So I think the last version, the sky blue one (sans tattoos) will be the production model, whereas the purple one will be the prototype.
I was happy with that design, it just didn't feel feminine or personalized, so now I have a reason to use both.
Prototype:
Production model:
[edit] I'll also create a few variations of the production model eventually, with different battle scars and insignia and various amounts of dirtiness and wear.
The low poly quality will also end up helping, as I'll be able to render huge swarms of these suckers much more quickly than the high poly prototype.
Move landing gear up
Move Missile pods back, shrink?
Remove front missiles, fins.
Texture fuselage. Shield emitters on humps.
Blue and de-glow the magenta strips. Add another magenta strip to the lower wing + fix vents texture.
Retexture rear thruster nozzles with radial gradient ambiance
Still to do:
Blue and de-glow the magenta strips. Add another magenta strip to the lower wing + fix vents texture.
Retexture rear thruster nozzles with radial gradient ambiance.
New look for reactor access panel/interface.
Texture inside of wing.
Once this is completed, I will need to make my pilot's old, battle scarred, broken down fighter, the one that will be replaced with this one. That will be a very different model, with oil, grime, carbon scoring, and open access panels exposing charred machinery and dangling severed cables.
I also need to make a workshop and a hangar (or landing platform) to complete this scene, and I was thinking of making a robotic helper. Something not at all R2-D2 like, but performing the same function. Perhaps a small tool dispenser that hovers? Like, a cross between cambot and a leatherman?
I would agree, except that this single model is the center piece of several pages, and so I'm putting a good deal more work into it than I would something less significant.
It also comes at the very end of a 90 page graphic novel, so it needs to serve as a grand-finale of sorts.
At the rate you're going with this, you'll be done by never!
The broken ship should go much faster. I'll be using this method of breaking it apart:
And I think I'll actually use this (otherwise abandoned) model^ for background junk around the workshop.
I also have old models like this:
-that I could save time by ripping apart and re-texturing.
Dangling cables and carbon scoring can be achieved surprisingly easily with paint effects.
I can save time on the workshop it's self by filling it with junk and clutter from other models, and for the landing platform I could get by with little more than a heli-pad on top of a roof in this already completed city:
Full size: http://crossovercomic.com/media/extras/2048x1152dt_fd/xo_desktops_fall.jpg
So really, I'm maybe 70-80% done modeling for this scene if I want to be, though compositing my photographed characters and over painting will take quite some time, as it always does.
I've re-envisioned the reactor to be more of a Tesla style receiver with a cavity for inserting fresh power reserve cells and removing depleted ones.
It's built on images of the LHC.
You can see in the lower right of this image how jpeg compression, even at maximum quality, is visible in my bump map at this distance. I guess I really ought to be saving to an uncompressed format, but it kills my Open GL fps.
Still need to re-work those thruster nozzles...
I also need to add more distinct, separate hull plates to the fuselage like I have on the wings. Any suggestions for the inside of the wing?
I'm glad to see you've been taking on more and more advice as this thread has gone on.
Here's another piece of advice; start something else. Put this away for a month and work on something different. Right now I think you've become too focused on minutiae. I'm not saying give up, I'm saying step back.
I'm glad to see you've been taking on more and more advice as this thread has gone on.
Here's another piece of advice; start something else. Put this away for a month and work on something different. Right now I think you've become too focused on minutiae. I'm not saying give up, I'm saying step back.
Not a bad idea, though I think I'll finish this model first. I have a history of "inertia" problems, as in I often take a while to get going, then can't stop, then DO stop, and can't get going again.
The solution may be to work on a different scene for a while after this fighter model is done, before coming back and finishing the broken figther, workshop and hangar.
Other scenes I have to work on:
Army of elves gathers underground inside fossilized giant insect skeleton
Photography: 100%
CG Environment: 90%
CG Characters/Vehicles/Digital Doubles: 100%
Scene creation: 80%
Script: 50%
King parlays with Bio-mechanical "Shapers"
Photography: 100%
CG Environment: 50%
CG Characters/Vehicles/Digital Doubles: 100%
Scene creation: 30%
Script: 0%
Glacier Battle
Photography: 100%
CG Environment: 90%
CG Characters/Vehicles/Digital Doubles: 100%
Scene creation: 10%
Script: 50%
This^ will be the biggest task I have ever undertaken, and the last thing I will finish for this project, in the hopes that the quality of my artwork will have evolved over time.
