Katchoo's Shipset Thread (aka the ungodly slow DoGa guy).

[Katchoo]

Originally posted by Cirvol:
thx katchoo

im really interested if you've played with rhinoceros?

I've got Rhinoceros installed but I haven't been able to get into it. If i'm going to switch over to another program to produce models compatible with Starfury & SEV, then it'll likely be 3ds Max, which is the first program other than DoGa & Bryce to keep my attention span long enough to get into it.

also, since you did your excellent baseship in bryce, would you think of doing a whole shipset in bryce? what are the advantages?

Well, the first and big disadvantage to doing ships in Bryce would be the inablility to create models in Direct X format. If there's a converter which can transform Bryce Models to Direct X then I would probably take modelling in Bryce more seriously.

For whatever reason my mind is actually able to grasp the controls and options avaiable in Bryce, whereas in other graphic programs my short attention span gets the better of me (3ds Max being the only other exception).

Advantages to using Bryce? Lots of ways to maniuplate shapes, at least in ways that are obvious to me. The layout of the tools and such in Bryce are more unique than they are in other programs, which all tend to have the same look to them. This unique layout appeals to me for some reason...

Anyhoo, Bryce is also primarilly designed for creating landscapes, so if you want to draw rocks and rivers and jungles, then Bryce is the way to go.

The Worldship for the PT set wasen't any major work of science. Basically it's a simple sphere using a stock texture that I just changed colors to suit the PT Race better. If you guys are thinking I put the individual points of light on there then you're nuts I did, however, put all the lights on the PT Ships on individually, so I guess i'm back to being nuts

i really do like your shipset a lot... i planned on making a similar shipset (without such huge engines mind you i am having problems dreaming up different designs for the different sizes without making them look tooo similar

With the PT Ships I started out with the Escort (or Frigate. I can't remember which now). I then did something I haden't done for my first shipset in DoGa: I made each Ship model %25-%50 larger than the Ship below it. It's hard to see this change of size when looking at the in-game pictures, but it is present. When I do release the PT set i'm going to also make the DoGa (and probably the Direct X) models available for download, so you'll be able to put the Escort up against the Crusier and see just how much the Cruiser over-shadows it.

Why did I bring this up? I found that multiplying each subsequent Class of Ship helped in the design process. For example, take the Escort, copy & blow it up by %50, put it next to the original Escort, and think of what changes would come about if someone built a ship that big. For the PT, after blowing (in size) up each new ship, i'd delete everything except the engines. I'd change the look of the engines around a bit just to make them look different from the previous Ship, then i'd join the 2 engines together, build up the middle of the hull up out to where the Bridge should be, and then start detailing the whole thing. When finished, i'd copy and blow up the new Ship by another %50 percent and start the same process over again.

When designing I like to find one thing that should be consistant throughout the whole set. In the PT's case, it was the engines. Everything evolves from the giant glowing green engines, and it's turned into the visual trademark for the set. For your Ships, work on building one Ship at first. When it's done look for something about it that you'd like to become a distinguishing feature of the set, and let it grow from there.

Remember, take your time. Don't feel rushed. Just because Atrocities can pump out one amazing Ship after another so quickly doesn't mean you have to do the same. I'm convinced Atrocities is some-sort of cyborg born out of the Big Blue supercomputers that IBM develops, so we can't hope to compete with him