making blueprints

[dragoon670]

Hey all,

I was wondering if any of you had tips or links that describe actually coming up with (star)ship designs, finding other's blueprints is all well and good but I'm looking to craft some original ships, and wasn't quite sure where to start, thanks.

[spudmonkey]

Sketch out your thoughts, then improve/refine them. Repear until you are happy with the overall design. You can then start drafting it out properly with the correct detailing

[Adamastor]

i figure there are two large trains of thought you can choose from: form follows function or function follows form (in practice you end up bouncing back and forth between the two till your done but for argument's sake lets say its just the two)

form follows function you need to know how your ship would work. is there a revolving section to create gravity or is there just a "gravity on" button, is there a giant ring structure that propels your ship forward? does it use "standard" engines? does it have giant glowing runes on perpendicular surfaces that magically move it around? is there a command deck? a cockpit? you get the idea.. then start adding them together. the originality lies in original set-ups of known parts or original parts altogether.

function follows form is odder.basically you start with a shape and choose where you put engines and weapons and stuff so that it fits you design. in class yesterday i figured a logical back-story for a human colony to use nose-shaped ships. so now I've got the nose and i guess that turrets will stick out the "nostrils" and the flat part where the face would be is the back so that will have slave-1 type engines... or you draw curvy lines till you hit a ship you like, or straight lines, or a bird siluete, or a battleship shape, or your cat looks especially space worthy today :P

i dont know about everybody else but i usually start more with one of those and then you figure that this part is not functional so you change it and that part is ugly and change that.. so you end up bouncing between form and function allot till you have a design that looks nice and useful.

of course that depends if that is what you are going for. are you designing a ship that a idiotic race is using and it points weird bits in every direction? is it a super advanced crystal-future-n-dimensional being with a ship that defies logic with no normal parts? is it a functional group that makes it work but ugly? are they fru-fru space elf bards with pretty ships that have all kinds of thingies and shinies but doesn't look minimally functional?

i would say, understand who the builders of the ship are and what the ship is supposed to be/do and start from there. stay true to a design and keep an eraser handy. balance looks and works from the point of view of the builders, using whatever logical thought you attribute to them, using the technology that they (and the particular universe) have. when in doubt scribble and google everything from steam engines to strange fruit and you'll have a design in no time!

[dragoon670]

Thanks Admastor, that's exactly what i was looking for, hopefully I'll come up with some cool designs soon.

[I.G.88]

Normaly what i do for "Blueprints" is make a sketch of a side profile, a top Profile and notes then i will use basic shapes to map it how i want then refine it from there because plans ALWAYS change when putting it in to 3D