Retreat to Solar Station staging area
Photography: 100%
CG Environment: 50%
CG Characters/Vehicles/Digital Doubles: 50%
Scene creation: 0%
Script: 20%
I'll also need to go back and rework the dialogue for the first 4 scenes, which are otherwise finished, though when the whole project is complete, I want to go back and re-over-paint everything for consistency's sake.
[edit] It's also worth noting that this entire project is only a prologue for an additional 180 page (feature film length) script that's 90% done. I need to finish that script by this time next year, and convert it to a radio drama format, as I've had an offer from a producer friend to broadcast it locally on college radio!
Dude the fucking thing is done, let it go. You're just pissing around with details now and no one is going to notice them but you.
It's almost done, but I have no texture on the inner wings, and I think you'll agree that the magenta stripes should be more blue and less red.
But yeah, really, really close. Once it's done I'll render up a beauty shot of the Prototype leading a big group of production models, missiles flying, guns blazing, etc. Any thoughts on the background, or should I just perspective motion blur it to the point of implication?
I will need to whip up a digital double for the pilot, but that won't take much more than a poser model textured with reference photos.
No seriously, it's done. If it's the one, absolute piece of advice I could give you, it's not to bog yourself down in details at the cost of the bigger picture, which you are doing.
Seven months ago when you first started this thread you said your fighter was 90% done, which clearly, it was not. It's also clear you didn't do any concept or planning for this, which is why you've been in a 7 month "tinkering" phase.
There's nothing left to say about this ship. Frankly it looks the same to me now as it did months ago.
With that scene list you posted, shouldn't the scripts be much nearer 100% before you even start any modelling? If you knew exactly what was needed of this fighter (or other stuff) you would have an easier time creating it, rather than trying to work out what you want it to do as you go.
For example, does your story make any reference to the landing gear components? Probably not. Does the pilot ever replace the tesla reserve cells? Maybe, but you don't know. If you were designing some futuristic manual I'd understand but this stuff is not going to be seen or needed and doesn't justify the time you're spending on it. It's like writing the behind-the-scenes book before starting on the movie.
This isn't meant to sound negative because what you have looks great, but then it did on page one.
Or what Mars has been saying for pages now.
Sorry if you meant scripts in some computing context.
The script is complete, but not nearly finished, if that makes sense. I'm on my 22nd draft now. Mostly I need to work on making the dialogue more natural, (everyone sounds like me, with my vocabulary and vernacular) but I still have some spelling and grammar errors to find I'm sure. The plot has been nailed down for five years. I'm just polishing.
-and a model that is not fully textured is not complete.
No seriously, it's done. If it's the one, absolute piece of advice I could give you, it's not to bog yourself down in details at the cost of the bigger picture, which you are doing.
Seven months ago when you first started this thread you said your fighter was 90% done, which clearly, it was not. It's also clear you didn't do any concept or planning for this, which is why you've been in a 7 month "tinkering" phase.
There's nothing left to say about this ship. Frankly it looks the same to me now as it did months ago.
This^ doesn't strike you as a contradiction?
_________________
As far as planning and tinkering goes, it's true that, were I a professional, the design would have been completed as a sketch, which would then have been approved by a superior, and then the model would have been built precisely to that sketch's specifications, However I have no superior, I ENJOY revising on the fly, and I feel my final product will be superior as a result.
Sure it takes a long time, but I'm fine with that.
I think you're grossly misinterpreting what I said.
"Which clearly, it was not" was a snarky way of pointing out the contradiction in your words versus your actions.
To me, personally, the ship has looked the same for months now. To the point I'm fatigued by looking at the same thing, simply with a new color here or there.
You're really wasting your time with this. If your intent was just to make a kick-ass My Little Pony spaceship, where the end isn't as important as the means of making it--then gouge away! But if this is really for some larger, scripted comic-book then you are frankly wasting valuable production time. A stronger pre-production phase would have solved the majority of these issues.
