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Subject: Heavy Space Drone (mental note to myself: needs a name)
Background: Its a heavy interceptor, build by an infamous trading house on a distant planet, designed to enforce company interests in both athmosphere and space. Crew: No Pilot, controlled by an A.I. which gets its orders via sub space tranmission Weapons: Heavily armed; Relies on homing weapons with photon technology, can drop/launch plasma torpedos. Defense: shield, launch counter meassures, speed Range: Able to cover longer distances without a carrier due to its additional EH-Engine. Extras: Has the ability to cloak itself for a few seconds but requires an enormous ammount of energy to do so. Therefore it only uses this ability if a base is nearby.
The thread title doesnt make sense anymore, if by any chance a mod reads this, please change it to "[3D] Heavy Space Drone / Need Feedback" =)
Original post: + Show Spoiler +
Update 1: + Show Spoiler +Patch notes: - Wings moved back a little - Backwings are smaller now (less dominant) - Spike removed - Fins altered (anti-space-taxi) - Cockpit glass doesnt really make sense for an A.I. controlled Drone - gone - EH Drive (the big thruster) is now visually connected to the drone - some parts are smoother now (hoping to add back some structure via textures/bump mapping) - head resized, claws sharpened I really appreciate all the in-depth feedback, its amazing! Next steps are texturing and fireing up those thrusters. Also, I might wanna add some external objects/parts to the model.
Update 2:
+ Show Spoiler +
Update 3 / Final:
I ended up learning Mari in order to do the texturing and i think it paid off. Anyway, here is what the final version looks like. Thanks for the feedback everyone!
ahhh right: the bottom view... Bomb doors are without textures but here it is:
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What are all those holes ? 6 front, 4 behind ? I get that the 4 could be the reactors.
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On November 08 2012 01:01 endy wrote: What are all those holes ? 6 front, 4 behind ? I get that the 4 could be the reactors.
Thrusters in the back (4) and missile batteries or some kind of battery for photon torpedos in the front (4) xD The 2 holes in the very front... erhm... sensors!
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The one thing I don't like is the backward wings on the engine part of the ship. It serves no purpose, looks a little odd, and is functionally counterproductive. I think when you're designing a ship like this you need to keep three things in mind. Functionality, aesthetic appeal and personality. Functionality is self explanatory and I touched briefly on where I think you've missed the mark on it.
Personality is a little more objective. You christened your ship Heavy Space Bomber. It should feel like a heavy space bomber. It should feel solid, heavy hitting, and any other aspects you think are relevant to a 'heavy space bomber'. The other aspect is to give it a little more depth than just heavy space bomber. Who pilots it? What army uses it? Are they humans, aliens, bad guys, good guys? Give it a little more character and it'll feel more complete.
The last part is aesthetics. You've done a pretty good job on that part. That's just the straight up does it look cool. Is there anything on it that could look cooler? You should be asking yourself what could I do to the wings, engines, cockpit, body to make it look more interesting and cooler than it does right now. The only issue I have with the aesthetics right now is the trunk/core or whatever of the ship feels a little clunky, or a little obtrusive. It feels a little at odds with the front section of the ship. The two parts feel like they could be from different ships entirely.
That being said it's all constructive criticism and suggestions on how you could improve. I think you've done a good job on this and it looks pretty cool. Keep making more stuff!
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question, is it standalone or supposed to be part of a bigger project?
also, how serious is it supposed to be? like, cold hard and realistic, or a little cartoony?
i am no graphic artist, but i am however a rabid sci-fi fan, so take it with a grain of salt:
to me it gives an impression of a somewhat cartoony design, mostly due to the giant cockpit glass if you shrink that and change its design.... and perhaps arc its wings more? i'd say that's a convincing craft.
however how big is a "heavy" spacebomber? cause such a ship gives me more the impression of a fighter or a dive bomber, if it is supposed to be bigger than a corvette i'd say it really doesn't have that style (even a corvette is really pushing it, imo)
That being said it's all constructive criticism and suggestions on how you could improve. I think you've done a good job on this and it looks pretty cool. Keep making more stuff!
^^
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why wings if its a 'space' bomber?
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The front end looks imo like the vehicle from Darkwing Duck and I´m not sure I like it. It popped instantly in my mind. Also I dislike the pointed spike on the front.
The bottom looks really good imo. The top view is also good and there is a lot to like about the sideview. So except for the cockpit I think it looks very nice.
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Haha nice :D ^^
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Thanks guys! This is exactly the kind of feedback I am looking for. And yes, my main goal was aesthetics. I started out with the idea to make a heavy space bomber, thus the thread title. Youre right, this isnt one. Doesnt matter. Maybe an aircraft that is designed for both space and athmospheric flight.... I might as well pin it down:
As for the Ship:
- Its a heavy interceptor, build by an infamous trading house on a distant planet, designed to enforce company interests in both athmosphere and space. - No Pilot, controlled by an A.I. which gets its orders via sub space tranmission (maybe the cockpit glass should go?) - Heavily armed; Relies on homing weapons with photon technology, can drop/launch plasma torpedos. - Able to cover longer distances without a carrier due to its additional EH-Engine. - Has the ability to cloak itself for a few seconds but requires an enormous ammount of energy to do so. Therefore it only uses this ability if a base is nearby.
