First ship... how to decorate bland areas?

[PureBlind]

Hey all, this is my first real ship and after like 50 hours it finally looks okay, but there are lots of big bland spots and was wondering how I can make them look better? Also, how to get better engines? These look okay but not fantastic. (Turrets from skylord luke)

 

[Sachys]

If thats your first bigger sized ship (aside from borrowing some community donated turrets), I would just continue as you are and see what fits.

...obviously make your own turrets though!

You are otherwise doing well at first glance!

Edit: okay, just seen the length - makes more sense now. Some slabwork would help break up the "flatness" as would a bunch of other tricks. Unfortunately, it is beyond 3am here right now, so I will have to return unless anybody else jumps in.

 

[Dire Venom]

First of all, that's one really cool design you've made!
I love how you've done split the front into 2 seperate spires.
To add more detail, you could indent/outdent parts of the armour, add ribbing and do some more work on your engines.
For engine work, I would suggest you head over to the Engine Porn thread: Engine Porn
Good use of extended/indented engines with back lit ice and sometimes pulse effects can create some pretty spectacular looking engines!

Simply indenting the engines, putting up some lights/ice crystals, a gap then a layer of ice can look pretty good. Alternativly you can put down your base lights then use wedges to create outlines to make them not look blocky, like this:

Pulse engines also look very cool and leave a trail!

If you would like advice on how to do some of these feel free to ask!
(Do check out the engine porn thread though, images came from there)

 

[DrTarDIS]

Pick something you'd expect to see on a ship, build it out of some armor, stick a few of them on the hull. maintenance hatches,, sensor pods(with cameras), docking clamps...etc

if you really can't afford to add another layer, randomly cut into the hull and replace it with the non- square versions of the block
4 "corner" blocks rotated together make neat textures. 4 corners +4 wedges and a slab in the middle make a 9*9 "pattern" of sorts.
indented lines of wedges add shadows and such.

 

[Tamren Shade]

I'd second indenting and outdenting the armor to add some depth and texture.

Secondly, Are the turrets mounted flush to the hull?

You can outdent the armor add add a turret ring to base your turrets on or indent the armor and mount the turrets in a shallow 1-2 block deep well.

On the engines, I would extend your thrust nozzles and move all the glowy bits inside and decorate around the engine nozzle with some glowy vents.

You can also try playing with the colors and glow intensity by backlighting ice (just ice blocks, not ice crystals!) blocks with different colors and patterns of charged crystals, or you can try just layering ice blocks over thrusters and letting the thruster bloom effect do your lighting for your, or a little of both!

 

[Edymnion]

I actually have an engine porn "ship" that I've been making some small and medium sized engines on. Its nothing fancy since I haven't gotten around to the large engines yet, but I'll be happy to share so you can see how I do them.


Small and Medium Engine Porn

 

[PureBlind]

Is there any good tutorials for indenting and outdenting? I'm probably the least artistic person on the planet so this kind of stuff is REALLY difficult for me.

 

[Dire Venom]

Is there any good tutorials for indenting and outdenting? I'm probably the least artistic person on the planet so this kind of stuff is REALLY difficult for me.

Ive personally found the best way to help players learn is for them to jump into a multiplayer world and build stuff together, although you already seem to know how to deck a ship out :P
Theres always more detail you can add, and the more you learn the more you realize how many other things there are to learn XD
There might be some tutorials out there, but you can also download ships you like the look of and pull them apart. Then try and replicate features on your own ships and move on from there.

 

[Centauri]

Ive personally found the best way to help players learn is for them to jump into a multiplayer world and build stuff together, although you already seem to know how to deck a ship out :P

Going off of Dire Venom, the best way for you to learn would be to try some builds with others and most importantly, PRACTICE! No ship is perfect for the first time (And if you are like me, it takes literal years to finally get good designs going :P), but just experiment and try to find a build style that you enjoy. Not all build styles are the same, with people always having their own little things that are unique to their building. While you can use others builds as ideas to fill out your large flat/bland spaces, always try to find something unique to you!

