Had some delays over the weekend, but finally finished the Zeta shuttle! In these renders I accidentally had the head turrets hidden. One of my best yet but the level of detail/accuracy in the texture took much longer than I had originally planned.
Okay, rare mid-week update time: I'm also making a Z-95 Headhunter.
The Z95 was a Legends ship originally billed as the precursor to the X-wing by the same manufacturer, and now there are multiple very different-looking official designs. I'm basing mine on the slightly ugly one from the 3D Clone Wars show, but as if it was now 10-20 years old retrofitted by pirates, so I can change some of the things I didn't like about that version, and include a few nods to the Legends design (which was also kind of ugly). I'm also going to try to do some asymmetrical panel damage and try to give it a bit of that used original trilogy look. Maybe its inclusion will appeal to prequel/Clone Wars fans.
For this current animation its role will just be to drop out of hyperspace, see that there's a star destroyer in orbit, and then turn around and leave. But if I do a followup space battle, this will be a good model to have that could be used by any non-Empire faction.
Bit busy IRL, sorry for temporarily slower updates!
For now I just have a little hull plate baking test. I'm not sure if I want to detail the star destroyer hull with a low poly parts library that have baked textures, or use trim sheet textures. I might try to do a turret with a trim sheet approach and see how it looks.
(In this test, the left modeled one is 2400 tris, the middle is 2 tris, the right is 40 tris. And then I will use the modeled level of detail for any closeups near windows or railings or whatever.)
Bit busy IRL, sorry for temporarily slower updates!
I think we all can relate to that.
In anyway, thanks for the update. It's always interesting for me to get insight in your workflow, no matter how small or big it might be.
Thank you for appreciating it! I'll have a more directly-applicable to this animation update too... but I also was feeling a little tired of hard surface and started sculpting yet another alien. I don't think there is a place for this one in this animation but I'll surely use it in a future SW project: An Ortolan (Max Rebo's species)
Just have to fix up the hands/fingers.
In the old days you may have seen these as little elephant-headed humanoids, but it turns out the original intent when he was being made for RotJ was that Max Rebo was using his feet to play his instrument.
Kenner assumed they were arms (they look like arms in the movie because a human's arms are inside the costume) and invented a little stumpy pair of legs, and that become the Legends appearance for this species for the next 25 years.
But in at least some of the Disney canon they've gone back to the original idea, though it's only appeared in comic form.
So anyway I thought it would be fun to see a realistic one walking around on the two limbs.
It's still ambiguous whether the top appendages are ears or flippers. I'm kind of scared of them being flippers.
I see, you continue your mission of giving a platform to the under-represented species in the Star Wars Universe.
I'm not very familiar with the Legends (formerly expanded Universe). The only Comic series that I actually followed was the 2006 Knights of the Old Republic series. And I think I have read that it was planned to make one of the main characters an Ortolan. But the authors finally decided against it 'cause it was too hard to express emotions with his face. Now I would love to read (or see) a story about an Ortolan who is doomed to be lonely 'cause no one really understands him due to his incapacity to express feelings.
Back to a little hard surface stuff- made a ~380 tri turbolaser turret. There'll be about 10 of them across the gladiator, so I think this is a good level of detail balance. Loosely based on some quad-turbolaser turrets on Moff Gideon's light cruiser in Mando S2. Good enough to fly over.
Like you, I don't have an extensive background in musical theory and composition, but enjoy dabbling in making my own tunes. I use Musescore, mainly because it's free hehe. What software do you use, if you don't mind me asking?
I'm liking both your hard surface and organic modelling. I'm not a big Star Wars fan (been loving The Mandalorian though!), but it certainly looks like you've got the Star Wars aesthetic nailed.
Thank you!
For music composition I am using Apple Logic, which costs $200, I think I got it after getting a holiday bonus a few years ago. BUT, absolutely nothing I'm doing in this soundtrack composition uses any Logic-exclusive features, you could use any DAW (eg Reaper is a much cheaper one I've heard recommended), and as I mentioned the orchestra samples were free (I think after filling out some survey or something). I don't recommend Logic outside of some very specific circumstances (one nice benefit for me was being able to load in a bunch of old files made from garageband's proprietary file format, not something that applies to 90% of people). Would love to hear some of your work!
