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2DTalon's starship designs of miscellany

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  • cavebearcavebear179 Posts: 623Member
    Two things:
    1) Damn! That looks good :)
    2) Reminds me of a ship that Mobius might have drawn! :thumb:

    The side view in the third pic really looks great. I think your vision of this shuttle should make Talon very happy.
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Have been meaning to get in here and give some feedback for a while now, but unfortunately while I've been able to pop in and see the latest updates, I've been too busy recently to have the time to sit down for 5 minutes and give the lengthy crits that the latest developments have warranted. But now I'm just taking a few moments off from marking some end of semester papers, and I can get some quick feedback in here.

    Okay then, first crit I have is regarding the redesign of the cockpit windows, now I can understand why Starrigger has done this, as it does address an issue of scale, and does evoke somewhat the look of older airliners which I was looking to for inspiration when I originally drafted this design. However I feel it robs the design of a lot of its character and looks a little too generic. The original windows are over sized for the scale of the vehicle, but I envisioned the command deck being quite large with the windows perhaps floor length all encompassing observation ports, think along similar lines to the Nostromo's, or the Prometheus's flight deck and view port set up. Also look to Flash Gordon style rocket ship view port set ups, (Yeah, I know there are a lot more struts across the view port in that design, but it gets what I mean across), I just felt this made things a little more interesting, and complemented the flowing lines of the ship.

    Next up, the landing gear. Yeah, you're right, with the added design feature of interchangeable payload modules the landing gear set up might need to be changed. Either way the ship proper would need landing gear of its own in addition to the ones being deployed from beneath the payload module. Perhaps there could be short landing struts enclosed within the fuselage forward of the nose lift thruster and in similar areas to the rear, so it would have 3 small landing gear for when the ship is not carrying a payload module, and still have the larger landing gear which come with the modules which would be used instead when a module is attached, this kinda makes some sense from a practical standpoint as the module's own gear would be calibrated to take the weight of that specific module, plus the weight of the ship. It just means that each module type would need to have a subsection dedicated to the landing gear.

    Now on to those engines. I really love what is going on there with the improved integration of the aft thrusters into the rear of the engine pods, that looks great. The new configuration for the top pods thrusters however needs a little work. Now while I fully take on board people's crits on the position of the top engine pod and how the thrust coming from that engine could possibly force the nose down due to the laws of physics and all that, I have to say I've seen spacecraft designs with way more outlandish thruster configurations than that. This part of the ship design was supposed to bring to mind once again the older style airliner aircraft of yesteryear, so there are some lines in there inspired by the Comet for instance, and with the tri-engine configuration I was going for something based off of the old Tristar. Now granted with that design the middle engine was situated lower than the air intake which was placed at the base of the tail plane, I do feel that the design can afford to have the thrusters of all three engine pods as they were before the latest changes. The thrusters could feature vectoring thrust planes to compensate or any other number of control systems that would allow the spacecraft to fly without issue despite the positioning of the engines. I think the original configuration looked clean and simple, and for me worked quite well.

    If you feel you absolutely have to make the modification to the central engine, then I think you're almost there, but there are a few tweaks that can be made to make it look more acceptable, as at the moment the new design feature just looks a little too forced with the trailing edge of the engine pod curving down at just too extreme a fashion which spoils the lines of the design. I'd suggest raising the rear thrusters about half way between where they are now, and where they were originally, also pull them back a little further to lengthen the distance between them and the front of the pod, and adjust the slope leading from the front to the rear so that it is no more than 45 degrees, though preferably around 30 degrees which I think will make that design choice look a little less forced and more a natural part of the design.

    Obviously all these are just suggestions, I'm sure however you proceed it'll develop nicely. Such is the lot of the concept artist, has to give his baby away to the 3D modeler, relinquish control, and trust that he'll do what's best for the baby.

    :thumb:
  • StarriggerStarrigger475 Posts: 698Member
    edited June 2022 #34
    Frankly, the customer is always right, and you my friend, Talon_UK are the customer in my opinion... enjoy, look forward to your further ideas.

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    Post edited by Starrigger on
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  • FreakFreak1088 Posts: 4,361Member
    This is looking Great.
    I like the textuers for the hull. I can never get it to look like that.
  • JafitJafit0 Posts: 0Member
    Freak wrote: »
    This is looking Great.
    I like the textuers for the hull. I can never get it to look like that.

    To be honest the texture makes it look like it has been carved out of rock
  • StarriggerStarrigger475 Posts: 698Member
    edited June 2022 #37
    Added more detail, which is the focus now, and but some gloss on the texture

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    Post edited by Starrigger on
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  • StarriggerStarrigger475 Posts: 698Member
    edited June 2022 #38
    This is one crazy ship, yes those are people by the landing gear, on the observation deck and on the gangway...

