The Traveller Art Thread - Art Only

[Teletron1]

I think its great Mert! And all of the advice and critiques everyone gives on this website is great as well. I'm pretty new to traveller and 3D art so I have no advice to give or ideas to add, I'm only writing to say you are all an inspiration to a beginner like me. Keep the awesome works coming.


Ender

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

Another step ...

Well, on my monitor it appears to be too dark, but thats maybe a hardware feature.
I deployed some window lights and added a bit of surface modelling. There are also about 250 triple turrets distributed over the surface.
There is a lightning glitch (a "rogue" shadow) I am still looking for...
Considering the design of the BB11 its quite tricky thing to find a place for all those turret and bay weapons...

Now I need some subcraft to enhance scale effect.
I will start some more texturing work right now in order to mark hatches, launch tube exits and other surface features.

Work goes on...

Best regards,

Mert
Mert

 

[TheEngineer]

Just catched the shadow bug...

Hm, have to change the sensor stuff...

 

[Scarecrow]

Awesome. Just plain excellent! I love it.
The shape, colours and camera angle give it a really powerful, threatening presence!

Obviously the lighting needs looking at, but don't worry about that just now. Carry on playing with the modelling and texturing. It looks great.

Nice one.

Crow

 

[Falkayn]

Looking very sharp and menacing ... I would play with the 'needles' in the bow as they look a little plain, and make the lights in the lower bow a little less random. Perhaps fewer at the front and more further back too.

But overall, GREAT!

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

Needles are fixed (I hope).
I will see what I can do the the window lights. They are distributed in fact randomly, but I will see how to change that.
Guess I will change the windows lights anyway, as thy do not look quite convincing...

Crow:
Thanks for all those hints. I already made some experiments with GI here. It takes a awful amount if time, but results are pretty ok.
I might have to simplify some bits, because there are around 85000 faces right now...

Mert

 

[Antony]

Personally I think the little white squares detract somewhat, perhaps if some were rectangular? White may be the wrong colour anyway. I'd go for a graduated blue but that may make things too complicated.

A simple example of what I mean

Not one of my finer efforts but what I mean about the windows can be seen in the forward dome

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi Antony !

Know what You mean.
I will try to create bitmap texture based windows....

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Very, very nice. As others have said, the windows are the only real problem. Make them more rectangular and less random. Not sure if it's worth using a bitmap for something only a few pixels across; I usually go with slightly off-white with a bit of glow.

 

[Scarecrow]

Originally posted by Antony:
A simple example of what I mean

Actually, I think those blue windows are the only thing that spoil that image

With regards to the windows. I think the real problem with them at the moment is that they are not lit. They need to be brighter and maybe even have a little glow effect on them - but not too intense or they'll start taking over. Also, keep them away from geometry edges. It looks too much like a mapping error and becomes questionable from an engineering standpoint aswell.

Something you could try is getting a number of photos of nighttime windows - such as from office buildings and map them on. They will be tiny tiny and you won't be able to make out details, but the noise will be realistic to your eyes. It's what the big boys at ILM do (if they don't actually model the bloody interior

)

Here's a sample you can use:

Crow

 

[parmasson]

Perhaps just a few rows of them for effect and to keep it simple.
After all why do you really need windows on a battleship?

 

[Scarecrow]

A fair point. They're useful, however for setting scale. There are, of course, other ways of doing that.

Crow

 

[SanDragon]

Because, flying around in a box you can't see out of is boooooring!!

 

[TheEngineer]

Honestly there is hardly a technical reason to use anything like windows on a TL 10+ ship.
In fact those were just kind of potential armoring leaks in the surface...
Perhaps there might be some places with "real" windows usable in an case of electronic breakdown (bridge, docking areas...).

Perhaps I could stress scale with some elements like life pod or subcraft hatches and a couple of contouring positional lights ?

 

[TheEngineer]

Honestly there is hardly a technical reason to use anything like windows on a TL 10+ ship.
In fact those were just kind of potential armoring leaks in the surface...
Perhaps there might be some places with "real" windows usable in an case of electronic breakdown (bridge, docking areas...).

Perhaps I could stress scale with some elements like life pod or subcraft hatches and a couple of contouring positional lights ?

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

Adopted suggestions...

Crow, many thanks for this office windows input

I will remove the "bad" lights completly.

Going back to texture works...

Regards,

Mert

 

[fredofmars]

I like the pictures of the BB, but they are getting progressively darker. In the first couple of renders, I could see the whole ship; in the last one, I can only really see where it is specifically lighted and a bare hint of the rest. This is probably quite correct if we are looking at a ship in space that is far away from an illumination source, but for use homebodies it is quite hard to see all the work you are putting into it. I'd suggest turning the lights up a bit until you have all the textures and such done and then turn down the lights for the final "beauty shots".

 

[Scarecrow]

Smartly done! It's looking better and better all the time.

I agree with Joseph about the brightness though.

Crow

 

[TheEngineer]

Please excuse Joseph !
I´m a consultant and thus used to hide the details of my actual work in darkness ...

But ok. I will turn on the "Lights" ...

 

[Andrew Boulton]

I'd brighten the windows a little, and lose the ones right up against the nose, and the sunburst needs tidying up a bit (plus it's the wrong colour - should be yellow, unless the Scouts are really tough where you come from!), but these are just minor nitpicks.