Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 3:50 am Post subject:
EVA-251's Star Strike Voxel/Art Showcase
It was ten years ago to the day, that on a snow day in 2005, I formally started working on Star Strike for Yuri's Revenge.
Up to that point, I had been working on a project known as "Stalemate," which fit the bill as one those stereotypical "add an Abrams and make zany rules changes!" mods that a newbie would make. Star Strike aimed to be a little more ambitious, trying to wrap up what was then 5+ years of confused on-paper RPGs and Quake modding into a coherent RTS conversion.
By dinner that night in 2005, I had 2 infantry and several vehicles implemented, and it wasn't long before I was posting about it on Sleipnir's Stuff. Ten years later, I was planning on making a big post about it. A story, chronicling Star Strike's progression from a 3rd grade playground game to a Quake mod to whatever it became as an RTS. But nobody really cares about stuff like that.
So instead of posting such a story, I'd like to share some artwork from the mod over the years, both voxel and drawing.
The SSIA Main Battle Tank
Ironic, huh? Call it the main battle tank, and it's more akin to a WW2 assault gun than anything else. Not quite intentional, but when the first version of it was drawn up in the late 90s/early 2000s, that's what I imagined a tank to be. Though I should say that the original drawing had a turret with a large chaingun on it, but it was omitted to not confuse players. Notice the large caliber of the hull gun (bigger = better mentality)- this eventually shrunk to 175 and now 140mm.
This one of the most frequently redesigned vehicles I've created. Don't believe me? See below:
Notes
Spoiler (click here to read it):
1- This was the initial design, made in January of 2005. Little fun fact- the voxel was built with the front-view used as the side view. To correct this, it was HVA rotated, which messed up its already bad normals.
2- End of the road for the first design. Yurisarmy rebuilt it on the proper axis with improved details, which were added onto until the major redesign in 2008.
3- This one didn't last long, much to my annoyance. It just seemed off. It was too narrow and too tall.
4- This was the version that saw the longest run of all. Likely designed alongside the 3rd as an alternate interpretation of the same drawing, I liked the wider appearance of this one more. Pictured is basically the final iteration, finished in May of 2010. The cameo is a 2015 addition, a quick tune-up to the old cameo for the fun of it.
5- While it started unintentionally looking like a WW2 assault gun, this version is heavily influenced by the Jagdpanther and Jagdtiger designs. An emphasis was placed on removing flat surfaces from the vehicle.
Of course, the design's long forward-set gun and heavy frontal armor would probably cause serious center of gravity issues, but eh...
Drawings:
Spoiler (click here to read it):
-This sad looking thing is actually the basis for the original voxel, drawn in 2005. The initial drawings I made for SS tried to offer a 3D-view of the vehicle, and my inexperience with perspective drawing was evident.
-This was drawn later on, likely in 2006. I returned to side-view schematics, as it was easier to translate into voxels. This particular drawing didn't really get used, though it has a passing resemblance to the 3rd voxel design.
-This drawing was used as the basis for the 2008 revisions, and was posted along with the voxel at the time. Grid paper was used so that the vehicles could be drawn in proper scale to each other.
Last edited by EVA-251 on Thu Aug 11, 2016 9:29 pm; edited 5 times in total QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 3:52 am Post subject:
The EDF Tesla Cruiser
Slap an electricity-based weapon on a heavily armored warship. What could possibly go wrong? Certainly the thoughts of any prospective design group making a ship like the Tesla Cruiser, no doubt.
Regarding the design...Aircraft and ships were always a weak spot for me, be it drawing or voxels. Tanks are relatively easy to visualize- for me, usually a side view is enough for me to get a complete idea of what a tank looks like. As such, throughout much of Star Strike's lifespan, I let aircraft be the responsibility of the capable Yurisarmy, while heavily modifying existing RA2 ships to my own purposes.
The later SSIA ship designs turned out alright- ignorant of the concept of a waterline as they may have been, but the Tesla Cruiser was in fact the first original ship design I ever made. With the designs on the left being newer, this is the progression of the original Tesla Cruiser:
Notes:
Right-most (oldest): Yikes! The original design dated back to 2005. Tesla Coil laying down over the deck and dual AA guns in the back. Not exactly a design I'm proud of.
v2: From 2006 and features a more detailed hull and a vertical tesla coil. The main goal was to disrupt the shape of the voxel, helping disguise the mediocre normals. It used a drawing (see below) as its basis.
v3: A year later, the hull was changed to share a common color scheme with other EDF ships, and was lengthened and rounded.
Left-most (newest): This is the final revision of the ship. The hull was lengthened, normals improved and color scheme further standardized (black windows), while the aft deck was completely reworked to have 3 AA gun turrets.
When I made this image, I had to scrounge up old versions of the mod to get the voxels, because for good reason, the Tesla Cruiser rarely, if ever appeared in screenshots for the mod.
This non-descript drawing is the one referred to above as the source of the improvements made in 2006.
Which leads us to...
The new EDF Tesla Cruiser. This ship represents my first attempt at building a ship from scratch with a real-life influence. The design uses a Soviet Cold War-era Destroyer as its basis, with a shorter hull to fit the cartoony proportions of RA2.
The designs inbetween the final and the original represent different design stages. I like using the bright solid colors as a way to distinguish various parts. And to mark redos, like the dark red around the damned bow is for.
And what good would any of that be without ingames?
