DECKS

Still working on the commission. I'd hoped to have had it whipped up and wrapped but I made some miscalculations when I got the base decks laid out -- a misalignment that would have taken too long to correct, so I started again.

I set the scale using the renders below. 

 

A first pass on the colours. Rough but I like the overall impression.

Commission progression

 The ship is 95% complete

Schematics and underside

Topside (near completion)

I need to build and then attach a ship's boat -- a shuttlecraft. I have a couple of quick designs to work from, but the priority will be deck plans.

Commission!!

 I have a little job. Ship design and deck plans for a table-top RPG company.

Here's a sneaky peak at the in-development ship

Deep Indigo - time-travelling exploration vessel

The ribbing on those engine "legs" is to pronounced. I'll make it more subtle.

Front-on. The bridge is missing. It will go underneath the forward ZT emitter-dome

Distance shot

Landed -- but I need to build the actual landing legs.

I should have the build completed tomorrow. I'll then get the deck plan whipped up before the end of the week.

The publication will probably be many months away, so I'm unlikely to reap any financial benefits for a while, although It's always great to combine personal passions with making a bit of money. I can dream of doing this as a career.

I'm still putting most of my time into writing. Occasionally taking a break to do writing-related models. This is a medium rig from my table-top roleplaying game: Orbital Elements.

Medium Rig

Medium Rig

 

Plant island

Landscape

Orbital Elements - Medium Rig

 I've been writing for most of the week. Completing the world-building chores for Orbital Elements. This evening I took a break to play with Blender. Naturally, the output is a Medium Rig from Orbital Elements.

A work in progress

Rig

A rig is a simple, cheap-to-build and maintain space vehicle. They’re suitable for transporting small payloads between facilities that are both situated in the same locality. Rigs are the space cars and trucks that zip people and packages between orbitals and space-based destinations on or around a planet. Larger rigs can make interplanetary trips, although they’re not the best fit for long-distance travel. Except for the largest rigs, most are intended for no more than a day or two of operation before turning to a dock.

Archology

 

Quick illustration for my table-top roleplaying game: Orbital Elements.

This has an excessive polycount for such a simple illustration. I knew I wouldn't be creating a photo-realistic model, so I just let the mesh density grow. The mass of trees is done using Alpha Tree, an amazing new add-on that lets me create impossibly large forests. Its trick -- a clue in its name, is the use an alpha maps rendered on a plane instead of model meshes.

Busy week of non-Blender stuff

 It's been a busy week. I completed a few outstanding tasks -- haircut, for one.. I handed my work Macbooks into the office, renewed my driving license, and voted in the local election.

I will focus on completing my tabletop role-playing game: Orbital Elements. This will take me away from Blender, but in the end, I'll use Blender for creating art/models and maps. 

Spring Sale!

Blender Market has a sale. I should reign in my spending, but I can get a bigger library of plant assets with a 25% saving. Don't let anyone tell you that sales don't work.

Tree Vegetation - Tree And Plant Animation Library Addon

From the people who brought you Geo-Scatter, a paid-for library of plants and trees. No grasses, though.
These two images are pre-made biomes that you just drop into your scene. Pretty nice!

World Creator just dropped the first beta for their new version. Here are my first test outputs. I had serious problems with digital artifacts and seams, ruining anything complex you tried to export. The jury is still out, I need to do something more complex, but the signs are positive.

Materials and sky using True Sky and True Terrain.