Star Trek WIP Hulls (Updated 03/05/16 - Steamrunner WIP images)

Discuss and distribute tools and methods for modding. Moderator - Grognak
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Crazybat
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Jun 20, 2015 6:08 pm

Re: Star Trek WIP Hulls (Updated 03/05/16 - Steamrunner WIP images)

Postby Crazybat » Wed May 04, 2016 3:17 pm

NarnKar wrote:I'd say go for it! I don't think it would feel wrong. You'd have a good justification for it, and that particular FTL convention needn't always apply.
The sprite art, as always, is gorgeous. How do you shade your ship hulls?


I sacrificed a day's sleep at the altar of Photoshop chasing after missing pixels. I think I'll stick with recolours for now, especially after this last layout.

Anyhow, what I do for my hulls, is I have a .psd file with multiple layers. All the engine glows/lights and window lights are layers - with outer glow enabled - on top of the base hull image. The hull image itself is shaded by right-clicking the hull layer, going to Blending Options, then to Gradient Overlay. Change the selected gradient to the transparent/black at the very bottom of the selections, set the angle to 90, scale to 90, opacity to 42, and boom - basic shadowing. The stock FTL ships use a combination of that and actual pixel art to give a better sense of shape to the vanilla ships that my mods lack - sometimes I wonder if those less familiar with my other mods are "interpreting" the images the wrong way. Or that's the paranoia talking.

Now, what was I about to do? Oh yeah. Layout C! Maquis pirate-esque Steamrunner. Pick one!
Image
Image

First one is literally just a captured Steamrunner, painted up all FTL-like except it's the Maquis instead of Pirates. The second one is just to give it a little more difference in terms of colour. I can think of lore reasons why, certainly, but something about it seems...off. As much as I want to avoid sameness, there's something about the orange that doesn't feel right.
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Crazybat
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Jun 20, 2015 6:08 pm

Re: Star Trek WIP Hulls (Updated 03/05/16 - Steamrunner WIP images)

Postby Crazybat » Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:43 am

I've made a comeback in modding my Star Trek Reboot mod for Gratuitous Space Battles, and now I'm considering returning to FTL for a short while to finish the Steamrunner pack and maybe grind out a few more ships.

I'm also currently reworking an old Defiant Class mod that's been kicked around - given the size of the ship, it's obviously not part of my 'official range' of mods, but I'd like to provide my level of quality to those looking to play with one of the most popular Trek designs. Expect a full three layouts, based after the original DS9 hero ship, the non-canon stealth ship USS Monitor, and possibly a super nerdy third layout based off a weird fanfic idea. If anyone has an idea for a proper third layout, please let me know!