Aeran concepts waiting for aproval

[Nózmájner]

As I mentioned in an other thread, Jacks gave me practicly the descriptions for the whole aera niche for concepting, reconcepting, and canonizing.
It seems he's quite bussy recently, so I thought I post the more detailed concepts, to keep the show going (basicly for keeping motivated myself).
They are not yet aproved, so I recomend not to start any modelling, remodelling of these until they've got accepted.

I've started with the Ariston, since it wasn't in need of to much change. I've added some radiators on the rear side of those wingalikes, a retro thruster pod on the belly, much like that nacelle stuff the original nicander had. Weapons are integrated in the fore wings, only holes.
Also I've proposed some passive sensor antennas on the tip of these crafts wings (vaguely visible on the top view), but Jacks wasn't sure about those. (In my opinion they add some dynamism to the shape, but I'm not saying that they are mandatory )


Then comes the Nicander. No change in the basic shape, only that the forward wingalike is angled upwards a bit, in contrast with the rear wings, which are angled down. I've doodled the overall shape a bit, with maintaining the ingame design, but to be a bit slicker, a bit Harley Davidsonlike feel (for me, but that can be just me, sees that in it). Also, that pod on the belly is converted to retro thruster. It's a bit angled downwards, for aestetic reasons, this way it can be closer to the belly.
Canons integrated in the nose, only holes.
Those passiv sensor wanabes vaguely visible here too.




The Prytanis shuttle. I've partially redesigned Oblivions concept, as Jacks requested some pronounced cargo space, since, as he said, it's kinda like "a 18-wheeler of space". So I've basicly glued that cargo area on the belly of the ship, with maintaining the previous shape. Also added some wingalikes on the front, for the sake of better manouvering, thanks to the extra distance of some laterals. I've angled up the back wingalikes, for some added dynamism, and made that central darker band a very vague intrusion, for aestetic porposes. Also some retros on the front, and much of radiators on the back of the cargo pod. And there's an airlock on the front, vaguely visible.
The only thing, is that I haven't adjusted the main engines to be on, or closer to the lenght axis of the ship, but I think that could ruin the overal design, and I didn't wanted to alter Oblivions concept too much.


(Images are not in the best quality, since I had to take photographs of them, 'cos my scanner is ruined.)

Apart from these, I've made some basic sketches of quite a number of other aera ships, but they are not really detailed or anything, only the basic designs (as you might seen on the Polydectes a few topics away). They are waiting for review right now, and I don't want to post them until that.
Also working on the Aera itself, but that's another, and quite complicated matter, but since I'm currently I'm having an art-anatomy class too, so there are quit a bunch of aid for that, and inspiration too.

And there's an art history class upcoming today, so hopefully I can work on the Agis overhaul today.

[pyramid]

They are excellent concepts and a good example on how existing designs can be even further improved. Thumbs up

[Nózmájner]

Thanks.

Here's another.
Agis.
http://picasaweb.google.hu/lh/photo/YCI ... XaDt_g8JkY
I just paste the description, I've sent to Jacks about her.

I've kinda rethinked it, while keeping the basic form, but the one on
the wiki was kinda silly (in my opinion). Like some kind of miniature
ship, up to a meter lenght.
This way, it conveys it's size, I think.
I've added a pair of retros on the back, near to the aft engines,
which are a pair too, but aligned vertically. At that part, the hull
protrudes, just like on the original one, and on that protrusion's
front facing side, there are missile launch tubes, non-paralell to the
lenght (up) axis of the ship.
Wings are angled downwards. There are some reinforcements on those
wings, on the belly side, supporting the main cannons housing. Turrets
on the tips of the wings.
THe front "wings" are angled down too, and a bit bent.
There's no cockpit visible, and on the fronts, some sensor antennas. I
also included those passive sensor antennas on the front wingalikes,
just ignore those, if you don't want them on these ships. Also, there
are some smaller weapons, holes, and laterals al over the ships, as
radiators too.
I've added a longer main cannon barrel. I kinda like the idea of that,
it makes it more harassing.

Behinde the nose, a small docking place, and there are some handrails
visible too.
I've placed some turrets too.
I'm intended to do some other sketches of it, at least a view showing
the belly, and some closeups maybe.

(Sorry for the grainy image, not too high end photoaparat, since my scanner is ruined right now.)
Needless to say, that she hasn't been aproved yet, so modelling is a big no-no, but suggestions are welcome.

[Deus Siddis]

Needless to say, that she hasn't been aproved yet, so modelling is a big no-no, but suggestions are welcome.

They look good from the thumbnails, but I think it might just be really difficult to load the full images if you are in north america, because for me at least each image takes about a couple minutes to download about 15% of the way and then it stops there. If others are having similar problems you might try uploading them to photobucket or imageshack or another free image hosting site that is bigger or more international.

[Fendorin]

I m totally Agree with Deus siddis
i m in France (very close to Hungary) and is already really difficult to see the picture when is hosted by your national web site.
Indeed i never could see the complete picture (10 minutes for download 20% of the picture after my Mozilla stop)
@Nozmajner you should open a accompt under "international" hoster picture website like photobucket or other
for show your picture in International forums...

you can't have comment if nobody could see it!!!

[Nózmájner]

Sorry! I never knew, that képfeltöltés.hu is that slow from abroad.
I've updated it, hope that picasa works better.

[loki1950]

Bingo that does the trick Noz less than 10 seconds to Done

Enjoy the Choice

[Fendorin]

Sorry! I never knew, that képfeltöltés.hu is that slow from abroad.

No need to be sorry, you could knew if nobody told you.