Is there any good tutorials for indenting and outdenting? I'm probably the least artistic person on the planet so this kind of stuff is REALLY difficult for me.

I'm not sure about tutorials, but I'm always free to do some co-op building if you would like to experiment and have another player to show their building style to help you find your own. (Although I must say that you definitely have a nice style going already)

 

[DrTarDIS]

Is there any good tutorials for indenting and outdenting? I'm probably the least artistic person on the planet so this kind of stuff is REALLY difficult for me.

This ship is basically a tutorial in master builder aesthetics. It's logic and hangar system is rather unpolished(atleast as of this review), but it's looks and performance were in the upper tier.

 

[Nauvran]

This ship is basically a tutorial in master builder aesthetics. It's logic and hangar system is rather unpolished(atleast as of this review), but it's looks and performance were in the upper tier.

That ship is way too noisy, not enough resting areas.
You need to balance between details and resting areas so they eye (brain too) doesnt get stressed.
So that's not really a masterbuild.

 

[Aesthetics]

That ship is way too noisy, not enough resting areas.
You need to balance between details and resting areas so they eye (brain too) doesnt get stressed.
So that's not really a masterbuild.

I personally find it stunning. Most definitely master builder-worthy, at least in my eyes. Really, it's a matter of opinion. Besides, it's his style, and he owned it with that build a couple of other ships that also possess this style. We shouldn't limit the master builder awards to people who succeed in just one particular build style.​

 

[Jojomo]

Maybe look at some of Dalmont's work for inspiration? Gorgeous, and not extremely busy, exteriors.

 

[Nauvran]

I personally find it stunning. Most definitely master builder-worthy, at least in my eyes. Really, it's a matter of opinion. Besides, it's his style, and he owned it with that build a couple of other ships that also possess this style. We shouldn't limit the master builder awards to people who succeed in just one particular build style.​

I'm only saying there is room for improvements :u

 

[Panpiper]

That ship is way too noisy, not enough resting areas.
You need to balance between details and resting areas so they eye (brain too) doesnt get stressed.
So that's not really a masterbuild.

The penultimate in design excellence to me is NuclearFun. His ships have both "resting area" and extraordinary detail. Moreover the detail he puts on his ships does not look random or superfluous. It all looks functional, like it is there for a reason, not just to give texture, or soreness, to one's eyes.

All that said, nothing looks worse to me than a ship that has devoted so much of it's mass to how it looks, that it clearly cannot fight it's way out of a wet paper bag. I can tell at a glance whether or not a ship has the potential mass/volume necessary for serious system size that will make it a force to be reckoned with. If it clearly does not have that potential, it 'visually' looks bad to me.

 

[Edymnion]

Is there any good tutorials for indenting and outdenting? I'm probably the least artistic person on the planet so this kind of stuff is REALLY difficult for me.

Oh trust me, its not easy at all to get a ship to look really awesome.

I've been doing this for coming up on two years now and I'd say I have only gotten to what I'd consider proficient in making good looking ships. There's really nothing to do but practice practice practice. Find other people who have made cool stuff, see how they made their cool stuff, and learn how to copy their cool stuff with your own designs.

 

[Nauvran]

This might help a bit.
Babylon 5's Ron Thornton on the secrets of spaceship design

 

[Edymnion]

This might help a bit.
Babylon 5's Ron Thornton on the secrets of spaceship design

The rest space is very important to me. The Albatross up there is just way too busy and cluttered, there is no place for the eye to land on and go "Okay, look here at the start, then spread out and look at all the other things."

If every possible surface is covered in detail, it just blends together into a mess, IMO.

 

[KiloZulu]

Rest space is very important. I've seen ships that are so busy that you lose the sense of shape, proportion, or purpose.

 

[Edymnion]

Rest space is very important. I've seen ships that are so busy that you lose the sense of shape, proportion, or purpose.

Yup, not going to lie, its an AMAZING amount of work and detail they put into that hull.

But its all lost and it just ends up looking like a raisin.