Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: Chris Cook

#1

Chris Cook has entered the Grand Space Opera 3D.

#2

Hopefully I’ll get past the concept phase this time. :wink: These are the first two ideas I kicked out - I’m leaning towards the bottom one.

Concept1: Large orbital cities are at war with one another over a large aquatic planet. A family caught in the crossfire watches in horrer as a city burns and explodes in the distance.

Concept2: Troop transports rush to an ablaze city. I’m going to add an enemy ‘fighter’ craft approaching rapidly in the upper left to get rid of the huge blank spot - ship designs aren’t final.

Sorry for the scribbly concepts - my tablet is broken and I have to fight to get a straight line. >.<

#3

That second sketch is looking really nice man, an incoming swarm destroying an enemy city :twisted:

Gav

#4

Couple of quick changes to the 2nd concept - decided to move the camera inside one of the transports, having a seated soldier fill in the void on the left.

Gonna have fun with this one. :slight_smile: The smoke is going to be a problem, I’m sure, but I’ll worry about it when I get there. Gonna focus on the ships and soldier first, city last. Not sure if matte painting is allowed for the background planes, thats possibly an option if I start running out of time.

#5

Worked out the final ship design a bit in my sketchbook, just going through and boxing it in right now.

#6

Kind of a Clone Wars dropship and “Aliens: Resurrection” Betty look going on there. Tres cool. Engines are inside the doors? Could work very well. Will the tail wings be thinned?

#7

Small update tonight - did a bit more detailing around the engine and wing assembly.

Modeling is going pretty slow at this point (I made the mistake of not fleshing out this area on the concept, having to invent as I go. :)) Got hung up on making it accually fold into the bay doors, its missing a few parts now but should fold up believably when its done. The wings are also missing their body panel skin, which they’ll get after I’ve fleshed out the main body more.

I also decided to shift the nose back to the original concept - has a more aggresive feel imho.

#8

heya

awesome modelling so far…
I like your ship designs, how are the wings going to work? they almost look like the pads from the matrix hoverships.

:thumbsup:

#9

Thanks!

They do look fairly similar to the Matrix pads now that you mention it, but thats mainly cause they’re not covered with the body panel or textured yet. They won’t be as exposed or visible from the outside as they are now - I had to model the details since the camera will be placed inside of one.

They’re actually more conventional (jet-like), with some heavy-duty form of thrust vectoring. The nozzles spin about the perimeter of the disk to direct the force whichever direction is needed. The ‘wings’ are articulated so, along with the thrust vecoring, the craft can achieve vertical take-offs/landings.

The idea behind the craft is a troop transport, its esentially their version of the Huey.

edit: Totally forgot to explain why the wings fold into the ship. The original design was that they tucked their wings into the body, and were ejected from an orbiting spaceship. They enter the atmosphere as a solid block essentially, then at a lower altitude they extend the wings and gain controlled flight (think: “Aliens”).

In reality though, the engines took up way too much space inside, so all the passengers would be squished (oops!) - so my excuse is they fold the wings into the body for storage, like aircraft on a carrier. ;D

#10

your work is going very good and the concept its so cool
keep whit the good work buddy.
i still in the concept process , but you are working very fast.:bounce:

#11

Im really liking this comp!

The transports, and the “sand” color scheme smacks of StarWar Clone wars, but irregardless the compositon is very intersting and dynamic. I hope that the transports will be full of soliders looking out on the battle field, and maybe even noticing our hero there on the ledge.

Another idea that comes to mind, in an effort to create a truely epic scale to the whole thing,… What if that main city is not the only city up in flames,… maybe off in the distance there should be other cities burning with a large colums of smoke billowing out from them all connected by a thin framework of futuristic highways? Maybe the units being transported are “recovery” units??

This scene looks like alot of fun and there is alot of potencial.

Buena suerte amigo.

#12

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