3D Original ship(s)... and other stuff(s) [Archive]

Flyingmonkey

23rd May 2006, 23:03

I decided that rather then starting a new thread for a bunch of different projects I would make a thread where I could dump every little project I am working on, for anyone who's interested.

Here is the first thing I'm going to post. It’s actually the first original design that has absolutely no ties to pre-existing TV shows, movies etc. that I've done. I'm not totally sure what the function of this ship is, but I'm sort of leaning towards reconnaissance and navigation given the big things at the front should probably have some sort of justification.

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Anyway, C&C always welcome, and I'll probably be posting some other stuff in the near future.

Unimatrix01

23rd May 2006, 23:16

Kinda looks like a Vorlon ship from Babylon 5, but it is different. Looks Great!

USS Mariner

23rd May 2006, 23:17

al3d started an engine trend. ;)

Awesome work, looks to be some kind of solar sail ship, or perhaps some exotic sail drive or some such bull****. ;)

Would you mind giving close ups of the cockpit? It looks very good from here.

Ozylot

23rd May 2006, 23:21

Funny ... it reminds me of that little ship from the movie TRON
but it could almost be a massive radar dish of sorts.
Really nice details.

M1Labbe

23rd May 2006, 23:27

Very original! Reminds me of a mixture between a vorlon ship, some NASA-designs and the automated reconnaissance vessel a saw in an documentation about extraterrestrial life. Unfortunatly, i can't remember the name, but i think it came on the Discovery Channel.

If you have more of such nice, near-future designs, i would like to see more.

EDIT: Yeah, it came on Discovery Channel and was called "Alien Planet"

Flyingmonkey

23rd May 2006, 23:41

Kinda looks like a Vorlon ship from Babylon 5, but it is different. Looks Great!

Interesting... Although I have only seen about 2 or 3 Babylon 5 episodes in my life and it was around 6-10 years ago I actually think I know what your talking about... then again probably not:) If you have any shots of that ship I'd be interested to see it.

al3d started an engine trend.

Awesome work, looks to be some kind of solar sail ship, or perhaps some exotic sail drive or some such bull****.

Would you mind giving close ups of the cockpit? It looks very good from here.

Ya, the solar sail thing crossed my mind as well, but I ultimantly wanted to make them a bit more substantial then they would be if they were for that purpose so for now I'm going to say they have nothing to do with the engine system, although like I said I designed this ship without a real purpose in mind.

And the cockpit is nothing special, just a few quick chairs and terminals to give it some detail from a distance, but I'll try to put some close ups of it on later.

Thanks for the comments:)

Shadowhawk2006

23rd May 2006, 23:43

Looks like a vorlon ship

Unimatrix01

23rd May 2006, 23:56

http://www.lwg3d.org/v3/meshes.php?item=587

Theres a LW mesh of what I was talking about. There are a bunch of variations of that though.

Dallidas

23rd May 2006, 23:59

looks cool!!

i think it could be a transport/cargo ship if you added a bunch of containers on long neck bit.

Flyingmonkey

24th May 2006, 00:09

http://www.lwg3d.org/v3/meshes.php?item=587

Theres a LW mesh of what I was talking about. There are a bunch of variations of that though.

Yeah, although I couldn't remember any specific designs from Bayblon 5 that is what I thought you were talking about, at least the bug like organic design of it.

Lee80

24th May 2006, 00:19

Looks Good.

c_of_nine

24th May 2006, 08:47

Just curious what dose front panels exacly do. Are they some wicked dust shield or mayby large sensor aryays..or simply they look cool here:D

Flyingmonkey

24th May 2006, 17:00

Like I said earlier I don't really know, I didn't build it with any purpose in mind, but I'm sort of thinking their some kind of sensor array.

baxart

24th May 2006, 17:03

Fins for a magnetic solar sail?

Flyingmonkey

24th May 2006, 19:32

Minor update, added some smaller engines to the central sphere.

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I also thought I would post some other stuff I've been doing, these were on the site before the crash but here they are again.

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Roburne

24th May 2006, 19:45

It's a space flower ! You said you designed it with no purpose in mind, and it somehow shows. It looks like something that is ready to make a long trip until being discovered, or discovering something, a new world in which it could blossom... A Spring ship, sort of.

