Until it's definitely proven one way or the other, Star Destroyer designs are outsourced to Corellia and are not outsourced to Corellia. Without definitive observation, the waveform cannot collapse.
I'd also compare it more to US Naval vessels of the same class being built at, say, Newport News in Rhode Island and San Diego in California, myself. I think the analogy holds better.
Awesome work as ever Ansel. It's great to see you finally be recognised by LucasFilm and elevated to the rank of an official SW artist. Kudos to you sir!
By the way, I spotted these "endnotes" to the EG to Warfare posted by lead author Jason Fry that people might be interested in. Some interesting behind-the-scenes info and the like.
It seems the Star Wars galaxy does a mix of the kind of contracting we've seen in real life.
One the one hand, there are prime contractors that clearly do full in-house designs to military requirements (or possibly on speculation, which are then adopted by militaries, like the old Elswick protected cruisers). I'd imagine this is the genesis for most of the dagger designs, with only the superstructures and fittings varying from an accepted "optimum."
On the other hand, there are definitely in-house government design bureaux (the Maw Installation is one, albeit extreme, example).
I am quite fond of the idea of the Praetor being a CEC design btw.
Oh, and the model for the Praetor is complete for that one dorsal-side view. I will upload more of the initial WIPs, and supplement with additional ones as I eventually get around to completing the whole ship
For now, Endurance WIPs, showing progress from early ideas:
If you removed the bridge and dorsal spine, and with a lack of any scale reference, the first couple of pics look kinda like some sort of stretched-nose YT series freighter (which would actually be a cool design).
Heh, that Endurance class has a really Ryan Church design style vibe coming off it. Which is kinda pretty useful, considering. Looks really good, like a modernised/redesigned Imperator-class.
It's even better looking in high res - that teensy Wookieepedia image clearly didn't do it justice! And I love seeing the creative process on this one; the bridge design prior to the final selection is particularly intriguing.
Loving this, has a really nice amalgamation of all that has gone before with a cool blend of Republic, Imperial and Rebel Alliance design influences in there. Excellent. Is this an original or existing design? I don't really follow the New Republic era so much any more.
It seems the Star Wars galaxy does a mix of the kind of contracting we've seen in real life.
One the one hand, there are prime contractors that clearly do full in-house designs to military requirements (or possibly on speculation, which are then adopted by militaries, like the old Elswick protected cruisers). I'd imagine this is the genesis for most of the dagger designs, with only the superstructures and fittings varying from an accepted "optimum."
On the other hand, there are definitely in-house government design bureaux (the Maw Installation is one, albeit extreme, example).
I am quite fond of the idea of the Praetor being a CEC design btw.
Oh, and the model for the Praetor is complete for that one dorsal-side view. I will upload more of the initial WIPs, and supplement with additional ones as I eventually get around to completing the whole ship
For now, Endurance WIPs, showing progress from early ideas:
One of the things I love about your work is that even your greebles seem to have been purpose built and serve some function. Do you have any ideas about what the function of the large cylinder on top might be?
Would it be possible to get a view of the Nebula from a different angle (even if incomplete)? It's an EU design I've always liked the look of and just wanted to get a better idea of the shape.
I'm picking up my copy of the EGW from the mail depot today, very much looking forward to it
Well those are certainly some big-ass honking engines! What's the size of this thing relative to an ISD, btw? I don't think I've read it anywhere...
Depending on the source, the ship is supposedly anything from 4000 - 8000 metres long (2.5 - 5 ISD's long) but the general consensus is its more likely at the upper end of that size range.
The ship was built to 6.4km, but in the text it's 4.8km. Can't win em all Variants! The design is very ambiguously scaled, given the lack of anything in the way of major scale-defining features.
The dorsal tubes are housings for secondary engines I'm imagining.
Not to detract much from Ansel's AMAZING thread, but I wanted to show off something that I made last week using his models (actually an existing piece of his artwork). Its the Validusia Imperial Station in the Essential Guide to Warfare.
