[Gecko]

I just had to make a spaceship of my own after I saw that beautiful ship Francis created and then the foggy version Spooge suggested.

Here's how it came out:


The perspective doesn't work, but I'm not sure what's with it. Maybe the wings tilt too much forward?

The ship lost some detail due to heavy resizing, feel free to check out the fullsize pic as well (225k):
http://www.warthog.pp.fi/turhatjpgt/spaceshipfinal.jpg

Even if it's starting to annoy me, I'm not gonna say I'm done with it. So the damn meteor-magnet is at least gonna get a decent background instead of that oh so refreshing dark gray mess. :Q

I'd gladly hear any suggestions to make the pic suck at least a bit less than it currently does. Have to sleep first, though.


Have a nice day, I'll just put a lil more stuff in front of my window to block the sun an...zzz

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Gecko
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Gecko's Hideout

[This message has been edited by Gecko (edited July 22, 2000).]

[SushiMaster]

Looks great! I love the feeling of speed.

I think perhaps your perspective problem comes from the nose being tilted to the left (from the pov of the ship - right for us), compared to the wing. So it is the wing coming forward a bit.

How do you go about painting this btw? Did you make a sketch first? Did you just start with solid colours right away? Tell me! :-)

Daniel

[Gecko]

I started with loosely sketching the form on my sketchbook, and then proceeded to paint the main parts with a few guiding perspective lines at 800x600:



Then I blew the size up to 3000xsomething and started clearing the contours ending up with this:



The next step was to create all that small texture on the wings, engines and the hull. This was the most time-consuming phase.



After I was happy with it I started adding the final details on different layers: draw the inside of the cockpit, some green and blue light glowing, shadows to better define the light source, and finally the engine glow and more of those minimeteor hit marks.
Oh and the background, too. This is not the final one, though. :[



I hope this clears it up a bit.


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Gecko
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Gecko's Hideout

[SushiMaster]

Thanks!

Daniel

[psi burn]

it looks like its breaking up

[Gecko]

Damned guys, that ship has served for many decades, and she sure ain't gonna break now, with just 2 days left to retirement, and a place reserved at the Practical Art Museum.

To make sure she'll make it, I even had a new nosepiece installed on her... one can never be too cautious these days.





The improvements can be more closely examined through this fullsize version of the picture: http://www.warthog.pp.fi/turhatjpgt/landing.jpg

And I'm still waiting for some suggestions on how to improve, mocking a perfectly good spacecraft will do no good, only make the pilot cry himself to sleep.

Over and out

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Gecko
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Gecko's Hideout

[Frost]

Looking very good Gecko. =)

[Francis]

Nice painting gecko - neat lighting effects. I didn't invent space ships, so you didn't have to credit me, but thanks!

Wonder if you could add some information here and there to help convey the form more -
for example, indicate the thickness of the window frames around the cockpit; it looks a little 2D right now. Is the blue coloring in the window a reflection?

Also, the angle you've chosen is a pretty challenging one - most of the surfaces of the ship are seen at a very sharp angle. It's difficult to convey a sense of the overall form, especially one like this ship which is pretty much round organic shapes - there aren't many straight lines to give the viewer a perspective reference (not a bad thing - just your design choices), which adds to your work. Although it's more dramatic - the ship is headed right towards you.

I'd like to see the design of the wings be a little more dynamic - it looks like the top down view of this ship would show basically a t-shaped form. Actually, maybe you could post a picture of the plan view of the ship.

Anyway, just a few comments.

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Francis Tsai
TeamGT Studios

[Cos]

Mayday! Mayday!

[spooge demon]

The parts of the ship that are gray right now could have some color to them. Just a little warm and cool gray, nothing saturated.

Also, the black behind the ship could come up in value a little, so it does not come into the same plane as the ship.

Overall, it looks really good. Kinda matte shot like, linda scrappy up close, but your contrast ratios and values are pretty accurate.

[Gecko]

Let's see.

Added different shades of gray to the light parts, I'm wondering if this is what you were after, Spooge. I'm thinking maybe I should've used more darker shades on some parts.

Francis, that blue on the windows was supposed to be light glowing inside the cockpit, I changed it, hope it looks better now. Also defined the windowframes to look more 3d, and repaired some of the "forehead". You totally deserve the credits since I wouldn't have started another pic if I hadn't seen yours.

Background has more smog, I put some more lights in there and continued the landing pad into the distance.

Thanks for the comments everyone. Just don't let me leave this one unfinished! So if there's anything else to it, please spit it out.



Fullsize: http://www.warthog.pp.fi/turhatjpgt/landing2.jpg

Here's the top view as well. Yup, it's T-shaped alright.



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Gecko
[email protected]
Gecko's Hideout

[This message has been edited by Gecko (edited July 24, 2000).]