Alright so I really like this a lot. Some really good solid modeling here. Some really nice subtle things going on in ht pipes along the outside especially. My one critique (and you can take it or leave it) is that there seems to be issues with scale of the rivets/bolts on most of the machinery. If you look at this image:
You can see what I mean. If we assume that a human is the size of one of those doors and you look at the bolts/rivets along going around that large boiler type structure, you can see that they are almost as large as someones face. Also, looking at the wheel that opens the door and comparing it to the one on the pipe coming off the boiler, I think it would take at least two or three men to turn it. It’s very large. I’d love to see just a little more attention put into the scale of things. Everything is so nicely built it seems a shame to leave it like that.
I really like this project!
I love the tubes color and how they look old and used. The wood planks looks good too, but I must say that I dont think the stone/grey metal on the roof of the cabin fits the rests. It looks to stony/heavy for an airship IMO. Also the gray strip that goes around the deck, needs some work, I think it would look great in some kind of gold/yellow metal material. But maybe thats to Wold of Warcraft-ish? I dont know, but i think you should play around with that one too
But as I said in the beginning, awesome project
but I must say that I dont think the stone/grey metal on the roof of the cabin fits the rests. It looks to stony/heavy for an airship IMO. Also the gray strip that goes around the deck, needs some work, I think it would look great in some kind of gold/yellow metal material.
Ya, I’m not happy with that look either. When I was dreaming it up, I always imagined those parts being metal. Maybe I’ll make the flat part of the cabin roof wood like the rest. I also want to stay away from using too many more warmer colors. The entire balloon is going to be a warn leathery/canvas kind of look, and I need some cooler colors to break this up. The gray strip really does need some work. It does look very much like stone and not galvanized metal.
that there seems to be issues with scale of the rivets/bolts on most of the machinery.
This is something I’ve been conscious about. Those wheels on the pipes were even larger before!
What I’m going to do is add some steps welded to the side of the center boiler and that should make those wheels look more beloevable. It’s a big actuator, and requires a big wheel, or at least that’s how i imagine it.
The large front rivets are largely decorative, but ya, they’re pretty large, aren’t they. I’ll see what I can do.
I have to disagree. I think the bolts on the ship need to be big. The theme about steampunk is implausibility.
How plausible is a floating ship powered by steam? It’s very implausible. It is imho that the story of the picture is more important then plausability and the story of steampunk is centered on the materials that are used in the machines. Any smaller, and the bolts won’t be seen at far distance.
I would suggest adding more bolts to the ridge. Towards the back, it looses detail and I forget what I’m looking at. Creating an inlay and bolts along the side would give it more detail.
I would suggest working very hard on the lighting on the blades. You may wish to render the blades on a different layer. The feel of depth on the blades will come from the gradient of the shadows on them. To bright of a setting and you will loose it.
I think that adding small troughs around big elements will bring them out more. Accents around the boiler or mast might help.
I think that making the blade mounts into multiple peaces would add more detail to the picture. Maybe add pices to the metal poles so they seem to be screwed/mounted to the side of the hull.
Actually, there is nothing implausible about a cloudship, look at zeppelins. The thing is, in this day and age we don’t have access to an old galleon or someone with enough money to burn to build one. That is not to say this one here would fly, the balloon is not big enough given the size and weight of the ship.
Yeah, I don’t agree that Steam punk is all about about implausibility. I think it’s all about anachronism. The best explanation I’ve heard read that sums up steam punk is, Imagine if the 20th century came a century earlier. If somehow modern technologies where invented in Elizabethan or turn of the century times. I feel like Steam power is just a superficial thing that we point at in order to over simplify it and make it a fashion.
History lesson: The concept of steam punk has been around since the 70’s. The funny thing about the name is that it comes from the term “Cyber Punk” which was all the rage in the late 80’s and 90’s. William Gibson wrote a bunch of those novels but then suddenly wrote The Difference Engine. Some people in the publishing industry were trying to make this the “Next big thing”. Everyone was trying to find a name for this new-ish genre and due to lack of originality choose to just replace “Cyber” with “Steam”. Since then people have just assumed it to mean “Steam powered punks” but it was never meant to just be about Steam. Anyway, the genre now has little to do with those beginnings so I guess it’s a non-issue. You make of it what you will.
Yeah I took the whole concept of Cyberpunk/Steampunk a bit further by creating a pen & paper RPG called Steamspace 1920. An alternate 1920’s where the Difference engine led to a lot of innovation running up to the first world war, and the discovery of coalite, a chemical which causes coal to burn hotter and release high pressure steam. During the war they took wounded soldiers and implanted mechanical replacement limbs, which connected to the brain and ran off of a small furnace pack making Steamborgs to throw back into the field. These war leftovers are huge and hulky due to the crude but sturdy design. In the 1920’s they have the jobs of bouncers or bodyguards. Steamspace was a logical step forward, 60 years after the difference engine was invented they had managed to hook wires to the brain, and using the computers allowed those who jack in to steamspace to connect with each others minds. Big businesses do private board meetings in steamspace, and hire Steam Guardians to protect their minds from Delvers. Delvers are usually hired to find a specific memory and search for information, or to change aspects of a memory by entering it, they can even delve further into a persons subconscious and implant feelings and thought, but this is deadly to them. The P.I. sits at his desk, peering out onto the street as a yellow steam cab roles by, huge furnace on the back with a smokestack spewing out a grey cloud which floats up to add to the smog hanging over the city.
1920’s with a Cyberpunk twist but using steam.
Anyway, I would like to model some concepts from it. Back on topic, The cloudship looks like the balloon is filled with heat from the furnace causing lift is this correct?
I changed the environmental lighting a bit to give the warmer evening light. I have a feeling the entire picture is going to be dominated with warm colors, which works for the steampunk aesthetic, so I’m going to let it happen.
That’s it for tonight. One week left!!! I think the plan is to knock the rest of the textures off in an evening if I work hard enough, and then focus on the rest of the scene.
I think you need to increase the size and complexity of the canopy considerably, closer to the proportions of the Zeppelin or Goodyear blimps we have grown accustomed to seeing in the media, especially as the ‘iron’ gondola looks kind of heavy.
My suggestion would be to make the fins attach to the balloon with a wooden structure, and have them be pivotable with wires going dow to the ship for a steering mechanism, at the moment it has lift and forward motion but without being able to manipulate the fins it can not turn or dive/climb.
Ascent and descent would be controlled by the vertical props. Yaw would be controlled by changing the speed and as a result, thrust, of the left and right props, along with the yet-to-be-modeled rudder. Pitch and roll aren’t really necessary. It’s an airship, not an airplane. The vertical and horizontal stabilizers are sewn in and aren’t control surfaces.
I do think that the ship still looks a bit heavy in the rear, and therefore i agree with the statement that the rear rope might need to be tightened a bit
