Federation Commander Briefing #1 and Captain's Log #36 Cover

[IcyPenguigo]

Hey guys. It's been awhile since I posted any 3D artwork on here. These are my two latest covers for Amarillo Design Bureau. The first scene is a Tholian vs Seltorian carrier battle(the Seltorians are former slaves of the Tholians and their bitter enemies.) The second scene is a duel between a Klingon D7 and a Kzinti heavy cruiser. Tell me what you think.

Captain's Log #36 cover


Federation Commander Briefing #1 cover:

[Aresius]

Nice paintings. Though the explosions in scene one are a bit ... pinky.

[nyrath]

Cool stuff! What 3D modeling package do you use?

The only thing that bothers me about the Captain's Log cover is that old problem of displaying depth in space. On Earth, things that are farther away become dim and fuzzy. Since this is due to the atmosphere, it does not happen in space.

So it is difficult to determine if a ship has a tiny image because it is a small ship close to you or a huge ship that is far away. The over all image is sort of flat, with no depth to it.

I'm unsure what can be done about this.

[IcyPenguigo]

Originally Posted by nyrath

Cool stuff! What 3D modeling package do you use?

The only thing that bothers me about the Captain's Log cover is that old problem of displaying depth in space. On Earth, things that are farther away become dim and fuzzy. Since this is due to the atmosphere, it does not happen in space.

So it is difficult to determine if a ship has a tiny image because it is a small ship close to you or a huge ship that is far away. The over all image is sort of flat, with no depth to it.

I'm unsure what can be done about this.

Thanks guys! I'm currently using 3Dmax5, with a fair amount of photoshop post-production.

I'm also uncertain of how to solve the depth issue. Usually the main directive I have is to create an eye-catching composition that reads well from a distance(i.e. a shelf across a game store), so exphasizing depth and realism usually takes a back seat to that.

One possibility is that I could use a more extreme perspective on the foreground ship and have it not all the way in the picture. This would make it more obvious that this ship is closer. Another possibility would be that I could force perspective on the phaser beams a lot more. While this wouldn't be technically correct, it would hopefully fool the eye into thinking there's distance between the ships. If anyone else has any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.

And thanks again guys!

[spudmonkey]

The first one is a little over done. If I was you, I would claim that I was going for a retro Sci-Fi look - the second one is almost perfect if that's the case as it looks like a book cover or film poster from the 50's with the way you have the composition and lighting. Yes, it may not have the best model or effects in the world, but it looks cool in a Kitsch-homage way

[Tholan]

Always great to see new SFB work, especially when it's knife fights with Kzinti and Klingons.

I'm not sure I agree that there is a problem with the depth, but I've been looking at SFB artwork for years so maybe I'm just use to it. Certainly in your individual duel compositions everything works very well for me. There is a depth problem in your Tholian/Selt battle, but I think that has more to do with the overload spudmonkey points to. The Seltorian is simply too dominant in the scene and the two Selt fighters/drones and the two Tholian escorts in the foreground just add to the problem. If they weren't there, then the fighter duel in the background and the attacking Tholian carrier with fighter wing are all well scaled to each other and to the Seltorian.

Love the background on the Kzin/Kling battle.

[IcyPenguigo]

spudmonkey: I am basically going for a retro sci-fi painting look. I'm definitely influenced by the older SFB art, which is very much in that style.

Tholan: The Tholian/Selt scene has a lot going on in it, yes. The reason for that is they wanted me to depict a certain moment from the story in that issue, which is very specifically described. So I had to make it recognizable as that moment, and I wanted to emphasize the chaos of the huge battle as well. It's tough to figure out how the scale of the ships is going to be protrayed in images like this too. There are huge starships, and tiny fighters, and one of SVC's directives to me is that the covers have to read well from a distance so as to be eye-catching on the shelf. That's hard to accomplish with so many elements to balance.

Thanks for the comments guys!

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by IcyPenguigo

There are huge starships, and tiny fighters, and one of SVC's directives to me is that the covers have to read well from a distance so as to be eye-catching on the shelf.

Of course, in the end, the client's specifications trump everything. You have done an outstanding job meeting their directives.

[IcyPenguigo]

Thanks man! I do what I can.

[Major Diarrhia]

Those are really cool. It's very pleasing to see that you have no fear of firing off plenty of beam weapons.