As a member of the Florida Garrison of the 501st Legion (I'm a Sandtrooper, TD8732), we have a reputation for getting a lot of really big events (Star Wars Weekends, Celebration V and now this year, Celebration VI). I've always wanted to crate a picture of Florida from space with a large Imperial presence, but I could never find the right models and stuff to use. Florida has always been one of the main locations for the space programs and I figured why not for the Empire as well. However, after seeing that picture posted here in the forums, I was suddenly inspired! I had found the right combination of sheer Imperial presence and awesomeness that I wanted to portray for the Florida Garrison and the 501st Legion. There are some obvious changes to it, I moved some ships around here and there and my skills in Photoshop are novice at best, but after 2 hours work, I had what I wanted.
After making it, I sent Ansel an email to see if what I had done was alright and if I could post it here. He gave his blessing (which btw, made me as giddy as a schoolgirl.. ). I added a nod to his work in the pic so everyone will know who the true genius of Imperial Power truly is.
So here it is. I hope you enjoy it. It has been a hit with the Florida Garrison membership.
Not to detract much from Ansel's AMAZING thread, but I wanted to show off something that I made last week using his models (actually an existing piece of his artwork). Its the Validusia Imperial Station in the Essential Guide to Warfare.
As a member of the Florida Garrison of the 501st Legion (I'm a Sandtrooper, TD8732), we have a reputation for getting a lot of really big events (Star Wars Weekends, Celebration V and now this year, Celebration VI). I've always wanted to crate a picture of Florida from space with a large Imperial presence, but I could never find the right models and stuff to use. Florida has always been one of the main locations for the space programs and I figured why not for the Empire as well. However, after seeing that picture posted here in the forums, I was suddenly inspired! I had found the right combination of sheer Imperial presence and awesomeness that I wanted to portray for the Florida Garrison and the 501st Legion. There are some obvious changes to it, I moved some ships around here and there and my skills in Photoshop are novice at best, but after 2 hours work, I had what I wanted.
After making it, I sent Ansel an email to see if what I had done was alright and if I could post it here. He gave his blessing (which btw, made me as giddy as a schoolgirl.. ). I added a nod to his work in the pic so everyone will know who the true genius of Imperial Power truly is.
So here it is. I hope you enjoy it. It has been a hit with the Florida Garrison membership.
I call it The Might of the Florida Garrison.
Enjoy!
This is a fairly nice picture, but I have some problems with the original scene (not your fault, Tyranneix, but I wasn't there to say anything when the original was posted) that I thought I'd bring up. Hope everyone will take it in the spirit it is meant - constructive criticism...
The basic scene's main problem is that it's damnably difficult to tell the distance and scales of the ships apart - there's nothing to say how far away the ships are, whether they're next to each other or one is way closer to the camera than the other. It makes the picture kind of confusing to look at - is that TIE Defender just above the bottom-most battlecruiser really comparable in size with the ISD right next to it in the picture? Also, since the fighters are all solitary, rather than in the tight groups we see in the movies, it's hard to tell they're *fighters*...
There are three ways to fix the problem, I think (don't know how easy they'd be to implement though...)
The first and most obvious, is to replace the single fighters with (tighter) groups of three. Also, while you're at it, change their orientation around - all the gunboats I can identify are heading the same direction, and all the Tie Defenders in another, slightly different one. Why are they all heading away from the station rather than some traversing the screen from different directions?
Another is to tweak the depth of field and F-stop, to make the station in focus and everything closer than it (or further away) slightly fuzzy. (or, focus on a fighter in the foreground and make the rest blurry. That's the less attractive option IMO).
A third one is to turn on motion blur, which will make the fighters actually look like they're moving rather than just hanging there. That works better if you change the orientation of the fighters to traverse the screen, to give the renderer some motion to blur.
The final, and most effective (but also the most tedious) would be to just turn the whole thing into an animation - you wouldn't really need to do any of the other things in order to set the scale then, but I'd still recommend tweaking the fighters...
