This is the first half-way decent ship I've built.
She's supposed to be more advanced the Galactica, but a little less so than Pegasus.
As you can see she's far from finished, I still need to:
-build turrets
-add plating
-detail flight decks
-texture
-lots of little things
without further ado...
pods out
pods in
On the prowl
]
engines and Flight pod
Olympia and Coxxan's Galactica side by side.
Any critiques? Comments? something that looks wrong to you?
Posts
This is my attempt to make a mean looking Battlestar.
I haven't been able to find any references for the interior of the gun-director pod thingy, so I'll probably just add a few widgets and sync their rotation to the main guns.
EDIT: I just finished Daybreak part II. Looks like there are two gunners in that blister. This seems like a needlessly dangerous set-up so I will probably be sticking with my original plan to put some cameras in there. What do you think?
Dorsal View:
Ventral:
Nameplate:
A cool shot of the Olympia in the dark:
Finished the Gun Batteries.
Dorsal Batteries in stowed position. (they raise up out of their alcoves for firing)
Ventral Batteries, also in stowed position:
The incredible mess of empties I use to animate the guns:
Olympia on the prowl, showing off her new zinc-chromite flight pods. (place holder until i start texturing)
Also: I'm working on her self-illumination system, which of these do you like the most?
number 1
Or number 2
Finally, Another comparison with Coxxan's Galactica
Any comments or critiques? (especially critiques though, I'm sure I'm doing something wrong)
Two last things:
How do I keep the spotlights from shining through the Armor?
How do I post a thumbnail?
I think that's how you do it, never done it before.
Edit: I'd say go with Number two, for the Lighting, it looks more Real Compared to Number one, which looks like the Light soruce is coming from no ware, unlike Number Two, ware you can see the see ware it starts.
The only thing I can see that's "wrong" would be the coloring. But you haven't started texturing, so no worries there.
How are the colors wrong? should they be more blueish?
Also, i think there's already an Olympia or two out there. What do you think about the name Serenada?
EDIT: Or do you mean the interior of the flight pods? I fixed that. (Wow this picture is pretty dark)
A) I'm not done yet
I'm not very good at texturing, the only program I know how to use is MS Paint.
The new Flight pod texture (With two of Coxxan's MkVIIs on final approch)
The result of mis-clicking in the materials window. Look kinda cool don't it;)
And Finally, Backstory time. (Tell me if she's to much of a super-ship)
Serenata Class Battlestar
Designed at the end of the First Cylon war, the Serenata class represented a major shift in Colonial military doctrine. Earlier Battlestars like the Jupiter class ships such as Galactica or Columbia were designed mainly to hold the line against the Cylon invasion.
However, the Colonial government felt it was time to go on the offensive. That, combined with the fears of a Cylon super-weapon that lead to Operation Raptor Talon, lead them to issue a call for a Aâsuper-Battlestar,Aâgiving designers a blank check to build the best warship possible.
The winning design, the Serenata class, is widely considered to be tonne-for-tonne the best Battlestar ever built. They were also a fundamentally different beast. While the Jupiter class were basically aircraft carriers with the ability to support their Vipers, the designers of the Serenata looked backwards to the age of big-gun battleships. The Serenata class was designed to slug it out using heavy guns, their Vipers merely keeping Cylon Raiders from causing mischief.
To serve this end, designers fitted the Serenata class with the biggest main battery ever designed. 36 twin turrets. Nearly double that of Galactica, and slightly bigger than that of Pegasus.
To fulfill their role as fast-attack ships, the Serenatas were given a complement of seven massive engines, each putting out as much power as an entire Valkyrie class, giving them incredible acceleration and maneuverability for a ship that size.
Unfortunately, with the armistice these ship fell victim to Politics. With no more looming threat, the Colonial government could no longer justify these Battlestar's huge cost. Their enormous, one piece hulls, built of armor-grade steel, were massively labor intensive. Their engines' fuel consumption was simply monumental (roughly double a Mercury class). The newer Mercury class, while not as powerful on a per-ship basis, were cheaper to build and operate (Thus, the fleet has more of them).
Furthermore, with most of their internal volume taken up by ammo magazines for their main batteries or fuel tankage, it was nearly impossible to modernize their avionics.
This inability to mount more then the most basic C3 gear prevented them from being used as flagships, and thus being under an Admiral with abundant political clout.
For these reasons only three Serenata class Battlestars were ever built; the Serenata the Olympia and the Phoenix. The last of which was cannibalized for parts to finish the other two.
While the Serenata class was short lived, they featured many design innovations. Some of which (Aâupside downAâ auxiliary landing bays, engine arrangement) were carried over to the newer designs, and some (monolithic hull, gun-based armament) that are unique to this class.
At the beginning of the Second Cylon War Serenata was in drydock following an explosion during refueling, leaving the Olympia as the sole Serenta class Battlestar in system.
A better shot of her red "war paint"
the result of a mistake while texturing
My main reference
Any comments?
also, anyone know any good texturing tutorials for Blender? I googled it bu didn't find anything good.
Do you think the red paint or the twin colonial seals looks cooler?
ORTHO BLUEPRINTS!
Pods out ready to attack:
Pods in, jump mode:
as you can see the engine glow leaves somthing to be desired. I'm working on that.
I think the red paint looked cooler, personally. It gave it an aggressive appearance to me.
Honestly, i think my paint looks cooler. And seeing as it's my ship I'm going with twin seals
But seriously, lots of BSG ships of red striping, I wanted something different.
here's some minor updates:
Here's the first draft of her VLS racks.
On another note, anyone know any good non-render intensive ways to do engine glow? I searched Google and youtube and found nothing.
as always comments and critiques are welcome.
a beauty shot:
The new detailing around the flight pods (those boxes will become hatches between the flighpods and hull):
her new Bow thrusters:
ditto for the aft thrusters:
my new engine glow (done wholly in blender, the exhausts are shadeless meshes with gradient textures)
some more generic bow detailing:
and finally, my attempt at artistic composition:
As always, Critique and comment.
Looks good. For engine glow check out using render layers and the node compositor.
Basically, you would separate the inside back panel of the engine and apply the nodes to that plane to get your glow.
Do a search I am sure you'll find a tutorial.
Also, turn on A.O. will add a bit of light and add some dirt to your renders.
HTH,
-Brian
okay, thanks.
Also, about the lighting (or lack thereof) my computers weird
that way, it looks fine on my screen.
wow, that means a lot, I've seem some really cool Battlestars on this site.
On an unlreated note, anyone know where I can download a low-poly Cylon Basestar? I googled but couldn't find any
thanks.