Starship --- work in progress

[dk_art]

This is my first project using my newly bought 3d software Truespace 6.

http://www.dkingdesign.com/stuff/tru...ship_test5.jpg


I've been working on this a few days. The textures are only temporary as I will make custom ones after the model is complete. I will try out layering a dirt and 'weathering' (exhaust marks, damage marks etc) texture on the parts too , to give it more of a used look. the lighting needs some work too and I'll add localized lights to add colder fainter glows to area away from the main light direction (etc).

Here is the model in the program workspace

http://www.dkingdesign.com/stuff/tru.../workspace.jpg

I plan to add some more elements to form a scene but that's later.

I thought of the ring shape after thinkng of the particle accelerator rings built under ground in places. I thought maybe this ship could use a technology involving the collision of matter in a round track and using the energy released as fuel. But I think now the ring design is more of a device for creating a sortof controlled singularity or rift in space into which the ship can "fall" and reappear in another location much faster than normal motion. Not quite like warp speed as that involves still involves travelling (faster than light). The ship has 6 propulsion ports facing for and aft (as to come to a halt from great speed, a ship needs to decelerate as well so engine thrust needs to be applied in that direction at the end of a trip while using conventional movement ... the ship could rotate 180 degrees I suppose to carry out this but I liked the idea of engine ports facing forwards too).

Anyway, this pic took a few hours to render believe it or not and it's just a test. I think I have some objects there which are adding more time to the render than should be. The windows are rectangles just slightly jutting out from the surface and each has a setting to emit it's own light. Perhaps I have them set to cause shadows or something which would probably bog things down.

I'll make a copy of the file and delete the windows and try rendering to see.


I'll post more refined pics when finished

David K ... www.dkingdesign.com

[dk_art]

Hmmm, yesterday what I had done rendered faster than that. I also tried rendering just selected objects and they rendered within seconds even at 4x antialiasing. I saved the file as something else and started removing items ... but it didnt seem to do much until most were gone. But I selected the main ship parts (minus the windows and some other stuff) and saved them as a separate object and loaded that and it render quicker. Maybe I did something to the scene file such as some enormous quality settings I can't seem to locate ...I'll probably open the ship parts in another file and start lighting again [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

David K ... www.dkingdesign.com

[s.winders]

Hi bud...yep still kicking [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]


No it would take a few minutes in C4D as well,depending on the output res as well.I am not familair with Truespace either but 2 hours does sound pretty steep indeed.



Stu.

[gidgit]

Hey Hey, right on Dave... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] looking very nice... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]

[bmh216]

David,
You might want to slow that ship down. Even if it is travelling at a great rate, a large part of realism in ships this size is to make them pass the camera (or the camera pass them) at a slow, deliberate rate, thus emphasizing their sheer size. Think of the scenes of the Imperial Starcruisers in Star Wars: the ship always passes very slowly, and it greatly enhances the perception that the ship must be very large in physical size.

Otherwise, very nice work. I think the ship should move past the camera, not the other way around, and that would help the realism factor as well.

Glad you got that render problem worked out, I knew something had to be amiss for the renders to take that long.

Brett

[dk_art]

This is my first project using my newly bought 3d software Truespace 6.

http://www.dkingdesign.com/stuff/tru...ship_test5.jpg


I've been working on this a few days. The textures are only temporary as I will make custom ones after the model is complete. I will try out layering a dirt and 'weathering' (exhaust marks, damage marks etc) texture on the parts too , to give it more of a used look. the lighting needs some work too and I'll add localized lights to add colder fainter glows to area away from the main light direction (etc).

Here is the model in the program workspace

http://www.dkingdesign.com/stuff/tru.../workspace.jpg

I plan to add some more elements to form a scene but that's later.

I thought of the ring shape after thinkng of the particle accelerator rings built under ground in places. I thought maybe this ship could use a technology involving the collision of matter in a round track and using the energy released as fuel. But I think now the ring design is more of a device for creating a sortof controlled singularity or rift in space into which the ship can "fall" and reappear in another location much faster than normal motion. Not quite like warp speed as that involves still involves travelling (faster than light). The ship has 6 propulsion ports facing for and aft (as to come to a halt from great speed, a ship needs to decelerate as well so engine thrust needs to be applied in that direction at the end of a trip while using conventional movement ... the ship could rotate 180 degrees I suppose to carry out this but I liked the idea of engine ports facing forwards too).

Anyway, this pic took a few hours to render believe it or not and it's just a test. I think I have some objects there which are adding more time to the render than should be. The windows are rectangles just slightly jutting out from the surface and each has a setting to emit it's own light. Perhaps I have them set to cause shadows or something which would probably bog things down.

I'll make a copy of the file and delete the windows and try rendering to see.


I'll post more refined pics when finished

David K ... www.dkingdesign.com

[Crow Haven]

Great design David!!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] I'll be eager to see your completed version too!!!
---Maya [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[dk_art]

Thanks for the pointers. It was a test of the animator and I thought it was just so neat to get any result so it's not really perfect. The animation part of the program turned out to be pretty simple to use and record keyframes so that was good. The moving the camera was a temporary test action as none of my spaceship parts are glued together yet and I was too lazy at the moment to do so [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

What I'd really like to do is make the ship pass by with some blinking navigational lights. Some engine thrust glow and effects would be nice but I don't think I can do that without some FX plugin.

I need to find some better star textures (preferably larger and with a proper milky way). This one appears pretty much greyscale although I'd only want a few brighter stars showing a tiny bit of colour.


I would really like to get some sound in there (I know ... no sound should be heard but still for effect). Ah, sounds like a lot of work to get a few seconds of spaceship fly-by [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

David K ... www.dkingdesign.com

[dk_art]

Thanks ... I'll keep working and make something better animation wise.

The lit windows in the ship are all boxes just barely sticking out from the surface. They are set to be light sources so show in the dark too. I wonder if I can set some tiny animated textures to several of these windows to show shadows moving inside. Just enough to imply perhaps some humans looking out the windows or walking inside near them ... hehe ... I'll think about that later.

David K ... www.dkingdesign.com

[s.winders]

Nice original design David [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]


Hi Brett [thumbsup]


Stu.