Starscape's Art Challenge Thread

[Starscape]

Okay, let's see if I can enter enough contests to keep this thread active.


Even after setting the challenge this month I've left things late, but I've managed to get a start on my "Magical World of Star Trek" entry. I present the Warp Cauldron:

It may not be too obvious yet, but I've taken a some inspiration from the Asterix comic books. There's more too come, hopefully.

 

[Starscape]

More progress:

Colouring next and then trying to decided how to deal with the background.

 

[Michael]

Ah, great minds think alike, I guess. I was actually working on a similar idea also involving Geordi. I was going for a slightly more mythical approach, but the basic idea of Geordi as a blind magician working on something warp core related is the same. I love what you are doing with your entry and I think I will just refrain from entering this month.

Here's my initial rough sketch …

 

[Starscape]

Thanks, @Michael. It's a shame to knock you out of the challenge that's a nice start you have there. I sometimes think it'd be interesting to see two different approaches to a similar idea in a challenge.

I'd finished colouring last night and was sure I was finished. Although, I had wanted to add some more engineering/magical ingredients to the image, but couldn't recall any names, then suddenly just as I was about to post my final entry a couple came to mind. So with a few hasty additions, this is now my final entry:

 

[Starscape]

Ever have a time when you just couldn't execute an idea? I was stuck on the visual of Gowron's goggly eyes staring out of a poster, but it didn't work out very well once I started. My follow up idea didn't end up much better. So, with time getting short, I searched though my hdd for any of my old Trek vector images I could adapt and use for a poster.

And I put this together (a new composition using some old parts):



Inspired by British RAF posters.

 

[Starscape]

So, it's money for June's challenge. I've been thinking about Klingon coinage and surely it'd be of greater value to a Klingon if had a dual purpose: as currency, but also as weaponry or devices of torture. So, maybe bladed coins with the value increasing with the number of sharp edges and pierced so that they can be bound together to stop them jangling during a stealthy attack.

I've built a few coins using Blender and here they are in various stages of the texturing process:


(click to enlarge)

Hmmm, but what to call them... Honors???

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Whatever pouch you carry them in would have to be pretty tough to avoid the money cutting a hole in its container. I'm thinking a chain-mail coin pouch...

 

[Cyfa]

Oh, cool! What a great idea to double them up as useful stabby implements. I wonder if many non-Klingon customers challenge the shop owner when they get "short changed" on Q'onoS?

 

[Starscape]

Whatever pouch you carry them in would have to be pretty tough to avoid the money cutting a hole in its container. I'm thinking a chain-mail coin pouch...

Pouch damage, the one thing I didn't think of! But as I'm sure Garak would have you know the best Klingon suits have hard wearing targ-hide pockets.

Oh, cool! What a great idea to double them up as useful stabby implements. I wonder if many non-Klingon customers challenge the shop owner when they get "short changed" on Q'onoS?

Thanks @Cyfa . Hmmm, I wonder how many Klingon shop owners short change in order to start a fight?

And here's my final render (I've lost track of the number of "final" renders I've completed, today - I'm still feeling my way with Blender's cycles renderer) and I may have over done the "dirt" layers.


(click to enlarge)

 

[Bernard Guignard]

nice

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

A handful of coins and you have sharp duranium knuckles at a moment's notice.

 

[Starscape]

Just to keep all my entries together, first here's my post from July's entry thread.

Well, a looooong time ago I tried doing some Looney Tunes-style Star Trek images. And that style felt kind of fitting for my entry idea, so I decided to revisit it:


(Click to enlarge)

I was stuck for time during August, but at the last minute I had an idea of throwing together a shuttle render with a surface created in Terragen. I downloaded the lastest version (Terragen 4) and discovered that it's changed a lot since I last used it, but I could actually import and model into Terragen for rendering now. Well, I just about managed to get the hang of it. But I over tweaked the settings on my first more alien-ish landscape (I've still no idea what I did wrong) and had to start from scratch. I just kept it simple on my second attempt, although I did try a couple of different lighting setups.

Sunset:

(Click to enlarge)


Daylight (my final entry):

(Click to enlarge)

 

[Cyfa]

Oh, I like these! Sunset looks great (very Vulcan), but I can barely make out the cute little shuttle - however, I think that might be more to do with the bright room I'm sitting in (too much glare in here).

 

[Starscape]

Thanks, @Cyfa. Yeah, the shuttle does kind of fade into the background in the sunset image, that's one of the reasons I went with the other image for my final entry.

 

[Starscape]

Urgh, it was a busy end of month, but I managed to spare the last weekend to create a scene with one of my previously completed starship models (the U.S.S. Hecla) for the September challenge. The asteroid field was built for the scene and the phaser beams and blast came as very late addtions.


(Click to enlarge)

What I had actually started working on for September's challenge was an attempt to complete one of my abandoned starship projects. Since I'm not the fastest CG modeler I picked the one that required the least work, a ship based on the initial production design of U.S.S. Pegasus. I had actual used this in a previous challenge entry, but I hid the uncompleted sections (and most of the serious deviations from the design) behind a "rock" wall.



This was the state of the model when it was abandoned:



I preferred the look of the engineering hull with the pylon structure attached (eventhough it doesn't jibe with the production design), but that left me with the problem of what to put on the end of those pylons. Well, that's what I started working on this month.

To be continued...

 

[Cyfa]

I meant to say in the art challenge thread that the phaser beam against the rock is brilliant! I love all the little bits of rock/ice glinting in the blast.

What to put at the end of those pylons - Cargo pods? Sensor arrays? Support/auxiliary craft? Botanical domes?!?

 

[Starscape]

Thanks, @Cyfa. I have to admit the sparkles in the phaser beam/blast are actually unintented rendering artifacts. I don't know how they got there, but I liked the effect too much to figure out how to get rid of them or edit them out.

Ooooh, botanical domes! I wish I'd thought of that.

 

[Santaman]

Must say that I like the Hecla a lot.

 

[Starscape]

Thanks, @Santaman.

 

[Starscape]

After naming this starship Thunderbird, I did consider that it should really have interchangeable modules that could be attached to the pylons. But my first choice was always some kind of sensor pod similar to those on the Saratoga - maybe a kind of cloak-buster sensor.



I didn't really plan the modules out too well and now I look at them, with the time constraints off, I think they're just too big. I'm also spotting other problems with the model that need fixing...