I ll update this as i work on it
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On November 08 2012 01:42 Skirmjan wrote: question, is it standalone or supposed to be part of a bigger project?
also, how serious is it supposed to be? like, cold hard and realistic, or a little cartoony?
The next steps would be texturing, materials, additional geometry for the aircraft, of course (in my experience, 3-dimensional objects look better, if the look like they consist of several parts - atm it is pretty much just one object). After that, i might put a few of these ships into a scene, make them attack a futuristic city from above, add smoke trails, use PS and so on;) I guess al wallpaper would be a realistic goal for me.
And no, its not supposed to be cartoony, i ll have to do something about that! Thx.
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Shouldn't the wings be more in the back of the ship? It doesn't feel very stable if you were to start the engines. Cool model otherwise !
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On November 08 2012 03:14 baba1 wrote: Shouldn't the wings be more in the back of the ship? It doesn't feel very stable if you were to start the engines. Cool model otherwise ! thanks, done.
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Personally I quite like the backwards wings. What I'm not so keen on is the cylinders at the top of the cockpit - they sort of make it look like a space-taxi somehow.
Also, from below the back part looks somehow tacked on, with the flat rectangle back of the "cockpit" area, and the aerodynamic front of the thruster thing. I feel like they should either be more connected, or adjusted so the thruster is lower.
As a general feeling, it's also mainly very smooth, but the bits that aren't (fins / engines / cabin shape) look kinda out of place (or vice versa). The shape just doesn't seem consistent somehow.
(It's very good though, I don't mean to be negative.)
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ahaha, i though about the darkwing ship instantly too (hence all the talking about cartoony :D)
the only thing it reminds me other than that is a dark eldar ship (google "Dark Eldar fighter")
if it's flown by an AI, yea totally remove the glass cockpit... really, why is that even there. in general, it has the appearance of a manned craft, in sci-fi, the drones (because anything AI controlled is a drone, ergo this is a Drone Interceptor, right?) have a blocky and alien shape to reinforce the fact that there's nothing alive in it.
As such, IF you wanna further enforce that feeling, i'd say make it more blocky, shorter wings, shorter prow elsewise just ignore what i said, and try and add a metallic, unliving feel by texturing, which undoubtly does miracles. my 2 cents
ps. i actually think it would be a good manned fighter if there are any in your settings and you haven't already done them, and you could just make a new drone from scratch
psps. i like the second set of mini wings too, but they look awkward from certain angles (in broadside view), so i think they could use some thinning and be more fins than wings
last postscriptum, damn me: remember that a drone doesn't really care about aerodynamics, stability ecc... even in real life we're developing fighters with awkward wings to promote instability, as an unstable fighter has a better maneuvrability and the onboard computer helps with any stability problem... go look up the F117 for an example :D
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too much smooth. needs more support edges.
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Lots of good suggestions from others already, but I'd like to say that the needle sticking out of the front of the plane looks a little out of place. Without that there, the small forward wings evoke a... crab? scorpion? I don't know, something moderately badass. With the long spike on the nose of the spacecraft, it evokes a... narwhal? unicorn? Not something that says "I'm full of bombs and high-tech doom."
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Very nice modelling . Did you do this in maya?
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looks awesome!!! what did you make it with?
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I have made a lot of changes already. A lot of good suggestions in here
Backwings are smaller now, wings moved back a little for better maneuverability, glass cockpit is gone (no darkwing, you cant be my spaceship! ), small nosejob (I ll think about that spike tomorrow... we ll see what works best), fins are smoother now (anti-spacetaxi). I think iam going for a more streamlined design. Edges are important too, but having both elements make up half of the shape doesnt seem to work. Does that make sense? xD
As for the drone thing - I know this fighter looks somewhat like it could be manned - but maybe thats partially psychological warfare=)
I ll update this post tomorrow. Modelling is WAYYYYYY more fun with a blog on teamliquid. Hell yeah! Lets make this happen.
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On November 08 2012 05:12 docvoc wrote:Very nice modelling . Did you do this in maya?
On November 08 2012 05:12 snively wrote: looks awesome!!! what did you make it with?
Thank you Cinema 4D R13
Also, I am pretty new to 3D modeling/animation. Still learning and trying to find an internship somewhere. In case you are interessted in what I have done so far, check:
http://invisible3D.posterous.com
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I like what you've done with the wings, i'd say they're fine (unless you wanna make negative ones and see how that goes, but it's your choice)
The old cockpit looks empty now without the glass, i suggest you add something to occupy some space, for example a big armor plate in the central and bottom part of it,and two missile racks in the sides? however you didn't specifically say that it's missile-armed, and i don't have any better ideas
About the bottom side of the drone, that blank rectangle in front of the weapon door bay seems a little empty too, i tried to think of something to place there but i'm rather out of ideas on that, i would've suggested moving weapon launchers and bomb door forward, but i fear it would ruin the effect of your barely-visibile weapons in the 3rd screenshot (which is amazing)
Still on the bottom side, what is exactly that... button? it looks like one, directly under the nose? it looks kinda useless, however it occupies a nice place, so... i guess you could make it a somewhat secondary door bay, i would really like something like an always half-open door (the kind you would see in dropships, opening vertically?) showing a lightless inside..
You're doing a great job anyways ^^ and as always, it's your project, you don't like any of the ideas in this thread, you just ignore them ^^
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