The "what are you working on?" Art thread.

[Venardhi]

I think we've had one of these before, but it is always nice to have somewhere for everyone to throw up WIP (or finished) images of things that don't necessarily need their own thread. Little side projects, sketches, experiments, etc.

For instance, I got my hands on a copy of ZBrush the other day and after an hour or so learning the ridiculous interface, spit out this doo-dad:



which a few hours later became:



Next step will be doing a low poly model to fit the sculpt's topology, bake it and texture it. This is all part of an effort on my part to learn some of the tools of the game art trade. Next up: Max and/or Maya.

So how bout ya'll. What are YOU working on?

[Klaus]

Cool... been meaning to give that program a try if my old machine can handle it.

[Starship]

Since you produced this just after a few hours of learning exercise, it´s EXCELLENT, ten stars in fact!

[Venardhi]

Need to give it a pass with the symmetry turned off still. And find a solution for the retopology step. The tool in lightwave isn't quite acceptable and topogun doesn't have a save option in the demo.

[Kaiser]

I working on Award Ribbon pics for a non Trek forum i go to

www.theacorncafe.org lots of people there are sci-fi fans and

Fans of the new Pony show from the Hub

[Venardhi]

I call it the "cowzelle"

[Venardhi]

[Albertese]

Well since you asked what we're up to, I've been going back to my Enterprise deck plans project. I've been working on this off and on since, like, 2006...? It's certainly WIP and it's only intended to be a sort of digital sketch to help me figure out where everything might go. The intent here is not to do a fully screen-accurate Enterprise, but, rather, let's assume that Star Trek was a tv show based on the actual missions of the actual Enterprise and they had to make some production compromises when they built their sets (much like how other shows of similar vintage but set on, say, a submarine or navy ship, don't really look like true versions of those vessels either). So, I'm making what the "real" ship might have been. Anyhow, I'm not quite ready to start it's own thread (someday...) but enjoy this snapshot of my current progress now:



This is the widest deck in the saucer. I'm assuming a 1080 foot long ship. I intend to make an idealized model of this thing when I'm done and intend to use the 18" Round2 re-pop of the classic Enterprise kit to do so, so I'm gonna use the proportions of that ship for this project.

The red stuff is related to propulsion, the green is scanners and sensors, the blue are turbolift runs and the gray is piping and wiring areas. The three 22-man emergency evac transporters are on this deck. The five little purple dots near the middle are those triangular ladderways. That part in the middle third at about the 5:00 position is the ship's theater as not-quite-realized in "The Conscience of the King." One of several versions of the engineering set appears aft of the end of the turbolift run at the 3:00 position.

Anyhow, like I said, definitely WIP, but I'd figure I'd throw it out there, seeing as you asked...

--Alex

[Venardhi]

Pretty cool. I envy the patience it must take for such a task. My brain is simply not wired for that kind of work.

[JES]

Well, I suppose this is as good a time as any to reveal this bad girl:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4044567...in/photostream

I have been working on this very drawing for weeks, and decided to scan it before going in to erase any random sketch streaks and marks, and finalize all of the details and such, as well as colorize her with markers. Due to being a staunch perfectionist, I figured it might be another few weeks at the rate I'm going.

The Falken is a sub-class of the Sparrow, and a direct descendent of the Miranda/Avenger class Heavy Frigate. At this point, by my count, she is to have 4 Pulse Phaser Turrets, 16 Phaser Arrays, 6 Torpedo Launchers, and no less than 16 Retractable Point Defense Phaser Turrets. I consider the Sparrow family at this point to be the bigger brother (or sister, if you prefer) of the Merian class, which is meant less for scientific duties, and more for combat.

As you can see from some cut off edges, I had a (not so) fun time scanning this. I wish my family had a bigger scanner, because having to constantly try to get that right position for maximum scanning is a drag.

[B.J.]

U.S.S Falken, huh? Does it have a computer AI named Joshua?

[JES]

The name Falken is a nod to an aircraft of the same name in Ace Combat, even though the said aircraft probably never existed in the Trek Universe.
It was also a compromise, because I originally wanted to name this variant Falcon, but upon seeing that this name has been used quite a bit in fanon, decided to go with Falken, hoping that it would be less common, or even unused.

Unless, the Falken later used an AI later in the Ace Combat series after 5, you have the wrong reference (I haven't been able to play any of the later games due to not having a XBOX 360, and did they ever even make any of the later games playable on the PS3?).

For the most part, if the Aventine doesn't have it in her inventory, the Falken and her kin doesn't have it either, due to being built at around the same time, so unless the Vesta has an AI, the Falken doesn't.

[B.J.]

Never played Ace Combat. Have watched "War Games" quite a few times, though....

[Vektor]

I decided to participate in this month's art challenge over at ImagineFX.com. The theme is "Art Gladiators," to be interpreted however the artist likes. I chose to go with the idea of a digital art project coming to life and turning on its creator:



I'm going to paint in a number of opponents for my angry gladiator, some already defeated, some still standing. The last couple will just be outlines the artist is in the process of filling in until Mr. Gladiator decides he has quite enough opponents already and delivers a stinging message to the artist to KNOCK IT OFF!

Latest progress on Mr. Gladiator:

[B.J.]

Cool! Nice foreshortening on the arms.