animated PNGs? interesting, I've not seen that done before
I'm glad you mentioned that. I didn't even know they were animated. Chrome just shows a static single frame.
Love the alien ships, Howard. They have such a distinctive, recognisable design language. They look, in a word, badass.
The points of light on the alien ships really helps to convey a sense of complexity. Is it mostly self-illuminating textures or actual point lights that you're using to achieve the effect?
And those explosions - Is it mixture of a base stock explosion animation overlaid with your own particle effects?
IRML: Yeah, there's a lot to love about APNGs - especially for things like this.
Melak: They're pretty much my favorite aliens I've ever done.
cavebear: Thanks, man!
Haturod: Hehehe, No problem, dude. I did do a lot of work for Vegastrike back in the day - quite a few of the models in there are mine, along with lots of the effects. I would like to see Pioneer finished too - but there's a huge amount of programming work in the way there.
Comco: Yeah, Chrome is lame like that. Not sure why they don't support it. I'm glad you like the aliens! The little blue points are generated by a self-illuminated cellular map, whit the purple and green ones are geospheres with a glowing texture, and in the case of the green one, a small omni attached. The Advanced Lighting casts the cool little pools of light from the small blue lights automatically - which is one of my favorite parts of these guys!
So those explosions are completely procedural, no stock footage used. I've shared the basic system before, but if you or others would like a look at the current setup, then I'd be more than willing to share.
Okay, here's the latest Alien Fighter!
And I'm working on another shot from the intro... This should fade into the interior of the cockpit, showing the aliens in their full glory, for the first time!
Such an iconic look, Howard. Love it. Possibly the best looking of the alien ships so far.
I'm interested to see what the inside of that cockpit is like. The canopy looks great. Are you going to go for a thoroughly alien compound-eye looking interior? So the aliens are seeing multiple copies of the same image through that canopy, like an insect would? It's one of those concepts that sounds very cool in a book but would be very challenging to realise artistically.
Thanks, Comco.
So the conceit of these aliens is that they're mostly water-breathers. But like most spacefaring species, they've modified their atmosphere to be more condusive to the rigors of space travel. They evolved in a nutrient-rich environment - with trillions of small krill-like creatures per every ton of water, basic food was never a major concern for them - territory and control of mates was a much bigger problem. So each of those glowing red canopies is a fluid filled sac with a creature inside. I'm lookng to have a semi-murky dull-red interior with flickering lights and circulating bubbles. Here's the progress on that.
Thoughts? And Enjoy!
What about gestural interface holograms? Or possibly even some sort of biotech processor for the head? Or, if the entire canopy becomes transparent/transmits an image, why not some sort of haptic adaptive interface on the canopy?
Oh, I meant the down low things up front there - I'm quite happy with the hex-a-gon displays. One of my favorite bits, actually.
So, this is where I'm leaving off tonight:
Enjoy!
Really like the look, Howard. Very different from what I had envisaged, but all the more reason to enjoy it - it's new and fresh - not a predictable design.
One idea for controls would be a sort of biological/bio feedback interface where the alien puts his hands down into something that looked like a sea anemone-type control surface that could detect minute movements from the hand/limb. It would be visually interesting as it could have the anemone-type tendrils that would float and move through the fluid and could be backlit with some sub surface scattering. Just a thought.
Wow, Comco! That's a great idea, seriously! I was already sorta heading that direction - but not competently. You can see the control rods coming out of the glowing colored circular slots - but they just fade into the background. Making them all glowie and translucent... ME GUSTA. Working on that now.
It all looks ace, which leads me to something I've been meaning to ask since the start of this thread (cue Blackadder era Hugh Laurie shouting "well look at Mr Thickie!!").
How do you get the stylised 16-bit look? Is it something with the rendering settings, like doing something with AA settings, or is it a case of rendering at a larger size and making it smaller with a different kind of resampling? I'm curious about the workflow for this / wouldn't mind trying it for the exercise.
Thanks, Klavs!
Armondikov: Thanks. So a great deal of that style is from the AA settings...
But there's also the render settings - I'm currently rendering everything at 25% light levels, and then boosting those in Brightness and Effects posts, simpulating a dynamic-range lighting setup using the default scanline renderer.
Hope that helps!
Dude! this looks AWESOME! Those cockpit shots on page 1 are screaming classic X-Wing/Wing Commander. I hell of want to play this! Hasn't been a good space simulator in AGES!
Beautiful as always Howard, by far my favorite set of designs ever put to paper. I preferred when they were the Valkyrie and Zeus though :cool: Awesome, awesome work!
Sukhoi_Flagon: Thanks, glad you like it! The texturing...well, it's complicated. I use some many different methods, an exhaustive list would be difficult. Some of these guys have specific texturing, some use generic textures and mapping...I'm pleased to say, in most cases you cant tell the two apart.
JRL3001: Thanks, dude. We're very much inspired by those two games.
Armondikov: Sweet, well -I'd love to see anything you come up with that uses those tips.
