Alien Artwork

Post by **dandandaman** » Mon May 15, 2006 3:39 am

Looking great!

Still wouldn't mind a top view though

Dan

Lord Q'Daan · Post by **Lord Q'Daan** » Mon May 15, 2006 10:47 pm

From long-ago correspondance with JackS:

The gripper 'toes' should have only two segments, not three. I'm not sure if this is also true of the fingers.
The divisions between segments on the head should not be visible.

I'm not entirely clear on what this means, about the mouth:
"four mandibles, meeting at 90 degree angles, mostly retractable. Sharp curve to blade surface at edge, dipping in and then extending back forming an immediate large groove, then coming back towards the original level, and then undulating in a series of rolling hill style grooves. Capable of tearing via the sharp points and edges, cracking via all-towards center, and grinding via rolling motions retracting and extending. Internal tongue-tentacles sweep food off of the mandibles and into the digestive tract."

Post by **jackS** » Mon May 15, 2006 11:06 pm

Lord Q'Daan wrote:From long-ago correspondance with JackS:

The gripper 'toes' should have only two segments, not three. I'm not sure if this is also true of the fingers.
The divisions between segments on the head should not be visible.

I'm not entirely clear on what this means, about the mouth:
"four mandibles, meeting at 90 degree angles, mostly retractable. Sharp curve to blade surface at edge, dipping in and then extending back forming an immediate large groove, then coming back towards the original level, and then undulating in a series of rolling hill style grooves. Capable of tearing via the sharp points and edges, cracking via all-towards center, and grinding via rolling motions retracting and extending. Internal tongue-tentacles sweep food off of the mandibles and into the digestive tract."

That indeed _was_ a long time ago. Some minor retcons have occurred since then in working towards producing these drawings :-/

I guess I forgot what I'd said about the number of toe segments (need to track down that conversation and drop it in the compilation of such conversations). One hopes no one will lose too much sleep over the Rlaan's number of toe segments becoming 3 and 1 (worker and defender) vs. 2 and 2.

The mouth stuff is mostly discussing the interior faces of the mandibles, which aren't drawn here.

Good catch on the non-visibility of the segments on the head portion vs. the body portion.

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Thu May 18, 2006 10:46 am

Revision Part III

Rlaan Worker Concept

@Dan: Top Views will wait until everything get's absolutely right.

Wouldn't want to make top views only to find it wrong.

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Tue May 30, 2006 12:21 pm

Preliminary Sketch:

Rlaan Defender Concept I:

@JackS, Yahoo seems to be acting wierd. Can't reply to my emails.

I'll see if I can email the larger version later.

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:09 am

Okay. New concept. Still unapproved. But I'll just destroy this later if it gets rejected, hehe

Accompanying text will be submitted to JackS in the meantime.

The Saahasayaay:

Stakhanov · Post by **Stakhanov** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:58 pm

Whoa... what a thread...

Maybe some concepts could be colored to be included in future versions of VS for bar attendant , fixers or random clients to chat with...

Post by **loki1950** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:54 pm

Yeah Oblivion is prolific

but he doesn't like to wait for approval

so jumps to a new project and posts for us to marvel and flame

Enjoy the Choice

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 11:24 am

but he doesn't like to wait for approval so jumps to a new project and posts for us to marvel and flame

exactly right. I guess i'm just impatient. Anyway, THAT Saahasayaay concept was rejected.

That was kind of hit or miss anyway.

Maybe some concepts could be colored to be included in future versions of VS for bar attendant , fixers or random clients to chat with...

As soon as everything's alright with JackS on one particular species, I can probably create some 2d art for splash screens. But not bar patrons just yet, I'm particularly bothered by the fact that all the bars cannot be occupied comfortable by an alien. And even humans get halved and disemboweled when they sit on the tabls.

So again:
DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING POSTED HERE AS CANON.
It's just that it's a shame to just throw away some of the ideas I came up in flashes of inspiration. Take that literally - Flashes - a very short burst of a general feeling to do something beautiful and good. And when the flash passes, more often than not I lose interest in what I'm doing atm.

Here's a fresh batch of logos I did last night (instead of studying for exams today..

which went well anyway)

Klk'k Proposed Logos:

Banner:

Forsaken Proposed Logos

banner:

Explanations submitted to JackS on the particulars of the symbols.

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 9:58 am

Was feeling tired of school yesterday. bleech. Study study study....

Here's what came out of my relaxation techniques lol:

A shaper female.
pending JackS approval.

Which looks better?

PS Be kind with comments. It's a labor of love. lol. I can change anything on it easily. Even the background. I can try to generate some cityscapes instead of using Strangelets'.

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 9:58 am

Grrr. Double post.

Stakhanov · Post by **Stakhanov** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 12:53 pm

No blur please ! She was designed to be perfect in the first place.

Well actually her neck is a bit too long and not smooth. Flaws are not tolerable... (the manual doesn't say that superioris have longer necks , and so far those are only featured in burmese tradition

)

It is ironic , though , that such a fitting background is from a bio diverse planet...

Post by **klauss** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 3:18 pm

I have a better idea.
Keep the female and text sharp, blur the background just a bit with a 2-3 pixel gaussian filter. Or... if you could... you could try blurring the top-right corner some more. Like a gradient from 2-3-pixel-gaussian on the bottom-left corner to a 10-15-pixel gaussian on the top-right.

