Where do you source your ship artwork?
- NewAgeOfPower
- Posts: 288
- Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 1:52 am
Where do you source your ship artwork?
Is everyone here their own artist? My artist got bored with FTL a few months ago, and thus I have no ship to mount my shiny new mod onto.
Requiem. The first in the Ascension trilogy. Current version: 0.6 BETA.
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- Posts: 24
- Joined: Tue May 14, 2013 1:37 am
Re: Where do you source your ship artwork?
Some of us just recolour vanilla ships, some of us splice. Some of us scale down ships from other games/shows, and some of us use advanced models.
Most of us just don't know what we're doing.
Most of us just don't know what we're doing.
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- Posts: 660
- Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:08 am
Re: Where do you source your ship artwork?
For making your own original mods, sketchup. I dont think there is a better and fastest tool lthan that, not if u want to make some decent looking ships graphics. U can try using photoshop to make a 2d graphic for a ship, but unless u have really good skills on that, u will waste much much more time than using sketchup or even a simple icon editing program like iconworkshop and the results will be far worst than almost everything lol.
- NewAgeOfPower
- Posts: 288
- Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 1:52 am
Re: Where do you source your ship artwork?
Google Sketchup? Isn't it 3d modelling software?
Requiem. The first in the Ascension trilogy. Current version: 0.6 BETA.
Get your Ascension Faction siggys here!
Get your Ascension Faction siggys here!
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- Posts: 660
- Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:08 am
Re: Where do you source your ship artwork?
YES, it is.
But that doesnt mean is hard to use, or worst than photoshop or gimp, for example for this mattter. In fact, i never used any other program to make my own ship graphics for this mod or for other games. People sometimes forget a 3d modelling program can RENDER the models u make on em. Meaning u can render a top view of it, and that will be the same as making a 2d graphic with photoshop (with the difference that the 3d top view screensho will look far better).
The reason i recommend sketchup is, first, its really easy to handle, second, it doesnt matter if it is a 3d modelling program, since u can make top view screenshots and thats the good thing, since u can modify the entire ship or watever u want if u need to do some changes, and u take a screenshot again.
If u use photoshop, and u notice u need to re-design half of the ship, i tell u that is more tedious than doing it on the sketchup model u already have. Besides, the quality is far better than using photoshop (unless as i said, u have really great skills on photoshop, i mean professional skills). I waste about 45-60 minutes on sketchup (usually 45 minutes) in a ship design. Thats wat it takes to make a decent ship graphic in sketchup since u start to creating the 3d model, until u get all textured and the top view ready to capture.
Of course, i use som filters on sketchup to simplify some things, like creating curved surfaces, tubes, etc the potential of sketchup is that u can add a lot of plugins that makes things more easy (if possible lol).
People sometimes freak out when they hear the word "3D", and i will agree if u are talking about 3d studio , blender, truespace or other really hard to use creeping 3d modelling program. This doesnt apply to sketchup. But in year 2013 people still are too lazy to try new things and i was really afraid of trying any 3d modelling program 6 years ago, i coudnt even waste more than 10 minutes trying to manage 3dstudio.. xDDD. Until i discovered sketchup, that changed my life
But that doesnt mean is hard to use, or worst than photoshop or gimp, for example for this mattter. In fact, i never used any other program to make my own ship graphics for this mod or for other games. People sometimes forget a 3d modelling program can RENDER the models u make on em. Meaning u can render a top view of it, and that will be the same as making a 2d graphic with photoshop (with the difference that the 3d top view screensho will look far better).
The reason i recommend sketchup is, first, its really easy to handle, second, it doesnt matter if it is a 3d modelling program, since u can make top view screenshots and thats the good thing, since u can modify the entire ship or watever u want if u need to do some changes, and u take a screenshot again.
If u use photoshop, and u notice u need to re-design half of the ship, i tell u that is more tedious than doing it on the sketchup model u already have. Besides, the quality is far better than using photoshop (unless as i said, u have really great skills on photoshop, i mean professional skills). I waste about 45-60 minutes on sketchup (usually 45 minutes) in a ship design. Thats wat it takes to make a decent ship graphic in sketchup since u start to creating the 3d model, until u get all textured and the top view ready to capture.
