[Thor]

alright, I have a question for all you starship designers out there.  How do you go about designing your vessel, what considerations do you take?  I'm trying to figure out where to start with some designs.  so i figured I'd ask in here, and see what some of the masters have to say....any tips or suggestions from start to finish would be appreciated.  doesn't have to be for FS designs only either.  prefered not actually.  This could be useful to everyone, so i hope you have lots to say.

[Taristin]

I wing it.

[Thor]

lol that was full of insight!

[WMCoolmon]

I wing it.

That's horrible.

[Singh]

Mostly just winging it here too

>_>

<_<

[Unknown Target]

If it's a semi-realistic design, I try and think of, like, where the thrusters would go, or how it would maneuver, or where the radar, engines, and cockpit are..

If it's not a semi-realistic design, then I just make it look cool But I usually sketch out a concept beforehand, to get the general idea of the model

[FireCrack]

If it's a semi-realistic design, I try and think of, like, where the thrusters would go, or how it would maneuver, or where the radar, engines, and cockpit are..

If it's not a semi-realistic design, then I just make it look cool But I usually sketch out a concept beforehand, to get the general idea of the model

More or less what I do... not that i make all new models that often.

[Ferret]

Think of a basic idea and go from there.
Uh, wing it.

[Galemp]

I'm observant; I look at things around me, ordinary objects and patterns, and occasionally an idea pops out at me. I make a few sketches, decide on a general shape, then work out how I would build it from primitives. Then I do the work in a modeling program and take things around from there.

[NGTM-1R]

Occasionally I make concept stuff out of Legos.

There is a degree of function-to-form, but I generally only assign a function to the model after I'm more then half-done with it.

[Unknown Target]

I think it'd be cool to set up a school of starship design, with lots of different concepts, models, etc. I've looked all over the web for concepts and designs of starships to get ideas for my own, or get ways to design mine, but I usually just come up with Star Trek or some crappy Bryce-5 rendered shiny snowball ships.

[Nuke]

i usually hav a loose idea in my head about what shape it should be. i tend to start at the frong of the ship and work my way back, but not always. i like to keep the engines neer the center of gravity, i see of ships out there that would do whirlybirds cause there engines are too high or too low. i also keep uv mapping in mind when tweaking surface countours. hard lines make good definition of the boarders of a uv group. if you are gonna use a mirror tool, use it after you map out uv space, or it will take twice as long to uv. and one more technique i use it assigning a different material to each uv group, which makes them easyer to select in truespace. oh and stay away from booleans. when i want to do a trickey boolean i usually make a copy of my model and do the boolean on the coppy, then manually copy the positions on the new virtices into the old model, it takes longer but spares you the bad geometry.

[Thor]

I definatly like the idea of a starship guide being built.  Cause when i looked on the net there was nothing.  Thanks for the tips.

[TrashMan]

How...

Wel...erm..first I de4cise what type of ship it is...then if it will be symetric or asymetric.
then I generally just start with a box or a cylinder and work around several possibilites (lots of objects).
Once I'm happy with one combination, I stick with it.

Oh..and taking into consideration the fireing cones, weapon placements and things like that help.

[Nuke]

i usually wing the gun placement in my ships. i design something that looks spaceworthy and i attach weapon points with ducktape and bailing wire so to speak.

really theres no way to make a guide, it seems everyone has there own little style and technique. best bet is to studdy sci-fi designs and maybe a little of nasa's work. watch of documentries on experimental aircraft. it should all clue you in to proper system layout. as for how to come up with your own design, its best to also come up with your own way of making them. im sure a google search would turn up a good tutorial for modeling a space ship in whatever software you have. should learn the how to in no time. but to develop your own style takes much longer. make a few models, no matter how crappy keep them saved on your hd. helps get your ideas flowing. then when you feel more comfortable, try to make a complete model. it worked for me. i eventually ended up revisiting my old ideas and they eventually became really good models.

[MetalDestroyer]

I definatly like the idea of a starship guide being built.  Cause when i looked on the net there was nothing.  Thanks for the tips.

I agree, I was drawing some cruiser/destroyer design last week and I feel pain to do them in a very short time.
A short artwork with the minimal detail, took me 1 hour :sweat:

For others :
How could you wing starship ? O_o
Any exemple would be nice. For now, I always use reference to Star Wars/Freespace 2/X3 Reunion.
But, i would be enjoy if i could make my own starship.

[Singh]

Winging it is easy.....just....'wing' it, i.e, improvise on the go....

[MicroPsycho]

I started with basic 2-D shape, as I can't draw/sketch worth a damn, then I 3-D-ize it into some for of a design and evolve the design as I go along....so yeah, I wing it.

[Vengence]

Hmm... Well, when i design stuff I just like to have fun. Meaning some freaky, flashy, or just simply sharp designs go around. For some reason... I like wings with lots of protruding stuff. When it comes to capital ships, guns guns and more guns with my signature Blue and White color scheme!

I start out drawing a concept and practice the drawing in phases I call 'Generations'. For instance: first concept 'First Generation', second concept 'Second Generation' ect ect. Once I got the overall design plotted I model. Once, twice, until I'm satisfied. Some designs took me up to 4 remakes to be satisfactory. Btw, creativity and originality go along very well and stand out very well.

[Raptor]

Mind if i drop in?

Personally, I mainly follow the 'Function dictates Form' school.  I generally start with a basic, rough idea of how it looks and would act in my head, then I do dozens of sketches trying to find the right form.  Then it's a case of turning those rough sketches into 3D objects.  Quite a bit is done on the fly however, since things that can't been seen in a 2D sketch show up plain as day in 3D...

Certain things crop up often though:

1) Balanced firepower - Generally this means both port and starboard flanks have equal weapon coverage (hence all my ships are symetical)

2) Centred thrust - I took an engineering degree, and trust me, you don't want the thrust vector out of line with the COG of your ship.  Causes all kinds of problems   This, plus the above, is the reason I started my own verision of the HTL Orion (that and I'm not fond of Bob's one...( )

3) Looks good - debatable this one.  I understand that everyone has thier own tastes.  For me, Terran is sleek, angular and hard edges; Vasudan is organic and flowing; Shivan is just alien, generally spiky, constructs from the depths of ones nightmares...

4) Purpose - Nearly every part has a function of some sort, even those as vague as the wings on my 'Trogen/Star Rider' transport/gunship, used for atmspheraic operations... at least for Terran ships

Fighters/bombers and transports to me are flat, while cap ships are tall... not sure if that explains what I mean...

Basically, everyone has their own style.  You just need to find yours.  My advice: Go play