Trust me. That will work.

Oh... and try overlapping shaper with both Beauty and Perfection. Kind of a subliminal thing, make Beauty and Perfection clear on the foreground, shaper in the middle, on the background, less clear. Like saying "Shaper beauty - Shaper perfection".

BTW: The female herself is just perfect. Mostly its iconographic aspect, really does a lot to the picture.

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:56 am

Stakhanov:

No blur please

Klauss:

Keep the female and text sharp

Oki. I would have to make the lighting more realistic tho.

Stakhanov:

Well actually her neck is a bit too long and not smooth. Flaws are not tolerable...

weell... actually the far shoulder was intended to be a bit higher, the posture a bit different with parts of the other arm visible. But since it was a one-day job. With classes the next day..., I erased it and shifted the posture a bit.. though the result is that the place where the shoulders should have been got converted to a neck extension... hastily.

And hey. Giraffes have the tradition too, not just the Karen (was it really the Karen, or was it some other tribe...

)

bio diverse

Can't understand the comment... Why should it not be biodiverse? Shapes are not mechanists.. or andolians.. or something else.

@Klauss:
Gradient gaussian to top right. gotcha. Why not just gradients per se? But ja. I will try it.

Text was still unsure.. really. I couldn't find the shaper motto.
Your suggestion sounds good.

@everybdy
Thanks

charlieg · Post by **charlieg** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 11:59 pm

Prolific and talented. Like the great stranj.

Oblivion should be given some form of commit access, surely... even if he does it all in his own branch.

Post by **klauss** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:30 pm

Sad SF still doesn't support per-module permissions in SVN, it would be helpful to give artists a space in SVN.
I guess we could make it an informal permissions system.
Say... trunk/artwork.
I'll think about it, try to come up with some kind of organized structure, and see if I can commit the skeleton. Then, artists would be able to commit their work there.
Though I'd suggest thaty they commit less frequently than we do code - artwork can't be efficiently compressed in the repository, meaning changes in artwork quickly fatten up the repo. Let's not abuse of SF's servers.

Zeog · Post by **Zeog** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:51 pm

Or we create a sister project: Vega Strike Art Collection
which has a repository by its own and then sync approved art to the VS data dir once in a while.

Post by **klauss** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:18 pm

I thought a bit about that.
I have a computer at home with an SVN server that is constantly online.
Though I could never set up HTTPS on it (trouble with Apache2), and bandwidth is less than great. Lame, rather. Besides, it's a private (mine) server - I can easily get a DNS name for it, but you know... reliability issues.

In fact, I already keep all contributions (I grab them when I see them anywhere and dump them there) in that SVN server, it's just a bit of reorganizing things and making the server public.

Zeog · Post by **Zeog** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:05 pm

Good to know that you could back up with some infrastructure.

But I was actually talking of a SF project: new project -- new SVN repository. Would a GPL/"some other open license" art collection meet the criteria for creating a SF project?

triato · Post by **triato** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 11:06 pm

I really like the rlaan writing concept it is very congruent with rlaan radial simetry. I also like the rlaan qorker, however he looks like he has bilateral simetry and if I remember well, they had a radial simetry.

Good job!

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:30 am

@charlieg

Like the great stranj.

no. really. He's way more talented than I am. And way more industrious, besides. Proof?

the background is his.

@Klauss
Making an artwork section in SVN. I don't know.

I don't know how to use SVN and I use different terminals each time I'm online. So.. I'll have to install SVN on every computer in every cafe. lol

. Not likely I'll personally be using it. But I'll post everything I finish that could help other (better

) artists or be included at some time.

I really really want to help in finishing the shipstyle and artstyle sections of the wiki. It has to be by faction tho. That would help modellers tremendously, in the same way as the music

@Zeog:
A sister project?.. hmm. VS has a quota on storage right? It would separate art from VS itself too much, methinks.

@triato:
The Rlaan worker is approved and final (Tho, it's not that sophisticated, artwise,

), the illusion of bilateral symmetry is because the front and back legs are cut away, instead only the sockets are shown. Since showing all the legs would hide some important head features. Dandandaman did request for a perspective, I think for this exact reason. I guess I just grew bored of it for a while.

If ever I get the urge again to make 2d or 3d art of the workers, I'll base it on this.

The writings however, is not correct. Jacks clarified it. Rlaan writing is a bit simpler. Smaller characters, less strict alignments, and No, Rlaans don't twirl around when reading. lol. I probably should do another "pseudo-article" on this.

Shaper female still waiting for official rework.

Saahasayaay concept now clarified by jackS. and its... dragons..

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:32 am

Hi. Been a long time since I last posted in this thread.

I've been trying to do Dandandaman's request of an Rlaan on perspective view. Got tired of coloring it.

Anyway, rather than throw it away. I'll post it here.

An Rlaan worker standing on top of a navigation panel of an rlaan caphsip.

I might finish this someday... weeell. maybe.

Post by **dandandaman** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:47 pm

Now that is cool

Dan

Dark-Blood-Hound · Post by **Dark-Blood-Hound** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 7:42 pm

I love that Rlaan artwork!! Especially because their my favourite race.

triato · Post by **triato** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:44 pm

I like the shaper long neck, genes somethimes control more than one thing, so, in improving something they might have modified the neck. Also, beauty comes not only from instict, it is also very influenced by culture. Shapers might have seen long necks as beautifull.