I think you're grossly misinterpreting what I said.
"Which clearly, it was not" was a snarky way of pointing out the contradiction in your words versus your actions.
To me, personally, the ship has looked the same for months now. To the point I'm fatigued by looking at the same thing, simply with a new color here or there.
You're really wasting your time with this. If your intent was just to make a kick-ass My Little Pony spaceship, where the end isn't as important as the means of making it--then gouge away! But if this is really for some larger, scripted comic-book then you are frankly wasting valuable production time. A stronger pre-production phase would have solved the majority of these issues.
I understand what you're saying. The industry works the way it does because it's the most efficient way, but it isn't necessarily the most conducive to artistic freedom.
I've been working on this project for 6 1/2 years. I could easily be finished by now if I were always satisfied with my first draft, but I'm not, and I likely won't have a completed product for 5 or 8 more years.
I do a bit of contract work on this side, and I worked for a media/entertainment company in San Francisco for a short while, so I am familiar with processes of expediting creativity to meet a deadline, but this is my work, and I will not be rushed.
I'd hesitate to call myself a perfectionist. I don't see myself that way. I think you and I simply have a different definition of "done."
That being said, much of the feedback in this thread has been fantastically helpful, and I am much appreciative. I like to experiment, but it's important to have a sounding board so that I know what is working and what isn't (feathers and teeth for instance). You all have performed your role admirably, and I look forward to showing you the final product very soon. 8-)
It's not just that it's the most efficient way for the industry to work, it's also the most efficient way for any production. Personal or professional. I think you're being disingenuous to yourself by clinging to some romanticized idea of artistic freedom!
No one is telling you that you can't do something, but simply to do anything and commit to it and move on. I hesitate to call you a perfectionist as well, but I will say you're someone that needs to refine your process because at this point you're worse than James Joyce. At least he finished, however.
It's not just that it's the most efficient way for the industry to work, it's also the most efficient way for any production. Personal or professional. I think you're being disingenuous to yourself by clinging to some romanticized idea of artistic freedom!
No one is telling you that you can't do something, but simply to do anything and commit to it and move on. I hesitate to call you a perfectionist as well, but I will say you're someone that needs to refine your process because at this point you're worse than James Joyce. At least he finished, however.
I think you are negating the importance of being able to change one's mind mid stream and work in a different direction. That's what this feedback is all about after all.
Let me check something really quick... 44 hours. That's all the time I've spent on this model. That's really not very much. It's only been 7 months because I got very distracted by the Star Craft 2 beta, and by two StarCraft art competitions, one of which (give it a minute to load) took waaaaaay more time and effort than this model, and was finished two weeks before the deadline. WiP thread here.
Keep in mind all you see in this thread is some object removal, a re-envisioned and then aborted attempt to add more objects, a few re-texturing passes, revisions to the weapons, and a minor remodel of the wing. It isn't as if I've been slaving away on this thing with no end in sight. I'm just poking and tinkering a bit.
I think you are negating the importance of being able to change one's mind mid stream and work in a different direction. That's what this feedback is all about after all.
This only underscores the importance of strong preproduction. You would be able to change your mind "mid-stream" and try out all of your ideas simply by putting pencil to paper. Once you've tried out several designs and cherry-picked what looks and works best, then you can get to modeling without wasting time "experimenting" in a stream of consciousness sort of manner.
This only underscores the importance of strong preproduction. You would be able to change your mind "mid-stream" and try out all of your ideas simply by putting pencil to paper. Once you've tried out several designs and cherry-picked what looks and works best, then you can get to modeling without wasting time "experimenting" in a stream of consciousness sort of manner.
What looks good on paper does not always looks good after a week in 3D. If I see something I want to change, or if someone points something out, I'm sure as hell gonna change it.
That StarCraft competition is a great example. I re-composted tablet doodles several times, and developed each unit in 3D, based on Blizzard concept art, within an allotted time frame. What I came in here with was good, but these guys helped me take it in a different direction, and the end result was SO much better as a result, and in the end I had EXTRA time, with which to add the foreground character that pulls the piece together.
