That ship wasn't rendered. It was straight out of Sketchup, but it just had edges turned off and shadows turned on. It looks alright, I guess, but I'm not satisfied with the quality.

What's this about changing the color of edges? You can do that? I didn't realize that. If I can change the color of lines to a dull grey (or simply match the base color of the ship) I might be able to imitate actual render quality. I have your RenderSetup file for Sketchup, and the frame you saw earlier was made using that file.

Thanks, Meaker. I'll have to look into the finer points of style editing. Normally I don't mess with that, didn't see any reason to.

Alright, after a bit of tweaking, I managed to put this together.

Neat huh? It's not perfect, but I'm satisfied with the quality for now. Also, you'll notice this only has 24 frames. I screwed up the math prior to making frames, but only realized it halfway through. I decided to finish for now and make the rest of the frames later. This one will have 72 when finished.

** Edit:** Hmm, I was going to go with 72, but now I think that's a bit too many. I've put it at the same size as the IDA Frigate, and that only has 64 frames. That should be sufficient for the Wyvern, as well.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 26 August 2010 - 01:19 AM

If you are in need of another design, you could also consider the Gravship from Alpha Centauri.

That previous does indeed look yanked from Ares, and yes the story does sound Dilbert-ish.

I've attached a sketchup-screen output render setup. To use it, simply double click on the compass thing in the working drawing, and import your ship facing toward the north end of the compass, centered on the center point. You may need to experiment with the size to get it to work properly, but usually completely centering the ship (with it's glow attached) and scaling it to the size of the circle works (Hit your scale button, then click on one of the handles along the axis and hold 'shift' and 'control' to make it scale uniformly around the center with snapping).

Feel free to play with the style to get it to your liking, as long as you edit the sprite-style it'll update all the scenes. If you create or use a new style, make sure to apply it to all the numbered scenes by:
A ) Creating a view with your style applied
B ) Selecting all the numbered scenes in the scene window
C ) Clicking the "update" button on the top of the scene window
D ) Updating only the style/shadow - DO NOT UPDATE CAMERA POSITION OR LAYERS.
E ) Click "Update."

I recommend using the mask scene for doing your masks, though if you've changed the lines settings make sure to change the mask style to reflect your settings. Make sure to fill the model with the provided all-white texture. There's some whacked-out stuff I did to get it to display all-white. Similarly, use the blacked-out mask setup for making engine glows.

When you're ready, hit File>Export>Animation, then select .png and check the options. Make sure that your exported image is square. It should take 1-2 minutes to export the whole animation. It will automatically add numbering to your name, and I usually create folders for my ships with the ship name and then name the animation frames by their type- "sprite," "glow," "mask," "glowmask," "weap," etc. If your sprite is animated, (like the leviathan or the asteroid miner) set up and export the first 36 frames as your first stage of animation, then set up the section stage of your animation and export another 36, etc, until you've got the whole thing down. You can also do banking by rotating your (hopefully centered) model around it's axis, and export again. Make sure to do all glows and masks for one stage before continuing.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: Blast you! Blast you demented sunglasses smiley! Taking over my lists! does not equal B ).

Attached File(s)

• SketchyRenderer.zip (78.34K)
  Number of downloads: 16

This post has been edited by Meaker VI : 02 September 2010 - 10:38 AM

Meaker, I appreciate the effort to help, but I honestly don't know what to make of that file. Plus, I've already got the first file you released to help with rendering. I'll take a closer look at it, but I think I'll be able to make do without it. Thanks anyway.

QUOTE (Mk.32 @ Aug 26 2010, 07:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you are in need of another design, you could also consider the Gravship from Alpha Centauri.

That previous does indeed look yanked from Ares, and yes the story does sound Dilbert-ish.

Gravship? Alpha Centauri? Is that a game? I really have no idea what you're talking about. :huh:

That said, the only ships that don't have even preliminary designs yet are the ships used by the Onli (I've made their shuttle/fighter, the Navette, but the rest still need to be modeled) and one massive boss-fight ship. Not one the player fights against, one that helps the player fight an even larger ship. The Onli ships are organic in nature, so they're taking some doing with Delphi's pieces. The last one I simply don't have inspiration for just yet.

I know the Newton ships are based on Ares ships, I said that before I even started posting their designs way back in this post. The last four Newton ships are based on the Gunship, Destroyer, Carrier, and Research Vessel. As I've said before they're all Ishiman craft.

And it's been a long time since I read Dilbert. Any and all similarities between the bulk courier's backstory and Dilbert are completely coincidental.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 26 2010, 07:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Meaker, I appreciate the effort to help, but I honestly don't know what to make of that file. Plus, I've already got the first file you released to help with rendering. I'll take a closer look at it, but I think I'll be able to make do without it. ...

Pfffttt... This file is way better. Other than that the styles are pre-set to something you probably don't want (mostly to showcase styles and force you to edit them :laugh: ), it is designed to completely automate exporting from the straight sketchup format.

Here's an example that I made just now using the first ship I made from Delphi's parts and the new sketchup exporter (2 mins @ 512px with shaders & color - ignore the white lines, I think that those are from my error putting the file together):

And here's the original rendered image (3 mins @ 128px - no textures or color):

Besides the fact that no one here has twilight, the sketchup exporter is much, much faster. It uses copies of a single component to rotate, and can use Sketchup's native shadows properly (The other file cannot - it rotates the camera and the shadows stay in the same place unless you have a rendering engine that can use the moving lights).

Wait, are those lines because you put the frames together wrong, or because the file you attached was put together wrong?

And what would you say is the best way to make engine glows? If this new file rotates the model itself, then whether or not the glow is there can change how long the model is and thus change where its center is, correct? That would also change how it rotates, I suspect.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 27 2010, 02:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wait, are those lines because you put the frames together wrong, or because the file you attached was put together wrong?

And what would you say is the best way to make engine glows? If this new file rotates the model itself, then whether or not the glow is there can change how long the model is and thus change where its center is, correct? That would also change how it rotates, I suspect.

A ) Um... Both? I'm not sure why the lines are there, it could be that I put the file together wrong, or that I compressed it wrong. Either way, they would be easy to remove and don't effect the spin.

B ) The model rotates inside an already-rotated component. You load your ship while inside the "compass" component on the working tab- the compass will not render but your ship will. So it doesn't matter one bit whether or not your glow is there - the model is being spun on a separate platform. Similarly, it also doesn't matter (for the engine) whether your ship is centered or not, but if it's not it may look odd because it'll be rotating around some imaginary point like a stone at the end of a string.
I would recommend using bright colored shapes that have been smoothed, using either the smooth command or by using the eraser and holding the "ctrl" key. Fill the ship with the black paint provided. Then, apply some kind of blur or bloom or whatever to make it look the way you want. You could probably even work a 2-d image with alpha inside the sketchup model as your glow, sketchup will export it just fine.

The only thing that matters for getting it to work is getting your ship loaded into the existing component. The way the model works, it'll take care of the spinning work for you if your model is a part of it's component.

This post has been edited by Meaker VI : 27 August 2010 - 04:36 PM

Alright, I've been able to get some good results out of this. Just one minor complaint: it stinks with tiny ships. I have to render them at a larger size and then scale them down to the size I want. Otherwise your file literally fills them with holes. They look like they've been shot up, and not in a good way. It's like 8-bit graphics where damage is represented by a pixel being removed.

Other than that I can make ships fine with it, thanks. I still haven't tried making engine glows, though. Where would one find the bloom tool? I've looked all over and can't find it.

I can get more pictures if you want, but since there's this wierd bug with 10.4.0 Tiger and SMAC Carbon (it's fine with 10.2.8) with snapshots being nothing but a big black picture, I can only offer this:

The Needlejet looks like a good prospective design as well.

Background: In this turn-based strategy game, Needlejets with barebones Fission Reactors (there's Fusion, Quantum Chamber and Singularity Engine also) get 10 moves per turn. They then "wait" one turn, then turn back to base by themselves, wait another turn for fuel, then are ready again. Gravships don't have to go back to base, but are also Air units. (Copters are excellent for attack and defense, but that won't pertain to the discussion.)

Well, they look okay, but not what I'm looking for right now.

Hmm, I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if something is wrong with your file, Meaker. Take a look at these:

So, uh... what's with the grey lines?

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 29 2010, 12:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hmm, I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if something is wrong with your file, Meaker. Take a look at these:

So, uh... what's with the grey lines?

Those lines are part of the watermark, which is a part of the style settings. You can play with it or delete it entirely in the style window/watermark settings. I liked it on larger ships & renders, my ship below was exported at 512 px, and it's supposed to be relatively tiny ship. There are actually a lot of incredible things you can do with styles, I usually like using no style but playing with them and deciding what one you'd want is actually pretty important.

Something else you can do with that style is play with the line settings. They're turned on, but set to be colored by their material (which you can change separately from the main material, for impressive effect). Setting them to be all one color or off will also work for what you're doing.

The main point of that file, however, is not the style. I set that up to show another option, but you can change it pretty easily. Make sure you're changing (not deleting) the style that is used on all the numbered frames and you can make it do whatever you want. All yellow-wireframe ships? Hidden line? Translucent? As realistic as sketchup can do? No problem.

You can also set up a style you like, and then copy it to the other scenes by modifying the scenes as a group, set up a scene with your style turned on, then select all the numbered scenes in the scenes window, then click the update button and make sure that just the "Styles & Fog" checkbox is checked.

Newton Electronics Armed Combat Freighter

Any merchant will tell you plying the spaceways is dangerous these days. Pirates, 'Squids, and the occasional rogue Onli renegade make trading tough. As a result transport ships such as freighters and couriers have had to cut back on cargo room to add more to defensive systems. Few are better for the job then the Newton Freighter. Carrying two squadrons of Newton Fighters in a topside bay, it's almost a rudimentary carrier. Its abundance of flat paneling also allows for more advanced turret systems.