I which you will post soon the other concept of the Aeran ship you get from Jaks description.

thank

[Deus Siddis]

I was able to get a clear shot through cyberspace long enough to download your aera fighter concepts.

They have beautiful aesthetics, you have done very good work there.

Practicality wise (and some might say on behalf of aesthetics too), you might want to add in lateral/rotation thrusters like you did with your unadorned concepts.

Because all ships need a full array of thrusters placed in such a way that they can both translate and rotate themselves on all of their three local axes.

Eventually I am sure one of the VS python/C++ developers will add support for retro and lateral thruster particle emitters like those already in game for the main engines. Kind of like what some of your fellow countrymen did for Nexus: A Jupiter Incident.

[Nózmájner]

There are laterals, but they are just holes in the hull mostly.
On the aeran general taste description, Jacks higlighted the unibody concept for these crafts, so I made them accordingly.
I can try to do some different aproach too, It won't hurt anybody.
(They made a good job in Nexus on laterals, for sure, and there were some kinda good ship designs also.)
I'm currently triing to work on the Polydectes, refiting Oblivions nice concept with all the canonic stuffs. The problem is that the art history teacher tend's to shade the classroom, so it's hard to draw there, and also that's a looong class.

[Deus Siddis]

There are laterals, but they are just holes in the hull mostly.
On the aeran general taste description, Jacks higlighted the unibody concept for these crafts, so I made them accordingly.
I can try to do some different aproach too, It won't hurt anybody.

No there wouldn't be any need to stray away from the characteristic unibody construction. The lateral thuster 'vents' can be integrated into the fuselage, like the main thrusters are already.

If you used enough of these lateral thrusters and placed them strategically then they would double as rotation thusters, so you wouldn't need the wing tip rotation thrusters unless you wanted them.

[Nózmájner]

But wingtip thrusters are laterals too, up and down, so I don't think they are unneeded. For smaller ships, I don't think there's need fore more pronounced laterals than those, but one can always experiment.

[Deus Siddis]

But wingtip thrusters are laterals too, up and down, so I don't think they are unneeded.

Right, it is really a matter of designer preference if the laterals are placed on protruding structures or the fuselage.

Note: Lateral thrusters include left and right thrusters also. In fact it appears that the VS engine currently assigns all lateral thrusters the same amount of force.

For smaller ships, I don't think there's need fore more pronounced laterals than those, but one can always experiment.

IMO, the best way to find out is to look at the engine stats for the ship in question in-game at the shipyard, assuming the ship you are working on is already in-game. You just compare the force ratings of the main, retro and lateral thrusters and that gives you a quantitive idea how big each thruster group should be relative to each other and in general.

[Fendorin]

Any news ??
no new sketch??

[Nózmájner]

Working on them, but it's the end of the semester, so there' much work on me right now. Right now I'm working on turning Oblivions Polydectes canon, and also continously thinking about aeran anatomy, but Jacks hasn't replied on those stuffs yet.

[loki1950]

but Jacks hasn't replied on those stuffs yet.

He hasn't commented on most anything lately hopefully he will have some time over the year end festivities.

Enjoy the Choice

[Deus Siddis]

but Jacks hasn't replied on those stuffs yet.

He hasn't commented on most anything lately hopefully he will have some time over the year end festivities.

His profile says he hasn't logged in to the forum since mid October.

I have been waiting for him to return to get feedback or approval as well, in my case on the concept/in-game models I've been working on for higher poly replacements of various Purist vessels.

[Fendorin]

Deus siddis said:

I have been waiting for him to return to get feedback or approval as well, in my case on the concept/in-game models I've been working on for higher poly replacements of various Purist vessels.

Maybe we can see it ! no? did you finish the mesh ?

[Fendorin]

here a WIP civilian aera starship:

I m not so happy by the shape f the cockpit the model is high polys
and i get so problems with the normal around the green line in the upper part of the ship

[Deus Siddis]

here a WIP civilian aera starship:

. . .

and i get so problems with the normal around the green line in the upper part of the ship

If you want to post your blend file I could take a look. Maybe I'll be able to give you a second opinion on this issue you describe.

[Fendorin]

hello here the file for download :
DivShare File - aeratruck.blend
bump

diffuse

specular


thanks!

[Deus Siddis]

Okay I looked at the mesh in blender and I think I found the source of the problem you mentioned. You are using the EdgeSplit modifier to create smooth groups for you, but it isn't completely spliting the mesh along that green groove like it should, which is causing those artifacts you see. I tried setting the split angle lower, but then it starts to split other parts of the mesh that shouldn't be spliting (like the top of the ship).

So to fix this issue, you just need to manualy split up the mesh or mark the edges you want to split, so that this modifier will work correctly.

Any shading artifacts besides that you could take care of by using the subsurf modifier to create a more detailed version of the mesh and creating a normal map by combining that with your bump map and the original mesh. I can explain how to do this if you want.

Another thing I noticed about the mesh is it is triangulated. You probably shouldn't do this, because when I did that to my derivative model, it caused my ship's normal map to not work correctly at all. So I recommend you use a version of this mesh that hasn't been triangulated.

[Fendorin]

@ deus siddis i come back to the discussion about this Aeraship above

Firstly thanks ; and secondly ;Yes i would like you explain me how is the right process to bake the AO map(and others) or direct me to the explain topic/tutos if you have,

i will probably drop this concept/mesh to focus on other thing i have to finish before ;

This is a free mesh for every body what do something with it .

Thanks

[Deus Siddis]

OK then, let me know when you're working on your next mesh that you want to finish with AO and normal bakes.

I'll try to show you everything I know on this subject. But don't triangulate the mesh, it is much better to work with a non-triangulated mesh for this purpose.