Ebon's Air Armada

Hey erry body. I've been away for a while, but now I'm back. I've been wanting to design some air cosmetics for a while now. Considering that we have just recently had the first ever successfully published Player Studio air cosmetic, this seems like the perfect time to jump on the band wagon.

I have a few first pass concept models, but I am hoping to design at least one cosmetic for each aircraft. For now tho, check out these Reaver and Liberator cosmetics. For the time being, these are very rough concepts, but let me know what you guys think.


http://p3d.in/nAhOO


http://p3d.in/SKKUa

nice start but until we get some details i cant critique too much but that being said

- lib closed cockpits being turned into 1 smooth angle seems to be a dominant theme, this might need something to differentiate it

- the reaver is a nice block out but be careful your wings dont clip into the ground.

Two issues with your lib design you might want to consider.

1. The bit running underneath the tail will clip pretty badly into the lib afterburner attachment, which is one of the more commonly used lib attachments.

2. The two wings you've mounted to the rear thrusters near the belly gun may impede the tail gunner's forward angles, especially when the lib is in hover mode. Adding that much geo outside the hitbox might be a bit much as well, but who knows.

The Reaver idea looks pretty solid, I'll wait on more detailing and refinement before critiquing that one.

Im really liking the engine extensions on both planes.
Also I never realized the reaver were so thin between the engines and tail until now.

Looking forward to the more detailed versions


- Seruseru

Thanks for the feedback guys. I didn't even consider those issues with the Lib. I still want to stick with the 4 wing design, but I guess I'll need to do a bit of reworking with that one tho. I did go ahead and flesh out the Reaver tho. I'm not fully satisfied with the fuselage section around the cockpit. What do you guys think?


http://p3d.in/z57Kd

gotta say that im actually becoming quite fond of that; its not a makeover of rework of the reaver like what everyone else is doing, but more of adding a extra few tris of detail making it just better.

Yeah, I brought them up because I had a similar idea for my NC lib, ended up having to push them forward and scaling them down quite a bit because I was concerned with hit-reg issues with such large areas that had no hitbox.



I think the design is workable, but it'll definitely need some tweaks, and you should ask Bill/Chris about whether or not extending so far beyond the hitbox is okay.

The Reaver design is coming along well, but I'm concerned that it doesn't have a big "selling point". I'm not a big fan of cosmetics that sort of just slap mass onto model and ignore pre-existing lines and style/faction flavor; your's doesn't have this problem but it might've gone too far in the opposite direction.

When people look at your design, there's nothing that really stands out and pops, nothing that really catches someone's eye as a central focus in their memory. Even though it's modeled very well and does a good job of tweaking the base model without ruining pre-existing line flow, if you were to texture it up nice and show it to the average PS2 player, they'd be hard pressed to identify what you changed from the base model just from memory.

Basically, try to add one (or more) "big" features of the same quality as the rest of your modeling work that really stand out and leave an impression on the audience and I think it'll help the design really come together.

You bring up a very good point about hitboxes. But frankly, I feel that it's somewhat of a moot point considering it fits within a convex portion of the hitbox rather than extending out beyond it, and when it comes to aircraft, 9/10 fights are decided at a long enough range that a slight tweak beyond the hitbox wont even be noticeable. I'm personally a bit of a stickler for hitboxes, and not covering other equipables(probably to the point that it has hurt my sales).and honestly, I don't see any massively game breaking issues with the hitbox on my lib.

In regards to the Reaver, I kinda fully agree. it really doesn't have any kind of gimmick behind it at all. When I started on that, I did have a very distinct selling point/gimmick in mind, but I couldn't quite get it to work with the hitbox and lines to my satisfaction, so I just nixed it. I would still like to experiment with that idea, but I don't feel like I have anything I went to put my name on with that just yet. If I had to give a selling point for this Reaver, it would be that it is a bigger, beefier, more NC version of the Reaver, that is still a Reaver. It might end up being somewhat underwhelming but Im sure there night be enough of market to make it worthwhile, even if it isn't the most popular item ever.

UPDATES:
Did some slight tweaks and updates to the Reaver, and did a texturing pass on it. This might be the final version. Currently sitting at 2000 tris. http://p3d.in/mOVhc



Also I decided to revisit my Magrider Matriarch which was rejected for looking too much like a Scythe cosmetic. So I figured I would try to actually turn it into a Scythe cosmetic. So I cut it up and did some kit-bashing, and made a few options for how to adapt into a scythe skin. I'd like to know which version you guys like the best. Keep in mind these are still roughly slapped together for now.

OPTION A


OPTION B


OPTION C

I think I enjoy option A the most. The tail end of it though may seem a bit too empty, you could try adding something like an energy sheet inbetween it. http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/90/81290-004-19CD3BA7.jpg

Maybe you can apply that insectoid skeleton theme to other vehicles as well. I'd love to see some alien bug harassers.

im quite partial to C myself, really like the wings but not a huge fan of the faceplate tbh

Yeah, I kinda really like both A and C myself too. I think what I might end up doing is recycling these pieces into Option A, since the lines seem to flow a bit better without reworking them, and using Option C as a rough concept and remodel it from the ground up.

I also agree, the cockpit is pretty underwhelming(honestly, I didn't even like it on the Mag), So I will try to do something more original for both versions. Also, having some kinda energy wing would be cool, but I'm kinda worried about the polycount already.

Update on the Scyth Usurper(A): http://p3d.in/SD3cx

I tightened it down to the base mesh so it actually fits. patched up some missing geo, and did a bit of optimizing. I also redesigned the cockpit from scratch.

I have looked over the P3D design. There seems to be too much confusion in the build. If I had to describe it, It doesn't look "Sleek" enough.


I suppose in other words, It looks like the Scythe flew through a junkyard, Became magnetized, and had random things just start clinging to it. There doesn't appear to be a clean flow to the build.

I feel it should be made smoother and more in line with the way Vanu's technology looks. Smooth, Sleek, Sexy.


Please do not take offense to this, I am not meaning it to be offending, I am just saying as a customer what I am seeing here. This is not something I would purchase in its current state, Its just too confusing.[/quote]

Lol, I am offended that you think I would be offended. Frankly, I and every other creator here want people to be brutally honest and critical, so that we can improve this stuff. This is why we start conversations: for the feed back. If I wanted as hugbox to tell me how great I am, I would go elsewhere. So please, rip my stuff to shreds, and tell me how terrible you think it is. As long as it helps me improve, I don't care.

Started a new Reaver set today. What do you guys think so far? http://p3d.in/cpy9B

New Scythe set WIP. http://p3d.in/aTyBK

really liking these new wings, not 100% sold on the cockpit

UPDATES:

Refined the NC Peregrine a bit more. added a few more details, and made the plating a bit more unique looking. http://p3d.in/iZVHg


I've also been working on the VS Esperon. Added some polys to the wings to smooth out some of the sharper edges. Also cut the cockpit down quite a bit, to make it feel tighter and sharper. It should also follow some lines a lot better now. I'm still not sure about the plated canopy look. What do you guys think? http://p3d.in/rYt5E

i like the NC cockpit but it feels really vs? possibly try reworking that onto the scythe?