Regarding the bit about 'turret systems', this keys into one of the changes I'm making to combat. While fun to use, I've always seen turrets as a bit overpowered. I believe they should be powerful enough to easily stop fighters in their tracks, but things like Heavy Blaster Turrets that simply spit death seems unrealistic to me. In HOTS turrets will be replaced with 'PD Systems' of varying types, each one with its own strengths and weaknesses. Their main purpose is to provide defense against fighters and missiles, but will also fire on larger ships if they come close enough. It should also make for some really epic battle scenes between battleships and carriers.

HOTS will also split forward-firing weapons into three types: guns, cannons, and beams. Smaller ships will be capable of mounting more guns, and warships will have more cannon slots. Beams in HOTS are powerful and complex weapons and require the retooling of a gun slot and a cannon slot to mount. Trust me, though, when I say beam weapons are well worth their cost. Even the weakest beam weapon in HOTS makes the IPC (with Qaanol's Fix) look like a T-Head Lance. I expect the only question with most players is how to get the moolah for one.

Oh, and to show I am accomplishing something on the rendering front...

That's the shipyard image, mind you, not the in-game size.

Newton Electronics Escort Duty Gunship

It may be bulky, but this gives the Newton Gunship incredible protection in terms of hull stability. Add in Netwon Electronics' signature advanced shielding, and these beasts are nigh impenetrable to hostile weapons fire. Don't expect to go anywhere, though. For all its advantages in defensive systems, its engines are pretty weak, weaker than most gunships. This is not for lack of design effort, but rather a case of more mass than can be moved without adding more mass for stronger engines. In the end Newton's design teams decided to keep thrust ability simple and focus on maneuverability. As a result, this design is practically a turret with engines.

You may remember me saying this ship was based on the Ishiman Gunship. Well, I kinda lied. I had originally picked the gunship as a concept for what I wanted to build, but later switched to the Asteroid Miner. You'll also notice I embellished the design a bit with massive missile launchers on the front. I don't suggest anyone try using one of these alone, though. For all their defensive capability, they are vulnerable. They're best used as freighter escorts where their slow speed isn't a problem and they can hit any attackers while staying with the convoy.

QUOTE (Mk.32 @ Aug 28 2010, 06:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can get more pictures if you want, but since there's this wierd bug with 10.4.0 Tiger and SMAC Carbon (it's fine with 10.2.8) with snapshots being nothing but a big black picture, I can only offer this:

The Needlejet looks like a good prospective design as well.

Background: In this turn-based strategy game, Needlejets with barebones Fission Reactors (there's Fusion, Quantum Chamber and Singularity Engine also) get 10 moves per turn. They then "wait" one turn, then turn back to base by themselves, wait another turn for fuel, then are ready again. Gravships don't have to go back to base, but are also Air units. (Copters are excellent for attack and defense, but that won't pertain to the discussion.)

What game is that, anyway? Civilization?

QUOTE (StarSword @ Sep 1 2010, 04:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What game is that, anyway? Civilization?

When he first suggested it he said it was called Alpha Centauri.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Easily the best Sid Meier game, and one of the best strategy games of all time.

The novelization isn't too bad, either.

This post has been edited by Templar98921 : 01 September 2010 - 11:15 PM

I didn't quite like my current design of the Wyvern. The model itself is fine, but something else just felt off. So, I gave it a new paint job.

Now it feels like a warship! All SD ships will have a similar color scheme, and so far the fighter craft of the Sapphire Dragons are looking much better for it. I still haven't modeled the last three warships for the SD Mercs (the Wolf Class Missile Frigate, the Slipcruiser, and that big boss ship I mentioned earlier) but they will also share this scheme.

Newton Electronics Forward-Armament Light Destroyer

There was a pirate who, upon capture by mercenaries utilizing Newton ships, later recounted his experience in fighting light destroyers:

"They were like demons. They came out'a nowhere, buzzin' left an' right, takin' us down one by one. 'Fore I knew it me own ship was the last one standing. We gave it our all, but those mercs had us beat the moment they came out'a flux. In the end I'm jus' glad they didn't blow me up. Them damned destroyers still give me nightmares."

With the speed of a corvette, the pure firepower of a squadron of bombers, and enough shielding to protect a modern city from a barrage of asteroids, Newton Light Destroyers are impossible to tackle head-on. Attempting to do so will quickly find you breathing vacuum. Period. Many factions have tried to purchase the design or at least a few examples, but to no avail. Newton Electronics has deemed the design too dangerous to be released into the hands of any other faction. Many have argued this makes it too dangerous for NE to own, as well, but NE continues to keep the light destroyer in service and has done so lawfully. No illegal transgressions have occurred as a result of NE retaining the design.

** Edit:** Oh, I should add the mercenaries in the pirate's story using the light destroyers were hired by Newton Electronics itself. While NE does have its own private navy, they do not have personnel trained in starship combat. Rather than hire soldiers to train their personnel for combat, NE hires mercenaries to man their combat vessels. Every mercenary undergoes an extensive background check beforehand to ensure they can be trusted with NE's tech. No one even sneezes without NE knowing about it before they set foot onboard a light destroyer.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 07 September 2010 - 02:42 AM