RFC: Fancy classics

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:40 am

Disembodied wrote:
Ah, true, I hadn't thought of that. What about a more radical departure from the original? A sort of segmented, maggoty look:

From that perspective, it looks pretty much like the living artillery from Hostile Waters! Apparently, that game was based upon the idea of the old Carrier Command.

Screet

Frame · Post by **Frame** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 3:12 am

Disembodied wrote:
Simon B wrote:
Disembodied wrote:
The Worm ... could it be made a bit more, well, blobby?
Tried that - sadly, that makes it look too much like the Galileo shuttle from ST.
Ah, true, I hadn't thought of that. What about a more radical departure from the original? A sort of segmented, maggoty look:

(only not so big, obviously!) The engine would be on the right-hand side, I think, here.

Even if this isn't a body-plan for the worm, it would make an interesting look for a ship ... even a whole bunch of ships, following the same sort of body plan.

hmm looks quite a bit like my engines on this Adder I been modeling on, since forever.. while getting distracted by other projects

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn18 ... ective.jpg

and

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn18 ... derTop.png

last render got a little fault as i jsut threw in a sky light with the default 3d max 7 defautl scanline render... With an active light tracer..

Simon B · Post by **Simon B** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 4:30 am

Interesting - I've been playing with segmented designs for thargoids and thargons. I was trying to give organic-spiny ridges to the thargoids corners, as is textured in.

However, certain documents have been leaked to me from the galactic naval intellegence:

I can have lots of fun with Thargoids because they needn't, indeed: shouldn't, obey the rules. Given that I can put rotating objects in a model, I can have a go making thargoids out of multiple rotating rings.

One effect is to put a rotating torus inside a model - paint difeent colors on the torus and set them to glow. The outer model can have holes cut in it to allow flashes of color to show.

3 toruses set to rotate on different axis creates an eye-watering effect. They can be concentric, or allowed to pass through each other...

A rotating cylinder can be barber-poled for a travelling effect.

What I thought I'd try is putting two toroids tilted so they touch at one point, then set them spinning. Like in the dock scene in Supeman II. Put a sphere in the middle and the main border around the outside...

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 10:37 am

Simon B wrote:
In modelling, the process is sometimes known as "blacklining" - black shades are added to joins etc where you expect a dark shadow or discoloration.

Speaking of which, the various normal map generation tools from ATi and Nvidia I’ve been poking with also support ambient occlusion map generation. (An ambient occlusion map is a greyscale texture which defines areas that are shaded by other parts of the ship.) Since I still haven’t got any of those tools to work with my models, I’m not sure how good they are…

Simon B · Post by **Simon B** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:14 pm

Cobra Mk I - Revisited

Well - all that work on the FDL seems to have released my block.
Here I've returned to standard concepts - the reason it was so hard to interpret the mk1 shape the way that work so well for the fighters was that the cobras really only look like themselves. So be it I say - so I did to this model what I did successfully to the python and the vipers.

The restraint seems to have worked.

Wolfwood · Post by **Wolfwood** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:46 pm

I love this version of the MkI!

Post by **Disembodied** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:51 pm

The revised MkI gets my vote! And Frame: your fancy Adder looks sweet too...

(Edit: didn't realise that the Fancy Adder was Frame's ...

)

ovvldc · Post by **ovvldc** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:58 pm

Simon B wrote:
Moray Star/Medical Boat

Hmm, looks more like a bug than a snakelike fish to me

..

I also finally realised what bugs me about some of your models in general: the orginals were pretty angular (by neccesity), and I am not found of too much rounded stuff in the models (though I agree with it in the latest FDR model, because it is supposed to be a smooth ship).

I do quite like the redesigned Cobra Mk1

. Stays closer to the roots with just enough detail.

Also, on the colour schemes: When it comes to scooping fuel, remember that scooping from a corona is not the same as skimming water from a lake: the atmospheric density is very gradual, and your entire ship will be in the plasma flow when you scoop fuel.

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 3:32 pm

ovvldc wrote:
Simon B wrote:
Moray Star/Medical Boat

Hmm, looks more like a bug than a snakelike fish to me ..

But then, could you say that the original Moray looks like a snakelike fish?

Captain Hesperus

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 4:00 pm

Captain Hesperus wrote:
ovvldc wrote:
Hmm, looks more like a bug than a snakelike fish to me :?..
But then, could you say that the original Moray looks like a snakelike fish?

Do most of the ships look like snakelike snakes?

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 4:57 pm

Simon - the new Cobby1 is spot on!

And I look forward to seeing the Thargoid in all its spinning glory!

ZygoUgo · Post by **ZygoUgo** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 5:29 pm

It is a Moray Starboat, it's just back to front!
Portholes-Think Captain Nemo.
That way the cabin becomes the back, extend it out so its tail like, and put a spinning engine unit on the end.

Can't wait to see those Thargoids in action either

@Screet, thanks dude!

Captain Tylor · Post by **Captain Tylor** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 5:57 pm

The Cobra Mk1 looks realy good.
Keep going your work just keeps getting better and better

ovvldc · Post by **ovvldc** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:10 pm

Ahruman wrote:
Captain Hesperus wrote:
But then, could you say that the original Moray looks like a snakelike fish?
Do most of the ships look like snakelike snakes?

Good points. In any case, it doesn't seem like a modified submersible.

best wishes,
Oscar

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:21 pm

ZygoUgo wrote:
It is a Moray Starboat, it's just back to front!

No, the blunt end is forward as on the standard Moray.