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Judges Guild Mercenary Cruiser Reimagined

aramis said:
Probably should have nav lights, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_light has a decent coverage.
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Ah, good call. Hadn't even thought about that. I did find one rather limited solution - put it in front of a nebula. ;) And even then, it's still pretty hard to see details.

JGTC_10.jpg
 
Well, I learned to kill 2 birds with one stone (or maybe it's 3 birds). I figured out how to make just the lightning glow, which gives the ships a bit more definition. I'm still tinkering to find the right settings (it's still a bit obnoxious), but the added bonus is I've now figured out how to do the jump grids properly as well. :D

JGTC_11.jpg
 
Last one for tonight

Okay, added some nav lights for variety, and tinkered with the lightning scheme. I went with more blue and tuned it down some; I kinda like it. Let me know what you think.

JGTC_12.jpg
 
The glow looks like a natural effect and sort of bothers me. The all black ships just loose all your hard work into the background. You have done an outstanding job on the design why hide it?
 
Well, at this point it's as much learning what I can do as it is having a finished product. As I noted above, this little side foray has expanded my list of tools considerably - just tinkering today has taught me about composite textures and how to get only a portion of them to glow (among other things), which leads to doing effective jump grids. Andrews shot of a ship jumping in one of his videos is something I've been trying to figure out how to do for some time, and now I know. Whether or not I can do it well remains to be seen, but it's a start.

It's part of my learning curve - have an idea (black ship! COOL!), realize you've screwed the pooch (man, that's hard to light), ask a silly question (wonder if I can make the lightning glow), then figure out how to do it. Realize that black ships are a less than great idea, then take what I learned in the process and apply it to something else (jump grids).

That said, the pirate version will most likely be used (eventually) in a pbp game, and since I'm already doing renders testing things, I might as well make the most of them. But, I'm still working on the civillian version as well, and you'll be seeing more of that in the next couple of days.

The most important thing I've learned from this project is - black ships suck in several ways, and I'm going to need a damn good reason to do another one. ;)

Hope that make sense.
 
Well stated :)

I love the civ version, the nose art was also great. Your backgrounding is getting better also.

So the project was a great success and I am looking foward to your next design.
 
navanod said:
Well, at this point it's as much learning what I can do as it is having a finished product. As I noted above, this little side foray has expanded my list of tools considerably
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It's a great way to learn IME.

Try lightening the textures - dark grey might be okay.
 
Agreed. I can sit and read tutorials/manuals all day, and not 'get it', but once I start digging into things and actually playing with it, I usually learn several other things in the process.

Slightly lighter textures are on my to-do list already. :)

Oh, and a question to the audience at large -

Is seeing this much of my creative process enjoyable/worthwhile for everyone to follow? Too much, too little?
 
navanod said:
Oh, and a question to the audience at large -

Is seeing this much of my creative process enjoyable/worthwhile for everyone to follow? Too much, too little?
Click to expand...

For me, who'll likely never get this much into it, yes, still very interesting to see it as a process. It's like designer notes which I also like finding in other aspects of stuff in this and other hobbies. I find it much more interesting than just a completed piece plonked down for viewing or use. Not that I don't love that too :)

I also know it takes more time (probably a lot more) out of what could be spent towards simply the creation itself so I wouldn't fault you or anyone for skipping the extra work.

Which is a long way of saying, thank you very much for the peek behind the curtain :D
 
Sharing your project with us and listening to comments helped your final project. You do the groundwork and we throw in random thoughts. Sort of a community effort with you doing all the work...;)

I enjoyed it, thanks.
 
Okie dokie then, I'll keep bloviating till someone tells me to stop. Today turned out to be ding-the-crap-out-of-it day, a little something to take the new ship feel off of it. Lots of pics, so I thumbnailed them.

,,,,

,,


As far as the time involved posting stuff here, it's minimal. A minute or two to load it to photobucket, another minute or two to link it into the thread. And I have to admit, feedback from the community helps a lot - you tend to see things I might not, and suggest something that works better than what I have done. Besides, it would suck majorly to do one of these, get all the way to the end, and have somebody point out something I should have caught before it was done. Reworking after the fact is a pain.
 
And some lit renders.

,,,

There's still a ton of stuff to tinker with - bridge, cockpit for the pinnace, and on and on. I'm working on the writeup and other associated materials, but think I'm going to back away from this one for a week or two and let it simmer. If I'm ever going to get my pbp game going, there's a ton of stuff I need to do, so I think I'm going to delve into that for a bit. I also need to do some cleanup and get all of the files for it sorted out so I know what is what.
 
TM2 Semi-Final Release

In case you missed it, Technical Manual 2- Judges Guild Type C is up in the File library under Deckplans. It's two zip files, one for renders and one for everything else. Find it HERE and HERE
 
I have to say for something as rubish as the original Judges Guild Type C Ship and Deckplans that I wouldn't have touched with a barge pole, you have turned them into a great resource I would be more than happy to use in my game.

Many thanks for all the effort you have put in, they're great.

Best regards,

Ewan
 
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