Two pod carrier designs. The first one is yesterdays tweaked a little, the other is a slightly more ornate design. Still prefer the first one though, looks a little more streamlined.
Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: Stuart C Macdonald
hydrocell
#23
i like both the pods… and i dig the original concept sketch, hope u r planning to go with it
FuzzyModem
#24
Concepts look very good in the fantacy/sci-fi sort of way. I look forward to seeing more.
HieSpike
#25
Hi,
Those pod designs are very awesome. THe only problem is that they look way to much like the star wars planes. I know looking like something is ok, but these are way too close. Maybe slightly change something? No?
Aethyrprime
#26
I truely enjoy looking at your sketches, You have a great ability with color. I can’t wait to see you get to the modeling phaze, but building a solid foundation is key, and you are doing that very well!
mistermac
#27
right, I’ve been on holiday and just now have the time to get back to the entry.
Thanks for the feedback guys - I had a wee look at those Star Wars ship designs, I was thinking more insect/bird beak ( ?! ) at the time but I do see a strong similarity so I worked on this redesign. This is a little more human than alien but the form isn’t too bad.
Need to get cracking on this now, not much time left. At least the final composition will need a lot of instances of the pods, so there is a fairly low number of elements in the scene to be modelled, which i’ll get cracking on with over the next week…
mistermac
#28
right, this I think is getting to be about it, hopefully it has changed sufficiently from the early designs, but I wanted to retain some of the form and dynamism of the first design.
I’ve started the low-poly work, fingers crossed it goes swiftly as it’s (gulp) only a month to go or so…
patina
#29
Hi mistermac
Wonderful drawing style, and great imagination,
not much time left, look forward to seeing final image,
my link
Paul, Patina
http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/grandspaceopera/view_entries.php?challenger=5288
mistermac
#31
another quickie. This is a rough design for the umbilical evac suit that the survivors wear inside the pods. It connects to the pod through the back plate and tubes. The final image should have them pretty much in silhouette so they need to be simple so the human figure can be read. Anywas, back to the modelling, hopefully i’ll have teh bare pod model posted soon…
jarvetu
#32
I really dig the style of your concept images! The evac suit looks perfect, I like the feeling of “retro realism” it gives.
mistermac
#33
Thanks for the comment Tuomas, I’m glad you like the basic suit look, it’s what I was aiming for.
I’ve tidied up the first drawing a litte ( just an excuse to play with my new tablet really 
).
I’m hoping to get most of the modelling and hopefully a good stint of texturing complete by next week, so look out for some steady posting…
mistermac
#34
…well the Christmas holidays got in the way of the comp, ah well hope you all had a good un’
Here’s a shot of the pod model so far, the modelling should be complete by tomorrow for it, with more detail to be added around the engine areas and the lifepod itself. Hopefully some texturing at the weekend…
Time-wise it’s unlikely i’ll manage a final submission, but I’ll keep plugging away anyways as it’s still a good learning process ( and fun ).
ihamid
#35
thats a beautiful sleek pod! talentedmodeling here ! just keep on trying u know ur not alone here:)!
mistermac
#36
Right, I added and teaked a little. Aiming on doing a fair wee bit with bump and tex mapping so the forms can be relatively pure.
Thinking of tinkering with subsurface mats to achieve the milky pod look so I can have vague humanoid forms inside ( cuts down on the modelling also, but not the rendering ).
Have a new, different layout concept in the offing, just need to check if I can achieve a decent looking seascape - anybody heard of a decent max seascape tut? I’ll give the forums a look-see and if it all looks ok then i’ll post the concept painting I did today…
texturing by Saturday/Sunday then a week tweaking and rendering.
tick, tock…
arturro
#37
It’s looking good, very promising. Are you sure you won’t manage to do it on time? it will rock anyways:) I’m waiting for some cool textures
mistermac
#38
Okay, as I mentioned earlier a new composition jumped into my head, influenced by the nautical/aquatic feel of the pod designs. Still sticking with the destruction of a colony, but this time shifted to an ocean environment. Think this’ll give the pods a better reference for their orientation, they really feel more like boats/fish to me now, with pearl-like lifepods held on them.
I know it’s late for such a major ‘tweak’ but I feel much more motivated to push this…
cgkrusty
#39
I think it’s a good choice. I love your D. Chiang inspired (if they are) ships as well. I hope you keep that FG pod skimming the water like you have in your sketch.
Looking forward to seeing this rendered…
Great work.
mistermac
#40
Thanks for the encouragement cgkrusty, I’m much happier with this composition, and I’m meaning to keep the foreground pod skimming into the water a little to kick up some spray.
Here’s a little material sea test I did just to try and get a feel for capturing the ocean. It’s just a load of standard max materials really, I don’t have access to any of the fancy ocean shaders ou get with some renderers…