Similarly, I doodled orthographics of this fighter, then decided to differentiate the top wing from the bottom, then disconnected them from the front of the fuselage. Traditionally I connect them for medium and larger ships, such as this one and this on and this one, and disconnect them from smaller ships, such as this one and this one, but I was tinkering, all just on sticky notes while at work. I burn through a lot of sticky notes, but no real notebook paper to speak of. Usually I'll just take those sticky notes into Photoshop and poke at them with my tablet.
Then I began modeling, decided to wrap the wings around each engine rather than having them join the hull traditionally, (looked too much like a cross between an X-wing and a Y-Wing) slapped on a quick texture, wasn't thrilled, and took it in here for advice.
Perhaps you simply want to be involved in more of the creation process?
At least you have more to look at now, which should reduce your "fatigue."
P.S. I don't mean any of this in a confrontational way. I'm just having fun bantering. :P
I don't want to be involved in any of it, to be honest--I've got my hands far too full with my own projects. I'd like to see your orthographics, however. And maybe in a decade or two, if this gets finished and is even remotely relevant, I'll check out the end product.
Seeing this side by side with the original design, it's difficult to see where all the time went. The original looked like Humanities last hope in a kitschish 80's shmup. It wasn't massively logical in design per-se, but worked in an OTT shmup universe.
Seeing this side by side with the original design, it's difficult to see where all the time went.
I keep telling you guys, I didn't spend that much time on it. I was thirty hours in when I brought it here, and I've only added another ten hours or so since then. It's been 7 months because I was busy working on other things.
I feel like I get a lot of mixed messages in here. "It's done." "Why haven't you changed it more?" "Move on." "You need to rethink this from scratch." Sometimes I get the impression I'm being fucked with... but no matter, any feedback is better than no feedback, so thank you, sincerely.
Sorry you don't like it. Suggestions for next time?
Seeing this side by side with the original design, it's difficult to see where all the time went.
I keep telling you guys, I didn't spend that much time on it. I was thirty hours in when I brought it here, and I've only added another ten hours or so since then. It's been 7 months because I was busy working on other things.
I feel like I get a lot of mixed messages in here. "It's done." "Why haven't you changed it more?" "Move on." "You need to rethink this from scratch." Sometimes I get the impression I'm being fucked with... but no matter, any feedback is better than no feedback, so thank you, sincerely.
Sorry you don't like it. Suggestions for next time?
I think those 'mixed' messages are really similar messages.
'Its done' and 'Move on' can be easily lumped together. You spent more time on this than you should have. You say it was only 30 hours... but thats still too much for the product that was produced. Your 3d work is ok. Your attention to detail is... laudable in ways. But you spend too much time on the little inconsequential things. There are fundamentals of art that you seem to be not quite getting and just adding more stuff isn't going to help. Your composition skills are poor. Your color theory is seemingly 'saturate it more'.
Which is where 'Why haven't you changed it more' and 'You need to rethink this from scratch' come in.
Your design skills seem all over the place. There are parts that look good, and pages it started to look alright - but you had to add more and more and more and more and more. And you don't even seem to realize that its no where close to the design sense of what you say its cribbing from - Mucha. I don't think anyone would look at the ship and think anywhere close to Art Nouveau. Considering thats what you SAY you want, then you needed to rethink it from scratch. You needed to have made MAJOR changes. Instead you made it hyperpurple with gold leaf sprinkles.
My advice to you is to drop your comic and focus on composition. Find images that work and REALLY think about what makes them work. Think about color and why slathering an image with almost entirely one saturation level doesn't work. Do studies of Mucha. Start focusing more on the image as a whole and not missile pod bay mechanics.
MustangArbiter of Unpopular OpinionsRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
Vulgar as in a triple chocolate cake dipped in molten chocolate with a dollop of chocolate cream and a side of chocolate ice cream served on a plate made out of chocolate, delivered by a robot waiter constructed completely out of reinforced chocolate.
Vulgar as in a triple chocolate cake dipped in molten chocolate with a dollop of chocolate cream and a side of chocolate ice cream served on a plate made out of chocolate, delivered by a robot waiter constructed completely out of reinforced chocolate.
