SFXB Forum

@Bradster, You're not the only one with no formal training in 3D design I myself am self taught, Luckily I have a good friend over of devianART who gave me some tips on doing  some stuff in photoshop to make the textures look good. I also have a real problem with organic and curved shapes. I think it's a real problem for anyone who doesn't have the benefit of a proper education in the software, but with a bit of practice and trial and error, even us laymen can do some impressive work. I'm also with you on the the minute details. Heh you should see the underside of my Astrofighter. I don't recall ever really seeing it in the show but I spend days doing it.To be honest my reason for doing the ships came from an email conversation with my friend over at dA about cool 80s spaceships, the Gunstar, Liberator and so on and so forth and I wanted to try my hand at something different from my usual stuff so I opted for my favourite ship from the 80s - the X-Bomber and it just kind of snowballed. Of course your efforts and those of Chris Thompon over on dA just made me more determined to do it.   Also, yes I did use the PNG's from Crash's collection as the templates to do my updated  versions of the logos with the exception of the Star Fleet title (which I'll be adding to my dA gallery later) which was done from scratch.  @Vanessa, Andy was kind enough to send me a CD with a whole heap of images and the encyclopaedia to help me with these models and my ultimate end project. More on that later, but I hope a lot of folks around here will be excited by it. @Crash, I have a few friends that (claim they) can read Japanese. I'll ask them if they can take a look at it and maybe translate it for us.  but I suspect the information at the top of the page is the dimensions of the craft, seems logical given the numbers and differences between the ones on each of the three fighters.@Andy, as my friend on dA said to me the other day if a guy sitting on his home PC can create the SFX for Monsters then anything is possible. But yeah a CGI remake of Star Fleet would be awesome. Unfortunately it's beyond my capabilities to do the ships and effects of a space battle never mind create and animate the characters, but I would love to see it done myself, even if it was a small trailer type piece.   There are indeed some great craft, though I was never much of a fan of the Skull. I've still got Makara's cruiser to finish as you know. But having looked at some of the stuff others have done such as the Z-Bomber and some of the others here and on Crash's site I have a couple of ideas forming for some EDF ships and an Alliance FighterMecha.

I just gotta say Dorian, your Star Fleet/X-Bomber artwork and animated end credits is just totally awesome!Please keep 'em coming!Are they actual CAD models? If so, it's not a huge jump to some limited-run 3d printed model kits for all us fans

Thanks Vanessa, I've got much more planned along the way, including some more animations. Yes, they are indeed CAD models made in 3DS Max and I'm very familiar with 3D printing technology. I use it to create models for use in wargames. The downside to the technology however is the high cost of creating a decent size model for folks. but never say never....  

Just send the file to anyone with a 3d-printer and you're away.In the absence of a better mode of employment, I sorely feel like ordering one, building it and taking orders.Your model of the X-Bomber is very good - better than ChrisofEDF's version overall, I'd say.I particularly like the hinge at the top of the neck.The only bit that doesn't look quite right to me on the following image: http://dsherratt74.deviantart.com/art....0609174... is where the upper, thick part of the neck joins the lower, thin part of the neck. The upper section looks too fat where the two meet.But that's just my two cents.I'm very pleased that people have found their way into my site's images area. I tried to make it as easy to navigate as possible.A lot of industry went into making it a simple replacement for Coppermine and ImageVue.If anyone has more to add onto there, send me an email with it for the time being until I have time to revisit my upload script.

It's a possibility but even printing it at any reasonable scale is going to be very expensive, based on some of the other stuff I've had 3D printed in the past we're looking at more than £100 worth of ABS plastic  for a model about 12 inches long and if we factor in a cut to the owner of the printer or worse use an online 3D printing service the cost becomes a little steep for the average pocket. That's not to say there aren't alternatives. As for the neck thickness, now you mention it, it is a little thick. It's a pretty easy fix though.   I can add a taper modifier to the neck object stack to thin it. Thanks for pointing that out. Lastly, let me add, rather than email you my stuff to include in your galleries on your site, feel free to take them from dA and add them.

Fantastic work there Dorian. Great models and great renderings.

Thanks Shane. I've done my best to try and stay faithful to the feel of the show, hence the blue nebulas and such.Did you see the video I've done yet?

Oh wow! Just watched it. That's Fantastic!

Those are pretty awesome! Could you do a frosted glass type material for the various windows? Being able to see a hint of the interior rather than flat colours would make the renders even better; it wouldn't need to be anything detailed.

@Shane, Thanks, it was a lot of fun to do and I have an idea for a couple more animations, but I need to get Makara's cruiser and a couple of other ships finished before I can do them.@Felice, It is indeed possible to do that, but presently there's no internal structure to the ships. There's no bridge or obs deck or the like. Mainly because such details even when not seen increase render times. I even remove which ever parts of Dai-X can't been seen in a scene along with the neck cannon if stowed when rendering as the processing time is drastically reduced without them.Of course it's possible to go back and add those details, which is something I plan to do in the future.