[waylon]

Hey, everyone. I've been doing lots of concept art at work lately, so I figured I'd post some of it.

Please excuse the shoddy line work, and the incorrect perspective on parts.



I'm very much open to crits on the design. Err, well, you can really crit anything you like, but these are meant to be concept sketches that I'm going to model from, so presentation wasn't foremost on my mind - Just design (and learning to freehand perspective better.)

[Fate]

I know it's just concept sketch and there is no background or anything like that but the first thing I noticed about your design was that it doesn't look so much like a space station to me. No offense or anything but the bottom one looks like a grocery shop with a public phone booth on it's side. I just don't get the feeling that this is a space station that orbits around in space. Agagin, I'm guessing it's because of the lack of background but it could also be the fact that your design is very geometric, consisting of boxes for pretty much everything.
Another thing is the size. Judging by the size of the hangar openning compare to the entire space station the space station looks smaller than average space station. A space station of that size should rather be called a space transport or space out post etc. The reason why it looks small is because right now your space station don't have many details on it and the squares look like a big window. I know you will add textures and details to it but just so you know
I think you should look for some reference of those sci-fi space stations just to see what kind of design element most of them have in common. Sure, there isn't just one kind of space station but you should still try to give that 'feeling' of space station

Wow, that's a lot of crit. I know that's a lot but you said you are open for it
I hope that was helpful. Bye bye
(I'm looking forward to a colored one. By the way, are all those three sketches the same thing? I like the top one best

[ June 19, 2001: Message edited by: Fate ]

[waylon]

Fate: I appreciate your brutal honesty. I think some of what you pointed out will be taken care of when it's modeled in 3d - like the fact that a lot of the squares look like windows.

Hmm. I guess I could make justifications for a lot of the things you pointed out, but what it comes down to is that if it doesn't look right, it doesn't look right. I'll take your comments into consideration as I do more sketches.

And... now that I look at it again, you're right. The bottom one DOES look kind of like a grocery store.

Oh, and yeah, each one is supposed to be a different station. But when I model them, I'm hoping to be able to mix and match some of the pieces and make a bunch more stations out of them.

[ June 19, 2001: Message edited by: waylon ]

[Dryfire]

hey, pretty darn cool man.. hope to see the model soon...

they all look like guns to me.. i like :-)

[LordArioch]

The overall shapes are good. It's a bit on the boxy side... and the details seem too uniform, both in size and distribution. Try adding some very small details, in irregular locations, to help give the object a sense of scale... small windows, docking ports... anything that will add palpable detail and give the eye something to use as reference. At the moment, I can't tell at a glance whether it's a space station, a garage or a clock radio.

[ June 19, 2001: Message edited by: LordArioch ]

[pixualize]

They kinda remind me of the station/module things in the Gateway station at the beginning of the Aliens film.

Hopefully you'll be able to post some renders of the final station.

[Gimbal8]

I like the middle one. Looks rather modular, like the parts where transported from the planet in sections. And the solar panels give an immediate indication of being a space station.

The other two have that building look to them as Fate mentioned. But if you put some golden arches on that top one you'd have one nifty orbital McDonalds drive through.

[Bishop_Six]

Hey, waylon, I don't think I've ever seen any of your work. Maybe I just miss your posts.

I agree with the crits above. However, I'd say for being a space station it looks a little clean. So, what I would suggest is adding a lot of unnecessary tubing and wires and pipes and the like. That tends to make spaceships/stations look more believable. I think it would do a lot for the design to mechanize it a little more.

[waylon]

Dryfire: Thanks!

LordArioch: Thanks for the advice. I actually looked at a couple of your battle cruiser sketches for inspiration... but then I realized I wasn't good enough at perspective to do anything BUT boxy forms. Now that I've had some more practice, hopefully I'll be able to get a little more variety in the forms and detail. I think varying my line weight might help too, since right now everything seems to blend together. We'll see.

pixualize: Yeah, I should be able to post a few renderings of the final product. We'll see. I probably won't model any of these stations as-is, but I'll take bits and pieces that I like and rearrange them.

Gimbal8: Modular! Good! That's what I was going for.

Bishop: I haven't posted too much art, since most of what I do is for work... but check out my web page, I have a few things online there.

As far as the stations being too clean... remember that I have to keep the polygon count low. Though I guess I'll be able to do quite a bit in the textures. I'll work more on the detail in my next sketches.

----

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. You've really been very helpful.