Flyingmonkey

25th May 2006, 05:37

lol Yes the USS Space Flower! I actually thought that's what it looked like when I started making it, though it was not my intention.:)

evil_genius_180

25th May 2006, 05:42

That's some nice work there. Your moveable panels on the front could also be a shield. :D

Melak

25th May 2006, 20:52

Flyingmonkey, all those ships look nice, but what interests me most is the one in your avatar :D is there a thread about it here and if not could you post a picture of the ship? =)

Flyingmonkey

25th May 2006, 22:22

I was actually planning on it a while ago, before the crash, but then I stopped working on it for a while and haven't looked at it since... but here are a few renders I took of it a few weeks ago.

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One of the reasons I took a break from this ship is because I lost a lot of it and had to rebuild, and I hate remaking things I've already done.

Anyway, as many of you can probably guess its based off the new Battlestar Galactica. A lot smaller but it still has two short landing areas that can be used for emergency landings or something, it doesn't have any launch tubes as of yet, but I've designed it to house vipers so I guess I will need them at some point. I placed it at around the length of one of the Galactica's landing pods, this is why the landing strips have to go inside the main body. There are still a bunch of spots I have to fix on it so be kind:)

I call it a "Jumpstar", sorry to anyone who may have already come up with this name.:)

Makotokat

25th May 2006, 22:26

Love those Galactica ships!

Pearse

25th May 2006, 22:38

I've been having a go at designing some small counterparts of the Galactica, I really like how yours is looking.

AldrikG

25th May 2006, 23:42

Awesome work on the gun and the Jumpstar.
I like the armor plating on the guns. Very cool.

Melak

26th May 2006, 00:13

That's very impressive! It has this distinct fish-look to it, but it looks very cool anyway! More of that :D

veritas

26th May 2006, 01:07

Impressive 'portfolio' :D

Prime_8

26th May 2006, 01:55

nice shuttel looking thing ther FM

but oh wait on closer look it's a miny carrier or support ship .. +1 KICK ASS

JeffrySG

26th May 2006, 02:12

wow... first all the BSG ships look really cool! great texture job on those so far too! the mini-galactica kicks a** too! very cool to see another 'mod' on that design - and the modeling looks great on that one too! (actually especially that one!) :insert great jobs smiley here:

I really like the ship on the begining of the thread also! I really like the paneling work and the sphere elements on the ship. :) The one part I don't really feel fits in is the truss work that connects the sections. It almost seems too square and regular. I think a more unique pattern of truss would really help the design on that one....

either way... all the designs and models rock man!!! :cool:

cheers!!!

Flyingmonkey

26th May 2006, 02:17

Thanks everybody!

This design is actually the 3rd or 4th that I went through in attempt to make a smaller ship following the new Galactica form, it was harder then I thought it would be!

I suppose I should start working on it again now that I've posted it eh?

*EDIT*

@JeffrySG - Hey man, I was writting while you posted! I sort of agree about the trusses, I just tried some textures on them and they look a little to plain, I'll try some other things out to connect the segments, I wanted something that looked light and stable, if you have any ideas let me know. thanks for the help! :)

Flyingmonkey

5th Jun 2006, 21:15

After nearly 2 weeks of nothing I decided to take another look at my Jumpstar model, and after a few minutes, decided to restart it from scraatch with a few design changes.

First off, I gave the main hull a bit more form by reducing it's width to create a clearer head area. I also redid the engines which I was unhappy with, I tried with 2 top ones but thought it looked weird so I added to bottom ones to conform more with the Galactica. Its also a little longer to give it a sleeker look, hopefully these changes are for the best, and I should start on some detail soon enough.

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drunkclam

5th Jun 2006, 21:26

looks more like discovery from 2001 to me.

Elowan

5th Jun 2006, 22:26

I like the orginal version with the - what I assume are - Bussard collectors or light sails.

Flyingmonkey

5th Jun 2006, 22:53

Just to clarify, there's more then one ship in this thread, and I'm kinda working on two at once right now.
the One I posted earlier today (June 5) is an update from another one I posted mid thread.
The original ship from the beginning is still being worked on, here are some updates, I've now named it as well...

Colonial Deep Space Research Vessel Hepheastus:

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I made it a part of the Battlestar Galactica universe, the thing I like about BSG is that there aren't any ridged ship design guidelines that have to be followed. The textures are still in the test stage, I'll tweak them a bit more before I'm finished.

Dallidas

6th Jun 2006, 02:33

looks very nice mate! :thumb:

Berticus

6th Jun 2006, 03:34

Looks like the shield ships described in Zahn's Empire novels...

I like your work, very nice!
-albert

Flyingmonkey

6th Jun 2006, 21:34

Few updates, detailing on the front and back.

