WOW I forgot about this ship till I saw the cg ship on Drex’s page last week… here is the pencil and the colored piece to accompany Doug’s post! speaking of inspiration the mighty F-117 was the cornerstone for where this idea came from,, All have been retired and scraped which I find so hard to believe only a few remain in air-parks so in a way this one pays an even deeper homage to an incredible fighter!
what a black beauty!!!
sketch
colored piece
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
I see the cylindrical structure and some of those vent looking details in the pencil drawing were removed in the colored version. Did it make it in the cg version? I must have missed Doug’s post of this. I kind of like those details in there.
there were a few little changes on this one and I want to say it was tus or Wed. of last weeks post over at Drex’s that had the images up if you want to see what did and didn’t make the final cut!!
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I’ve just been checking it out and examinig the differences between your design and the cg, and got me wondering about a few things. After the ship is designed, is it up to the cg artist to take it to the next level, in terms of texturing and even in determining what parts stay and what parts go. Do you or Doug still have a guiding hand when these cg models are built? The illustrations, as beautifully detailed as they are, still leave some areas up for interpretation. When it comes down to texturing, would someone like you or Doug say “I want to see aztec pattern here” or “this area has to be more metallic looking” or “just make it look cool”. I hope some of th cg artists you worked with could chime in. I’d like to learn about the design/cg relationship, any conflicts and how it’s resolved if any.
It is always a multi stepped process. From my desk I just get the shape approved and work in some of the details as well as a rough color pattern, depending on who will be modeling the vessel they will either just go with the 3/4 and then add their own ideas… I like this best because if something is too finished the next artist has less input creatively speaking. Some modelers don’t care to fill in the gaps and will ask for ortho’s and rough views so as to make the modeling quicker. Doug is a modeler so when he takes on a new ship design he takes it pretty far before it is handed off. It is all a great collaboration to see what comes out of all the departments.
How big are these sketches John? Usually when your work is shown on the net the images are pretty small and as such, the lines become much cleaner. I’m just curious as alot of my sketchs are on A4 and A3 (Due to limits on my ability to skan them into the computer), but this makes detialing a little tougher due to pen thickness!
I’m also curious to how you construct your ships, do you do constructon lines first with vague shapes and then build up the detail, or do you already have the idea in your head as you draw it? I’m curious, if like me, you have sheets and sheets of A4 with scruffy doodles on them 🙂
they are anywhere from 11×17 and up, How do these images show here??? are they to small to see?? as far as ideas go,,The description in the script usually starts the idea process and by the time I am ready to draw I have a pretty good idea and shape in my head,, I’ll work out a blueline rendering of the ideas, pass it by the boss’s and then from there add there changes and go into a hard line detail, then color and then ortho’s if needed.. if it’s a mechanical piece I’ll do some rough engineering to show hinge points, etc. I used to doodle a lot in the beginning but found out the more choices that I presented the harder it was to get one approved.
With regards to images on the blog:
You can actually access the full-size images by viewing the image in a new window, and removing the “w=xx&h=xx” bit at the end of the URL. For example: https://johneaves.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/silent-enemy.jpg?w=655&h=337 becomes
https://johneaves.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/silent-enemy.jpg, which is a pretty big image (and perfect for desktop wallpaper ;)).
As I mentioned on Doug’s post, this is now one of my fav alien designs. It looks as though it is highly maneuverable and fast. Scale the look down and you’ve got one hot fighter…I bet the Air Force would buy it! 🙂 But seriously, it has such an aerodynamic look, it seems it may have had it’s own aircraft inspiration, maybe ❓
This came out looking pretty sinister onscreen and made for a very cool alien starship, indeed! The coloring used in the CGI for the first episode it was used in just complemented the design for a very stealthy feel.
Throw in a bubble canopy, put in some new panels and change the color and it can be a Starfleet fighter!
Can’t seem to post, this is a test…
Hey John, where you inspired by the F-117A when you designed this? It looks very smiliar.
yes it was and I posted this to soon,,, I’ll re adjust the pictures that wereto go with this one,,, Thanks.
J
John,
I hear ya about presenting too many ideas to a client. I may do 50 to 100 roughs (based on alot of research and info teh clietn gives me), revamps and tight renderigns before I give the client 3 or 4 tight versions of something for approval.
Very cool ship design. Oh, I also enjoyed the space freighters over at that “other guy’s” site.
you said a mouth full tell more about what you do!!!,, yeah I saw those and was glad to get a copy of the models finally,, Those drawings are on my list to put up soon,,,
I somehow knew that something about the “Silent Enemy” design was familiar.
What is up, can’t post…
Test showed up, but not real posts…
Wonder if this one will…
Figures…
Saw this bird at Wright-Patterson, eh.
Reminds me of The Tick.
Spoon!
Hey look, a non-test post from deg!
And another reason to wish I was there. 😀 I sure would like to get a close up look at one!!
When you say The Tick, do you mean Patrick Warburton in a skin tight blue suit with Antennae? I’m one of the 5 people that watched that show. 😉
The F-117 has such a unique and elegant design! It’s a pitty that they retired the design. She was the inspiration for one heck of a spooky, mean design! These ships were tough looking to the core in the episode!
I used to want an F-117 when I was a kid. (a real one, not a model. ;))
I love the sketches. I like the episode in which it was used also. Watching them scramble to build the phase cannons is always fun and then when they fraculate your cool alien ship is awesome. 🙂
The images here are set to the size of the blog, but a pointed out, you can access the large image by altering the link. I was just curious how big they were on paper. Are you actually drawing on paer actually or are you using on of those laser pens to draw on the computor? Its nice to see how people techniques are 🙂
Unless noted everything posted so far has been hand drawn on paper, my favorite way to do something,,, More computer work has taken over in the past year or so because work wants it that way,, sad to say!
Yeah, I own the DVD of the one season that aired,. But The Tick goes back to the comic-book, and then the FOX-Kids cartoon as well. Warburton is perfect as The Tick on the live-action show, and the show was great (knew it wouldn’t last though), but the cartoon, that’s sheer genius-comedy, eh.
Oh man, now I want to watch a cartoon! It’s been a while, and ya, I can see why this plane brings the Tick to mind.
Oh I watched both the Fox Kids ‘toon and the Fox live action (short lived as it was). I like ’em both 🙂
Spoon!
I just *had* to take a quick fix look on You Tube…SPoooon! 😀
I had quoted you, but it’s hit or miss if it will post, De.