Another mini-update: here is a test of some detail scaling on the gladiator, looking at how big windows and turrets should be and stuff. The hull texture is a tiling texture I made, triplanar'd on. It's also currently applied to those testing greebles but that won't be final.
This is a much more interesting design than the flying wedge carrier ship they did up in Rebels, although I like them both. Your take on it seems more practical than the animated one and I think you're putting more thought into it than other takes I've seen. Very cool.
Apparently that flat wedge-shaped Rebels carrier ship (a "quasar fire" class) was actually an old '90s Legends design, appearing in some novels, The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels, and the "Rebellion" computer game, so I bet a handful of die-hard fans were very happy to see it. I didn't remember it despite having that book.
But then the origins of my ship are in the '80s Droids cartoon series, so, even older. It wouldn't surprise me if it was based on some unused concept art for the main trilogy. Very odd that they didn't just go with a regular star destroyer and instead had a new design.
Thank you!
For music composition I am using Apple Logic, which costs $200, I think I got it after getting a holiday bonus a few years ago. BUT, absolutely nothing I'm doing in this soundtrack composition uses any Logic-exclusive features, you could use any DAW (eg Reaper is a much cheaper one I've heard recommended), and as I mentioned the orchestra samples were free (I think after filling out some survey or something). I don't recommend Logic outside of some very specific circumstances (one nice benefit for me was being able to load in a bunch of old files made from garageband's proprietary file format, not something that applies to 90% of people). Would love to hear some of your work!
I've just looked up Reaper, there's definitely a lot to get stuck into there - might be a bit beyond me for the moment at least haha. I'll PM you a short composition of mine.
Had to take a break due to some commission work, and then have been busy in general, and vaguely forgot my password here. But I'll still chip away at this. Making another expanded universe ship, the skipray blastboat. I made a lot of changes to the original design- I always liked its top view, but never really liked the way the front wings and fuselage were integrated, so I'd consider mine a different model, a bit more streamlined and more lightly-armed.
I also swapped out the turret for a design based on the stormtrooper transport in the Mandalorian, and swapped the original wing cannon tips for ones based on the Star Trek Miranda-class because they reminded me of them and it seemed like a fun kitbash.
I'll do a gray imperial one and a brown pirate one. In '90s comics they were apparently brown for some reason.
Textures are still WIP/incomplete. Here is how big it is with other ships:
Some more updates- calling the skipray done and did some mockup renders, and retopo'd and started texturing the ortolan. Will also make a hat for him so he can't be confused for Max Rebo.
I am always happy if your thread pops up. And once more with another great model. Of all the incredible vehicle designs in the Star Wars franchise the A-Wing certainly is one of favourites. Also the pilot turned out great. With the material you gave him he looks a bit like part of a plastic model kit.
Thank you wibble, I really appreciate your comments! I hope I have some time to get all this moving in some animation soon, but it will probably be a couple more months at least.
Here are some WIP texturing updates on the A-wing for now!
Are you doing several fighters with different paint jobs? Or are you just testing different options? If so, I like the second one with the red paint at the middle, the best.
I will do a couple versions at some point. My worry with that 2nd one, the RotJ colorscheme, is that someone might see it, see that the proportions/details of my model don't match the RotJ model, and think that I just didn't do a very good/accurate job. Vs with this other layout, which is inspired by the paint jobs on the Rebels show, I think people might realize that it's supposed to look different. So for right now I'm just going to focus on this color scheme (more progress):
95% of the grunge and wear placement is procedural here, so after all the underside panels are done, I will still go back and hand mask out some and hand add in some specific drips and things.
But someday when I have both the gladiator class and the pre-OT-era A-wing done, I'll probably remake a couple shots from the old Droids cartoon for fun, so I will use the RotJ colorscheme then:
Posts
The Z95 was a Legends ship originally billed as the precursor to the X-wing by the same manufacturer, and now there are multiple very different-looking official designs. I'm basing mine on the slightly ugly one from the 3D Clone Wars show, but as if it was now 10-20 years old retrofitted by pirates, so I can change some of the things I didn't like about that version, and include a few nods to the Legends design (which was also kind of ugly). I'm also going to try to do some asymmetrical panel damage and try to give it a bit of that used original trilogy look. Maybe its inclusion will appeal to prequel/Clone Wars fans.