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I realize I keep going back and forth from one ship to another, sorry if that bothers anyone:)

Choo1701

7th Jun 2006, 07:15

Hehe: the Space Flower has a distinct English feel to it (the red stripes on the panels :D)

And the Jumpstar looks very cool :thumb: Especially like the detail on the landing bay :)

Flyingmonkey

8th Jun 2006, 06:44

Just a couple of quick updates to the Jumpstar, I've been mostly working on landing strip detail. Added some optical landing lights (I think that's what they are called) and a landram, complete with storage area to help clean up those sloppy Viper landing. :)

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Still have work to be done, but I am happy with my progress so far, which will hopefully mean I might actually complete this project!

C&C welcome

Dallidas

8th Jun 2006, 06:49

very cool! fits the universe very well! :thumb:

quick suggestion--i would almost make the landing strips dip into the hull, so the ships cant slide off into the other stuff layin around. But i would make it nice and smooth, no hard edges. unless the strip is big enough that if you miss it you shouldnt be flying in the first place.;)

Jayden

8th Jun 2006, 10:15

Looks great. both models that is :)

Flyingmonkey

11th Jun 2006, 03:30

Thanks for all the comments!

Got bored with the back so started doing some more work on the front, also did some armour detailing.

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At the moment I've also been trying to make a scene with the 'space flower', I wanted to put a planet back drop in, but I'm not very experienced with planets, if anyone knows of any good tutorials for that please let me know, thanks.:)

Roliba

11th Jun 2006, 05:03

I really like the Jumpstar. It's like a quick strike craft when a Battlestar would be just too much. My only crit would be on the rear, the second cannon should be higher. It already has a limited field of fire because of the engines, and then being on the same plane as the rearmost one limits it even more.

Just my 2 cents.

Flyingmonkey

11th Jun 2006, 17:54

I actually thought of that, and my original design had the rear guns at different heights, but I decided to just make it so the guns could move up and down to allow for clear firing. Basically they are there to cover incoming Vipers, so they
don't need a wide field of fire.

Jayden

12th Jun 2006, 16:12

Looking great, still.

About planets and other space bodys. - visit the www.solarvoyager.com tutorial section. They are photoshop backdrops but look awsome.

Helot

12th Jun 2006, 18:30

Great stuff all. The one ship you posted of 'pre-crash' works sort of looks like a Mann class ship only backwards.

Flyingmonkey

12th Jun 2006, 19:32

Looking great, still.

About planets and other space bodys. - visit the www.solarvoyager.com tutorial section. They are photoshop backdrops but look awsome.

That tutorial does look good, thanks, I'll have to try it out when I get a moment!

williethefool

16th Jun 2006, 07:09

I must say that your mini-galactica, :D , is one kisk-a** design!
I only can hope that you continue to createw more BSG inspired designs.:thumb:

gthompsn

24th Jun 2006, 04:56

How about having two turrets in the indented areas below the landing strips? If you do that, they cover the aft half-sphere of the ship so they do more than just provide protection for the incoming vipers.

Capt Christopher Donovan

24th Jun 2006, 07:48

Minor update, added some smaller engines to the central sphere.

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Personally, I'd take those off...consider that at that scale (established by the cockpit), the sphere is likely the main "habitat" module of the ship...those engines, plus their fuel tanks would eat a LOT of room!

I like the design, regardless...sort of Vorlon meets USS Discovery!

Prime_8

24th Jun 2006, 07:53

nice !

Flyingmonkey

24th Jun 2006, 23:19

Slowly... slowly I am finishing the Jumpstar, and updates are on the way, in the meantime...

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this is a quick attempt at a photoshoped planet with the research vessel, its my first attempt at a planet scene so any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated, especially in the lighting and planet composition areas!

Capt Christopher Donovan- fuel tanks aren't a problem since at some point (I'm not sure which update) I added fuel lines from the main rear engine section, I added the smaller engines mainly to break up the sphere a bit. And who needs more the a few square feet of living space!?:) I figure the crew would be less then a dozen so it wouldn't be unrealistically cramped.

gthompsn- those areas will at some point become engines, I'm not totally sure if they are they FTL engines or conventional engines but they are one of those two choices. I do plan on adding a lot more turrets, probably all on the belly, which has yet to see any detailing. You can never have to much fire power!

thanks for the comments!

Flyingmonkey

29th Jun 2006, 03:36

Finally managed to get some renders of progress on the Jumpstar. At the moment I'm mostly adding detail as it comes to me. I've been trying to get some detail in between the ribbs which is taking some time but it is slowly coming together.
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PhilArt

29th Jun 2006, 08:09

Wow, this is a nice little ship. Cool design and well executed. What is the length of the landing strips in comparison to BSG or BSP?

Helot

29th Jun 2006, 16:27

Nice update. Really an impressive job so far.

Flyingmonkey

30th Jun 2006, 01:24

Here are some comparison shots I made a while back. the Galactica shots are Zoic renders.

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I was trying my best to keep everything to scale, as well as make the Jumpstar about as long as the pods on the Galactica, and it worked out. So the landing strips which go about a third of the way into the nose of the ship are about two thirds the length of the Galactica's.

The function I had in mind for the Jumpstar was more of a light aircraft carrier feel, as opposed to the Galactica or Pegasus' Supercarrier build. It probably would house more VTOL craft like Raptors then Vipers. Its second fuction would probably be emergency relief for a Battlestar in heavy combat situations where Vipers could not make it safely back to their home ships, they could divert and make emergency landings on the Jumpstar. That's sort of where the name comes from, the Jumpstar JUMPS into battle, retrieves Vipers and JUMPS back to safety.

Nevets

30th Jun 2006, 11:32

Love the Jumpstar.

The Jumpstar seems more like an attack ship that would be part of a Battlestar Group.

There can always be variants.

viper-x-

30th Jun 2006, 15:51

I love the look and feel of your design on the Mini Battlestar. The only one thing I can see that is kind looks wierd is that on the flight deck the back gun is not elevated above the outermost gun allowing both to shoot directly behind it. other then that I think its awesome. This is just my take on the back guns.

firekite

13th Jul 2006, 00:51

:devil: i would use it as a marine troopship( i would call it an assualtstar and put all kinds of goodies aboard for troop deployment) would love to see more of this design.:cool:

Flyingmonkey

13th Jul 2006, 01:40

Like Nevets said, there can always be variations!

Heres a minor update on what I've been doing. So far I've been trying out some armour textures

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I'll get some whole ship renders when I have the chance. I've also been trying to load my more detailed turret into the Jumpstar, but there seems to be a corruption in the file that prevents rendering, I'm in the midst of fixing that and will post some shots when they become available:)

|Saint|

13th Jul 2006, 10:26

Greetings!

Gotta say I just love the Jumpstar :D

But one minor thing to point out: If there would be a landing mishap or - gods forbid - a crash landing, the crew would not only have to deal with one scrapped Viper and some dents in the deck but also with some major fuss like exploding ammo and lots of debris from one or both of that turrets.

So for credibility's sake I'd move those turrets to the upper rim of the hangar entrance or place them on a half to full-height "wall" or similar structure separating both landing strips.

Enough nitpicking for now. Keep up the great work!

|Saint|

Flyingmonkey

14th Jul 2006, 02:06

I've noticed a lot of comments about this so I'll just explain what my thought process is in a little more detail:
Much of my inspiration has come from actual aircraft carrier and their flight decks, most of the time the deck is utilized fully and only enough space as is needed is left for landings and take offs. Basically if a pilot does not "make the ball" they are in big trouble, and will probably not make it out of their landing. So with this in mind I didn't worry that much about the space around the landing strip, since it would be utilized however best it could be. Even in combat situations any pilot in the real world would still be expected to land on the strip. And unless the Viper crashed head on into the turret I'd like to think it could withstand any damage caused by a crash landing. The Jumpstar's landing area is as close to the same width as the Galactica's as I could get it, which means that there should be plenty of room, even with the turrets sitting in the middle.

All that being said, I am looking at other ideas, I want to stick with their position, but I was thinking about making them capable of retracting into the hull.

I greatly appreciate all the suggestions, I don't want anyone to think that I'm ignoring them because I don't like their ideas, so please continue commenting!

Jayden

14th Jul 2006, 17:23

The turrets retracting is a great idea. There is always a high possibility of a crash since the incoming ships may have been damaged and the pilots injured so they cant judge the strips position.

Here on earth there hasnt been any occasions were a jetplane hits a carrier only because they are not in any wars ( atm :( ) and pilots always have to eject from damaged planes anyway. In space and especially BSG it gets a bit more complicated. this is my oppinion. I love the design and modeling for sure.

B.J.

14th Jul 2006, 17:33

I love this design! I really like that render with the Raptor on the deck - really gives you a good sense of how big this thing is.

Flyingmonkey

15th Jul 2006, 02:09

Thanks, Its a real bitch getting everything to scale, but I think for the most part it all matches up, thats one of the reasons I put the Raptor there:)

Jayden- I agree, it would probably be harder to land in space, its that pesky lack of gravity:lol:

Majestic

22nd Jul 2006, 08:37

Looking awesome. The jumpstar is one of the best non-canon BSG TNS designs I have seen so far.

JustinDixon

22nd Jul 2006, 09:50

NO FRIGGEN WAY! I missed this galactica ship?!

Flyingmonkey

28th Jul 2006, 02:40

Wow! thanks for the comments, D4327- yeah the name of the thread is a bit deceptive so its easy to miss.

Hopefully updates will be coming soon, still having rendering troubles...

Alareth

28th Jul 2006, 02:57

The first ship in the thread could easily be a Jumpship from the Battletech universe.

Ozylot

28th Jul 2006, 03:16

Good stuff. :thumb:

Lee80

28th Jul 2006, 04:04

very nice..:D

Flyingmonkey

29th Jul 2006, 00:26

Finally made a render, lots of stuff added since the last shot...

Textures have begun, made the rear turrets retractable, this shot has them inside the ship, I'll do one with them outside soon hopefully. I've also updated a lot of other landing strip detail, I'll get a close up of that at some point as well.

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And the name, which may appear out of place, is my dog's name, she died a few weeks ago at the age of 14 so I've been finding every way possible to remember her, this is one of them.

Lee80

29th Jul 2006, 01:29

Lookin good...

Darth Malice

29th Jul 2006, 01:39

Real nice work Flying Monkey. Love that last render of the jumpstar...:thumb:

Vulcandth

29th Jul 2006, 02:11

baptiste11

29th Jul 2006, 02:21

Last pics are exelent !!!

Flyingmonkey

29th Jul 2006, 07:00

One more...

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Majestic

29th Jul 2006, 08:36

Awesome design you got there.

Roliba

29th Jul 2006, 09:00

My condolences on your loss. Losing a pet is losing a member of your family. Take heart that she obviously had a full, healthy life and rejoice in the memories of her.

The model looks simply awesome. I keep forgetting about this little gem, and everytime I re-find it, it's always with a sense of exitment:thumb:.

DarkSapiens

29th Jul 2006, 11:30

Really impressive...

I love this ship. :thumb:

chrisbarnett20

3rd Sep 2006, 18:13

love the little battlestar.

quetzal

5th Sep 2006, 17:49

looks great, the details look very very nice. keep up the good work.:thumb:

can't wait to see more.

3dfrontman

5th Sep 2006, 18:18

very nice work if i had 6 thumbs they would give u a six thumb up.i am so new to all this but it amazes me to see your guys imagination at work.....

Flyingmonkey

6th Sep 2006, 02:07

Thanks, appreciate all the comments!

I've been busy the last few weeks, and everytime I try to sit down and do some work on the jumpstar I end up getting no where since I don't have enough time to do anything major. Hopefully I can complete it sometime and get some images up!

chrisbarnett20

7th Sep 2006, 23:52

otho's please

harrisw

8th Sep 2006, 01:26

Great!

Duckytheinvincable

8th Sep 2006, 02:00

*rolls over and beggs*

Paveway

9th Sep 2006, 04:30

I love the ship, but that aft arrangement of the gun turrets on the flight deck as always bugged me. I know they wll elevate to clear each other, but why not make a stepped structure for the gun thats more towards the front of the ship. Seems to me it might help with the unfinished look the hangar arcway has. Your could even put a little carrier style windows for flight control on that structure since it would be inbetween the "runways"

quetzal

8th Dec 2006, 17:19

LOVE this little ship, it fits perfectly in the BSG Universe. Will you be doing a side by side comparison with the Galactica. I know it is smaller than the "G" but how small?

overall beautiful little bucket:thumb:

seanr

8th Dec 2006, 19:52

I like the Jumpstar better than the original! Nice work.

mikala

9th Dec 2006, 04:11

She's a beaut Flying Monkey!

Flyingmonkey

9th Dec 2006, 05:16

Glad to see people are still willing to dig this up!

I have an image I am working on at the moment, but my computer and renderer are not getting along right now so I've just been testing things with previous renders. But I am still working on it!

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I will try to get some side-by-sides, although I think there are some earlier in this thread somewhere, it’s been a while so I don't really remember. Maybe over Christmas I will have more to show on this.

Thanks for the continuing interest!