Ah! I think the word you're looking for is "awesome." :P
Posts
I'm blue-ing and de-glowing the magenta strips and adding another magenta strip to the lower wing.
The fuselage still needs a texture, and I'm not sure about the rear thruster nozzles...
I was happy with that design, it just didn't feel feminine or personalized, so now I have a reason to use both.
Prototype:
Production model:
[edit] I'll also create a few variations of the production model eventually, with different battle scars and insignia and various amounts of dirtiness and wear.
The low poly quality will also end up helping, as I'll be able to render huge swarms of these suckers much more quickly than the high poly prototype.
Move landing gear up
Move Missile pods back, shrink?
Remove front missiles, fins.
Texture fuselage. Shield emitters on humps.
Blue and de-glow the magenta strips. Add another magenta strip to the lower wing + fix vents texture.
Retexture rear thruster nozzles with radial gradient ambiance
Still to do:
Blue and de-glow the magenta strips. Add another magenta strip to the lower wing + fix vents texture.
Retexture rear thruster nozzles with radial gradient ambiance.
New look for reactor access panel/interface.
Texture inside of wing.
I also need to make a workshop and a hangar (or landing platform) to complete this scene, and I was thinking of making a robotic helper. Something not at all R2-D2 like, but performing the same function. Perhaps a small tool dispenser that hovers? Like, a cross between cambot and a leatherman?
But... but... MARS
ITS FOR SEVERAL PAGES. Full steam ahead!
The broken ship should go much faster. I'll be using this method of breaking it apart:
And I think I'll actually use this (otherwise abandoned) model^ for background junk around the workshop.
I also have old models like this:
-that I could save time by ripping apart and re-texturing.
Dangling cables and carbon scoring can be achieved surprisingly easily with paint effects.
I can save time on the workshop it's self by filling it with junk and clutter from other models, and for the landing platform I could get by with little more than a heli-pad on top of a roof in this already completed city:
Full size: http://crossovercomic.com/media/extras/2048x1152dt_fd/xo_desktops_fall.jpg
So really, I'm maybe 70-80% done modeling for this scene if I want to be, though compositing my photographed characters and over painting will take quite some time, as it always does.
Indeed! This scene will comprise about 1/5 of my final product.
See you at ComicCon ≈2015? :winky:
It's built on images of the LHC.
You can see in the lower right of this image how jpeg compression, even at maximum quality, is visible in my bump map at this distance. I guess I really ought to be saving to an uncompressed format, but it kills my Open GL fps.
Still need to re-work those thruster nozzles...
I also need to add more distinct, separate hull plates to the fuselage like I have on the wings. Any suggestions for the inside of the wing?
Here's another piece of advice; start something else. Put this away for a month and work on something different. Right now I think you've become too focused on minutiae. I'm not saying give up, I'm saying step back.
Not a bad idea, though I think I'll finish this model first. I have a history of "inertia" problems, as in I often take a while to get going, then can't stop, then DO stop, and can't get going again.
The solution may be to work on a different scene for a while after this fighter model is done, before coming back and finishing the broken figther, workshop and hangar.
Other scenes I have to work on:
Army of elves gathers underground inside fossilized giant insect skeleton
Photography: 100%
CG Environment: 90%
CG Characters/Vehicles/Digital Doubles: 100%
Scene creation: 80%
Script: 50%
King parlays with Bio-mechanical "Shapers"
Photography: 100%
CG Environment: 50%
CG Characters/Vehicles/Digital Doubles: 100%
Scene creation: 30%
Script: 0%
Glacier Battle
Photography: 100%
CG Environment: 90%
CG Characters/Vehicles/Digital Doubles: 100%
Scene creation: 10%
Script: 50%
This^ will be the biggest task I have ever undertaken, and the last thing I will finish for this project, in the hopes that the quality of my artwork will have evolved over time.
Retreat to Solar Station staging area
Photography: 100%
CG Environment: 50%
CG Characters/Vehicles/Digital Doubles: 50%
Scene creation: 0%
Script: 20%
Sailing ship departs/ Dayside capitol city intro
Photography: 50%
CG Environment: 40%
CG Characters/Vehicles/Digital Doubles: 80%
Scene creation: 25%
Script: 80%
I'll also need to go back and rework the dialogue for the first 4 scenes, which are otherwise finished, though when the whole project is complete, I want to go back and re-over-paint everything for consistency's sake.