Also, there's something about the planet in the background that makes the lighting and shadows strange. I don't know how to fix it to make it better - change the key light a bit, maybe (angle and color).
Last but not least, a question of why exactly these ships? The Defender made the Gunboat more or less redundant; and if it's a showcase of all your Imperial ships, where's the Executor and the Skipray?
This is a fairly nice picture, but I have some problems with the original scene (not your fault, Tyranneix, but I wasn't there to say anything when the original was posted) that I thought I'd bring up. Hope everyone will take it in the spirit it is meant - constructive criticism...
The basic scene's main problem is that it's damnably difficult to tell the distance and scales of the ships apart - there's nothing to say how far away the ships are, whether they're next to each other or one is way closer to the camera than the other. It makes the picture kind of confusing to look at - is that TIE Defender just above the bottom-most battlecruiser really comparable in size with the ISD right next to it in the picture? Also, since the fighters are all solitary, rather than in the tight groups we see in the movies, it's hard to tell they're *fighters*...
There are three ways to fix the problem, I think (don't know how easy they'd be to implement though...)
The first and most obvious, is to replace the single fighters with (tighter) groups of three. Also, while you're at it, change their orientation around - all the gunboats I can identify are heading the same direction, and all the Tie Defenders in another, slightly different one. Why are they all heading away from the station rather than some traversing the screen from different directions?
Another is to tweak the depth of field and F-stop, to make the station in focus and everything closer than it (or further away) slightly fuzzy. (or, focus on a fighter in the foreground and make the rest blurry. That's the less attractive option IMO).
A third one is to turn on motion blur, which will make the fighters actually look like they're moving rather than just hanging there. That works better if you change the orientation of the fighters to traverse the screen, to give the renderer some motion to blur.
The final, and most effective (but also the most tedious) would be to just turn the whole thing into an animation - you wouldn't really need to do any of the other things in order to set the scale then, but I'd still recommend tweaking the fighters...
Also, there's something about the planet in the background that makes the lighting and shadows strange. I don't know how to fix it to make it better - change the key light a bit, maybe (angle and color).
Last but not least, a question of why exactly these ships? The Defender made the Gunboat more or less redundant; and if it's a showcase of all your Imperial ships, where's the Executor and the Skipray?
Cheers!
Thanks for all the info.. Those are great ideas, however I didn't place the ships.. I just Photoshopped what Fractal had already put out. Most of those questions would be for Fractal.
FractalSponge, I contacted you a while back regarding using some of your amazing renders in my X-Wing Alliance Photonovel. I love playing with your ships and I thought I'd show you some of my latest images...
Posts
I'd also compare it more to US Naval vessels of the same class being built at, say, Newport News in Rhode Island and San Diego in California, myself. I think the analogy holds better.
By the way, I spotted these "endnotes" to the EG to Warfare posted by lead author Jason Fry that people might be interested in. Some interesting behind-the-scenes info and the like.
http://jasonfry.tumblr.com/post/20843004826/eg-to-warfare-endnotes-pt-1
http://jasonfry.tumblr.com/post/20907109370/eg-to-warfare-endnotes-pt-2
http://jasonfry.tumblr.com/post/21215590247/eg-to-warfare-endnotes-pt-3
More to come, presumably.
One the one hand, there are prime contractors that clearly do full in-house designs to military requirements (or possibly on speculation, which are then adopted by militaries, like the old Elswick protected cruisers). I'd imagine this is the genesis for most of the dagger designs, with only the superstructures and fittings varying from an accepted "optimum."
On the other hand, there are definitely in-house government design bureaux (the Maw Installation is one, albeit extreme, example).
I am quite fond of the idea of the Praetor being a CEC design btw.
Oh, and the model for the Praetor is complete for that one dorsal-side view. I will upload more of the initial WIPs, and supplement with additional ones as I eventually get around to completing the whole ship
For now, Endurance WIPs, showing progress from early ideas:
Final:
7
Looks Old Republic era, right?
