An animated Space Opera > Tasks > Modelling spaceships

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Modelling spaceships

Created at	July 15, 2009
Created by	David Jansson
Deadline	Not set
Shots given	6
Wreckupations	3D Artist, Graphic Designer, Prop / Set Builder, VFX / SFX Artist, Concept / Storyboard Artist
Reference media

Thumbs ranking

Tuomas Perttula	Can you give more information?	3/20%
David Jansson	UV-unwrapping - Need pointers	3/20%
Daniel Saarimäki	UV-unwarpping for alien ship	3/20%
Lizette Stenqvist	Little question on Maya	2/13%
Daniel Saarimäki	Amateur ship art	2/13%
Daniel Saarimäki	Alien carrier	2/13%

Description

I realized, not being finished with the model of the Alien ship, that some help with modelling Earth fleet would be nice.

This is a Creative Commons share alike project, the only payment you can get is your name/handle, your web/blog addresses and your contact details in the credits.

Guidelines:
All ships are to be capital ships and needs to look plausible. (If you happen to model an implausible ship, I would still be interested though, for alien ships in the background.) They can be sleek, but without silly things like wings and bridges that stick out. (Building a protruding bridge on a warship is asking for a railgun shell in the face...)

The polycount needs to be quite low, so as not to make UV-mapping texturing a neverending job. Also, my laptop needs to be able to render multiple models in a scene in less than a day. Can't sleep with the thing on. No textures are needed as I will likely redesign them anyway to fit the style I am going for. I wouldn't mind if there is an UVmap done, though empty.

The format needs to be Blender compatible. Gun emplacements need to be a separate object with the ship as parent.

Ships from the Crest/banner of the stars Anime is a nice source of inspiration for what I have in mind.

http://www.abhnation.com/index.php?spgmGal=SNM-01&option=com_mambospgm&Itemid=169#

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Daniel Saarimäki December 11, 2009 14:45 2 Thumb-ups

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Amateur ship art

My brother painted something quickly and here's the result. It has few ships. If some of them is good, he can make another painting from it.

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Daniel Saarimäki December 11, 2009 19:02 Flag

Here's the second painting. Joel made it so quickly that he forgot to add his signature :D

Daniel Saarimäki December 11, 2009 17:35 Flag

Okay. He said that he can try.

David Jansson December 11, 2009 16:48 Flag

Ask him if he could do something that portrays a grand scale more?

Ships that look biiiiiiig!

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Lizette Stenqvist November 16, 2009 18:16 2 Thumb-ups

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Little question on Maya

Hey, I've started to work on a model, but it's in Maya 2009.
I googled around a bit and saw that there's some plug-in that makes it possible to import Maya files into blender.
But I just wanted to hear it from you guys as well:
Is it okay if I build it in Maya?
I don't have blender and I'm not prepared to learn it just for this task.

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David Jansson November 22, 2009 21:15 Flag

Blender says that it has imported the Dae file, but there is only the cube you start with. (I remodelled it so I would be able to tell the difference.) Either it doesn't work, or I am doing something wrong. I will get back to you on that.

Lizette Stenqvist November 22, 2009 18:20 Flag

"should work"... could you please tell me if it does work?

Daniel Saarimäki November 19, 2009 18:25 Flag

that .dae should work. I found an import function for it...

Lizette Stenqvist November 19, 2009 17:46 Flag

Okay I tried all the fortmats that I had. I bet there are a few more that I can get thru some plug-ins, but what ever.
It's not that big a deal if I do the thing in vain. I need the practice, and I'm using it for a school assignement as well.
There's an option of exporting as a .mov file, it it failed.
About the file: You're supposed to see a clear red square with no subdivisions. The .ma and .mb file do not contain the same cube as the other files. But they both have a red non-subdivision cube.
Good luck!

http://www.filefactory.com/file/a2c3b43/n/Maya_try_Lizette.fbx
http://www.filefactory.com/file/a1c2de6/n/Maya_try_Lizette_DAE.fbx.dae
http://www.filefactory.com/file/a2c2h79/n/Maya_try_Lizette.ma
http://www.filefactory.com/file/a1c2de8/n/Maya_try_Lizette.mb

Daniel Saarimäki November 17, 2009 15:26 Flag

.obj format is also quite good.

David Jansson November 16, 2009 21:42 Flag

I bet Maya can export it into a format that blender can import. Like 3ds.

Try to export a simple cube and attach it to this shot. Upload it as a Maya file as well, I am going to see if I can find the Maya import script.

That way I can test if it works okay before you do any modelling.

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Daniel Saarimäki November 10, 2009 19:03 2 Thumb-ups

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Alien carrier

I modelled something quickly and here's the result... It's not ready. I let you to check if it's worth to be finished. It is going to have one big turret in the top and some small turrets in the sides. Small fighters come out from the front. It has one turret modelled and some of the armature made (no deform made yet).

By the way, I looked your deviantART. That Insect painting is wonderful! I'm studying art at school (class 9) but my skills are nothing if I compare them to you XD!

Download Drone_ship.blend

Download Alien_carrier.blend

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Comments

Daniel Saarimäki November 18, 2009 18:15 Flag

Do whatever you want to. This has gone over my understandings :)

David Jansson November 18, 2009 10:12 Flag

I am thinking about using the drone ship as a big ship. I need all the "extras" ships I can get, so the carrier will probably get some screen time in the background. (But not the "Welcome aboard" sign.)

A thought struck me, maybe the carrier would work as a drone design. Quite possibly... We will see.

Daniel Saarimäki November 17, 2009 17:26 Flag

Ok. That's it. I tried to make UV unwarp, but when I added the texture, everything turned into a big mess, so if you want to do the UV unwarp, you have to propably do it yourself.

That carrier/station (whatever it is) isn't so good. I have my own style and if I try to make something else, it will look much like this... I continue working with Sample. Hopefully you can get something out from these models :)

Daniel Saarimäki November 12, 2009 19:00 Flag

What should be the name of that space station? Could make a texture and put it to the side of the station.

Daniel Saarimäki November 11, 2009 19:09 Flag

I edited that carrier/space station little, added image and uploaded that drone ship.

Daniel Saarimäki November 11, 2009 09:58 Flag

What do you think about "Welcome aboard" text above the hangar? Do I model the letters or just use blenders text-function?

It's same to me do you use that other ship model (going to put it here when I can) but I still upload it. Maybe you can get some use to it...

Daniel Saarimäki November 11, 2009 09:53 Flag

Should the starship have some defense. Just few small cannons in the sides?

Daniel Saarimäki November 11, 2009 09:48 Flag

Ok I just edit the ship.

David Jansson November 11, 2009 09:37 Flag

The ship would not be featured in an offensive manner. So working on drone ships for me would be a waste of time I'm afraid.

Daniel Saarimäki November 11, 2009 09:21 Flag

Okay... I didn't understand much but I try to do something =)

If I understood right, you don't want turrets. You want lots of small drones. My brother has modelled some kind of drone ship wich could be good. I remove that turret and add that drone model to this shot. I can't do it now but I will do it later. I can add details and try to texture that ship.

You can use that flamethrower model. You don't have mention Sample anywhere but it's your choise.

David Jansson November 10, 2009 21:09 Flag

That's a nice attempt. Though I really need less curved surfaces, the Alien ship I have already made makes painting textures interesting to say the least...

But, I was toying with the idea of asking you to let me use the flame thrower model that I would modify into a ship design, though retaining it's general shape. Would name it Sample of flame or something like that. Maybe put the sample logo on it.

Anyway, my vision of alien ships in this story are largely inspired by the book House of suns by Alastair Reynolds. (A wonderful epic space opera novel that would Kick the ass of Star Wars, Serenity, Star Trek, what have you, if it were ever to be made into a film.) The earth armada will mainly be subdued via information warfare (hacking) and some sort of esoteric equivalents to EMPs. In House of suns there are no fighters, but the big kilometre long ships they use are so advanced that they could outmanoeuvre a fighter such as the ones from modern classic space opera like Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica. They use small expendable defence drones though that the ships build themselves. That's what the aliens will have. The humans will also mainly rely on capital ships, but one of the points in the film will be that one alien hobbyist easily can defeat the whole Human military armada.

But, your design could be usable, I intend to have our protagonists visit a sort of cultural trade centre where there will be a lot of ships of different alien design gathered. Though in that case I want you to colour it yourself, you can do it via materials as you usually do, as painting textures for such a rounded design is very hard the way I intend to go about it. Other than that, just loose the cannon turret. And if you want, feel free to go wild with incomprehensible details.

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David Jansson October 10, 2009 13:30 Production Leader 3 Thumb-ups

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UV-unwrapping - Need pointers

I am trying to UV unwrap the alien ship so that I can paint the textures. But keeping track of the surfaces and which way they are facing is making my head spin.

There has to be a better way to do this.

Please tell me what it is?

Download Alienship11.blend

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Daniel Saarimäki November 04, 2009 18:01 Flag

Congratulations.

David Jansson November 04, 2009 11:57 Flag

Wohooo! I solved it. I split the ship into several objects. Made things a whole lot easier.

Daniel Saarimäki October 11, 2009 15:25 Flag

Yep. Your unwarp is a bit messy :) I try another setup. let's see can I make anything better.

Daniel Saarimäki October 11, 2009 11:07 Flag

Those things i mentioned are just basic things and you propably know them. You can also try to make multiple unwarps instead of one. Separate the ship into parts (just in mind, not in model) and unwarp and texture each part separately.

I try to try unwarping today (later). I think I know a good seam setup for this. Let's see.

Daniel Saarimäki October 11, 2009 11:07 Flag

I try to try unwarping today (later). I think I know a good seam setup for this. Let's see.

Daniel Saarimäki October 10, 2009 17:50 Flag

I can try to make that tomorrow.

Nice ship by the way :)

Daniel Saarimäki October 10, 2009 17:47 Flag

I haven't made UV-unwarping before, but I know how it is being done. Have you tried to make a seam? Make a seam, wich goes from the center of the ship. From the other end to the other end (bottom too). Then unwarp it. You should have two pieces. One from the other side and one from the other. Do you also know about pinning. Move few points to where you want them to and then unwarp again. If you know these and they don't work, you can try also texture painting. Just paint the texture to the surface without any image manipulation programes.

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Daniel Saarimäki October 11, 2009 15:55 3 Thumb-ups

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UV-unwarpping for alien ship

I tried something and here's the result. I looks more simple than yours but it's maybe not better.

Download Alienship11_edited.blend

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Daniel Saarimäki October 16, 2009 09:33 Flag

Do as you like to do :)

David Jansson October 15, 2009 13:58 Flag

Oh, and the section with the holes isn't a turret, they are the dining room windows.

David Jansson October 15, 2009 13:57 Flag

I am pretty much flailing about in the dark here. That UV-unwrap thing has become a bit of a hurdle for me. It might take a while for me to get around to checking it out. I downloaded Wings3d that Yann Sauvage uses, it has some new innovative texturing thing that I am going to look at. But I really want to draw those textures in GIMP, I want them to have a hand drawn feel. So we will see. If that texturing wonder tool in Wings3d is as good as they say I might give up on the UV unwrapping if I can't get it to unwrap good soon. I could perhaps use the texture paint tool to draw reference lines, then the Unwrapping might not need to be ultimate...

Daniel Saarimäki October 14, 2009 18:11 Flag

And again, if it LOOKS better, it ISN'T maybe better and I'm the beginner here so you propably know more about these things.

Daniel Saarimäki October 14, 2009 18:08 Flag

I spotted few problems in my UV unwarp. First, the edge of the back in the UV unwarp is far too tight. Second, The turret on the bottom (or whatever it is) has two holes in it. I haven't separated them with seams so I have no idea how do they act in this.

Remember that I'm just starter with these things and this UV-warp was done in seconds.

I think your original unwarp was messy because of your pinnings. I unpinned all and it looked MUCH better. Second problem is, that you had quite much seams, wich is sometimes good idea but sometimes it separates your model into hundreds of pieces and you don't know what is where.

David Jansson October 13, 2009 17:33 Flag

Thank you!

I will take a close look at it on a day when my head is less mushy.

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Tuomas Perttula July 15, 2009 13:49 3 Thumb-ups

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Can you give more information?

I think i could try to do something, but i'd like to know a few things:

1. Do you have any kind of general style in mind? Do you want aerodynamic-looking ships (although it shouldn't matter in space), what kind of weaponry, dimensions, armour etc. Some kind of moodboard would be nice...

2. How low-poly models you want? Is 100 000 polys low? 10 000? Are you planning to do close-up shots of the ships or are they just for background for something you design and model personally?

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David Jansson July 15, 2009 15:06 Flag

I think it has a total of 704 polys, if I read the numbers at the top right. (See newly attached screenshot.)

David Jansson July 15, 2009 14:54 Flag

http://www.abhnation.com/components/com_mambospgm/spgm/gal/SNSII-04/SNS2-04-08.jpg
http://www.abhnation.com/components/com_mambospgm/spgm/gal/SNS-02/SNS-02-12.jpg

David Jansson July 15, 2009 14:40 Flag

Well, all the ships will be capital. Have you seen Crest of the Stars/banner of the stars? I think they might have the right idea. http://www.japanator.com/~japanator/elephant/ul/3194-550x-lotgh3.jpg
Google image search hates me...
But fansites never fail... http://www.abhnation.com/index.php?spgmGal=SNM-01&option=com_mambospgm&Itemid=169#?

10 000 actually sounds like a lot. I'm going to check how many polys the Alien's ship has and get back to you on that. I imagine that it would be less than with the Alien's ship as Earth fleet ships should look less sleek and advanced. I intend to paint the textures the same way I paint the 2d-characters, I want the 3d textures to have a similar drawn feel to the 2d-elements. I think too much detail in the model would make that very hard. (Though I am playing with the idea to paint planets in aquarelles and transferring them to the computer via high res photo.)

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