This is looking good, HOPEFULLY this becomes the first HTL Shivan Cruiser to be complete.
Bone ship...:wtf:
Orph3u5, I think that Volition itself went further than their own conceptual sketch. Its sketch seems too "machine like", and little "buggy like", which the Shivans ended up resembling more with. The result was way more organic, and I appreciate that a lot, it gives that creepy feeling that the entire ship is alive somehow, that is more than a hull of strong alloys.
I think the beauty of the shivans could be more of a "mechanic mimics organic" type of stuff, instead of going too strongly in either direction.
That's why I mentioned the other version, to see if something would pop out into your imagination :)
Keep it up
outstanding ! keep going don't stop..Thanks for the encouragement people ;). Yes, I have more time than I originally thought. I'll try to work more tonight, but in the meantime, more updates. The intersection between the "organic part" and the non-organic is too steep, and to leave that transition to a good UV map work is lamish, so there I have still something to correct. Other than that, I'm almost ready to go to the backside, where I do have some crazy ideas floating inside my head...
btw.. that's not a slow WIP at all :yes: you are doing it quite fast indeed.
A question though: What are you going to fill the "rib cages" with? It might look a tad odd to have empty cages ending in beam cannons.
I really like the empty rib cages, especially since that front part is already split down the middle. I think it would definitely fit with the Rakshasa. Try filling it with a few cables connecting the turrets; just make splines with end vertices at all the turret hardpoints, then loft it with an octagon.
Less pronounced, less regular. Look at the SB Taurvi WIP.
Greebling asside, I think the neck is too straight. sure it was straight in the low poly model, but that's because they couldn't waist any polys. About the greebles, perhaps you are trying to introduce the wrong kind of design element? Try having a neck made of horizontal\longitudinal beams\greebles that connect the head to the abdomen.
For tubes, since you are using Max, the best way to do them is to draw a spline, and then make the spline renderable in the viewport. Tweak the number of sides. Once you are happy with the shape, convert the spline to editable poly.
Also, don't worry too much about the triangle orientations yet
The tubes might look better if they had a surrounding superstructure so that it didn't look like a bundle of cables.Might look better if it's a thinner, too. Sorta like veins or arteries.
I'm loving what I see! :)
Nut the spikes look too low poly compared to the rest of the body, and there's also some surfaces that are too plain compared to the rest.
But awesome work, its coming to life
It's awesome, the turret as well as the cruiser. What are the polycounts, triangulated?
Also WAY too high poly for a single turret.
There's no other way I can make this concept fly.
There's no other way I can make this concept fly.
Negative. A simple )( structure with the orb on top can be textured and normal-mapped to achieve a similar result. Having that many itty bitty triangles in such a small space is simply asking for trouble.
In Doom3, one of the biggest achievements of those guys were to make 2-10k models seem as if they were 100k. How did they do this? They made 2 models. The first with the 100k polys, and the other with the +-5k (or something). Then a program would calculate the difference and, here's the magic, would render a normals map that emulated the former. So I ask here, does this kind of thing exist for the common people, or is it still something hidden in the higher levels of the illuminati?
Yes, you see where I wanted to go here. And yes, I'm lazy :lol:
Yes, the process is called projection. 3dsMax has the render to texture tool, which does that, but I don't like it to be honest. The best software I've encountered is called Xnormal, made by Santiago Orgaz. Run a google for it, its entirely free, easy to use, and has a very nice and small documentation.
Finally, I don't like the turret design, sorry :p Go for something more simple and shivanish
The Rakshasa look beautiful, Luis. I wouldn't change the hull design any way from what you have now.This would be good if it was to be used as a default Shivan AAA design for capital ships.
If I'd suggest an idea for the anti-fighter beam turret I'd again suggest using "the claw" design as seen on the Lucifer's lateral turrets. This would actually be really cool when firing, as the glow would appear in the the "void of space" (if you will...) between the claws (maybe roughly comparable to the Sathanas' subspace projections?), and then blast something in the usual beamy way... hopefully not you... I could prepare another sketch if you'd like.
-Thaeris
The Rakshasa look beautiful, Luis. I wouldn't change the hull design any way from what you have now.This would be good if it was to be used as a default Shivan AAA design for capital ships.
If I'd suggest an idea for the anti-fighter beam turret I'd again suggest using "the claw" design as seen on the Lucifer's lateral turrets. This would actually be really cool when firing, as the glow would appear in the the "void of space" (if you will...) between the claws (maybe roughly comparable to the Sathanas' subspace projections?), and then blast something in the usual beamy way... hopefully not you... I could prepare another sketch if you'd like.
-Thaeris
I see people are not liking it, nothing that I wasn't expecting, after all it's not exactly "canon" and anything that deviates from "canon" is always problematic.
