Palpacinian Cruiser

[jnddepew]

This is a Palpacinian Cruiser (A rather big spaceship) I've been working on. It's far from done and I'd like some helpful crits.

keep in mind that I'm new at this. :D

[objuan]

Nice design. Is this based on something, or just out of your imagination or what? I like it.

I think the curved parts could use more geometry though. The kind of rounded shuttle bay thing in the middle looks a bit chunky.

Nice work. Post some textured pics once you get there...

[jnddepew]

it's from my imagination.
You're right about the chunky part. I'm working on some turrets now.

anyone else got some Criticisms?

[jnddepew]

update:
adding the engines

[Starlost]

Interesting design. Reminiscent of the Homeworld games. I would suggest that you look into a cool plugin that came out just a short while ago called Greeble. From what I've read about it you will save alot of time adding detail to the flat panel surfaces.

Render On!

Starlost...

[jnddepew]

it's not for free is it?

[mattbolton]

I'm pretty sure it is.
Check Flay.com for LW lScripts and plugins.
http://flay.com/GetDetail.CFM?ID=2156

[jnddepew]

a little update with some guns:

[JeffRutan]

Cool! Another one of those applications where true instancing would really help - lots of detail as repeated instances of a base object like that gun.

[jnddepew]

here's a far-away veiw. notice all the guns!

[Starlost]

Yep lots & lots of hardpoints but you need to make sure that they don't overlap and shoot each other or the ship as well. I've seen models where they put on turrets with 360 degree spin which if not careful they would destroy each other.
hehehe..
but it did look cool...

Render On!

Starlost

[jnddepew]

I decided to get rid of those round things in the front. does anyone have any ideas of what I should put in instead?

[iconoclasty]

Some of the room could be taken up with bays for launching smaller craft.

This ship is very uniquely shaped. I like how you've escaped the paradigm that a space ship has to look aerodynamic.

[Starlost]

Very true. When I first started out with LW a few years back I told one of my friends in the cgi industry that when designing ships I like to make then non-symetrical. I mean they are in space so they don't have to worry about streamlining etc. They just need to be pushed in the right direction since there's no resistance to worry about. Now of course a craft of this size normally will never make planetfall on purpose anyway, not without mentally screwing with the populous or on an advanced world bringing out their entire armada's..

Sure a symetrical ship looks pretty but consider the amount of time really involved in the building process of one of these behemoths. Technology by that point would be making leaps-n-bounds all the time practically, New Tech would be added onto a major project. Without constantly scrapping the project every six months they would simply incorporate the tech into new sections untill at some point they deem the ship is ready for the maiden voyage. Knowing full well that the next ship will be going through the same process. Unless they have some sort of multiple shipyard thing going on each ship would not look like a mirrorred copy new tweaks would be showing their stuff.

Consider this Palpacinian Cruiser your probably looking at a 5 to 10 year building cycle for something of this scale. Now since it's armed to the teeth it's relatively safe to say that they expect some sort of confrontation. Wartime tends to push the tech clock forward more rapidly than peacetime. This appears to be what would be considered a Capitol Ship type design primarily the heaviest gun available the the fleet. It could have a small support team of fighters but would be better used in conjunction with slightly smaller ships with better manueverability. It would excel in effectively blockading a single planet.

Anyhow thats just my take on all this, but like I said I enjoy the fact that it's not symetrical like so many other ships are. I can see this Palpacinian Cruiser coming into the scene not quickly but at a good speed and basically say Lets get ready to rumble..

Render On!

Starlost...

[jnddepew]

thanks for the observations. Quite interesting.
The Palpacinians don't care what their spaceships look like. All they care is that they will get the job done. They're very logical.

[jnddepew]

working on some textures. I'll get some pictures soon.

[jnddepew]

here's the Palpacinian Crusier and some other ships. They're to scale.