Glecterror P1

IskatuMesk

Canada969 Posts

January 13 2011 13:08 GMT

Tonight's update shall be the Xy`Kranasha Glecterror, a tremendous weapons platform from my writing.

The Glecterror's physical scale puts it on par with some of the mid-range stuff in TTGL. Its weaponry and defensive functions, however, render it a God amongst mortals within science fiction.

At this moment I would like to re-iterate my personal disdain for Photoshop CS4.

The wireframe of the model upon opening it.

This is amongst the most difficult of all models I've ever attempted. I created a kitbash back in 2002 which is where the design spawned from, and for years longed for a hand-modeled low-poly variant of the model. In 2008 I made 3+ attempts to model it from scratch, most of them considered failures. Eventually I ended up with one that was semi-decent, which I took into max in early 2010 and made this out of.

The gun platforms make no sense. This ship is tremendously massive. It doesn't actually physically engage targets smaller than a planet. It has no need to, since it contains fleets within quantum pockets that it deploys for point defense. The ship wouldn't even manifest out of dreamspace for small fry. The platforms wouldn't be able to inflict harm upon its real targets, either. That's what the gigablaster is for.

Yes, they're just as stupid in concept as they are in appearance. I had no idea how to fasten them to the hull at the time so I improvised. In reality, they could just "float" there, held by psionic energy or somesuch technodrivel. On this scale, though? Totally unnecessary.

Deleting the irrelevant platforms brings the polycount down to a laughable 11k quads.

The Gigablaster

No, the real gun does have a better name, but I'm too lazy to recite it in full. Something like "Scythe of the Heavens". It's a modular weapon that can switch between different elemental types and some special modes. The entire ship's purpose is to A.) ferry fleets and B.) point the big gun at big things and make them disappear. Although this gigablaster could clear out several galaxies worth of material, such is not the Xy`Kranashian way. They are a bit more sinister in their approach. No, the gigablaster is reserved for very specific targets.

Walk softly, and carry a very big gun.

The main cannon itself only has a few issues I apparently was too Blizzard-esque, err, lazy to deal with during my first second rump with it in 2010. AFAIK I just remodeled it entirely at the time. There's no need to do it again, I just need to make it look sensible and fix this ridiculous clipping.

Lazy modelers wouldn't worry about this, but I happen to take pride in avoiding strange weirdness in my models. Someone may as well.

Incidentally, if I had any confidence in my modeling abilities at all, I'd just get rid of these unusual fin-like constructions and make something more detailed and prettier. But I don't, and I'm not a good enough modeler to figure out how to fuse new things onto other things, so no.

To be quite frank, I don't even know how to fix these in the first place. You see, I'm kind of a dumbshit. I don't know anything. I faceroll my way through. Usually it doesn't work. Chances are these were left this way because I couldn't fix it a year ago, and chances are I can't fix it now.

Modeling comes naturally to almost everyone who attempts it. Me, my brain has a very difficult time overcoming simple subjects. Something like the layout of a ship like this is easy, but knowing how to flesh out details is virtually impossible. I just simply don't know what to do.

3 days have passed since the above text and the following text.

I finally attempt to make the main gun look like not shit.

Okay, just what the fuck is going on over here? This face is bending in ways I've never seen something bend before.

Got bored and played around with the Symmetry modifier a bit.

Anyways, back to the main ship.

With the weird gun platforms removed, the underside looks pretty naked. I'm not really sure what to put in their place, though. I spent some time making bits of the bottom fin and the "wings" planar. Largely in part to prevent these silly edges from appearing on what should have been flat surfaces but aren't. Why can't faces be not flat! Argh.

I guess I don't really need anything on the bottom. At least, not yet.

The last thing that has me irked is the central spire of the three. There's some mad dawg clipping bs going on in there. When I made the original I apparently didn't detail them, but when I detailed them in 2010, I fucked everything up as opposed to making it look any better.

Includes: Artist's impression of "</3" smiley.

I'm not quite sure what to do with it yet, so I'll leave this particular post at that for now while I consider my options.

Minus some more optimization and face-fixing, the central spire and some detail elsewhere are the last bits of work I'll worry about on this model unless I ever become experienced enough to complete it. I have some ideas of what I'd like to do, but no idea how to go around attempting those ideas. Anyways, the ship is big enough that most details would need to be significantly well-designed to be meaningful.

I do have many other things I can attempt to finish, like the equally difficult Zelconian Assassin Ship...

... But, perhaps, another time.

Crissaegrim

2947 Posts

January 13 2011 15:11 GMT

This reminds me of a game called transcendence, a rogue-like game set in space. The community loves making custom ships and mods for the game. It's a really nice game. Check it out if you like.

Please or register to reply.

Glecterror P1

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming