[5thHorseman]

Here are a couple ship concepts done in old fashioned pencil.  Opinions on designs is appreciated as well as recommendations for modeling software (which some of you use).  I would like to try and make some of these concepts using a program, rather than by hand.  Freeware or not, I don't mind, but please be sure to note.

Freighter: http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i166/_5thHorseman_/IMG_1578.jpg
Capital Ship: (near the front of the vessel, notice the light sketch of the previous ship.  This is shown to compare the size.  A human is roughly twice the height of the window on the freighter) http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i166/_5thHorseman_/IMG_1587.jpg
Capital Ship (shaded): http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i166/_5thHorseman_/IMG_1594.jpg

[Unknown Target]

Wow, very interesting. I love your clean lines and your shadowing - how do you get all of that so smooth?

And I, of course, suggest Sketchup (www.sketchup.com). There's a free version that's fully featured except for exporting into other formats, and it borrows heavily from drawing on real life paper. If you can draw, I don't doubt that you'll pick up the program very quickly.

[Iron Wolf]

sooo, pretty. I prefer freighters to be pretty much square boxes, but yours works as well.

[5thHorseman]

Wow, very interesting. I love your clean lines and your shadowing - how do you get all of that so smooth?

A rolled up piece of paper, actually.  Just take a small strip, roll it up, and bend it in half.  Then smudge the lead with the bend.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I'll definitely check it out.  I'm guessing there aren't any free programs out there that can convert?

[Unknown Target]

There aren't but any .skp file made in Google Sketchup can be easily converted by the full version of Sketchup, if you know someone who has it

[5thHorseman]

I downloaded and tried out sketchup.  It's a better program than I thought it would be, to my surprise.
The ship doesn't look exactly how I drew it, but here are the results in images..:










If you look closely at the 4th picture down, you can see a small dot in the top right corner of the front of the ship. That's a person.

But since a video is worth a thousands pictures:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7692270938742123622
(allows you to see the size better)

[Descenter]

There aren't but any .skp file made in Google Sketchup can be easily converted by the full version of Sketchup, if you know someone who has it

There is a "student" version license, that says as long as your in school the price is cut to $58 for the license.

To 5thHorseMan:

Good job on the model.

[Unknown Target]

That's a pretty good model. Sketchup is an extremely powerful app if you give it half a chance.

[asyikarea51]

How the...

Well your parallelism on the pencil pictures (for lack of a better word) is definitely better than mine.

But getting that picture into Sketchup, or drawing/modelling it in Sketchup and looking good already... that's something else.

[Unknown Target]

What I generally do is scan in the orthos from my drawing, and simply trace over it using the line tool in Sketchup. Either that or just scan the image in and import it, and just rough out the idea. I don't know how he did it though

[5thHorseman]

I do have a scanner, but I started from scratch.  There are some things about the drawing that I actually screwed up on and so the dimensions aren’t correct.  You may have noticed, but nonetheless, if I scanned it in, it would not have been easy to recreate in three dimensions.  Also, this was my first time using it, so I wanted to start from the bottom up.  The final design of the ship (the one made with sketchpad) is better than that of the pencil design, in my opinion.  Also, if I scanned it in at that angle, I don’t think I’d be able to do much with it.  If I was to simply trace over it, wouldn’t it have to be of the profile, or from directly above? I have tried making shapes, and often times Sketchup will screw up the lines if they aren’t on the axes.  They look correct from where you draw them, but when you turn the camera, you notice otherwise.  I think it would be easier starting from scratch in my case wouldn’t it?

Thanks for the complements, btw 

[Unknown Target]

Well I just import the perspective drawings just so I can have the image in the workspace and not have to have it on a separate piece of paper

[5thHorseman]

I see.
Here is another thing I made..it's suppose to be a castle.

[Descenter]

You sir...have a talent...  All I have to say is wwwwoooowwww.

[Flipside]

You certainly show a lot of creativity, particuarly with that 'castle' object, very non-conventional, I like

[shrinkshooter]

You certainly show a lot of creativity, particuarly with that 'castle' object, very non-conventional, I like

Actually, that castle thingy is my idea...

Although 5th, I have to say that there was no tree or town in the middle. Still, I know you took liberties with it, and all in all it's sweet. I wish I had those sketchbooks I forgot to bring with me...

[5thHorseman]

yes, the original concept of the castle was created by shrink several years ago, with the intention of it being unbelievably large.  I remodeled it in sketchup (just recently, of course), though it doesn't look exactly as shrink intended, like he said.  I'm glad you guys like it though.

[Raven2001]

Although your kind of draw "language" aint my favourite one, it certainly shows experience, so thumbs up on the drawings

On the other hand, if your looking for a free 3d modeling program, Id suggest using blender... its much more powerfull and doesnt suffer from those conversion issues when you wanna get your models into FS

Also, refrain from using the orthos of your sketches as a modelling aid. Its the same thing as drawing over a picture, which creates "fake" results

[5thHorseman]

thanks
I checked out blender and the gallery pictures on the site look very nice.  If it is that much better than sketchup, and not too complicated, then I'll probably end up using that.  I'm surpreised something like that is free.  And as for using the orthos I don’t plan on it since I don’t know exactly what it is, but if it’s the same as drawing over, then I won’t.  I appreciate the advice   

[Raven2001]

Ortho stands for orthogonal view\perspective drawing

What UT was meaning was that you drew the top and side views if the ships, and model on top of it... something I must strongly stand against

Draw sketches to catch the grasp and feel of what you intend to model, also to experiment with forms, etc. Once you have a very clear idea of what you want, then pass to the modelling phase, but dont be shy to change things a bit if you see that the concept isnt rly working as good on 3d as it was on paper