Actually, the "big project" stuff was done months ago. I did several rather elaborate concept art pieces for a Hollywood film production that's in development. Got paid for it and everything. Unfortunately, I can't provide any details other than to say it has nothing to do with any established franchises or anything else you've likely ever heard of. I also did a book cover for a first-time author friend of mine, which I showed a glimpse of on my Website and in the "What are you working on?" thread. Can't really say much about that either at this point. In addition to the Guardian Angel painting I'm working on for my Mom for Christmas, I'm also working on another Grandeur paintover for the underside, which I hope to have finished tonight or tomorrow.
Interesting. Does the NDA allow you to point out which stuff you worked on once the production goes public with its promo material and the like? If so, I'm looking forward to that.
Technically I don't think I can show any of it or talk about it until after the movie is released. There's also a possibility I may be called back to do more work on it. I assure you it will all see the light of day eventually, though.
The paintover for the underside is basically finished, give or take a panel line or window here and there: I'll be returning to the 3D model soon to implement these details and hopefully get this project finished once and for all.
It is. Even ignoring my personal distaste of the big black sections it at least looks functional on the saucer, lacking windows and clearly appearing to serve a purpose. The section you have colored dark on the secondary hull looks arbitrarily painted-on in comparison. There are certainly opportunities to include the black on the secondary hull, but the current implementation is bordering on lazy and that isn't something I generally associate with your design choices.
Okay, dislike the scheme for the secondary hull all you want, but that's about the 15th version I tried over three solid days of working on this, including Thanksgiving day, so you might want to reconsider your choice of the word "lazy." Besides which, I like it. I won't guarantee I won't change it after I look at it from some different angles, but I think it's gonna work out fine.
The lower details with the various homages to the Excelsior and Ambassador seem just fine. It's the large black area on top that seems somewhat out of place to me because it paints such a large area in a continuous dark color.
Perhaps I should have just stuck with "arbitrary" then. The ship is beautiful, and no matter what choices you make going into the final stretch here I don't think that will change. It never hurts an artist to ask them to justify those choices though. Every other dark section of the ship is a distinctly separate section and appears to be that way for some purpose or another. My immediate question upon looking at this was "why would they paint just that section black?" Why not echo the tops of the nacelles by placing it on the bottom of the hull? Why not remove the windows there and inset it like all the other black areas? Hopefully you can accept my repeated nitpicking as constructively as I intend it.
Just wondering - when you say "paint-over" do you mean you paint in 2D over a previously rendered picture, or do paint some temporary details on a texture that you then project on the model?
Well my only nitpick is that there is no obvious light source(s) for the ventral saucer registration, and I had to cast about to find anything to say at all. That latest image is just gorgeous.
The light sources for the underside registry are actually on the forward rim of the saucer inset pointing backwards.