It's Republic, that's fair enough.
That's where the ship stands at the moment. Once I get some energy and time, I'll have a go at finishing it.
I believe this wraps up the set of WIPs for the Essential Guide, but there is some other stuff in the works at the moment.
And what are those tubular appendages on the dorsal hull? They look like maybe more sublight drives but the placement seems a bit odd.
I'm picking up my copy of the EGW from the mail depot today, very much looking forward to it
Depending on the source, the ship is supposedly anything from 4000 - 8000 metres long (2.5 - 5 ISD's long) but the general consensus is its more likely at the upper end of that size range.
The dorsal tubes are housings for secondary engines I'm imagining.
Good enough for me
Wait a minute! "Don't you know? Aren't you Go--" uhh, wrong franchise. :shiner:
As a member of the Florida Garrison of the 501st Legion (I'm a Sandtrooper, TD8732), we have a reputation for getting a lot of really big events (Star Wars Weekends, Celebration V and now this year, Celebration VI). I've always wanted to crate a picture of Florida from space with a large Imperial presence, but I could never find the right models and stuff to use. Florida has always been one of the main locations for the space programs and I figured why not for the Empire as well. However, after seeing that picture posted here in the forums, I was suddenly inspired! I had found the right combination of sheer Imperial presence and awesomeness that I wanted to portray for the Florida Garrison and the 501st Legion. There are some obvious changes to it, I moved some ships around here and there and my skills in Photoshop are novice at best, but after 2 hours work, I had what I wanted.
After making it, I sent Ansel an email to see if what I had done was alright and if I could post it here. He gave his blessing (which btw, made me as giddy as a schoolgirl..
So here it is. I hope you enjoy it. It has been a hit with the Florida Garrison membership.
I call it The Might of the Florida Garrison.
Enjoy!
This is a fairly nice picture, but I have some problems with the original scene (not your fault, Tyranneix, but I wasn't there to say anything when the original was posted) that I thought I'd bring up. Hope everyone will take it in the spirit it is meant - constructive criticism...
The basic scene's main problem is that it's damnably difficult to tell the distance and scales of the ships apart - there's nothing to say how far away the ships are, whether they're next to each other or one is way closer to the camera than the other. It makes the picture kind of confusing to look at - is that TIE Defender just above the bottom-most battlecruiser really comparable in size with the ISD right next to it in the picture? Also, since the fighters are all solitary, rather than in the tight groups we see in the movies, it's hard to tell they're *fighters*...
There are three ways to fix the problem, I think (don't know how easy they'd be to implement though...)
The first and most obvious, is to replace the single fighters with (tighter) groups of three. Also, while you're at it, change their orientation around - all the gunboats I can identify are heading the same direction, and all the Tie Defenders in another, slightly different one. Why are they all heading away from the station rather than some traversing the screen from different directions?
Another is to tweak the depth of field and F-stop, to make the station in focus and everything closer than it (or further away) slightly fuzzy. (or, focus on a fighter in the foreground and make the rest blurry. That's the less attractive option IMO).
A third one is to turn on motion blur, which will make the fighters actually look like they're moving rather than just hanging there. That works better if you change the orientation of the fighters to traverse the screen, to give the renderer some motion to blur.
The final, and most effective (but also the most tedious) would be to just turn the whole thing into an animation - you wouldn't really need to do any of the other things in order to set the scale then, but I'd still recommend tweaking the fighters...
Also, there's something about the planet in the background that makes the lighting and shadows strange. I don't know how to fix it to make it better - change the key light a bit, maybe (angle and color).
Last but not least, a question of why exactly these ships? The Defender made the Gunboat more or less redundant; and if it's a showcase of all your Imperial ships, where's the Executor and the Skipray?
Cheers!
Thanks for all the info.. Those are great ideas, however I didn't place the ships.. I just Photoshopped what Fractal had already put out. Most of those questions would be for Fractal.
teaser 3.jpg