Original Tug

[Namelezz]

Here is a tug that I have been working on in one form or other for a while now. I was really liking the last version I had, but then the file got corrupted somehow. Rather than try and fight it I figured i would start over. This is just the main hull shape with the outriggers. Going to do some more detail work on them before I do anything else. The next step will be doing the Conning tower out the top.


edit:I'm removed several of the images to make room for my destroyer wip. I also updated the image here to reflect the current progress.

[malach]

not bad....looks like you have a bit of the same problem I got...you go for regularity in your detailing....

try to break that up a bit.

[Namelezz]

Well, that mainly comes from the back story. It is alien built, and the race is very pragmatic. They prefer function over form. The simpler it is, the less likely it is to break. And if stuff is laid out in a very set pattern, then it is easier to repair and maintain. It won't all be symetrical, but most of that will come on the main hull and conning tower. That outriggers mainly hold two of the drives and energy storage for the ftl drive. So there isn't much in them.

Of course, I do suppose that some of that is the fact that I perfer things to be nice and regular. I'm not much of an artist, I seem to be more of an engineer. I usually go for function over form myself. I'll just have to see what happens as I develop the thing.

[malach]

yeah, the "artists" seem to be able to crank out design after kick-ass design. those of us not quite as creative tend to be stuck in the same ole stuff.

Good work, though, I'd like to see where you go with this.

[Namelezz]

Did some more detailing on the outriggers. Not sure if I like the way some of it turned out. Think I'm going to have to redo some of it in order to get the feel I'm looking for. My main problem with it is the radiatior like things. The pipes just didn't end up dense enough. That's something that will take a little experimenting with I guess.

[Namelezz]

Well, it took some time, but I was finally able to build a radiator assy. that I like. The pipes are close enough and it has the feel of handling some sort of fluid at high temps.

[Sandman3d68]

Very nice...I too happen to be more engineering minded than artsy...have great designs in my head, but making them look like my vision is a real pain. Keep it up.

[Namelezz]

I thought I'd post a pic of an earlier version of this thing so everybody would have an idea of where I am going with this. Of course, the ship itself has undergone several major design changes since I first concieved of it. But this revision feels much closer to what I was picturing in my head.

[Namelezz]

Here's some close ups of some of the detailing I've been working on. I'm hoping to get quite a bit done over this four day weekend. I have to admit that in the first pic the greebling in the upper right hand panel came from a greeble pack I downloaded from http://scifi3d.theforce.net/done by Wayne Jones (jedilaw). Lots of good stuff over there. I actually followed a link from there to here.

[Namelezz]

I thought maybe I should pu in a human sized referance. The red human is just at 6 foot tall. This thing is ending up a little bigger than I planned on, but I find that it works better this way.

[Blake7]

Hey great start. :)

It reminds me of a tug called the Mule in the Terran Trade Authority handbook.

http://www.bisbos.com/rocketscience/tta/mule.html

[Namelezz]

You cought me! I actually own that book and I have to say that it did influence to basic lay out. Though this will be turned around to that one. I just liked the fel of it. It didn't look fast or very sleek, but it sure looks like it can get the job done.

[Captain Card]

Raditors don't work in space. They work on convection

[Namelezz]

As a mechanic, I now how radiators function. How ever, all you really need is some sort of temperature difference in order to have some form of cooling. For instance, it could be a condensor for a phase change based cooling system. All that really needs is some place that the heat can escape the system. And when you think about it, even the shuttle and space station have cooling systems. Those panels on the front of the bay doors that seperate are the heat exchangers. If they can't get the doors open within a certain amount of time after achieving orbit, they have to scrub the mission and return to earth.

How ever, you did make me review my plans and innerworkings of this ship. I suddenly remembered that the excess heat is dropped through the event horizon of the drives. So there wouldn't be any type of external cooling set up. Thanks for forcing me to review my overall design. That is one of the reasons I decided to join here.

[Namelezz]

Okay, I need some opinions here. Which do you think looks better? The really big cooling thing on the right side of the image, or the smaller greeble on the left? I'm favoring the greeble, but would like to hear from some of you guys.

[Namelezz]

I built a greeble to use on this here ship. Took some doing, but was finally able to get decent render of it.

[Blake7]

Nice work. :)

I have the TTA ship designs etched into my brain as I have had four of the books since they first came out and was fascinated by them.

I especially like Peter Elsons Designs. It is easy to see the influence his designs had on the look of the ships in the Homeworld games (So much so he is listed in the credits). :cool:

[Namelezz]

Okay, I finally decided that I'm done detailing the outriggers. I'm going to do a little bit of tweaking on the main hull, then start on the Conning tower. Once that is done, then comes all the work on the hull. That includes adding landing gear, some weapons, windows, and ofcourse hatches. So yeah, I've got an awful lot of work to do still.

[Elowan]

Raditors don't work in space. They work on convection

Actually they work by heat transfer - radiation. Just pump the 'hot' stuff to a radiator on the dark side of the ship and the material within the radiator will get 'chilly' quickly.

