How do you guys shape your ships?

[solarapple]

I'm about to work on another ship which is going to be bigger than the YC-10 DD, and I was thinking. The transition of shapes throughout the YC-10 was okay. Not the best, but okay. Anyway, the new ship that I'm working on is going to be similar to Nuclear Fun's ship shape: a big rectangle with a dip at the end. Seriously though his ships are my dream ships except I have a crappy intel 4400 graphics card. Getting back on topic, I want my next next ship(s) to be a bit more original. So, how do you guys shape your ships? Do you have a set pattern? Do you look for inspiration online? Send pictures if you have some, please.

 

[Asvarduil]

I'm basing my ships off of the Star Trek 'flying spoon' shape, as it's actually a pretty logical setup, given StarMade's shipwright mechanics.

Saucer - Weapons/C&C/Crew Quarters*
Secondary Hull - Deflector Shields/Impulse drive (Read: Thrusters)/Shuttles/Warp Core
Nacelles - Propulsion (in Trek they help you warp; in StarMade I fill 'em with power and thrusters.)

I'm trying to tap some different shapes; my current warship design I'm working on is a 'boxier' version of the flying spoon. Pictures when I get home.

 

[jayman38]

I'll take a small SciFi ship from a movie or video game and redesign it in a drawing program (namely, LibreOffice Draw) to use 45 degree angles and blocks. I'll take a picture of the ship and paste it into Draw as a background, scale the image so that there are 10 meters to an inch, and start drawing blocks and wedges over top of the picture.

Illustrations at this link:
http://starmadedock.net/threads/jays-engineering-journal.4004/page-3#post-244075

I can do the same with larger ships, but I don't have time to build larger. The process should scale up nicely. My earlier ships, the Clarke Explorer and the Theatrical are original designs with SciFi inspiration. (The Clarke is designed from Arthur C. Clarke's designs, especially the "Discovery" from 2001: A Space Oddysey; the Theatrical is an angular riff on Star Trek ships, where I have merged the engine nacelles and saucer into one big angular section, connected to the bottom section with beefy, angular connectors.

 

[Reilly Reese]

I build ships themed like EVE Caldari ships.

 

[DekkerDave]

I used to have giant gallery with hundreds of space ship concepts, some of them even from my own production. Generally I tend to build with a hint of realism. My inspiration comes from my head, Aliens movies, Warhammer 40k and real world vessels, especially submarines and attack helicopters.

 

[Gristle]

I use an approach similar to Jayman. I use a gridded layer with the reference pic at 50% transparency. Grid scale depends on size of ship but I like 1 square:1 meter. The paint program I use is paint.net.

 

[Ithirahad]

I use... uh, magic...

Seriously I dunno ._.

I just kinda make a bunch of curvy things and fill them in ._.

 

[HorribleHedgehog]

I use... uh, magic...

Seriously I dunno ._.

I just kinda make a bunch of curvy things and fill them in ._.

Kindred spirit, I see. :p Myself I just build a big gun, a power source and an approximate interior layout and slap systems around them until I have a basic shape I'm happy with.

 

[AtraUnam]

Just my personal method in someone finds none of the above particularly works for them:
Build a bridge then 'grow' the ship from it. "I have this cool bridge what would it look good sitting on" then you build that, then you find out what that would look good attached to and so on until your happy. Then you go back over it and adjust any bits you feel don't fit the overall style.

 

[<SCRIPTKITTY>]

Just my personal method in someone finds none of the above particularly works for them:
Build a bridge then 'grow' the ship from it. "I have this cool bridge what would it look good sitting on" then you build that, then you find out what that would look good attached to and so on until your happy. Then you go back over it and adjust any bits you feel don't fit the overall style.

I know quite a few people that do this now. Seems weird to me as I have to at least sketch something out but does work and pretty well for new original ship designs.

 

[Master_Artificer]

I literally just go with it.

If you haven't remade a ship section at least 6 times, then it is not done yet.

 

[CCXanthos]

For me I start with a rough sketch on paper (general shape, main weapons, bridge and other large parts as the bay and the location of the ship core). Then I make the main turret/weapon which actually defines the scale for the entire ship. For the rest while creating it I fill it in as I go.

 

[MacThule]

I'm a firm believe in function over form, and deliberately let optimized systems built to purpose define the shape of my ships.

I've started building most of my ships in sort of a 3-D letter Y affair. I get optimal power output for mass that way but it ends up looking unique (not a cube or star). Then I add systems as protrusions or wrapped around the power core, and fly it around naked for a while testing until I get a good balance of what I want in the systems.

Once it feels solid I add in crew space based on what the functional frame is looking like because at this point I can get a good idea of what it might look like with skin on. Finally I wrap it all in hull or armor and add a couple capital turrets and as many point-defense turrets as I can squeeze onto it. Then I add in details like flashy-light tech, antennae sticking out, markings, etc. They end up looking like proper spaceships for the most part - not aerodynamic but pretty cool all in all (and since there's no air in space who needs aerodynamics anyway?!).

 

[Minsc]

I start with a rough image of "something" in my mind and go from there. No planning beforehand. By the time I get the majority of the outer hull done I'll go back and go back and hollow out scrapped ideas I had previously covered. By the end of it all the ship likely will look nothing like the original vision in my mind.

 

[Panaue]

I use an approach similar to Jayman. I use a gridded layer with the reference pic at 50% transparency. Grid scale depends on size of ship but I like 1 square:1 meter. The paint program I use is paint.net.

Exactly as I'm doing for the NX-01. Paint.net is extremely usefull.

 

[Peekie30]

I usually make a design of top and sides of a ship, then outline the hull and fill it in, then build interior and lastly, systems. I get my inspiration from gazing at the internet, pictures of both sci fi and RL ships, my latest WIP is based of an own design, with aspects of a Hiigaran battlecruiser from homeworld, EVE Hurricane, some thing called a 'Tigon Battleship' from the internet, WW2 era battleships and stuff like that

Spoiler: design/build

design is very old