For this current animation its role will just be to drop out of hyperspace, see that there's a star destroyer in orbit, and then turn around and leave. But if I do a followup space battle, this will be a good model to have that could be used by any non-Empire faction.
For now I just have a little hull plate baking test. I'm not sure if I want to detail the star destroyer hull with a low poly parts library that have baked textures, or use trim sheet textures. I might try to do a turret with a trim sheet approach and see how it looks.
(In this test, the left modeled one is 2400 tris, the middle is 2 tris, the right is 40 tris. And then I will use the modeled level of detail for any closeups near windows or railings or whatever.)
I think we all can relate to that.
In anyway, thanks for the update. It's always interesting for me to get insight in your workflow, no matter how small or big it might be.
Just have to fix up the hands/fingers.
In the old days you may have seen these as little elephant-headed humanoids, but it turns out the original intent when he was being made for RotJ was that Max Rebo was using his feet to play his instrument.
Kenner assumed they were arms (they look like arms in the movie because a human's arms are inside the costume) and invented a little stumpy pair of legs, and that become the Legends appearance for this species for the next 25 years.
But in at least some of the Disney canon they've gone back to the original idea, though it's only appeared in comic form.
So anyway I thought it would be fun to see a realistic one walking around on the two limbs.
It's still ambiguous whether the top appendages are ears or flippers. I'm kind of scared of them being flippers.
I'm not very familiar with the Legends (formerly expanded Universe). The only Comic series that I actually followed was the 2006 Knights of the Old Republic series. And I think I have read that it was planned to make one of the main characters an Ortolan. But the authors finally decided against it 'cause it was too hard to express emotions with his face. Now I would love to read (or see) a story about an Ortolan who is doomed to be lonely 'cause no one really understands him due to his incapacity to express feelings.
I'm liking both your hard surface and organic modelling. I'm not a big Star Wars fan (been loving The Mandalorian though!), but it certainly looks like you've got the Star Wars aesthetic nailed.
For music composition I am using Apple Logic, which costs $200, I think I got it after getting a holiday bonus a few years ago. BUT, absolutely nothing I'm doing in this soundtrack composition uses any Logic-exclusive features, you could use any DAW (eg Reaper is a much cheaper one I've heard recommended), and as I mentioned the orchestra samples were free (I think after filling out some survey or something). I don't recommend Logic outside of some very specific circumstances (one nice benefit for me was being able to load in a bunch of old files made from garageband's proprietary file format, not something that applies to 90% of people). Would love to hear some of your work!
Another mini-update: here is a test of some detail scaling on the gladiator, looking at how big windows and turrets should be and stuff. The hull texture is a tiling texture I made, triplanar'd on. It's also currently applied to those testing greebles but that won't be final.
Apparently that flat wedge-shaped Rebels carrier ship (a "quasar fire" class) was actually an old '90s Legends design, appearing in some novels, The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels, and the "Rebellion" computer game, so I bet a handful of die-hard fans were very happy to see it.
But then the origins of my ship are in the '80s Droids cartoon series, so, even older. It wouldn't surprise me if it was based on some unused concept art for the main trilogy. Very odd that they didn't just go with a regular star destroyer and instead had a new design.
I've just looked up Reaper, there's definitely a lot to get stuck into there - might be a bit beyond me for the moment at least haha. I'll PM you a short composition of mine.
Totally agree.
But, here is more model progress on it:
I also need to make a cockpit interior.
I feel your pain. But your model progress is looking great already. It looks far more detailed than your other models.
I also swapped out the turret for a design based on the stormtrooper transport in the Mandalorian, and swapped the original wing cannon tips for ones based on the Star Trek Miranda-class because they reminded me of them and it seemed like a fun kitbash.
I'll do a gray imperial one and a brown pirate one. In '90s comics they were apparently brown for some reason.
Textures are still WIP/incomplete. Here is how big it is with other ships:
(lots of photoshopping in this one)
Here are some WIP texturing updates on the A-wing for now!
95% of the grunge and wear placement is procedural here, so after all the underside panels are done, I will still go back and hand mask out some and hand add in some specific drips and things.
But someday when I have both the gladiator class and the pre-OT-era A-wing done, I'll probably remake a couple shots from the old Droids cartoon for fun, so I will use the RotJ colorscheme then:
A couple sketchfab screenshots: