[Luis Dias]

Greetings to the community. I'm very grateful to your work in here and to the amazing experiences that you guys built so I could enjoy them, it's amazing so much gameplay and beauty for the miniscule 6 bucks (and none of those go to you), when almost demo-like games come up to things like PSP for 50 bucks.

So I felt guilty at all this leaching of me of your work, and I felt that I could contribute with something to the game. Problem is, I don't have much time. I'm an architect and husband and father, and I know it is troubling to start a thing and never finish it, but still I said, "why not"?

So I looked into the to-do ship list, and wondered if I could redraw the Rakshasa. It was quite a fortune that that ship was still up for grabs, it's one of my favourites, behind Deimos, Hatshepsut and another shivan cruiser which I don't recall its name.

So this is the starting post of this work in progress. I have almost nothing to show you guys, except this small screenshot, which is enough for you guys to understand where I am going with this ship. I'm having trouble relearning 3dstudio max, as I've modelled a lot of things back several years ago, but I'm rusty, and max 9 is slightly different (also snappier, I'll give it that). One of the problems of max is that there is 10 to 20 different ways of doing exactly the same thing, which is great on one hand, and is greatly confusing if you are rusty like me .

So enough babble talk. Here's my concept shot:

[attachment deleted by Tolwyn]

[Snail]

It's a good start, and really underlines the skeletal design of the Rakshasa.

[colecampbell666]

Lookin' pretty good.

[Luis Dias]

Small update. I'll be working now and will have little time in this week (I think), so updates will be slower from now on.

[attachment deleted by Tolwyn]

[0rph3u5]

the concept from is different from this skeletal approach....
but  's boxy rakshasa is a bit boring...

good work 

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[Raven2001]

It's looking good so far.

Some time ( of time actually), someone was doing a HTL Rakshasa. I'd suggest searching for that topic and see the pics, perhaps it will help spark your imagination even more

Don't be afraid of not carbon copying the original model

[Rodo]

oh nice..  another shivan ship ^^

[Thaeris]

Looks like a great many polys... but good polys! The current concept very much says Rakshasa to me.

 

-Thaeris

[Droid803]

I do recall that someone else had worked on that region and they were using panels that were opened slightly for the red regions instead of just slits but yours looks just as good.

[Commander Zane]

If only the Cain / Lilith was ever finished...

This is looking good, HOPEFULLY this becomes the first HTL Shivan Cruiser to be complete.

[Luis Dias]

Thanks for the feedback, people.

Orph3u5, I think that Volition itself went further than their own conceptual sketch. Its sketch seems too "machine like", and little "buggy like", which the Shivans ended up resembling more with. The result was way more organic, and I appreciate that a lot, it gives that creepy feeling that the entire ship is alive somehow, that is more than a hull of strong alloys.

Raven, yes thanks for bringing that up. I ran a search and indeed found a previous Rakshasa made in 2006, and it was a very good model, very professional. But the style is different, it seemed a lot more close with the boxy machine Rakshasa of Volition's sketch rather than the in-game end product in FS2, and I'm going exactly in the other direction.

This is looking good, HOPEFULLY this becomes the first HTL Shivan Cruiser to be complete.

Thanks, and I know what you mean. I also hope this. Next week I'm on holidays and I expect some extra dull time, which I can use to end this model. I've got the entire ship modelled in my own head already. Problem is, I don't expect to have internet connection at that time. So starting from saturday, don't expect many news until 15 august!

[c914]

Bone ship... i was thinking about something similar how could look Rakshasa

[Ziame]

Weee! Rakshey is my favourite Shivan cruiser! Looking good so far, I bet you can do better though

Bone ship...

[Raven2001]

Orph3u5, I think that Volition itself went further than their own conceptual sketch. Its sketch seems too "machine like", and little "buggy like", which the Shivans ended up resembling more with. The result was way more organic, and I appreciate that a lot, it gives that creepy feeling that the entire ship is alive somehow, that is more than a hull of strong alloys.

I think the beauty of the shivans could be more of a "mechanic mimics organic" type of stuff, instead of going too strongly in either direction.
That's why I mentioned the other version, to see if something would pop out into your imagination

Keep it up

[Luis Dias]

I think the beauty of the shivans could be more of a "mechanic mimics organic" type of stuff, instead of going too strongly in either direction.
That's why I mentioned the other version, to see if something would pop out into your imagination

Keep it up

Yes, probably you're right. I'll try to have that more in mind. Here's a little update, though. I'll see what I can do to not show so much organics in this ship. I'm imagining that front hole as something akin to Sathanas front "red" thing in the middle, at least it seems to ask for it. But I can also do it more canon.

I still have to "smooth" some parts out, specially in the side that will be in the "middle", and some irks in the front side. I don't know if I'll smooth it out now or later on. I also don't know if I am doing this with the best methodology. Sometimes I spend too much time refining triangles (it almost seems as if MAX chooses to make the wrong triangles inside a "square" on purpose) and individual vertices. I'm avoiding nurbs and the like because I'm a little scared of them.

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[Galemp]

niiiiice..... looks almost reptilian.

[Kolgena]

Looking very good. It manages to retain the original Rakshasa feel very well.

A question though: What are you going to fill the "rib cages" with? It might look a tad odd to have empty cages ending in beam cannons.

[Rodo]

outstanding ! keep going don't stop..

btw.. that's not a slow WIP at all you are doing it quite fast indeed.

[Luis Dias]

outstanding ! keep going don't stop..

btw.. that's not a slow WIP at all you are doing it quite fast indeed.

Thanks for the encouragement people . Yes, I have more time than I originally thought. I'll try to work more tonight, but in the meantime, more updates. The intersection between the "organic part" and the non-organic is too steep, and to leave that transition to a good UV map work is lamish, so there I have still something to correct. Other than that, I'm almost ready to go to the backside, where I do have some crazy ideas floating inside my head...

A question though: What are you going to fill the "rib cages" with? It might look a tad odd to have empty cages ending in beam cannons.

Well, Kolgena, they never end up in beams, because the beams are in the "claws", but your point is a very important one. I have some ideas, but when I tried to put them into practice it didn't go so well, so that's still "up for grabs", although I'm thinking some reddish "core" thingy with some "black wires" in there. There's also the issue of the middle turrets, but that's pretty easy to solve (I think), I think I'll just enlarge one of the ribs and hope it doesn't blow out...

[attachment deleted by Tolwyn]

[Thaeris]

I always had the impression that the "ribs" would be more like greebles covering a reddish "core" of the forward superstructure. The idea of simply a "bone"/"ribcage" design with little in the middle is very alien indeed. Such a feature would make targeting the Rakshasa quite difficult as well. Fortunately, you said this wasn't going to happen...

I like what I've seen so far, but I do agree that the ship would look best as a "mechanic mimics organic" design as cited by Raven. Otherwise it seems that half of the modeling is almost done!

-Thaeris