How would you detail a 15 mile long ship?

[biotech]

I mean I know the SSD is meant to be around that length, but you can still see windows on her, and that seems a little out of place when you consider the scale.

The SSD is pretty much the biggest mainstream ship most of us are familier with, and they got away with their scale by having normal SDs in the same scene, and by having a city on top.

I just wonder how you would do it, if you had to create a 15 mile long ship, from a new universe, and yet still have it instantly recognisable as being huge?

[Sphynx]

I've done a few city ships like this, and the only way that I've found is to put things in the scene that were recognised as huge from a viewers own own experience - pretty much what was done, as you describe above, with the normal star-destroyers.

In my case, much of the detailing of my sity-ships were sky-scrapers like constructions on the surface - show something that can only be huge in the viewers everyday perception, regardless of what it is, and you'll probably get away with it.

[Mr. Extrude]

well, nothing against shameless megalomania but you really have to consider if this mega size is necessary, a one kilometer ship staged properly can be as impressive, for example by putting it in a very basic familiar surrounding, like a planet surface or docking on a small station, so the viewer is very close

then there is the old principle of common elements in small scale like the hangars, nacelles, bridges etc.

another important aspect is the character of the shape, rather simple main-shapes contrasted by small more dynamic elements and greebles illustrate size nicely, you couldnt just scale up the galaxy class by five and make the windows smaller, the dynamic shapes make it less believable

also an option: the famous homeworld mothership looks extremely huge just because of its unusual horizontal shape

for economical concerns you can only do greeble openings in an otherwise rather plain hull and some thin channels extruding from these openings over the rest of the ship, saves time and work

the even bigger ID-ship was also a good example of size illustration

[biotech]

In the stories I wrote, 1KM long ships are the norm, so to have a ship that makes them look puny you have to go bigger.

The ship in question is pretty much a huge planet destroying laser, with a ship built around it.

Its very organic in shape, with almost no straight lines, its just a hard concept to get down on paper, never mind in 3D.

[SGA-3D]

I'm glad that you said that it was organic .

The Wraith Hive Ships on Stargate Atlantis are supposed to be around 11KM long. As the ships are organic, it meant that little detail was needed around the hull. Instead, small rifts and dips in the hull were 'greeblized' with was were essentially mini cities. The single pixel windows helped greatly in portraying the size of the ship.

[Coolhand]

it's a real challenge, i mean that stargate ship doesn't look 11km, but they did their best. sphynx is on the right track imo, take a look at whay 15 km of city looks like and somehow emulate that, i can't really think of any better reference, perhaps some of the larger oil refineries... maybe think about how many aircraft carriers and oil tankers you'd need to put end to end to make that distance to get the concept of that kind of scale into your head.

[Choo1701]

How about the Angel of the North as a hood ornament?

That, or, like sphynx and SGA suggested, windows are always a good sense of scale. (maybe the huge radar dishes/ radio telescopes might help too, for some variations)

Just my two cents on the matter Sorry i couldn't of been much more help

[JeffrySG]

Well... just look at what approx. 15km of Tokyo looks like and you'll really see how big 15km really is and what the scale of it is... I'm guessing that you wouldn't be able to see normal sized windows.... but maybe hints of light from buildings/living areas...

[biotech]

Yeah, there's no way in hell you'd see individual windows on that scale.

I'm thinking some sort of embedded city on top is the way to go, and some light pollution that hints at smaller windows.

Other than that the only way is to include in the same image a ship you've already established at being 1km long.

[Coolhand]

Originally Posted by biotech

Yeah, there's no way in hell you'd see individual windows on that scale.

I'm thinking some sort of embedded city on top is the way to go, and some light pollution that hints at smaller windows.

Other than that the only way is to include in the same image a ship you've already established at being 1km long.

just use that 1km ship as a greeble

i think for your windows you could try mapping them on, then you can see the individual windows up close (like when only a couple of km fills the screen), and from far away it might give you more of a splotch of light, like you were rightly thinking of simulating. add a few hundred omnis to complement the effect and you're there.

also, don't give it gigantic engines like so many designs do, i think maybe 30 - 50 or so small ones would sell the scale better.