[PsychoLandlord]

So, I finally nailed down a design I think is actually worthwhile and fairly original, so I figured I'd show it off here, and get a few opinions. It's obviously nowhere near finished in even the broadest sense of the term, and there are more than a few little details I would like to add, but the basic shape and design is there. 

Any sort of critique is welcome, as I'll take all ideas under advisement. I would also like to add that this is the first model I have ever created, so If i need to stop while I'm ahead nows the time to tell me.

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Recalculate your normals, add an edgesplit modifier. Apart from that, it seems very... flat. How are you gonna fit a Shivan, engines, guns and missiles into it?

[Lucika]

It's rather Ancient-ish for me...

[PsychoLandlord]

Recalculate your normals, add an edgesplit modifier. Apart from that, it seems very... flat. How are you gonna fit a Shivan, engines, guns and missiles into it?

Regarding the guns,  I was going to throw I tribarrel port into that indention in the front when I had cleaned up the model itself. Really the only reason I have the indention there is to remind ME where to guns are going to be and how big the superstructure will end up. Once the guns are there I'll close that whole open spot up and smooth it out.

Engines are the Crescent-like thing in the back. laid out horizontally. Missiles will probably exit from the under side of the ship, which I will beef up considerably to try and dispel illusions of flatness.

One more note, are the tentacle too much? I was contemplating adding an identical set to the bottom as well, but I'd like some opinions on whether or not they' even work for the design really.  The ship is intended to have the angular, predatory look common to some of the second-gen Shivan fighter craft, but I didnt want to make it another Spaceborne knife.  I figured adding structures similar to dragging tentacles would help out with the semi-lovecraftian tone Shivan ships have, while also portraying an illusion of speed.

In nay case, keep more commentary on the design coming, if you please. I realize now I probably should have waited till the model was cleaner and higher poly to start asking for input, but too late now

[Rampage]

Apart from that, it seems very... flat.

Probably just part of the whole learning Blender process.

Keep up the good work!

[bobbtmann]

You don't need to be so self depreciating. That's a great start to a ship. The tentacles won't come across as tentacles, however. They'll be rigid so they'll look like stabilizers or some kind of rigid extension. In my mind, this is fine. The ship is very flat, so the tentacles add a bit of variety to the ship. Bottom ones sound like a good idea, just try varying them up a bit. Maybe the bottom ones can be bigger, or a different shape.

I am also glad you didn't wait until you had more detail before you made your post. It's a lot harder to make big changes to our model after you've added a lot of detail. Really, there's no use asking for input when the model is almost done. By that time you've wasted so much time modelling that you'd be resistant to making the necessary changes.

And honestly, details are overated.

[Rodo]

You wanna see my first attempt with blender?

Now you can laugh

[Mustang19]

Your design isn't that bad. It just needs some greebles.

[Nuke]

greebels are overrated. makes everything look like something out of starwars.

[Thaeris]

I'm going to ruin this for everyone who hasn't seen it yet, but the dorsal/ventral profile looks like a headless body.

What exactly are you going for in this design, though? It is very flat on the lateral profile, while the top/bottom views are not what I'd call expressive, really. I'm not saying it's bad, but it, as of this time, invokes no emotional response from me with respect to the design. What exactly does this ship do, where is it from, etc.

If nothing else, I'd like to suggest making the ship a little bit less one-dimensional. Greebles? Greebles are for a finished model, and they're overrated anyway. I genuninely would suggest making the form of the craft good and proper before you start with finishing details.

*NOTE: Nuke beat me to the greebles comment...

[T-Man]

I really like this. Could work for shivans as a light or stealth fighter, but made me think the Vasudans when i first saw it (remeniscent of the Anubis and Seth). Agree its a bit too flat though, unless perhaps pilot lies down (i know one of Nuke's models has the pilot doing that)? Maybe fatten out the central body up and down to make room, so the spikes are centrepoint on the ship?

I'd vote a good model so far though, especially for a first ever one; you've certainly got extrusion down well, and that's the big step in modelling. Better at blender than i am at the moment too! Keep it going, reckon you've got some skills there, and modellers are always good.

[esarai]

Definitely an auspicious beginning to a model.  I see it mostly as Vasudan.  The overall shape isn't sharp enough to be Shivan.  And, like everyone has said, give it some more volume.  I think when Mustang19 says 'add greeble' I'm pretty sure he means surface details, not just star-wars grade random clutter.  Usually that only works for really big ships.

Everyone else has it right--you have no reason to be ashamed of this.  It's hell of a lot better than my first complete FSO ship.  It was just a bunch of rectangular prisms extruded here and there until it had some semblance of being a destroyer. 


P.S. - Try putting your images up on an image hosting site and then linking them into your thread with [ lvlshot ]<urlgoeshere>[ /lvlshot ] or [ img ][ /img ] (remove the spaces so you end up with [lvlshot]. I had to add them so they wouldn't turn on and you'd have no idea what I was on about).  Your attachments are going to be brutally slaughtered by ninjas in a few days.

[PsychoLandlord]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'm in the process of beefing up the design a bit, adding more volume to the underside and all that.  I've also cleaned the model itself up a bit (I had no idea there was and Edge Split modifier) and I'm going to add a second set of tentacles to to underside of the ship as well.

 I'm not terribly attached to any concept of what the model's actually supposed the be beyond "not GTVA Fighter" ATM, so I'll come back later with the updated design and throw a few more pics up. If people think it still looks more Vasudan, then I'll be happy to go in and make the necessary changes.

Again, thanks a bunch Hard Light, and I'll get this baby finished up and released as soon as I can.