BradMick: Andnow I feel like a bit of an ass. Ladies and Gentlemen, these last two designs were originally made, created, and concepted by Brad Mckinstry here... and I am much remiss in not mentioning that. He did a great deal of work on the original form of this project, on which we worked back in...1998, I think? These designs are 13 years old, and no joke. I'm glad you like how the latest revisions turned out, bud!
Here's some blast from the past - shipdesigns for that ancient project:
You can see the original version of the Badger there - called the Valkyrie, I believe.
Ahh, nostalgia.
Posts
I didn't know you could either. Looks amazing though.
Ahh ok no problem
I'm glad you mentioned that. I didn't even know they were animated. Chrome just shows a static single frame.
Love the alien ships, Howard. They have such a distinctive, recognisable design language. They look, in a word, badass.
The points of light on the alien ships really helps to convey a sense of complexity. Is it mostly self-illuminating textures or actual point lights that you're using to achieve the effect?
And those explosions - Is it mixture of a base stock explosion animation overlaid with your own particle effects?
Melak: They're pretty much my favorite aliens I've ever done.
cavebear: Thanks, man!
Haturod: Hehehe, No problem, dude. I did do a lot of work for Vegastrike back in the day - quite a few of the models in there are mine, along with lots of the effects. I would like to see Pioneer finished too - but there's a huge amount of programming work in the way there.
Comco: Yeah, Chrome is lame like that. Not sure why they don't support it. I'm glad you like the aliens! The little blue points are generated by a self-illuminated cellular map, whit the purple and green ones are geospheres with a glowing texture, and in the case of the green one, a small omni attached. The Advanced Lighting casts the cool little pools of light from the small blue lights automatically - which is one of my favorite parts of these guys!
So those explosions are completely procedural, no stock footage used.
And thanks, Tovette!
Bullsh*t!!
That file will generate this explosion:
No bull****, just procedural cellular maps.
And I'm working on another shot from the intro... This should fade into the interior of the cockpit, showing the aliens in their full glory, for the first time!
Enjoy!
I'm interested to see what the inside of that cockpit is like. The canopy looks great. Are you going to go for a thoroughly alien compound-eye looking interior? So the aliens are seeing multiple copies of the same image through that canopy, like an insect would? It's one of those concepts that sounds very cool in a book but would be very challenging to realise artistically.
So the conceit of these aliens is that they're mostly water-breathers. But like most spacefaring species, they've modified their atmosphere to be more condusive to the rigors of space travel. They evolved in a nutrient-rich environment - with trillions of small krill-like creatures per every ton of water, basic food was never a major concern for them - territory and control of mates was a much bigger problem. So each of those glowing red canopies is a fluid filled sac with a creature inside. I'm lookng to have a semi-murky dull-red interior with flickering lights and circulating bubbles. Here's the progress on that.
Thoughts? And Enjoy!
Slight update, from lunch:
Getting there....
Enjoy! Any thoughts are totally welcome.
I'm still messing about with the instrument panel, and I'm not completely happy with it yet.
Thoughts?
Enjoy!
Sorry, just throwing out ideas :P
So, this is where I'm leaving off tonight:
Enjoy!
One idea for controls would be a sort of biological/bio feedback interface where the alien puts his hands down into something that looked like a sea anemone-type control surface that could detect minute movements from the hand/limb. It would be visually interesting as it could have the anemone-type tendrils that would float and move through the fluid and could be backlit with some sub surface scattering. Just a thought.
Here goes!
if they're supposed to be in fluid you could have little bits floating around too, then you could get some depth of field on it for added coolness
I'm getting closer to that "model complete" feeling.
Enjoy!
This one may also look familiar to some of you old-timers.
Enjoy!
Thoughts?
How do you get the stylised 16-bit look? Is it something with the rendering settings, like doing something with AA settings, or is it a case of rendering at a larger size and making it smaller with a different kind of resampling? I'm curious about the workflow for this / wouldn't mind trying it for the exercise.
Armondikov: Thanks. So a great deal of that style is from the AA settings...
But there's also the render settings - I'm currently rendering everything at 25% light levels, and then boosting those in Brightness and Effects posts, simpulating a dynamic-range lighting setup using the default scanline renderer.
Hope that helps!
Brad
JRL3001: Thanks, dude. We're very much inspired by those two games.
Armondikov: Sweet, well -I'd love to see anything you come up with that uses those tips.
BradMick: Andnow I feel like a bit of an ass. Ladies and Gentlemen, these last two designs were originally made, created, and concepted by Brad Mckinstry here... and I am much remiss in not mentioning that. He did a great deal of work on the original form of this project, on which we worked back in...1998, I think? These designs are 13 years old, and no joke. I'm glad you like how the latest revisions turned out, bud!
Here's some blast from the past - shipdesigns for that ancient project:
You can see the original version of the Badger there - called the Valkyrie, I believe.
Ahh, nostalgia.