Ship Help

[KillaKrazy]

So, here is a ship I've spent the last few weeks working on. I put in a lot of work designing the interior. I don't want all that work to go to waste due to my inability to come up with a design for the hull. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could do? I've seen some of the ships and can't even come close to having that much detail on the exterior.

 

[godsgopher]

Well this is interesting. You seem to built your ships completely opposite from myself. My first step is always to frame the ship. Basically drawing squares using a normal hull color I have no intention of using as the finial hull. Typically grey. After I have a solid sense of the over all dimensions and shape of the hull I begin filling in the hull with the actual hull blocks I intend to use. Having closed the hull I usually go through a short little depression. There I have spend a week or so of work only to end up with a plain looking, no details hull with lots of large smooth areas that are completely featureless. Its not unlike seeing a wire frame model closed in but without a mesh to give it all that cool detailing.

So here is where you are going to spend a great deal of your time as a ship hull builder. Details take time. Lots of it because if you are working on a unique design without a reference source your going to have to create all those "interesting" details that turn your set of plain boxes into a spaceship. Those details can be created in two ways. Physical hull details like raised plates and power lines (just lines of blocks to break up the smooth hull) and different colored sections of the hull meant to give a sense of style to otherwise large plain sections.

Let me stress that this is a SLOW process. If you think your going to have a fantastic looking ship in a few hours you setting yourself up for disappointment. What your going to end up doing is layering on details. One build session you may color the hull, another session you create extra physical details that accent the smooth sections, cut deep lines into the hull or create high-tech bumbs. The next session you may undo half you work and completely restyle the entire design. But over time these layers become a whole.

There is a ton of great spaceship art on the internet, spend some time looking at it. Experiment, try new things. Don't be afraid to make a mistake! And don't expect to get it perfect the first time! But above all don't give up!!!

 

[Zephlos]

looking at the colors of your interior, I would suggest you use grey corners and lava on the outside detail work, with black blocks.
From what I have seen grey/white hulling pops with the light effects of lava and ice.

Its current shape is also very flat, I would suggest you actually roll with that by running a fin down the center or you could run several ribs along its hull to give it more dimension.

Your ship looks really nice and has a lot of potential, Best of luck hope it works out for you.

 

[KillaKrazy]

Thanks for the replies. I've spent a lot of time on the interior, mostly because I am horrible at the hull. I was worried about the ship coming out too much like a box. Def thinking about seeing about a fin on the top/bottom/both.

 

[Broken_Angel]

I build my ships in a similar way, so don't worry. I build the interior first but keep in mind certain design elements that I want to incorporate into the outer hull, which I then flesh out. Once these are in place, I wrap the hull around the interior and link them into the pre-built sections. Don't think to much about what it'll look like in the end, just let the design evolve naturally (and don't worry about intricate details as these can always be added in later as surface-level elements)

 

[KillaKrazy]

The complex designs people make, do they use software or build them themselves through trial and error?

 

[iPwn_]

The complex designs people make, do they use software or build them themselves through trial and error?

It depends entirely on the person. I myself model the ships I build in a CAD program, then put them through binvox and then SMEdit to get the basic hull shape. Then it's just a matter of polishing up the exterior, adding detail and filling it up with all the systems and weapons.

 

[KillaKrazy]

Do you find it helps out a lot? If so, I may just have to get back into using CAD

 

[iPwn_]

Do you find it helps out a lot? If so, I may just have to get back into using CAD

It lets you get shapes that would have taken hours to get right in-game.

 

[KillaKrazy]

Are you able to still use SMEdit? It won't open currently for me.

 

[DarthHonky]

Are you able to still use SMEdit? It won't open currently for me.

Same here, even on older versions of Starmade (September 2013). Nice work on the interior, btw. Any chance I could talk you into doing that for a couple of my ships?

 

[KillaKrazy]

Same here, even on older versions of Starmade (September 2013). Nice work on the interior, btw. Any chance I could talk you into doing that for a couple of my ships?

Yea I could work on the interior.

 

[RoosterTheRed]

All my ships have the same exterior themes, so it's easy for me. I use black hulls with some red accents, with lots of ribbing to keep it from being flat. You could look other peoples' ships on, like, Google Images or something, and get some ideas for exteriors, and modify the ones you like for your own needs.

Awesome interior, btw.

 

[DarthHonky]

Yea I could work on the interior.

Cool bro thanks, Ill sent you a message when I have the exterior done on my current one.

 

[Elit3]

Well this is interesting. You seem to built your ships completely opposite from myself. My first step is always to frame the ship. Basically drawing squares using a normal hull color I have no intention of using as the finial hull. Typically grey. After I have a solid sense of the over all dimensions and shape of the hull I begin filling in the hull with the actual hull blocks I intend to use. Having closed the hull I usually go through a short little depression. There I have spend a week or so of work only to end up with a plain looking, no details hull with lots of large smooth areas that are completely featureless. Its not unlike seeing a wire frame model closed in but without a mesh to give it all that cool detailing.

So here is where you are going to spend a great deal of your time as a ship hull builder. Details take time. Lots of it because if you are working on a unique design without a reference source your going to have to create all those "interesting" details that turn your set of plain boxes into a spaceship. Those details can be created in two ways. Physical hull details like raised plates and power lines (just lines of blocks to break up the smooth hull) and different colored sections of the hull meant to give a sense of style to otherwise large plain sections.

Let me stress that this is a SLOW process. If you think your going to have a fantastic looking ship in a few hours you setting yourself up for disappointment. What your going to end up doing is layering on details. One build session you may color the hull, another session you create extra physical details that accent the smooth sections, cut deep lines into the hull or create high-tech bumbs. The next session you may undo half you work and completely restyle the entire design. But over time these layers become a whole.

There is a ton of great spaceship art on the internet, spend some time looking at it. Experiment, try new things. Don't be afraid to make a mistake! And don't expect to get it perfect the first time! But above all don't give up!!!

Agreed. It's very intreging to build something like this, however, it makes it look very very clunky.

 

[KillaKrazy]

Cool bro thanks, Ill sent you a message when I have the exterior done on my current one.

Sounds good man.

I build my ships this way because I suck when it comes to exterior. I'm decent when it comes to the interior though.

 

[ArgoContar]

The way i make hulls is really simple so you could try it. I just start making either the hull itself or a frame, them look at it from different angles. If it looks good it stays, if not i just remodel it a bit till i like it. Adding details is the harder part, but you can make vens,fins,ribs, anything that you can think of actually.