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    Post edited by Starrigger on
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  • cavebearcavebear179 Posts: 623Member
    This is fantastic. Can we get a close up of the main and nose landing gear?
  • StarriggerStarrigger475 Posts: 698Member
    cavebear wrote: »
    This is fantastic. Can we get a close up of the main and nose landing gear?

    Thanks CB, The landing gear are not really ready for a close up, there is no detail, it is my next project though, look for it soon.
    Come on over to my place CGI Worlds
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Heh heh, that's wicked, love it. Looking forward to when I have a spare few minutes to give you some more feedback, excellent work. I like the scale you've gone with, and making that upper part of the window an observation deck. On the colour front it might be nice to see the dark section that flows from just beneath the cockpit and down the spine of the ship (perhaps a dark royal blue?), again another motif inspired by the Comet. And perhaps bring in the more pronounced hull plating on the main fuselage as that modular nature should help break up that form a bit. Another thing that might be an idea that you don't see in my concept art due to the angle might be some form of observation ports on the slanted hull (perhaps tall slits? similar in shape to Enterprise D ports?) of the payload module to suggest its passenger carrying nature. Something almost suggesting that economy class don't get windows, but first class do, or something along those lines. Coming on beautifully, keep up the great work Starrigger, loving your take on this ship.

    :thumb:
  • StarriggerStarrigger475 Posts: 698Member
    edited June 2022 #42
    looking forward to the feedback, in the meantime:

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    Post edited by Starrigger on
    Come on over to my place CGI Worlds
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Heh, you're modelling this way faster than I can crit it.

    :lol:


    Always a joy to see these updates, like Christmas has come early.

    :thumb:


    Cracking job on the detailing on those landing gear, just as I envisioned it. The panelling and greeble detailing on the module is spot on too. I think the windows you've added to the module also work well, not sure about the scale compared to those figures you had in an earlier render, but will leave that to your judgement. Fuselage panels look good, but I think the blue needs to be much darker, a more dark royal blue. More like in this image:

    Comet-1A-+1.jpg

    Absolutely falling in love with the detailing you've got going on around the back. Wasn't sure about the chunky grill before, but you've really finessed it into something that works really well and looks a natural part of the design, and functional, like the pipes feeding into the gold dome detail, really sets it off a treat.

    Regarding your previous renders with the detached module, that looks great, perhaps have a few greeble pits in the faces of the ship which are normally hidden by the module to add a little interest in there, and it might be a good idea to have a hatch on the upper level of the module that links to a matching one on the inner face of the ship so there is a way for passengers to get across to the observation deck, though I bet you've been thinking of that already.

    Coming along great this. I was thinking of building this at some point as a little pet project, no need now, as you really have done the design justice and captured the style I would have gone for and done it just as I would have if not better. Really looking forward to seeing more.

    Right, best get to that first lecture.
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  • cavebearcavebear179 Posts: 623Member
    This is great! And the gear is fantastic :) The back end of the shuttle looks wonderful :thumb:
  • SolCommandSolCommand172 Posts: 0Member
    Sweet ship mate. I really like the way it turned up so far.
  • StarriggerStarrigger475 Posts: 698Member
    edited June 2022 #46
    I really should finish the shuttle before moving to another project, I am actually working on some of the suggestions made, but I needed to step away from it for a moment, So I did this today...

    Talon, this thing really is overkill but I love it.

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    Post edited by Starrigger on
    Come on over to my place CGI Worlds
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Heh, cool to see you take a stab at this one, the scale is a little off, this ship is a little bigger than what you've got going on here, but it is definitely a good start, the cannon also needs to be a bit bigger believe it or not.

    :lol:


    The brief for this one was a Superkiller ship, basically one of the bad ass ships that'll make your life a nightmare towards the end of the game. So yeah, overkill was the catchword for that day.
  • StarriggerStarrigger475 Posts: 698Member
    edited June 2022 #48
    I forgot to remove the person that Sketchup drops in a new drawing... I see it as either a two man (side by side configuration) or perhaps three. If its supposed to be bigger let me know. It was late when i finished the first run at this, and I realized the main weapon was under-sized... Fixed...

    Still a lot of detail missing, not sure what to do with the back end yet... we'll see how the muse moves me.

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    Post edited by Starrigger on
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  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Got done with the majority of the marking I have to do before Christmas now (amongst the 101 other things I've got on my plate right now with a little ankle biter on the way), so I can afford to get in a little breather and take a quick look at how this is progressing again.

    Looking at the present version and the one you started off with I think as far as the cannon is concerned you want something of a hybrid of the two. The second one is perhaps a little too fat, and the proportions of the first one was closer to what I had in mind when designing her, so perhaps take the original one and scale it up maybe? For an idea of the proportions I was after with that barrel section I was inspired some by the E-11 blaster (A Stormtrooper's blaster rifle), so that could be a good reference point, though mine is probably a little shorter than that, that is a worthwhile reference point. With the weapon section slung under the main fuselage you have the right idea really I want that cylinder with the glowing ports to be like some kind of energy turbine style generator with all that tech designed to charge the main weapon, so the glow coming from those ports would act as a visual indicator of when the weapon was ready to fire with the energy seen within pulsing faster, changing colour, or getting brighter or whatever, perhaps an added detail could be some form of physical apparatus also spinning faster too.

