USS Albacore, Ambassador Class Prototype

[publiusr]

It presses all the buttons

 

[Professor Moriarty]

It looks… real. Incredible work. I hope you’ll produce an animation so we can see her fly… or lumber, as the case may be.

Outstanding!

 

[publiusr]

Different franchise I know…but the rumble of Star Wars’ “Malevolence” ship would be perfect.

Better than Into Darkness’s Vengeance…which sounded like an Evinrude outboard motor through a Kanye filter.

 

[SCE2Aux]

It looks… real. Incredible work. I hope you’ll produce an animation so we can see her fly… or lumber, as the case may be.

Outstanding!

With past ship projects, I've never gotten to the point where I felt like I could get the thing animated in a reasonable amount of time, I think mainly due to highly unoptimized (and, frankly, dumb) maps and shader setups. With this ship I'm trying to streamline that whole thing so that animation is hopefully on the cards. However, that is still a ways off, and I've got to create all these various texture maps first!
I think I'll have the nacelle struts done in about a week, but real life is limiting the amount of time I can spend on this project lately. I'm hoping next month will be quieter and then some serious progress can be made.

 

[SCE2Aux]

....continuing with the long texturing process! Small update for today:

 

[137th Gebirg]

It really looks like it wants to shoot a bunch of missiles out of that spine.

I am SO loving this design...

 

[Santaman]

I love all the details, it really looks like quite a beast of a ship.

 

[Finn]

If it was more detailed, it'd have the scorch marks from the crew members signing one of the hull plates visible.

 

[Professor Moriarty]

And an interior impossibly larger than the exterior.

 

[SCE2Aux]

Hi guys, I've been working on finishing the base colour for the nacelle pylons, interior window boxes, spine etc. Also this lunch time been experimenting with procedural materials for the smaller components. The ambient occlusion/grunginess is currently too strong on all the mechanical stuff along the spine, but I'll get it dialled-in over time.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Love the pillbox aft torpedo launcher. It looks like it might rotate like a turret?

 

[Santaman]

Looks great.

 

[SCE2Aux]

Love the pillbox aft torpedo launcher. It looks like it might rotate like a turret?

It never occurred to me when I was modelling it that it could be a pillbox type thing, but now that you mention it, it seems obvious that it looks like it should rotate. Currently it's modelled as mostly a solid single piece, but it wouldn't be too difficult to make a rotating version. I need to prioritise the texturing side of things for now though.

 

[SCE2Aux]

Taking a short break from the texturing process to model a saucer separation capability. I modelled a seam between the hulls months ago, but then moved on to other tasks. I want the ship to separate though, so here is the initial geometry blocking out. It's going to need more work to make it look right:

 

[Santaman]

That's looking great, that design looks the part.

 

[Finn]

 

[SCE2Aux]

This is where I'm leaving things this weekend. The main features are modelled on the separation plane, just a few things to tidy, and then it's back to texturing.

 

[Santaman]

Holy crap.. that's awsome! and that's an understatement..

 

[Mage]

That is one mean looking starship. I love it.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I honestly never thought anyone could make an Ambassador look bad-ass. Now I've seen everything.