September-October Challenge: USS New York

[tilt]

Transparent Aluminum?

hehe... that was a funny movie..

a lot of small bumps and stuff on the hull - thats always nice, especially taking into account the scale of the thing...

"Look at the size of that thing... " & "Thats not a moon, that's a space station"

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Just refining the design. I am thinking over how to arrange the landmasses inside the domes. Having them just suspended in water like islands doesn't look quite right. Hm, I'll have to figure something out.

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

I think that one of the downsides of so many entries is that people have less time to give C&C on each individual one! Oh well. Here is a layout I am working on. I am now trying to figure out how best to include various supplemental images/maps without it being too busy or huge.. Hm.

[tilt]

hmmmm only loads the top inch.. but the thumb looks really cool

[Gallifreyan]

The attachment opened for me in Chrome and it looks really amazing!

[mearrin69]

I can see it as well. Looks great. Can't really see much to C&C except:
1) The stars could use a bit of work IMO. Maybe brighten up the whole field and add some slight color variation? I wouldn't think you'd want grey stars in there...let the size govern a star's "apparent magnitude"? Also, maybe some flares on closer ones? Maybe that's not realistic but it's a well-worn sci-fi convention.
2) I assume these ships are trying to get somewhere they can settle so shouldn't they be in deep space instead of floating above a habitable planet? Or, is your story that they've finally reached their destination. If that's the case I definitely think you should include some fireworks in the domes!
I like your ship design. Reminds me, of course, of the Valley Forge from Silent Running.
M

[Steel General]

I agree w/Mearrin re: the stars, they might be a bit 'over-the-top' *shrugs*

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Thanks for useful C&C. I'll brighten up the stars, maybe use them a little more sparingly, I also saw I have some weird black boxes coming off the hull of the angled-view which I'll clean up.

Mearring69: Good point about the planet. I did make it look habitable--would it fit more if they were flying over an ominous-looking gas giant? I just wanted something to add a splash of color to the background.

All this shipbuilding is making me really want to enter that badass Deviant-art contest for EVE online. I could really use a wacom tablet....

[mearrin69]

Yeah. I think a gas giant or hell world or something would do that. I did kind of like the idea that they'd arrived and were celebrating. Kinda hard to convey that in the map...and it's sorta weird to hit people with denouement in the first frame, as it were. Heh. Maps with plot. Who'da thunk?
M

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Okay, I think I am very nearly finished with this (I always hesitate to say I actually am finished). This may very well be the fastest I've ever completed a work, and the most fun I've had on one as well. I guess I have no excuse (except for my ten other projects) but to do another map of two before this competition closes. Anyway, I would love to know what people think, and if there are any glaring problems that, as the artist, my eyes slide over without noting. I think I incorporated all the C&C that people left: fixed up the issues with the star field that people commented on, added the bumps and gnarly 'bumpy' textures that tilt recommended. I decided they mined all the metal from the asteroid belt to come up with all the raw materials (not that anyone was likely to ask). This is my second attempt at using 3D elements in my mapping. Also, this has really given me an appetite to try and design more ships. I think I might give that awesome Deviant-art spaceship design contest for EVE online a shot. Anyway, The ship was designed in Sketchup, textures from Genetica, layouts and effects added in Photoshop. I really really want to learn to use other, more 'professional' 3D software packages, but Sketchup is so dang easy and does about 70% of what I want it to do that it is hard to find the motivation.

I was kind of trying to go for a slightly "retro" look with the screen on the bottom half, I hope it came across and looks nice without looking cheesy or out of place. I also hope I didn't overdo it with the implied back story bio--it is a lot of space to use for flavor text, but I wanted it to sort of look like a schematic crossed with a Wikipedia entry.

I would really love to hear what people think!