Greetings, all. I decided it was high time that I started giving back to the community from which I have followed for the last few years. Years back, I started tinkering around with 3d modeling with a copy of Poser 2 and the original version of Truespace. Yeah, that's been a while ago. I never had the time to do more than tinker, though, and much of what I produced was, well, pretty pathetic.
Over the years, I've accumulated better tools, practiced, and read up on everything I could find, especially in the last year or so. Now, I've decided to put my work out there for critique and analysis by the Traveller community.
A little background about this project. A while back, I decided I wanted to put all of my developing skills to the test and produce a graphic novel, or possibly a series of animated shorts (I firmly blame Mr. Boulton and his Traveller trailer for that notion). I hadn't initially started with the premise of doing anything Trav related, just something sci-fi in general. I kept coming back to Traveller, however, and decided to start doing some research on where I could set a good story that still allowed me room to roam. I finally settled on the Islands subsectors in the Reft Sector, from TCS - isolated, lots of scheming factions, relatively free of Imperial influence, etc. while still being fairly easy to relate to.
Don't get me wrong, I love the ships and overall character of the 3I, but I was looking for someplace to play that I could roam a bit away from the iconic styles of the Imperium and do things a bit differently. Somewhere along the way, I decided to start putting together a play-by-post game set in the Islands, and will use that story as the basis for my 3d work.
A request for information here led me to Christopher Thrash, who has been most generous in educating me about the Islands. I'm still wading through the data and getting things set up for the pbp game, but figured a good place to start would be some 3d deckplans for my players.
As I started tinkering with the ship design, I kept running into little nagging details - how big is a missile? how many in a turret? how big is a shipping container? staterooms? bunkrooms? And so on and so on, all variable by the system used. Wheee! I've been working from the basis of using GURPS 4e: Interstellar Wars as a ruleset, simply because the tech levels used fit the tech levels of the Islands quite nicely, and I've been playing GURPS nearly as long as I've been playing Traveller. I do seem to be suffering from Multiple System Disorder, because MegaTraveller and GURPS 3e Traveller keep popping back into my head, depending on which way the wind blows at the moment.
Anyway, if anybody is still reading at this point, here's the first of my WIPs - shipping containers. I kept the idea of standardized sizes from GT3e - 10', 20', 30', and 40' being the standards. The picture from page 28 of the MegaTraveller Journal was the main source of inspiration. Posted here -
http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j259/navanod1/Traveller/Ship Renders/WIP/
Also posted there is my take on a typical bunk in a bunkroom. Fitting 10 people in 2dtons is quite a trick, short of hanging hammocks from the walls. For inspiration, I started checking out Japanese 'capsule' hotels. They're 1 m x 1 m x 2 m, and actually look relatively comfortable compared to bunks on WWII subs. I also thought some luxuries would be afforded to crewmen forced to live in such arrangements for any length of time - individual environmental controls, entertainment facilities, etc. Two styles are shown, one loaded from the side and one loaded from the end. The end loaders probably won't do the trick in a single bunkroom unit, but would work for larger bunkrooms.
Comments, criticism, suggestions?
Over the years, I've accumulated better tools, practiced, and read up on everything I could find, especially in the last year or so. Now, I've decided to put my work out there for critique and analysis by the Traveller community.
A little background about this project. A while back, I decided I wanted to put all of my developing skills to the test and produce a graphic novel, or possibly a series of animated shorts (I firmly blame Mr. Boulton and his Traveller trailer for that notion). I hadn't initially started with the premise of doing anything Trav related, just something sci-fi in general. I kept coming back to Traveller, however, and decided to start doing some research on where I could set a good story that still allowed me room to roam. I finally settled on the Islands subsectors in the Reft Sector, from TCS - isolated, lots of scheming factions, relatively free of Imperial influence, etc. while still being fairly easy to relate to.
Don't get me wrong, I love the ships and overall character of the 3I, but I was looking for someplace to play that I could roam a bit away from the iconic styles of the Imperium and do things a bit differently. Somewhere along the way, I decided to start putting together a play-by-post game set in the Islands, and will use that story as the basis for my 3d work.
A request for information here led me to Christopher Thrash, who has been most generous in educating me about the Islands. I'm still wading through the data and getting things set up for the pbp game, but figured a good place to start would be some 3d deckplans for my players.
As I started tinkering with the ship design, I kept running into little nagging details - how big is a missile? how many in a turret? how big is a shipping container? staterooms? bunkrooms? And so on and so on, all variable by the system used. Wheee! I've been working from the basis of using GURPS 4e: Interstellar Wars as a ruleset, simply because the tech levels used fit the tech levels of the Islands quite nicely, and I've been playing GURPS nearly as long as I've been playing Traveller. I do seem to be suffering from Multiple System Disorder, because MegaTraveller and GURPS 3e Traveller keep popping back into my head, depending on which way the wind blows at the moment.
Anyway, if anybody is still reading at this point, here's the first of my WIPs - shipping containers. I kept the idea of standardized sizes from GT3e - 10', 20', 30', and 40' being the standards. The picture from page 28 of the MegaTraveller Journal was the main source of inspiration. Posted here -
http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j259/navanod1/Traveller/Ship Renders/WIP/
Also posted there is my take on a typical bunk in a bunkroom. Fitting 10 people in 2dtons is quite a trick, short of hanging hammocks from the walls. For inspiration, I started checking out Japanese 'capsule' hotels. They're 1 m x 1 m x 2 m, and actually look relatively comfortable compared to bunks on WWII subs. I also thought some luxuries would be afforded to crewmen forced to live in such arrangements for any length of time - individual environmental controls, entertainment facilities, etc. Two styles are shown, one loaded from the side and one loaded from the end. The end loaders probably won't do the trick in a single bunkroom unit, but would work for larger bunkrooms.
Comments, criticism, suggestions?
