the models into the game.
I would love to have these textured to look a bit knocked around and used, but I don't know how to create textures so I just paint and render them in SketchUp. As for the cockpit I agree! It was getting late and I kinda rushed it, shoulda taken my time, might redo it and repost
Wow, amazing looking stuff! The mix of the flatter looking panels and then the curved surfaces is stunning, how do you get it all to fit together so perfectly? I just get really horrible polygon and lighting errors when I try this advanced stuff
Hi Griff! Wow, I'm rapt that you like it! Your ships were my biggest inspiration to try this, I wish i could get mine rendered to look half as good as yours What program do you use? I use SketchUp and have been almost ever since it came out as I find it really easy and intuitive to use. I downloaded Blender the other day and I haven't figured out how to draw as much as a straight line yet! SketchUp has some really neat tools and features like snap to points for connecting lines and faces, an intersect function for joining faces and a smooth/soften tool for creating the curved faces. I start the model by creating a cube of the dimensions that I need then cutting away until I have the shape of the original Oolite ship. From there I just keep cutting and redesigning until I have the shape I'm looking for. To create curves I use the Arc tool then take lines from each end point in the arc (as you would probably know a curve isn't a true curve but a series of straight lines) and bring them to a matching curve or intersect them at a point. SketchUp will fill in the face and join them to connecting faces automatically, however the face has to be flat to be created, if the border lines don't create a flat face, you may need to divide it by running a line from one corner to another to create two or more separate faces. To get everything nice and smooth, simply select the connecting face lines and then use the soften/smooth tool and voila! nice curved surfaces! hope this helped and keep up the great work on your models!
I like the redesigns, but Selezen is right about the Asp's bridge - it sticks out on an otherwise smooth-lined ship.
Author of Tales from the Frontier - official Elite 4 anthology.
Author of Marcan Rayger adventures - unofficial fan-fic novellas set in the Frontier universe.
@Smithy2501
Thanks for the sketchup workflow tip, i had no idea it could do such cool stuff, some of our construction tutors in work use it for quickly mapping out floorplans and diagrams for their worksheets, hey i wonder if i swap a few of thier window frame diagrams out for your adder blueprint we might actually get one built in real life!
I lightwave for my stuff, but that's mainly because i've managed to remember the keyboard shortcuts for it i've had it so long rather than it being a good modeler - it doesn't support edges or any sort of local co-ordinate system so working in it can be a bit of a pain, i find myself popping over to wings3D to do quite a lot of the fiddly tasks, but the UV mapping in lightwave suites me quite well - it's very basic
Looking forward to seeing some more of your stuff - what's next? viper? krait?
No worries Griff! I'll just have to start saving up my creds to afford the 375 000 price tag as they start rolling off the assembly line Now all I gotta do is get my head around UV mapping and rendering and I might be able to produce a good looking model! I've been playing around with my Asp restructuring the cockpit and adding in a bit more detail, but I'm thinking the Krait next, looks like a fun little ship.
Author of Tales from the Frontier - official Elite 4 anthology.
Author of Marcan Rayger adventures - unofficial fan-fic novellas set in the Frontier universe.
Most games have some sort of paddling-pool-and-water-wings beginning to ease you in: Oolite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of heaving you straight into the ocean, often with a brick or two in your pockets for luck. ~ Disembodied
Ooh, controversy! I love the design and the little greeblies all over the hull.
But.
It's not a Krait. It diverges too much from the design for my tastes.
To each his own! It's my interpretation of what a Krait may look like if it weren't limited to a very simple polygon, at the end of the day I wanted to create something that people would look at and recognise where it's origins lie, if i were to make a "cannon" Krait it would be a polygon with a different paintjob. I know that the model has a lot of extra features on it but it was the overall profile and size that I was looking to preserve BTW pertaining to your earlier post regarding the prominent bridge on the Asp I have a reworked version that I may get around to posting if I find the energy!
Wow, amazing looking stuff! The mix of the flatter looking panels and then the curved surfaces is stunning, how do you get it all to fit together so perfectly? I just get really horrible polygon and lighting errors when I try this advanced stuff 
What program do you use? I use SketchUp and have been almost ever since it came out as I find it really easy and intuitive to use. I downloaded Blender the other day and I haven't figured out how to draw as much as a straight line yet! SketchUp has some really neat tools and features like snap to points for connecting lines and faces, an intersect function for joining faces and a smooth/soften tool for creating the curved faces. I start the model by creating a cube of the dimensions that I need then cutting away until I have the shape of the original Oolite ship. From there I just keep cutting and redesigning until I have the shape I'm looking for. To create curves I use the Arc tool then take lines from each end point in the arc (as you would probably know a curve isn't a true curve but a series of straight lines) and bring them to a matching curve or intersect them at a point. SketchUp will fill in the face and join them to connecting faces automatically, however the face has to be flat to be created, if the border lines don't create a flat face, you may need to divide it by running a line from one corner to another to create two or more separate faces. To get everything nice and smooth, simply select the connecting face lines and then use the soften/smooth tool and voila! nice curved surfaces! hope this helped and keep up the great work on your models!
