To Do List - Need Help!

I meant if they're in a file on your computer.

you'd have to upload them to the internet. i don't think you can upload pics on this forum (that is right, isn't it stewi?)

You can upload them here.

here's the only canon gorn ship that i know of:

Yeah, well, if someone wants to try and make a sprite out of that, be my guest...

Meanwhile, I redesigned one of Darkwing's sprites and converted it to my own style...

I hope you don't mind, DW...




I've changed the nacelles, and those weird semi-rectangular things...

Galaxy-Scarface wrote: Here's a ship I found. Looks like a NX, or at least that's what the guy from the site said. This is not a sprite, it's directly from a website. EDIT: It's called the Loknar class.

Yes, It's the Loknar class, which I already posted as a sprite in the previous page...

( )

NOT A SPRITE. Larson class.

You can only delete a post if it is yours and if it's the last one of the topic...

Of course that if you're a mod or an admin, you can do it...

Meanwhile, I continued messing round with DW's designs...





The last one has some major modifications in the main outline, because there were some "design glitches" that I didn't like...

ok here is my only problem that I am seeing. They lack depth. if that makes sense to you guys. They look flat and bumpy. So sorry that if I sound like a jerk but I'm very strick on myself when trying to makes these look real.

indeed its makes it look badly done.

LOL. That's why I'm not even going to try and make any more sprites with paint

well, i had noticed that, but figured i'd fix it myself, but if raffitz wants to do it, here's a few suggestions.

more of the minor details, the ones that give a ship it's own personality
make cylindrical things look more cylindrical (play with gradients in the alpha channel)
play with the lighting, don't just leave it to the alpha channel lighting. lower the ambient lighting a little, and another directional light to the ship.
play with different variations of the colour of the hull
use shadows

there's a few tips if that helps, but i do love the fact that somebody's making sprites!

I know that you didn't say that with bad intentions, but i'm a little bit angry! And no, I'm not joking... I've tried to do all that, but if you think you can do it better, BE MY GUEST! Sorry for using caps lock, but it's just that I'm not in a good mood right now............

those are cool!

hey raffitz, i somehow missed this, but way back i think on page 2, you did a tos romulan cruiser, the bird is on the underbelly of the ship, not the top.

You're only saying that to make me feel good.

Now, I gathered some stuff to show you:


Do you know what this is? It's Vex's Prometheus class! It's all flat and bumpy i the large version as well, but since it's so detailed, the flat and bumpiness gets hidden when it's resized! I'm sorry that TOS ships are much less detailed, because then, it would hide my incompetence...




And this, this is Vex's Alpha Channel! I'm sorry if my alpha channels are much more complex!! I'm also sorry that it only makes the ships worse... I'll try to make them crappier, maybe they'll get better!!


(Meanwhile, you can pray for my anger to disappear...)

yessir, praying for anger to disappear!

hey, if you're angry, post in the anger section, it might make you feel good!

Darkwing wrote:hey raffitz, i somehow missed this, but way back i think on page 2, you did a tos romulan cruiser, the bird is on the underbelly of the ship, not the top.

I know, I noticed it later, but the top part is clean of any drawings, and it would be even more flat and bumpy than normally!

well, there's a semi-shpere on top, and a bridge like area

Yeah, well, since I'm now remaking most of my sprites to make them look less flat and bumpy, I guess I'll remake that one from an earlier stage...

Meanwhile, first remade ship: Gabriel class

that's nice, you don't have to remake all of them though, some were fine as they were. all that's important is that they look good when small

Yes, I know. I won't remake the second romulan warbird, the retrofitted defiant, the TOS NX nor the other romulan ship.


I've remade the bird one:


It's very flat and bumpy, but that's not my fault...

The problem is that the schematic IS flat and bumpy, at least the top part... I still prefer the ventral part....

Sorry for the double post, but I've made another version of that flat and bumpy romulan ship:

that's great, and to avoid flatness, use a mask in the alpha channel, that gives you more flexibility as to where the 3d lies. keep them coming, they're a great help!

Darkwing wrote:that's great, and to avoid flatness, use a mask in the alpha channel, that gives you more flexibility as to where the 3d lies.

I didn't quite understand...

Oh, and by the way, I'm calmer now, and I'm not willing to remake ll those ships... So, I'll make new ones... If you want to use the old ones, use them...

ok, when you are editing the sprites, do you create a mask around the entire sprite, then go into your channels, create a new alpha channel, fill the mask with some sort of grey, give it a gaussian blur, exit out of the channels, go back to your layer, add a new light using the alpha channel?

Yeah, of course! It's the most important part of the spriting tutorial that is on Vex's forum!

but you create one mask that surrounds the whole ship, because it looks like you're using several different masks and blurs, and that's what's causing the edges to make it look 3d in places it shouldn't, and flat in places

I'm not using several masks and blurs, it's only one mask, but it's divided... I'll show you...

i see. well, what's causing those 3d edges (and ultimatley the flatness) is the blur. when you do a guassian blur, it blurs all the edges. the darker region creates depth, so what you'd need to do, is cut away the darker areas where there should be none, and then make it the same colour as the rest of the region.

Yeah, well, I've tried that in some designs and it didn't get very good, but ok... I'll try...

Yea I know it's a pain in the butt trying to make it not look flat. It's the main reason why I've been trying to build them in a 3D program first. The only real tip I can give for working on a a 2D image, is shading. If you're using photoshop use a light airbrush. You just have to play with it from there. Hope that helps you out raffitz you got some awsome ships going on.

And here are the two that I was working and working on them again, prephotoshop and not to scale:

It's nice, stewi...


Now, I have a lot of stuff to show:

The Gabriel class, again, trying to make it less flat and bumpy by following DW's tip:



The Romulan flat and bumpy, trying to make it less flat and bumpy by following DW's tip:


A TOS version of the Prometheus class, with some (not much) help from Vance's schematics toolkit:

those are some nice designs, and i do notice a difference. they do look quite good when small.

Yeah, major question: What did you think of the prometheus design?

much better, and as to your last question I'd say keep it.

Thank you, Ian! It's very nice of you! Your ships are getting very cool as well...

yeah, the pre-prometheus is a cool concept. it kind of shows that when the empire was at its peak, it was developing technologies that wouldn't have otherwise been built for a hundred years, the same with the defiant

thanks to you, we've got quite a few ships for the earth empire, now i'm wondering if you could design vexxian ships. i had sort of envisioned ships of pure energy or something like that. you don't have to do it, but if you'd give it a try, that'd be nice!

Making pure energy isn't the easiest thing to do, you know? But I already have some ideas and I'll start trying them right away.

i thought you might like the challenge!

That's my first try.. It's terrible...
Maybe without the outlina and a yellow-ish white-ish glow...


(BTW - The image is semitransparent, but you can't notice because the forum's background is black...)

see if you can make like energy whisps coming off of it too, like it's actually part of the vexxian nebula itself

Heh... Energy whisps... If you send me some, I can add them, but I never had the talent for making energy whisps..

At the moment, I'm making a ship out of aerosol in paint- I'll tell you if it works out.

maybe this will help *note, i didn't read it, just looked at the pics, but maybe it'll help incorporate the enrgy*

http://psdtuts.com/text-effects-tutorials/a-slick-supernatural-text-effect/

this is cool too http://www.developertutorials.com/blog/design/photoshop-design/creating-energy-spheres-in-photoshop-119/

or this http://great-design.blogspot.com/2008/01/energy-beams-photoshop.html

This is what is looking like now (at an early stage)