Started reading Fleet Action again and felt like making a Hakaga Wallpaper. I know there already is an awesome recreation of the Novel Cover, but the Standoff model is just too awesome and the Hakaga's shape makes it very intimidating when you see it flying towards you. I'm no artist and did it more or less for my own desktop, but if you have any suggestions regarding angle, lighting or anything, feel free to enlighten me.
Thank you all. I should point out that this is Eder's model, all i did was extract and arrange it for this render. I had to redo the glowmaps because i don't have a clue where they are hidden in the game, and the turrets where placed according to screenshots i made earlier. My original attempt was actually something like this, but i think the cockpit just distracts from the Hakaga and so i threw it out and changed the angle.
Yeah, the cockpit shot reminds me a lot of the cover of End Run and I really like it...except instead of a CVE we've got Hakagas. I think if you try to emulate the End Run cover a bit more it would look fantastic...even though already it looks great.
Yeah the novel cover was the basic inpiration. Since pretty much everything on that cover is available in Standoff i think i might give it a try. Does anyone know if there is something like a "fiery explosion mesh" available, preferably free and in 3DS format? I could paint the explosions, but i try to avoid using Photoshop as much as possible. I could have used multiple layers, but i rendered all you see in that picture at once. More work getting the angles and distances right, but anything else feels like cheating. And most importantly: If anyone from the Standoff Team feels uncomfortable with my use of their models, or want their names somewhere in the corner or anything, please let me know. EDIT: Did this in the meantime, just some additional capships, a Dralthi and another Sabre. The very empty looking lower right corner is reserved for an awesome exploding Sabre once i figured out how to do it. And the laser beams look like crap, if i don't find a proper solution i'll have to add them with photoshop.
We like fans to make fan stuff - after all, we're fans who made fan stuff too, are we not ? Your pic looks very nice to me !
Nice! I like the progression. Yeah I can see what you are saying about the lasers. However, once you polish it it will be fantastic. Great work!
I like where you're going with this however, it just doesn't mesh in my mind... it just seems like there is too much going on up close. Perhaps move the other Saber further away and have the Dralthi chasing it or something. I don't know why, but it just doesn't look right the way it is at the moment. Not trying to criticize, you're doing a great job.
I agree. Some personal suggestions: - The cockpit and perhaps lighting in general seems too red. - Could use a different background. A planet, nebula, or something else would really help to "push" the darkly lit ships out. It should also be simpler, so it's not competing with the ships. Right now it blends too much. One last idea, which would be neat but I understand not everyone has an ILM render farm sitting around, would be to throw a lot of lower detail models in (if there are some). You know, things that look like flights of fighters and bombers in the distance. If you want more ideas I can PM them, but I figure you didn't post here for an art class!
Sorry for the long time without any update, but i spent a good portion of it reading 3ds max and photoshop tutorials. My original goal was actually to use only what was available in Standoff, but i realized that Deep Exploration is just not capable of what i was aiming for. I used a friend's 3ds Max and made some nice laser beams and stuff, but Deep Exploration doesn't support them and when i tried to export my scene to 3dsmax, everything was messed up. So basically i was left with no alternative but to use photoshop (or redo everything from the start). t.c.cgi: thanks for the advice, will definately use some of it for the next project. I don't think i will change much more in this one, i started it all wrong and all i'd do from now on is put roses on a dungheap. The cockpit lighting was intentional, i thought it would look more realistic if only the HUD and readouts were illuminated, but i agree that this doesn't work well on a picture thats very dark already. Edit: By dungheap i didn't mean the models or the picture of course, its the way i set it up from the start that leaves me little possibilities to edit it.
If it makes you feel better a lot of effects are usually added/combined outside the renderer. That's too bad it corrupted your files. The last version came out very nice, though.
