For my upcoming Dark Exodus project...a Cylon Raider

martok2112 · July 13th, 2009, 04:04 PM

Well, in taking a break from the animation side of things for a bit, I got back into ship construction.

Here's my Cylon Raider, done in two scales....flight scale (the smaller one) and actor scale. You can even see the engine glow on the smaller scale ship in one image.

Now that I've come to understand how the parent/child relationship works when assembling components for ships and props, constructing them comes MUCH faster.

These babies oughtta look better once they're in action.

martok2112 · July 13th, 2009, 11:56 PM

And here are a couple of shots of my Cylon basestar. It is obviously a work in progress, but it is coming along MUCH nicer than my first attempt at it.

The top center of the ship (and what you can see of the core) is a texture map taken from a photo of my Konami basestar miniature. (Gotta love having physical models for references.

)

And this is a classic angle of the great Cylon basestar. Wow....she's lookin' menacing already!

ernie90125 · July 14th, 2009, 05:24 PM

I'm interested to see how this develops.

Different animators/modellers have different styles. Some look like computer game footage, others go for the photo realistic look.

What I'm seeing in these shots, is something a bit different, it has a cartoon 'feel'. I think in animation circles its called 'toon shaded' ? If so, its a new look for BSG fanfilms, and I like it....

martok2112 · July 14th, 2009, 05:34 PM

Thanks, Ernie.

Believe me, the cartoon shading is partial accidental, partial necessity. I tried doing a fully poly'd out basestar, but it was just too much for iClone to handle.....so, my final render for the basestar will have to be texture mapping....largely hand-drawn by yours truly....so it's definitely going to have a cartoon look/feel. I just hope it won't detract from the story.

BTW, in a few minutes, I'll have a test animation on YouTube of my Raider approaching the basestar. It turned out surprisingly good.

Just wait til I tackle the Galactica herself!

CBSG4ever · July 14th, 2009, 05:44 PM

Looking forward to seeing more Steve. Great work! Gotta love the design of the Baseship. Like Col. Tigh said, "an orbiting killer." Keep up the nice work.

martok2112 · July 14th, 2009, 05:54 PM

Many thanks, Steve.

Will have the animation up in a few moments, after I find the right music and sfx.