Okay, so I had some fun with the last Blender Guru competition and I have wanted to do a nice really detailed spaceship. The plan was to create a design with no outside influence. I haven’t really been able to make something I’m really happy with. This week I recently rediscovered The Giant Spaceship Thread and it got me all inspired and stuff. I’ve decided to create a ship taking inspiration from the Ebon Hawk, XS Freighter, and Millennium Falcon from the Star Wars universe. With that in mind I did some doodling in blender and wound up with this.
I was having a hard time just creating the line work without visualizing something in 3D. At this point I gabbed a screen shot of the top view, like so:
Then I created the line work, nothing super detailed, I plan to have most of this modeling be sorta free flow make it up as I go type stuff, I like working that way. But the basic shape and what was really import at this stage was determining the scale and the interior layout. One of the things that I really like about JDaniels work over in the Giant Spaceship thread is he has created interiors that fit within the the exterior of the ship. I plan on doing several close up renders and maybe a walk through animation so this makes some sense to do. Anyway, here is the layout:
I will be updating this as I progress, it might be slow since this is a fee time only kinda project. Feel free to leave any comments or critiques at any time.
I’ve started detailing the blocked out model, I think this is going to be the final shape for the main body, with plenty of space for greebles. The plan is do get the exterior at a low detail level like the body is and then block out the interior just to get a feel for the volume and to make sure it all fits.
I’m envisioning this as a light multipurpose transport ship, something that could be configured as a passenger ship, albeit an ugly one, or more commonly a small transport for independents and businesses. The idea behind the smuggling compartment is that independent cargo haulers would often modify several portions of the ship. Including of course adding hidden compartments for cargo that was slightly less than legal to transport.
I’ve started working on the greebles a bit, here is a quick test I just did to see how things were looking. In this shot you can also see a docking ring I added onto the ship for docking with other small ships while in vacuum. I’m not sure that I am happy with it at the moment. It might change some.
Alright, I wasn’t too happy with the last docking ring, so I’ve modified that. It will need to be rigged at some point and this render doesn’t show it, but the doors are circular with pegs that lock them together and there are three rings that will extend out to form a docking tube that could join with that of another ship.
Anyway.
Also, ignore those colors. I just have a few materials to make things easier to see in the view port while I’m modeling.
I’m not dead yet. Honestly. I had some freelance stuff creep up which translated into a distinct lack of time for this. Anyway, it hasn’t been completely stagnant but progress is slower than I want at the moment. Anyway, some more greebles were added and I started toying with how I want to do plating. I also did some work on the docking ring. I figure it should have an extending portion to dock with another ship. My thinking is that bringing two vessels so close together would be dangerous and difficult with the varied shape of various ships. Here is a render with my initial thought but I think I am going to modify it.
Alright, things are winding down a little so I should be able to work on this some more. I just changed the airlock extension and modified the doors some. Some screen shots below. Lots more work to still do. My new motherboard died on me so I’m down a PC for a while as well.
I also discovered you can use the Control and Shift keys to modify the mouse wheel action to scroll the viewport left and right or up and down, like in Photoshop. Cool.
I’m thinking at some point the extension will need some detailing on the outside. Inside obviously too.
C&C welcome as always. I apologize for updating so slowly as of late.
Wow, been a while. Progress has still been slower than I wanted. I’ve got some other projects that have come so the Accipiter is pushed off into free time. Anyway, a few more updates, I’ve been playing with the plating some more. I’m thinking that the spaces between the plates might need to be smaller.
I like very much your overall approach.
Very clear and sensible.
Designing a 3D rough spaceship, then taking top-view ortho ref for modeling in parallel all the interiors to fit (so important to think in the interiors!), using different basic colors to differentiate groups, and so on. You may see by now I have been myself struggling a lot these last weeks in all of those fields; because I’m trying to build a spaceship while learning (Blender 3D), so it’s been chaotic! However, looking at your approach, it is neat and working smoothly; awesome.
As for the ship design (1st post), it seems it has the shape of any of those curious, contemporary utilitarian designed object of “unidentified purpose”, and it is actually a great idea to explore any of those forms into building new designs, like even a spaceship.
So total ‘thumbs up’ for the starting main concept; this “unidentified purpose” design is indeed very useful.
I’m now curious about the interiors; I want to know each part of it and which idea of “space/volume design” your are going to deploy into the inside of that spaceship, as even a top-view (even if with furniture) is not enough to give a good idea of ambiance in each of those places. Good luck in the continuation.
@Moonlance – I think best in 3D when I can really visualize a volume. Basically all of my concepts start as quick 3D doodles before they ever become actual concept pieces. For me it is just a faster way to work. To be honest I’ve given little though to how the interior will actually look, just more how it will be laid out, I’ve got some thoughts but they are still rough ideas. It might be that I have given it too little thought, we will see. Thank you for the kind words on the design. I drew a lot of inspiration from the Star Wars universe for the design, specifically the Corellian ships. The feel very utilitarian to me wile still maintaining some sort of design to them. What I mean is that they aren’t just floating cubes.
I’ve been quite busy with some other projects and haven’t been able to put much time into this, I have been working on it here and there though. I’m hopefully going to get my new machine finally up and running again tonight and then I’ll see if I can’t get a new render up.
I’ll look forward to watching your progress.
