Q for Shipset Designers
 

Haven't had much SE time for about the Last year except to play a game or two against the AI, but now am wanting to starting my own shipset and AI (I know it takes 'tons' of time...). I just had a Q for some of you that have done them.

Using 3D moddelers, what seems to be the best angles (camera, lighting, etc) and perspectives for your ships? Is it a 30 degrees from top right forward or whatdo you suggest? Also, any color combo's that don't work well, etc. I have read and found some people have had issues with masking and stuff and I just want to avoid them beforehand...

Any thoughts???

Re: Q for Shipset Designers
 

Best angle will depend on the shape of your ship, most shipset use somethim more or less isometric, but some ships look better from al almost frontal angle.

Background must be pure black and no shadows in the ship must be pure black so they don't look like holes. To mask correctly in 65k colors darkest shadow need to be something like RGB10,10,10.

I don't think there's any other problem with colours.
A good set of lights, especially if casting shadows can really improve the look and make minis less flat.

Re: Q for Shipset Designers
 

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely keep those in mind. I hate doing things twice (or at least I may reduce 20 or so attempts at an acceptable ship http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ).

It seems that many try to get the camera looking down at upper front left of ships. I'll probably shoot that angle. Why rock the boat...

Re: Q for Shipset Designers
 

In my signature below, is a link to a Guide to building ship sets. "Ship Set Tutorial"

It is a basic walk thru for setting up your set. It doesn't have any 3d modeling info, that is something you'll need to do on your own, but it does give a good guide for basic first time ship set making.

As you learn more, the tips in the tutorial will seem a little redundant, especially if you have PhotoShop and or 3dmax skills.

Re: Q for Shipset Designers
 

Another detail is that even the biggest ships and bases must fit completely in the picture.
If not they will look incomplete in the stellar manipulation window and in the setup screen.

Re: Q for Shipset Designers
 

Thanks Atrocities, that tutorial will help alot. I have been playing SE4 since it came out (and SEIII for at least 3 years before that) but haven't got into the customization aspect of it at all yet. It looks fun....looking forward to more...

EDIT: Here's a start to my shipset if anyone would care to comment. Remember, its just a start, needs lots of 'adjustments', and I only am showing a med transport...

medium transport

[ 10 February 2002: Message edited by: rdouglass ]</p>

Re: Q for Shipset Designers
 

Nice work, please keep it up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Q for Shipset Designers
 

Great Thread! I too have been playing for years but only now have begun to try my own shipset. The Dogga suggestion was fantastic, doing the ships in 3D is much easier than I expected. The AI files, however, are a daunting proposition. I guess the first time you do it is the steep end of the learning curve. I'm copying the AI datafiles created by others as a starting point and making changes from there, but still there is lots of work to make them work the way you want.

Re: Q for Shipset Designers
 

Thanks for the previous pointers. May I ask for some advice / critique? Been working a little on the sipset and have come up with these so far:

ShipSet

Am I on the right track? Will my color schemes, etc. work out OK once they're in the game. Do I have too much / not enough detail on the ships? Requesting and open to all comments...

Thanks,
Roger