Decided to reimagine the splash screen of version 2.71. I think my first Blender is v.2.4 or 2.5, which I found around 2014-ish. At that moment actually there’s already a newer version, but didn’t know about it as I found Blender through a tutorial site (not the donut) which happened to be outdated. Anyway, onto the challenge.
Found the high-res image above on the artist’s portfolio (Pierrick Picaut) here on BA as well as some info on it. There are also some pictures for the 3d print version of the ships on the Kickstarter page of the game which the image is made for, should be useful in the modeling.
Not sure if I can make all 5 ship types seen on the splash screen, hope to be able to make at least 2 or 3. Might not be the exact replica since there are only very little references, I will try to at first keep the overal shape/silhouette the same during blockout, then improvise from there to my liking.
For the scene, thinking of featuring space battle using same types of ship with differing color tags, or maybe just a fleet traveling leisurely through space. Still unsure aobut the environment or background, especially thinking about what can be displayed in Sketchfab later, maybe some small sized planetary object like asteroids around with a black background. Also thinking instead of real environment (space) will be making it as a tabletop gaming scene with the ships as miniatures, but let’s see.
Btw, if anyone needs it, my Sketchfab account is here.
Hahah, I can imagine a food replicator doing heavy job summoning Mars bars, and the title of the game itself is ‘The Fight for Mars’ !
I just had another related idea of making it as scale models so I might not need to model too many supporting elements like maps etc., plus I can include the render from Blender as cover art on the box. Let’s see later.
Upon closer inspection, it appears that ship A, B, and C are using the same shapes for its front and rear section. Initially these were what I’m going to make, but the recent facts made me rethink about it.
The pros would obsviously be a faster work, with the cons of less variation (models will kind of look the same, compared to if I make ship A, D, E). Of course, this wouldn’t be a problem if I just make all of the ships, but would mean even more works (and thus need more time). For now I’m thinking of making just 3 ships first and the environment, preferably ship A, D, E so I will have more varied models.
Replaced the cylindrical parts with more blocky ones, still not too satisfied with some shapes though, might revise later.
Btw, I’ve been thinking again for the third ship which was to be ship E previously. This one actually has almost the same overall shape with ship D with the exceptions of the rocket/cylindrical parts, so I might change the third ship with ship C. As previously mentioned, A, B, C has roughly the same front and rear shapes, but ship C has something unique : assymetrical design, and therefore the main reason behind the change. Now that decision has been made, onto the modeling !
Next for setting up the scene, mainly blocking out to see the global view of things (model detailing will be done after this phase). Space battle scene sounds dynamic and awesome, but might be more demanding as it requires ship duplicates (more polycount) and also FX; making it as tabletop game props, miniature kit or film props set can be easier though will look more static. I think I will try several things for it and see which one will work.
Still undecided for the environment, somehow became a bit unmotivated too, so to keep the spirit up just went with modeling details for the ship along with cleaning geo and UV mapping & unwrapping (I just use low poly here, btw).
Doing good so far, though it looks rather dull since it’s just a test, will tweak more later. Just learned about setting the background so it looks transparent from the outer side, which was actually backface culling by simply using single sided face rendering, a good trick to know.
Hey! As we’re entering the final days of the challenge, I’d like to give you some helpful tips to make sure you can successfully complete your entry. Please see my new post on the FAQ topic.
Finished texturing the ships, these are just Eevee render screenshots, btw. Now onto building the scene (finally decided on one, yay), have made some blockouts and more test uploads to Sketchfab, will show them later.
The mission basic is to completely perform an action (decrypting information from the cube object, the All-Cube) at top right while defending the hero ship which performing the action (Megaera) from the enemy. Was thinking about the main ship mining asteroids at first, but didn’t think the ship is suitable for laborous task, then got the idea of featuring the loveable default cube.
I’m using the same models for the enemy ships but with different color stripes on the texture, which of course saves time, but can also shows a fraction within own faction (hey, it rhymes) instead of strife between different races/factions. However, there will be another ship for the enemy which is ‘off-screen’ (not visible to default/current view) but hinted at the dialogues box and mission objective, to save time I just kitbashed elements from currently finished ship models. Here it is :
Have done the UI and do some test in Sketchfab, setting camera angle is the key to get the isometric feeling, and will be using the annotation tools to set default/initial ‘in-game’ screen which shows the UI elements from correct angle. A bit tricky, but seems to be achievable so far. The robot photo near the dialogue box is using models from past work, also the cube object but re-textured, and the fonts are using some public domain ones. By the way, it’s currently around 35 MB with 100k+ tris.
Here’s the UI elements and Eevee viewport render …
Just took manual screen grab as the Screenshot Tools seems not working on draft uploads. Most work as intended, though there are still some things to take care of next :
tweak the background and add nebula textures
add mask for opacity for the warp gates
try use bigger res for the screen overlay, also will edit/add more UI elements
tweak lighting and materials or use baked combined textures for the ships (currently just use base color/albedo mostly)
cut/delete part of the ship model that just exited the warp gate (top right)
add some effects like scanning on the All-Cube, ships health/HP bar, maybe some lasers here and there …
Wow! The UI is such a fantastic touch, I want this game to be real now. Make sure to get it on Sketchfab by Thursday, September 15, and tag it #bcon22challenge
Honestly, looking at the overall this seems deviated much from the original version, and might be somewhat hard to relate to it due to entirely different setting (an RTS in-game screen vs cinematic render). Might still be tweaking some small things, but not too much.
Nevertheless, it has been a great experience, and got some new knowledge to apply especially for tweaking in Sketchfab environment that I can use later on. It was a blast too seeing the other entries which are top-notch quality and on another higher level compared to this, enjoyed reading their journey and watching the award-winning realtime models. Thanks to Blender Artist, BlenderNation and Sketchfab for hosting this challenge and good luck to the participants !
Hey! Just a quick reminder that there’s now less than 12 hours remaining to wrap up your challenge entry - submissions close at 2022-09-15T21:59:00Z, GMT+1 (click on the link for some international times).
If you haven’t done so already, please review this post which contains some essential information for preparing your submission.
At the very least, upload your work to Sketchfab as soon as possible and add the #bcon22challenge tag.
It’s also a good idea to add a link to your WIP topic in the description of your Sketchfab model so we can easily find it.
I’ll also keep a close eye on the FAQ topic today, so if you have any issues or questions please post it there as soon as possible.
