AuthorTopic: An odd ship... for SCIENCE!  (Read 6159 times)

Offline Olothontor

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Re: An odd ship... for SCIENCE!

Reply #10 on: December 23, 2009, 05:08:05 pm
Ah, well. I await his return.

Or perhaps he completely passed by, due to the utter hopeless cause of my spriting.  :(

I sincerely hope this is not the case.
"In a mad world, only the mad are sane." - Akira Kurosawa

Offline EyeCraft

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Re: An odd ship... for SCIENCE!

Reply #11 on: December 25, 2009, 09:55:28 am
Or perhaps he completely passed by, due to the utter hopeless cause of my spriting.  :(

Ah, nothing like artistic fatalism!  :)

This is actually a tricky subject to render because it potentially has a load of really subtle curvilinear volumes to it that evade and delude the eye unless scrupulously observed. In other words, its the kind of thing where the silhouette doesn't give you a lot of information about the volume of the object. Its apparent in the differences between the two edits. CrazyMLC has done some interesting explorations of the form of the ship, I think it's definitely towards the direction you should go with it.

Whats the actual purpose of the ship within its setting? What is the ship meant to do? What is the function of the various parts that are visible on it? Working these things out can really help guide the design and final appearance of the piece. In your original version, it looks sort of like a battle ship, NaCl's looks like some kind of utility vehicle, and CrazyMLC's looks like a luxury cruise ship.

This is because the first is dull (implies dirty, rough) and flat (implies angular, strong, resilient). I know this is probably more to do with the low contrast palette, and less with deliberate design considerations, but I'm just noting it.
NaCl's has a mix of straight, efficient edges, clear colours and a simple design that emphasises a couple of key pieces of equipment.
CrazyMLC's is bright and flamboyant with a load of curves and colour.

Anyway, that's kind of a tagent into depiction of vehicle design. The point I'm trying to make is, these ships have a tonne of different ways they can be rendered. The big thing is, be clear about your lightsource, make sure theres strong contrast in your palette.

Also theres a fair bit of banding, particularly along the bottom of the ship. Gradients will cause banding unless very carefully managed. The single-pixel dither you have is noisy, and for a sprite this small confuses the depiction of form, which with the very subtle curves, compromises the piece.

I'm keen to do an edit, but I'm at my relatives' place for christmas and it's not really an environment conducive to concentration. Will return in a day or so!  ;D
« Last Edit: December 25, 2009, 09:57:19 am by EyeCraft »

Offline NaCl

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Re: An odd ship... for SCIENCE!

Reply #12 on: December 25, 2009, 10:48:33 am
Awesome edit and crits MLC! I love the direction you took the ship, very cool. After seeing that I figured I had to take mine a little further, so I rendered it a little more. Still not as beautifully rendered as yours, but perhaps it can be useful, when compared to my earlier version.

« Last Edit: December 25, 2009, 10:56:25 am by NaCl »

Offline Beetleking22

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Re: An odd ship... for SCIENCE!

Reply #13 on: December 25, 2009, 06:28:03 pm
My edit  :-[

« Last Edit: December 25, 2009, 06:33:44 pm by Beetleking22 »

Offline Jon

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Re: An odd ship... for SCIENCE!

Reply #14 on: December 26, 2009, 12:04:45 am
BeetleKing: it's nice but I think it doesn't preserve the organic style of the original. As for the original, it seems a bit minimally shaded, with a lot of flat colours. CrazyMLC's drawing is a good example of how to change this; he also gave different hues to the lighter parts of the ship.

Offline Beetleking22

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Re: An odd ship... for SCIENCE!

Reply #15 on: December 26, 2009, 01:09:57 am
BeetleKing: it's nice but I think it doesn't preserve the organic style of the original. As for the original, it seems a bit minimally shaded, with a lot of flat colours. CrazyMLC's drawing is a good example of how to change this; he also gave different hues to the lighter parts of the ship.

 :'( I forgot to read the title and I thought that that was the weapon and...