[Namelezz]

Its starting to tak shape again. Here is a shot with the tower in place. Have the windows in place for the bridge. There's going to be atleast one other deck within the tower itself containing an airlock. Once this is done, complete with an interior, I'll start on the hull. Thought I'd include a cap with a current poly count. Damn but they pile up fast!

[Namelezz]

I was having a bit of fun here. Thought I do a quick pic of this thing haulling a couple of fighters around. Those are some heavily modified models I imported out of one of the descent games. I'm liking the way they are turning out though.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Dorsaispirit/Tug%20wips/Haulinwip.jpg

[Namelezz]

Here's an update. Working on the panelling for the roof. Once I get more of the details done on the tower, I'll combine the two halves and change some of it to make it not so symetrical.

[Beowulf]

hey, this is pretty cool looking, dont know how i missed this thread the first time around.
the panneling and the Greebles are REAL nice.

[Namelezz]

Thanks! The greeble take the most time, and contribute the most to my high poly count. Here's a close up of the top of the outrigger and a shot highlighting my poly edges. Lots of them in there.

[Elowan]

I rather fancy those craft sitting on the tug's rear end.

[Namelezz]

Well, since you like them, here is a render of the original and mine. I think you can tell which one came straight from the game.

[Duckytheinvincable]

those fighters... so beautiful:eek!: im in line when those roll off the factory line:thumb:

[Namelezz]

I'm not even done with them yet. I've been having mouse problems and haven't been doing much. Waiting for my new mouse to arrive so I don't have to worry about it dieing on me while trying to move something.

I only have a few more details to add and adjust before I start worring about textures. So the prototypes will probably be ready soon. Just wish I had a way to drop it into Freelancer. The thing looks practilly built for that game.

[Namelezz]

Well, here is a four view of the fighter. The orignal came out of Descent 3. As you can see, I have done a whole lot of modifications to it. It looks much better now IMHO.

[Namelezz]

Well, here is an update. Got some sensor antenneas on it. Haven't been able to do much as my mouse was dying on me. I'd be trying to rotate or something and it would shut itself off. And I wasn't about to trust my old ps2 port mouse for this. I'm going to start on the top now that I have those in. It should be fun greebling that.

[Namelezz]

Okay, I need some opinions on this. I had an older model that had this dish on it, but now, Ii'm not sure it fits with the rest of it. What do you guys think?

[Namelezz]

Well, I decided to get rid of the dish. It just didn't fit with the rest of the vessel. Just spent a whole lotta time tweaking the panels. Like the result much better.

[Namelezz]

Well, its been awhile. Was having problems onpening my file, and just haven't had the energy to do much other than come home and and surf the net. Been busy at work, but here is where I'm at now. Starting to populate the conning tower with greebles. Yay!

[Namelezz]

Redid some of the greebles on that panel. Prefer it much better now. Forgot to mention, The woman in the scene is around 7ft. That's how tall the alien wil be at the shoulder when i finish with him.

[vf-1msx]

nice work :thumb:

[Namelezz]

A small update. Working on the greebels a bit. I'm thinking that I'm going to leave most of the panels empty, as they are simply access panels. Still have much greebling to do. Also put some clothes on my model. She was threatening to complain to the union about having to stand there nude all the time. :)

[Namelezz]

Some more greebles. Not much else done yet. Eventually have to add some more windows and an airlock hatch on the conning tower. Then I'll finally be able to move onto the main hull.

[Beowulf]

Very nice, i wish i could do panneling like that...

[Namelezz]

The pannels weren't that hard. I used the inset and extrude tools in editable poly. The trick is to find the right numbers to make it look right. I probably redid the ones on the conning tower at least a half a dozen times before I got them to look right.

[Namelezz]

Well, an update is finally here. Thought I'd finish up the big grebles on the tower and start on the little ones.

[xanthra]

Looks cool! Is it going to pull or push? If it's gonna pull, it really should have an auxillary "wheel house" with a good view astern.
-X

[SandmanNinja]

inset/extrude - awesome combo!

Look very good!

[Namelezz]

Well, the way I have it working is it can push, or pull. Mainly through the use of gravity manipulation. It has the "flat bed" for hauling small vessels like fighters or such. Also, since it has a gravity based drive, it doesn't matter which way it is oriented. It could look like it was traveling sideways and still pull just as hard. A tug needs to be manuvarable and powerful. I'll post some of the details for it later, when I'm a little farther along with it. I may have to rethink some of it.

[Namelezz]

I haven't done much lately, but I redid some of the panels and the wings on this little fight. I'm happier with the panels, but need to tweak the wings some.

[Namelezz]

Redid some more of the panels, and reworked the wings. Playing a bit with colors and lighting some as well.

[DAve]

I think I preferd the original wings, but good start :thumb:

DAve

[Namelezz]

Been awhile since I did anything with this. Was having problems getting the file to load again, and all of a sudden it decided to work. So here is what I've got. More windows, for an observation deck in the conning tower.

[Namelezz]

Once again, I try to resurrect this project. built an airlock door that is a bit hard to see in this pic, and greebled the remaining empty areas on the side of the conning tower. Might start trying to texture that piece.