The orb idea came from ragingloli's Hatshepsut, yes, but also from a tautology: the beam seems as if created by a point in space, not a conventional turret.
If you're interested in finishing it, you might want to supply it to the community turret collection.
Claws > Orbs in Shivan circles.
Actually, If C914 is agreeable, maybe you should consider taking advantage of the fact that 2 Shivan HTL cruisers are being made simultaneously and think about a joint effort on the turrets with the Rak and the Cain?
Meh, I think FS1 and FS2 shivans should be kept as two design families.Since someone saw it as appropriate to split my post, I'll say it again: I agree with this sentiment.
I've messaged Galemp with the model I was working with a year ago, so that you can toy with it. I have no time in my life to porsue this, and when I abandoned this forum, I really forgot to share it with you people so that you could use it - flame me at will people.
Yes, Galemp don't you just love english? Specially when it's used by foreigners ar ar ar.
I'll try to upload a 3ds file later in the day, I understand 3ds max is not ubiquituous.
Oh and thanks Thaeris that's a nice compliment ;)
Yes, Galemp don't you just love english? Specially when it's used by foreigners ar ar ar.
opened the file provided by rampage and its smooth groups are all frakked up (or are just non-existent). just warnin.
opened the file provided by rampage and its smooth groups are all frakked up (or are just non-existent). just warnin.
To fixed the mesh I had to rebuild it pretty much from the bottom up again; please redo the smooth groups again after more repairs have been made.
-R
opened the file provided by rampage and its smooth groups are all frakked up (or are just non-existent). just warnin.
To fixed the mesh I had to rebuild it pretty much from the bottom up again; please redo the smooth groups again after more repairs have been made.
-R
Just so everyone knows, I have begun work on this since major work on the Sathanas is complete.
/necrothread
(http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af118/RgaNoris/New_Rak_Show02.png)
(http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af118/RgaNoris/New_Rak_Show03.png)
(http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af118/RgaNoris/Ret_Rak_Show.png)
The texture part in the gap at the front looks like a space vagina of steel. Awesome!oh god cannot unsee
I like that touch of gold. It's like a shoutout to the Sathanas texture scheme.
Duuuuuuuuuuuuude........ Awesome. It's about 500000x better than the original.
oh and just a thought, you feel like generating some new shivan tilemaps from the base of this texture? I know the direction if to move to UV mapped ships, but there are plenty of models that could use an update to the shivan tile maps... :yes:
Perhaps you should just wait until the shine maps are complete and not batch created for the sake of just having a working shine-map?
The model: I definetly love it, but I feel it lost some iconic\defining elements from the retail one, that were somewhat important. Namely on the back section (abdomen?):
- Where the neck connects with the abdomen, the retail model has a "circle" of glow, that IMO is a strong silhuette element.
- On the top of the abdomen, that zig-zaggy pattern of lighter grey. I know that is a bi-product of the tile map, but nevertheless it shows the artist tried to use the tiles very inteligently, and ended up with a strong visual element.
- The general shape of the abdomen on the original reminds me more of a vertically stretched hexagon with concave left and right sides, whereas on this HTL the whole abdomen looks very round in shape.
- Finally, the ribbing. I do love your interpretation of the front ribs, despite the deviation from the original. However, something that I found important in the retail ship is the fact that the ribs on the front section and in the abdomen are of the same kind, which gave it an idea of a organic entity that was somewhat chopped in half and re-connected with the neck.
As for the texture, I feel the same as I felt on the HTL Cain: Shivan ships display a good contrast in variations in the shades of gray and materials used, whereas these HTL interpretations loose that completely in favor of sticking with a single shade of gray+red lights. I feel that in the end it weakens the ships in terms of design and visual impact.
If some of these crits are a bit too late I apologise (only saw the topic now).
*SNIP*
With some feedback taken into account AND all diffuse maps finalized:I shed a tear. Literally. Beautiful work.
http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af118/RgaNoris/Rak_Glow_BadAss02.png
http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af118/RgaNoris/Rak_Glow_BadAss01.png
http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af118/RgaNoris/Rak_Glow_BadAss-1.png
amazing design. though the tubes look a bit weird. i think they should be bundled together like tension wire instead of being irregular.
amazing design. though the tubes look a bit weird. i think they should be bundled together like tension wire instead of being irregular.
Really nice looking shivans. But oh god retail weapon stats make fights look like girls pillow fight at night.
I suppose I should wrap this one up. Been distracted by working on the [REDACTED] and the [REDACTED], not to mention the [REDACTED] and soon i'll tackle the [REDACTED].
I suppose I should wrap this one up. Been distracted by working on the [REDACTED] and the [REDACTED], not to mention the [REDACTED] and soon i'll tackle the [REDACTED].
Don't forget the [REDATED], because [REDATCED] and [REDACTED] don't really go well together.... ;)
You all need to go [REDACTED] yourselves. :D