[edit] It's also worth noting that this entire project is only a prologue for an additional 180 page (feature film length) script that's 90% done. I need to finish that script by this time next year, and convert it to a radio drama format, as I've had an offer from a producer friend to broadcast it locally on college radio!
It's almost done, but I have no texture on the inner wings, and I think you'll agree that the magenta stripes should be more blue and less red.
But yeah, really, really close. Once it's done I'll render up a beauty shot of the Prototype leading a big group of production models, missiles flying, guns blazing, etc. Any thoughts on the background, or should I just perspective motion blur it to the point of implication?
I will need to whip up a digital double for the pilot, but that won't take much more than a poser model textured with reference photos.
Seven months ago when you first started this thread you said your fighter was 90% done, which clearly, it was not. It's also clear you didn't do any concept or planning for this, which is why you've been in a 7 month "tinkering" phase.
There's nothing left to say about this ship. Frankly it looks the same to me now as it did months ago.
For example, does your story make any reference to the landing gear components? Probably not. Does the pilot ever replace the tesla reserve cells? Maybe, but you don't know. If you were designing some futuristic manual I'd understand but this stuff is not going to be seen or needed and doesn't justify the time you're spending on it. It's like writing the behind-the-scenes book before starting on the movie.
This isn't meant to sound negative because what you have looks great, but then it did on page one.
Or what Mars has been saying for pages now.
Sorry if you meant scripts in some computing context.
-and a model that is not fully textured is not complete.
This^ doesn't strike you as a contradiction?
_________________
As far as planning and tinkering goes, it's true that, were I a professional, the design would have been completed as a sketch, which would then have been approved by a superior, and then the model would have been built precisely to that sketch's specifications, However I have no superior, I ENJOY revising on the fly, and I feel my final product will be superior as a result.
Sure it takes a long time, but I'm fine with that.
"Which clearly, it was not" was a snarky way of pointing out the contradiction in your words versus your actions.
To me, personally, the ship has looked the same for months now. To the point I'm fatigued by looking at the same thing, simply with a new color here or there.
You're really wasting your time with this. If your intent was just to make a kick-ass My Little Pony spaceship, where the end isn't as important as the means of making it--then gouge away! But if this is really for some larger, scripted comic-book then you are frankly wasting valuable production time. A stronger pre-production phase would have solved the majority of these issues.
I understand what you're saying. The industry works the way it does because it's the most efficient way, but it isn't necessarily the most conducive to artistic freedom.
I've been working on this project for 6 1/2 years. I could easily be finished by now if I were always satisfied with my first draft, but I'm not, and I likely won't have a completed product for 5 or 8 more years.
I do a bit of contract work on this side, and I worked for a media/entertainment company in San Francisco for a short while, so I am familiar with processes of expediting creativity to meet a deadline, but this is my work, and I will not be rushed.
I'd hesitate to call myself a perfectionist. I don't see myself that way. I think you and I simply have a different definition of "done."
That being said, much of the feedback in this thread has been fantastically helpful, and I am much appreciative. I like to experiment, but it's important to have a sounding board so that I know what is working and what isn't (feathers and teeth for instance). You all have performed your role admirably, and I look forward to showing you the final product very soon. 8-)
No one is telling you that you can't do something, but simply to do anything and commit to it and move on. I hesitate to call you a perfectionist as well, but I will say you're someone that needs to refine your process because at this point you're worse than James Joyce. At least he finished, however.
I think you are negating the importance of being able to change one's mind mid stream and work in a different direction. That's what this feedback is all about after all.
Let me check something really quick... 44 hours. That's all the time I've spent on this model. That's really not very much. It's only been 7 months because I got very distracted by the Star Craft 2 beta, and by two StarCraft art competitions, one of which (give it a minute to load) took waaaaaay more time and effort than this model, and was finished two weeks before the deadline. WiP thread here.