Of course, i use som filters on sketchup to simplify some things, like creating curved surfaces, tubes, etc the potential of sketchup is that u can add a lot of plugins that makes things more easy (if possible lol).
People sometimes freak out when they hear the word "3D", and i will agree if u are talking about 3d studio , blender, truespace or other really hard to use creeping 3d modelling program. This doesnt apply to sketchup. But in year 2013 people still are too lazy to try new things and i was really afraid of trying any 3d modelling program 6 years ago, i coudnt even waste more than 10 minutes trying to manage 3dstudio.. xDDD. Until i discovered sketchup, that changed my life
- Ora_unit_SR388
- Posts: 193
- Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:41 pm
Re: Where do you source your ship artwork?
I don't render my own ships for ftl, I just splice. When I render other stuff though I use maya. Maya is super expensive though so I agree with speedoflight here is saying that you should try sketchup.
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- Posts: 660
- Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:08 am
Re: Where do you source your ship artwork?
Yeah, i forgot, sketchup is free (there is a pro version but u have all you need with the free version), so thats other thing to have in mind.
Maya is great, i used it time ago, but the problem is, it s far harder than sketchup (of course, they have different purposes) and as u said, it is expensive and it will be ridiculous to buy it for making mods for ftl.. besides, i think maya is too much for using it in this matter. I think sketch up is ideal, and even if sketch up itself doesnt have a render engine, u still can export the model in a top-view png image with the resolution you want (bigger the better so u can have a really good graphic to work on) and u will amazed how good they look in the end. U can also add borders to the edges of the model, apply shadows, and get a closer style to the vanilla ftl ships.
Maya is great, i used it time ago, but the problem is, it s far harder than sketchup (of course, they have different purposes) and as u said, it is expensive and it will be ridiculous to buy it for making mods for ftl.. besides, i think maya is too much for using it in this matter. I think sketch up is ideal, and even if sketch up itself doesnt have a render engine, u still can export the model in a top-view png image with the resolution you want (bigger the better so u can have a really good graphic to work on) and u will amazed how good they look in the end. U can also add borders to the edges of the model, apply shadows, and get a closer style to the vanilla ftl ships.
- kartoFlane
- Posts: 1488
- Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:20 pm
Re: Where do you source your ship artwork?
IMO raw renders look ugly and out of place. You could make your ships look much better and vanilla-like, if you used your render as a base to draw on top of.
I used this method to create two ship hulls, and it has served me pretty well.
Reference image, raw model render
End product
I used this method to create two ship hulls, and it has served me pretty well.
Reference image, raw model render
End product
Superluminal2 - a ship editor for FTL
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- Posts: 660
- Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:08 am
Re: Where do you source your ship artwork?
kartoFlane wrote:IMO raw renders look ugly and out of place. You could make your ships look much better and vanilla-like, if you used your render as a base to draw on top of.
I used this method to create two ship hulls, and it has served me pretty well.
Reference image, raw model render
End product
I really dunno wat u talking about, but i imagine u talking about Light Wave (LMO¿?) ?? the point of the thread is to model the graphic from the beginning, not to retouch something that is already there. (he wants to design a ship from the beginning, not to pick a base sprite and go from there..)
- kartoFlane
- Posts: 1488
- Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:20 pm
Re: Where do you source your ship artwork?
IMO = In My Opinion
Huh. I was under the impression that the point of this thread is a discussion on how to create a nicely-looking hull graphic for a ship. I think that using a raw model render as a sort of "concept art" to draw the hull sprite proper, yields results of superior quality.
Huh. I was under the impression that the point of this thread is a discussion on how to create a nicely-looking hull graphic for a ship. I think that using a raw model render as a sort of "concept art" to draw the hull sprite proper, yields results of superior quality.
Superluminal2 - a ship editor for FTL