Many of you have been wandering where I've been (yeah, I haven't posted in a few days. Image that ), and my explanation for my absence is because of my work toward the new Saber Studios website and Zachit graphics. I've just completed my first graphics enhancer set, which is free for download (and can be viewed) at the web page. The site is intended to provide plugin developers with graphics, and I hope my first set will be of some use. It is called "The Zachit Graphics Expansion Set," and adds six new ships: all blue and flying for the Zachit government. This set (and those soon to come) are complete with shipyard, comm, target, icon, sprite and mask graphics, all fully rendered in 8-bit color and saved in PICT format (you'll need Stuffit Expander to unstuff the download files. Refer to the website for more information).

Also, I've constructed a poll page. Here, all you developers who want to decide which graphics set (example: Azdgari, Igadzra etc.) you'd like to see next. If you get the chance, please feel free to vote, as I will get busy designing the next graphic sets depending on the poll results.

I threw the webpage together in around an hour, and as basic as it is, I think it will do just fine. Please post your comments or critisizm, as feedback is very important.

Visit Saber Studios at (url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com")http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com(/url) . If you get a silly "welcome" page, simply reload and the index should appear.

Oh, and what do you think of the Zachit set?

Thanks for your attention.

Special thanks to Weepul, Squinky, Slav, and Immortal Firefly for their help with 3D designing and ship spinning.

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-Cap'n Skyblade
(url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com")Saber Studios(/url) - Your source for original EV/O/N graphics.

The Zachit gfx. are nice, but not quite up to the level of some of your other works. If you take the extra time do do something well, it pays off. My main complaint is the lack of orignality. Most (all) of the ships appear to be variations on the crecent fighter of the arada. Also, the ships don't look quite right for strand ships (they have big cockpits of bridges. None of the current strand ships have a visible cockpit or bridge).

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(/mindless babble)

Quote

Originally posted by Captian LeGrenadier:
**The Zachit gfx. are nice, but not quite up to the level of some of your other works. If you take the extra time do do something well, it pays off. My main complaint is the lack of orignality. Most (all) of the ships appear to be variations on the crecent fighter of the arada. Also, the ships don't look quite right for strand ships (they have big cockpits of bridges. None of the current strand ships have a visible cockpit or bridge).

**

Perhaps I should tell you a bit about the Zachit, my friend.

You're right, I gladly admit that the graphics of the Zachit set don't add up anywhere near to my usual image gallery posts. But designing ships for 100 by 100 pixel images much less 8-bit color requires some extra thinking. If you add too much detail to Override graphics (ships and weapons), they look pretty bad. The detail looks good up close, but shrunk down appears nasty. I believe this is one reason why Ambrosia made the EV and EVO graphics so basic.

All the ships are intentional variations of crescent vessels. The Merada is a gunship version of the Arada, designed to take on heavy fighters and light warships, which makes it a different ship yet same design as an Arada. It's just altered. The Sadara is a Zachit fighter at heart, only it is a bit slower and more heavilly-armed and protected (if I remember correctly, the original Override graphics have three variations of the Crescent Fighter, right?).

I do have to agree with you about the cockpit and bridges, but I placed those in the graphics just because of pure logic. Every ship needs a command deck, doesn't it? I also gave them the green-blue color as to make them appear different from human cockpits.

Thanks for you comments and advice.

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-Cap'n Skyblade
(url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com")Saber Studios(/url) - Your source for original EV/O/N graphics.

I always assumed that the strand races used sensors and video screens to pilot their ships, eliminating the need for week spots in their ships hulls created by windows. But they're your models, so do what you want with them.

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(/mindless babble)

Quote

Originally posted by Captain Skyblade:
**Many of you have been wandering where I've been (yeah, I haven't posted in a few days. Image that ), and my explanation for my absence is because of my work toward the new Saber Studios website and Zachit graphics. I've just completed my first graphics enhancer set, which is free for download (and can be viewed) at the web page. The site is intended to provide plugin developers with graphics, and I hope my first set will be of some use. It is called "The Zachit Graphics Expansion Set," and adds six new ships: all blue and flying for the Zachit government. This set (and those soon to come) are complete with shipyard, comm, target, icon, sprite and mask graphics, all fully rendered in 8-bit color and saved in PICT format (you'll need Stuffit Expander to unstuff the download files. Refer to the website for more information).
....

**

So that's what you've been doing... I was wondering about why your webspace was saberstudios. Mystery solved.

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(url="http://"http://bbspot.com/News/2001/03/perl_test.html")Test Shows 99.99% of High School Seniors Can't Read Perl(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Captian LeGrenadier:
**I always assumed that the strand races used sensors and video screens to pilot their ships, eliminating the need for week spots in their ships hulls created by windows. But they're your models, so do what you want with them.;)

**

I guess the strand ships could use sensors instead of windows (like the Enterprise in Star Trek), but placing cockpits on the ships seemed like a natural thing to do.

Quote

Originally posted by diddlysquat:
**So that's what you've been doing... I was wondering about why your webspace was saberstudios. Mystery solved.

**

Hehe... I don't think just plain "saberstudios" would be a good name for just external-ship hosting webspace.

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-Cap'n Skyblade
(url="http://"http://www.saberstudios.f2s.com")Saber Studios(/url) - Your source for original EV/O/N graphics.