Progression

IskatuMesk

Canada969 Posts

January 24 2011 04:59 GMT

Progression, as defined personally, is advancing to the goal of bringing my dreams into reality. At the dawn of 2010 I was writing and modeling strongly. The momentum was easily lost, as explained previously. The 3d modeling in particular left behind the added bonus of crippling CTS pain that exists to this day.

At the dawn of 2011 I have begun modeling once more. I am starting off slow, revising old models from a year past and trying to bring them a little closer to the original vision. Following is a series of images, per ship, that details their progression.

Progression

Blood Frenzy

The Blood Frenzy is entirely new, but relatively simple. By taking one piece of the model and using the Symmetry modifier twice, I created the triangular arrangement that fused perfectly into a low-poly Undead destroyer. I only have 3 images taken late into its hour-long production.

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Sorrowsong

Under the dancing phantoms of closed eyes I had seen the silhouette of a new Undead warship. A small capital type that specialized in psionic warfare. Although the Undead use psionics natively to travel and utilize elemental weapons, and they were envisioned to contain many psionic warfare vessels, none had been designed in the writing or in mod work. The Sorrowsong was to be the first. Total production time was around 3-4 hours.
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The Sorrowsong remains incomplete for the time being.

Templar Hydromek

This iconic vessel is amongst the first readers are introduced to in Throne of Armageddon. It is a destroyer designed to train young Templar in the art of piloting a vessel with their minds. The Lo`Aummath crystal contained in the front of the ship is intentionally low-yield, to prevent inexperienced pilots from accidentally destroying themselves and anything nearby when they connect to it through the shard in their own bodies.

The disc-like objects are omni-directional elemental beam weapons, low in number to discourage depending on them.

The original, modeled in early 2010;

The Hydromek is not a complicated model, but unlike Undead ships which are arranged through either symmetrical or assymmetrical hard edges and spikes, Templar warships are very smooth and defined by their egotistic overbearing silhouettes. As a proud race, Templar value personal strength and skill over all else. The Hydromek is a simple ship, but getting the shape right is extremely important. I don't want it to look too simplar to Undead, DyiithJhinn, or Vyru constructs, all of which share several design philosophies. The big difference between Templar and Undead is that Templar ships do not utilize Spire Focus (the spikes on all Undead ships are weapons), but slightly more conventional devices. Templar ships use psionics to move, but their system is again much more archaic than that the Undead use, and more limited. Their ships need actual physical psionic drives to move, except for the largest of classes piloted by very powerful warriors.

The Hydromek is almost the most difficult of all models I have ever attempted. Top 5 easily. Getting it right is critical before attempting the really difficult ships, like the Malacads battle carrier and Norkozad battlecruiser. I would consider being able to model the Norkozad in particular a tremendous personal accomplishment. Perhaps in 2011 I will be able to challenge this dream...

But, for now, I vied to revise the Hydromek. Part-way through I concluded I could not recover the original mesh. Painfully, I caved in and remade it from scratch.

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The Hydromek defeated me once more. The basic shape is down, the body is relatively smoothed out, but it's not perfected yet. I need to learn how to control the edges much more carefully so that I can reinforce them and then turbosmooth the model so that it's perfectly smooth like the writing describes. At least I have something that can be used in a mod... and is 2/3 the polies of the original.

Zelconian Predator-class

The original;

The Predator-class is the first Zelconian ship I ever modeled. In comparison to the Templar or Undead, Zelconian are very low-tech. The Predator-class is still around 30 kilometers in length, however, easily outscaling most starships in science fiction, not to speak of its capabilities. The Predator does not appear in Throne of Armageddon, but rather in the second novel that at this time is merely in conceptual stages. It's a blend of technologies, which makes it a bit easier to approach, since it isn't strictly Zelconian tech.

The exotic arches on Zelconian ships are part of the Proteus-based power grid system. In layman's terms, think of them as shield generators, engines, and power sources for any and all subsystems all at once. They're actually the most durable part of the ship. They're also extremely important in Zelconian architecture, they define the silhouette and shape of the vessel.

The Predator-class has the ironic title of being the first ship I ever built using concept art as references. In particular, the arches are loosely based on the Andromeda. I use concept art extremely rarely as I find modeling based on concept art very, very difficult. That and most concept art does not resemble anything from my writing.

The Predator-class is one of two Zelconian ships I attempted in 2010. Both of them remain vastly incomplete. The other Zelconian ship, the Assassin-class, managed to avoid many defects this model has as a result of learning difficulties. Many parts in this model were left in a mess because of my inexperience in 2010. Most of my efforts today were spent fixing stuff you wouldn't notice at first glance.

My goals to revise this ship are not yet complete, this is my current progress.

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I rebuilt the side pods completely, began the revamp of the front of the hull, and played around with the upper part of the ship and the Proteus-based pulsar drivers. There is much to do yet, including the belly of the ship, but so far so good. In 3-4 years I might be able to fully finish this ship.

The Hydromek has taken around 3 days grand total, and the Predator-class probably around the same.