    With the rear of the fuselage I haven't put a lot of thought into what should go in there, other than the idea that the boxy nature of the fuselage should reflect the idea of a heavily armored warship, so thick hull plating that is mostly angled forward to take punishment from any enemy defense weapons which may be hurled at it once it starts an attack run. So perhaps the back and underside might be similar to a Y-Wing Starfighter, in that it'll have lots of exposed engineering details behind that thick armor plating. Plus the power couplings which connect to the superweapon and all that stuff up in there, basically greeble central.

    With the engine pods, I like how these are turning out, for the thrusters I'd see these as being rectangular vectored thrust nozzles behind each one, and perhaps the small thrusters above and beneath could provide some sort of maneuvering function or something? Not put too much thought into those, perhaps if angled out slightly they'd look more functional as maneuvering thrusters. I also envisage each of these engine pods as being able to rotate to some degree on the mount they're attached to, to provide more maneuverability for the spacecraft.

    Lastly the wings are meant to have highly efficient solar panels built in to provide additional power when needed, mounted behind a heavily armored leading edge, not much else to add about those really.

    With regards to the current model one thing I might say needs tweaking is the cockpit section itself, I think the windows need to be a little smaller to get the scale I think it needs to have. Regarding the interior I think you're right, I also thought of it as a two or three man crew side by side, possibly in a similar sized cockpit to the Millennium Falcon's. When I was designing the blocky front section and cabin I was thinking of big Peterbilt trucks, so that might be a good feel for cabin size and angular chunky feel of the hull plating.

    Looking forward to seeing how this one goes. Maybe when the shuttle makes a reappearance this bad boy will blow it out of the sky?

    :lol:
  • FreakFreak1088 Posts: 4,361Member
    Congrates on the little one.

    @ Starrigger, your really doing a great job with this shuttle.
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Thanks Freak,

    Anna Leigh arrived as a little extra Christmas gift on Dec 27th, just two days late.

    What's that I spy ahead? Many a sleepless night methinks.

    :p


    Here's a snap of the little bundle of joy.

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    I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

    Now back to changing those nappies.

    :lol:
  • FreakFreak1088 Posts: 4,361Member
    LOL!
    She cute.

    happy new year Mate.

    I know what it like with the sleepness night, my youngest is just about ready to go into trainning paint and still climbs into bed with us ever night.

    Mind you the other two sometime also climb in at the weekends. :eyeroll:
  • StarriggerStarrigger475 Posts: 698Member
    TALON_UK wrote: »
    Thanks Freak,

    Anna Leigh arrived as a little extra Christmas gift on Dec 27th, just two days late.

    What's that I spy ahead? Many a sleepless night methinks.

    :p


    Here's a snap of the little bundle of joy.
    :lol:

    Mine came in Late July, I wish you the best with the expanded family!

    I must say this is by far your best 3D work! :thumb:

    Steve
    Come on over to my place CGI Worlds
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Yeah, the wife and I are very proud of our use of nurbs and the texture work on this collaborative effort.

    :p
  • cavebearcavebear179 Posts: 623Member
    Great looking little girl you got there! My son is almost 16 months now and has more energy then the Eveready bunny :)
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Thanks Cavebear. Heh, not sure if I'm looking forward to the energiser bunny times. Knackered enough with her being asleep all through the day and awake all night. Still it is all good, a little bundle of joy. She's always angelic when people come to visit like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

    :p
  • FreakFreak1088 Posts: 4,361Member
    LOL the energiser bunny times don't stop it get worise.
    That only stops when they become teenages. They then stop bounching off the walls and start to scream and shout with "It not Fair!!"
    "I hate you!!" "I wish I was never born!!" etc. Of course you then get them stumping around slamming doors and refusing to come out in the day light.

    O, Dear god.... Thats going to start happening for me in only a few years time!!! ;)
  • ElowanElowan0 Posts: 0Member
    Someone once said that your children are God's revenge for what you did to your parents
  • japetusjapetus2937 SeattlePosts: 1,397Member
    Congrats on the new baby and I am loving your designs here! I wouldn't mind taking a crack at one at some point, feeling a bit burnt out on my larger projects at the moment...
  • TALON_UKTALON_UK2 Posts: 0Member
    Thanks Japetus. Loved the work you did on that Ralph McQuarrie concept Y-Wing a while back so please feel free to take a stab at any of the concepts here.
  • StarriggerStarrigger475 Posts: 698Member
    edited June 2022 #61
    I Think I'm pretty close to finishing the outside of the shuttle, I of course cannot take credit for the background on this one. Enjoy

    Steve

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    Post edited by Starrigger on
    Come on over to my place CGI Worlds
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