Challenge #9 - ronin - Tetrahedron

[Ronin]

couldn't miss this Challenge ;)

First i tried around which shape, Sphere and Box seamed somehow usual.. teardrop maybe, but those would require some kind of shell or "form-helper", otherwise they would end as Spheres or something like that - and i noticed iosys had a nice concept for that, should not be too similar to another one in here.

After that my decision went to pyramid, specially the tetrahedron.

First step: Basic shape... took some time to figure out how to get a 'correct' tetrahedron.

As shown on my concept, i went on to the surface-structure ... and still i have not decided how it will look like, a triangle rounded inside or outside .. maybe two layers ...

each edge will be opened a bit and fit out with greebles and weapons, a bit like a star wars stardestroyer.

Story:
this could be some kind of battlestar, warstar, maybe space-station ... since a tetrahedron is a simplyfied 'star',
i'm considering a size of 1000m each edge.

"When we left hyperspace, the sun was blocked out by a huge, triangular shadow, which turned to be a giant, pyramid-Ship after we passed along the edge. Smaller ships hurled around the Hangars and we soon where targeted by It's Point-Defence-System...."

(hopyfully my english isn't that bad)

... pyramid because i don't think someone actually uses "tetrahedron" in common talk. (German)

C&C Welcome ....

[CrimsonLine]

Very pretty! I'm not getting a sense of its scale, though...

[psycho]

reminds me of one of the ZAON ships... still looking very different though... nice work so far!

[Ozylot]

At first glance I thought we might be seeing a holocron. Looking forward to seeing more detail.

[Ronin]

Some working pics, for now, all sides look the same, to be exact, each 'half of a third' looks the same.
Considering production of those ships, the Basic shape of each part will remain equal. But no ship required 6 Hangars on 4 sides ;) so those blue openings probably will be hangars only at the bottom and will get more greebles on the other sides.

those litte red-dotted thingies are Point Defence Lasers, 12 each side.

After testing with a average human shape 2x1m ^^, i decided to size it up to 1.500m for now.

Next step: Customizing each side, possibly UV-Mapping and a texture draft for the main-hull.

[Ronin]

some work done, a bit of texturing, greebles, and put it in scene (stars) for a test.

Continuing on everything actually, the main hull and inner part needs panels, textures maybe...as well as weapons and turrets.

C&C ?

[Tinukedaya]

Looking great so far.

[CrimsonLine]

I'm still not feeling the sense of scale. How big is it?

[Ronin]

it's approx. 1700m edge-length. Checked with a human sized block.
Those windows in the edged are nearly correct in size.

Any idea how i could get it better ?

i'm currently working on the greebles, added some turrets already and i'm experimenting with textures.

[Ronin]

added weapons, greebles and added those Point-Defense Lasers.

Those blue-things are a gravimetric propulsion system, can be used as weapon as well, combined with sourrounding particle emitters, each works like a beam-cannon.

How about 'sense of scale' now ?

[fluxfire]

I think it would look huge in RL :D i like the blue better then the red though in the renders....

[Ronin]

by the way, all greebles where made within this challenge, no used stuff. Maybe I put them somewhere for download later (blender-File)

[CrimsonLine]

It looks cool, Ronin, and I'd be happy to get the Blender file when it's done, if you make it public. What I mean by sense of scale is that there are no details on it that are recognizable so that a person can say, Oh! So that's how big this thing is! I was thinking maybe if there were pinprick windows? Or if it's bigger than that, maybe orbiting moons with pinprick lights indicating cities? Or something. Something that enables the viewer to compare it with something known.

On my Challenge WIP, I made it a point to put in a prominent bridge with windows in it, even though I know that it makes more sense to bury your bridge in the middle of the ship, and that windows are targets. But my shapes are so unusual that the viewer has no real idea how big the ship is. The windows give a touchstone.

You accomplish a bit of that with camera angle, and so the last pic you posted looks much more massive than the other two in that post. But can you establish scale WITHOUT an up-shot? That's the trick.

[Sphynx]

Information regarding Challenge #10 (http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/challenge-wips/54880-sensei-challenge-10-primitives-motion.html) has now been released.

[Ronin]

since i don't know if i have time to do more on this one i consider it final.

Added some background, another layer of texture and did some more greeble-work.

[Ozylot]

Cool! That turned out very nice!

[fluxfire]

That looks frigin NINJA!

[Tinukedaya]

C-3PO: "Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately three thousand seven hundred and twenty to one!"


I just came to my mind when I saw the pic. :D