[TheGreatRaja]

to me the airlock door looks more like a normal door than one you'd see hanging on a starship :)
nice start though

[Namelezz]

Well, I've started work on the giant landing gear. Once I have those in place, i'll get the cargo hatches and entry ramps placed. At that point come the greebles. I saw somebody did a wireframe render of their model so I thought I'd do the same. Didn't realize how complex this thing was until now. I'm currently sitting at 302,837 triangles on this thing. I'm going to have to sit down and figure out where I can cut some of those out.

[Namelezz]

Just a small update on the landing gear. Having problems deciding how to get the heavy duty feeling I want out of it.

[Namelezz]

Got the landing legs sized right now. They look ever so much better.:)

[Tovette]

it's coming together! Nice to see some creativity :)

[Kadaeux]

Just a small update on the landing gear. Having problems deciding how to get the heavy duty feeling I want out of it.

If I wanted a heavy duty landing gear look i'd put say two feet from a Star Wars AT-AT close together with connector armature etc.

[Namelezz]

And the gear is pretty much done. Of course, i haven't even done anything inside the bays yet, or actually connects the doors, but the it at least looks like its resting on something now.

[Major Diarrhia]

Please name tug S.S. Chugalug. Pretty please.:(

[scootes]

very nice work on that Tug and the fighters. why cant you put them fighters in FL? if they are to high of a poly count why dont you make a simpler version?

[Namelezz]

Okay, so after going without the net for several months, I'm finally back. And while I did do some work on this thing, I probably didn't do as much as I should have. But anyway, here are a couple of updates. The first is a render of the hydraulics for the landing gear doors. The second is more of a general update. And the third is just for fun. Thought I should have an image of it haouling something else around. Enjoy!

[DerekDRP]

Namelezz I'm liking this a LOT

[Benji7869]

This thing is really cool. I didn't understand where it was going at first but I think you have a good start here.

[Meph]

Yeah, I'm curious to see this thing evolve. Right now it's just a tad too blocky for my taste but I see the potential. Go man, go! hut! Hut! Hut! :D

[Namelezz]

Just a quick note. I'm not working on the meshes right now. I'm setting up the controllers and links so that I can pose some of the hatches and what not. I'll have an easier time with most of this if I can set there and move it through its range of motion. And even though I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible, I already have 6 different sliders. And I know I need at least 5 more for what I do have modeled. ~shudders~ And that still doesn't include things like the rear cargo area and what not. Man this thing is going to be huge to do.

[Namelezz]

So I haven't done anything with the mesh. Mainly working on doing some wiring and whatnot. Just thought I'd post of screen of what I'm working with right now.

[Namelezz]

Quick question for those in the know. How do I set up a controller to rotate something exactly [I]x[I] degrees. I haven't really had much success using a slider. If somebody could help out it would be much appreciated.

[A_Pickle]

I like it. Boxy is good, and unique. Reminds me of a Toyota Scion... or a Honda Element. And yes, you may kill me after that comment, if you have irrational dislike towards both of those vehicles. :D

[Namelezz]

The only irrational hatred I have of those vehicle is when i have to work the things. I may have to think about getting artificial elbows implanted in my fore-arms if the design trends keep up.

In other new, an Update. Not much of one. Just starting to work on the dock umbilical. Here you see the rough shape of it here. I've been having problems with some of my controlers and what not so I decided I'd just get back to the modeling.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Dorsaispirit/Tug%20wips/tugwip48.jpg

[Namelezz]

So as I was working on the damn docking ring, I discovered that I had really messed some things up. Space requirments and such inside didn't match my lay out. So I had to do some changes. I turned the boarding ramp around and shortened it. Also moved the torpedo tubes out. Honestly, I kind of like the feel.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Dorsaispirit/Tug%20wips/tugwip49.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Dorsaispirit/Tug%20wips/tugwip50.jpg

[Namelezz]

Just a small update. Cutting in some windows for the Main lounge and then the living quarters. After that, I think I might cut a portion of the main hull off and work on texturing it a bit. I know that is my weakest area in this field, so i think it is time I do something about it.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Dorsaispirit/Tug%20wips/tugwip51.jpg

[Armondikov]

I thought it was two docking until I flicked back to page 2 and realised it was a reflection... But that's me, I'm not very quick.

It is a bit blocky, but it's a nice change to see very robust, industrial looking ships amongst all the others that are trying to look sleek. I can imagine this tug working well with Meph's cruise ship, tugging it along towards a dock or something like that :P

[Namelezz]

Thank you. I didn't want something sleek. I wanted to have people look at it and think "Now there is a workhorse. Not meant for speed or anything, but I know it can come and pull my cruiser in if it has a problem."

Honestly, I think to many people want to make warships. What about the thousands more vessels that aren't meant to fight?

[Namelezz]

Okay. I'm trying to get back on track with this thing. Small update. Add another window. I may put one on the other side in a similar area, but haven't decided. I'm thinking that I'll now cut the front end off the hull and start working on doing some textures.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Dorsaispirit/Tug%20wips/tugwip52.jpg

And now for something a bit different. A look out through that window I just added. I like it. Really shows off my greebles.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Dorsaispirit/Tug%20wips/tugwip53.jpg