Keep in mind all you see in this thread is some object removal, a re-envisioned and then aborted attempt to add more objects, a few re-texturing passes, revisions to the weapons, and a minor remodel of the wing. It isn't as if I've been slaving away on this thing with no end in sight. I'm just poking and tinkering a bit.
This only underscores the importance of strong preproduction. You would be able to change your mind "mid-stream" and try out all of your ideas simply by putting pencil to paper. Once you've tried out several designs and cherry-picked what looks and works best, then you can get to modeling without wasting time "experimenting" in a stream of consciousness sort of manner.
What looks good on paper does not always looks good after a week in 3D. If I see something I want to change, or if someone points something out, I'm sure as hell gonna change it.
That StarCraft competition is a great example. I re-composted tablet doodles several times, and developed each unit in 3D, based on Blizzard concept art, within an allotted time frame. What I came in here with was good, but these guys helped me take it in a different direction, and the end result was SO much better as a result, and in the end I had EXTRA time, with which to add the foreground character that pulls the piece together.
Similarly, I doodled orthographics of this fighter, then decided to differentiate the top wing from the bottom, then disconnected them from the front of the fuselage. Traditionally I connect them for medium and larger ships, such as this one and this on and this one, and disconnect them from smaller ships, such as this one and this one, but I was tinkering, all just on sticky notes while at work. I burn through a lot of sticky notes, but no real notebook paper to speak of. Usually I'll just take those sticky notes into Photoshop and poke at them with my tablet.
Then I began modeling, decided to wrap the wings around each engine rather than having them join the hull traditionally, (looked too much like a cross between an X-wing and a Y-Wing) slapped on a quick texture, wasn't thrilled, and took it in here for advice.
Perhaps you simply want to be involved in more of the creation process?
At least you have more to look at now, which should reduce your "fatigue."
P.S. I don't mean any of this in a confrontational way. I'm just having fun bantering. :P
The sincerest best to you until then.
Lol! You're putting a lot of time and effort into not being involved!
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There is no shape heiarchy. Big mass medium mass little mass.. Anywhere. ITs all-- sameness.
you arent going to do 100 variations are you? Try a few thumbnails to work out a composition and then execute..
I don't love it either. It's mean to be an overarching crescent shape, but it is indeed too cramped. I think I'm on to other things however.
[edit] It is cropped a bit on the sides. The 2048x1152 version has the uncropped composition.
This looks illogical, and dull.
I keep telling you guys, I didn't spend that much time on it. I was thirty hours in when I brought it here, and I've only added another ten hours or so since then. It's been 7 months because I was busy working on other things.
I feel like I get a lot of mixed messages in here. "It's done." "Why haven't you changed it more?" "Move on." "You need to rethink this from scratch." Sometimes I get the impression I'm being fucked with... but no matter, any feedback is better than no feedback, so thank you, sincerely.
Sorry you don't like it. Suggestions for next time?
I think those 'mixed' messages are really similar messages.
'Its done' and 'Move on' can be easily lumped together. You spent more time on this than you should have. You say it was only 30 hours... but thats still too much for the product that was produced. Your 3d work is ok. Your attention to detail is... laudable in ways. But you spend too much time on the little inconsequential things. There are fundamentals of art that you seem to be not quite getting and just adding more stuff isn't going to help. Your composition skills are poor. Your color theory is seemingly 'saturate it more'.
Which is where 'Why haven't you changed it more' and 'You need to rethink this from scratch' come in.
Your design skills seem all over the place. There are parts that look good, and pages it started to look alright - but you had to add more and more and more and more and more. And you don't even seem to realize that its no where close to the design sense of what you say its cribbing from - Mucha. I don't think anyone would look at the ship and think anywhere close to Art Nouveau. Considering thats what you SAY you want, then you needed to rethink it from scratch. You needed to have made MAJOR changes. Instead you made it hyperpurple with gold leaf sprinkles.
My advice to you is to drop your comic and focus on composition. Find images that work and REALLY think about what makes them work. Think about color and why slathering an image with almost entirely one saturation level doesn't work. Do studies of Mucha. Start focusing more on the image as a whole and not missile pod bay mechanics.
Vulgar? Really? Like... a fart joke?
Ah! I think the word you're looking for is "awesome." :P
[edit]... or possibly "delicious."