And if you guys are interested, I got plenty more stuff to share, both in terms of voxel and drawings. Hopefully I'll have some news regarding the future of SS soon, as the passing of 10 years has gotten me interested in the mod once again. Last edited by EVA-251 on Thu Jun 30, 2016 9:55 pm; edited 1 time in total QUICK_EDIT
Amazing Art Evolution you've got going there. And well its not that cartoony if you scale down the War Factory & Infantry Scale down to TS (Except the MCVs and Slave Miners I guess), Keep the RA2 Stock Navy & Aircraft Scale and you'd have a somewhat more realistic scale.
I've been busy with RL alot lately so my modding work has also been slowed down quite a bit. (Especially on voxels) And my new laptop/mouse makes me still clunky on voxelling on this new rig. _________________ ~ Excelsior ~ QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 5:27 am Post subject:
@deathreapers
It's a complicated process, I haven't really made a new cameo from scratch in 2 or 3 years.
First, I decide what style the cameo will be. The newer Main Battle Tank cameo, for instance, shares a common design with most of that faction's cameos- a sandy beach, soft lighting, a sky that uses deep blues.
With voxel cameos, I usually make a "for show" version of the voxel, that lacks remap and is in a color that works well with cameo.pal. In the example of Main Battle Tank, the voxel is actually allied blue, but that isn't a good choice with cameo.pal, so it takes on a darker greyish-green. Once that is set, I choose a good angle for the unit, decide upon a direction for the main light source, and take a screenshot of it in Voxel Viewer, using a sky backdrop and a tiled ground. After that, it's all small image manipulation. I used a Quake texture editor primarily when I actively modded, I'd use GIMP now.
If you'd like, I'll could try to guide you along in PMs.
@Atomic Noodles-
It's more about proportions rather than sheer scale, in this case. If you make a warship proportional in RA2, it ends up being very long and narrow. It's not a desired aesthetic by most in this community.
I'm actually one of those weirdos who isn't bothered by RA2 scale, as it helps with gameplay. _________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) Last edited by EVA-251 on Thu Jun 30, 2016 10:05 pm; edited 1 time in total QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 22 Nov 2010 Location: Iszkaszentgyorgy, Hungary
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:17 am Post subject:
Wow, the Tesla ships are good. I even like the older variants as well - they look nice as a gunboat hull. _________________ "If you didn't get angry and mad and frustrated, that means you don't care about the end result, and are doing something wrong." - Greg Kroah-Hartman
=======================
Past C&C projects: Attacque Supérior (2010-2019); Valiant Shades (2019-2021)
=======================
WeiDU mods: Random Graion Tweaks | Graion's Soundsets
Maintainance: Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters! | BGEESpawn
Contributions: EE Fixpack | Enhanced Edition Trilogy | DSotSC (Trilogy) | UB_IWD | SotSC & a lot more... QUICK_EDIT
I'm all for details as well but sometimes you really have to ignore realistic scale in the game. That's why I also stopped trying to make gigantic ships and aircraft too. _________________ ~ Excelsior ~ QUICK_EDIT
The latest iteration of the tesla boat looks really really nice. Good clear colours and normals and a reasonably good silhouette. I can hardly critique it, though I'd perhaps have made the tesla sphere more clearly a threat. But hey, looks great. QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 3:58 pm Post subject:
@Iowa- I did AutoNormals 5.6 with default settings for the basic appearance, as it gives a nice smooth and rounded appearance, which is useful for stuff like the Tesla dome, antennae and radomes.
After that, I hand-painted the superstructure, making flat surfaces appear flat and removing stairstep effects.
The flat sides and lower sides of the hull were not difficult. But the curve of the bow was tough. The front of the bow, and immediate transition from the flat sides was easy, but the stuff in between took referencing the Destroyer/Dreadnaught and lots of pecking through the normals palette.
and did you make that ship? Pretty good shape... Love battleships.
@GD- The lengthened hull is a tad big for a gunboat, but I actually never thought of the ship in that regard. In fact, it generally made me embarrassed, because up until 2011 or so, it was a major part of the EDF naval meta and was never discussed publicly, lol. Replace the tesla system and the aft AA guns and you're probably on to something.
@Orac- Any suggestion? Volgin suggested a tesla-tank style turret, but I'd like to stay away from a primary turret weapon with this ship.
The dome seemed like a practical consideration for me, as its suggested throughout RA that the bolt can come from anywhere on the dome's surface. Not that practical and "warship that shoots lightning" fit together in any shape or form. _________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 5:26 pm Post subject:
A bit of a change of pace.
I'd like to talk about the Juggernaut Tank today. Arguably the one iconic unit the mod originally had. In line with the "bigger is better" mentality I had as a young lad, the tank was intended to be the size of an office building. It packed a weapon-set that sounds more appropriate for a heavy cruiser than a tank.
The idea was a true original, I swear. I totally didn't make a triple-barreled Apocalypse Tank for an earlier mod called the Juggernaut a few months earlier.
This new Juggernaut however, was going to be the super-unit of the Star Strike (SS) faction. And how did it start off?
Like this. This is the original drawing of the Juggernaut. This is what I used to make the original voxel.
....and this is how it turned out. Ahem.
The octagonal shape of the turret was an intentional change, but the turret size wasn't. Many of my old tanks had this issue, where the turret was oversized compared to the chassis, and required rescaling to fit. In this case though, I kind of liked the quirky aesthetic it presented, and let it be.
Through the years, I ended up redrawing it several times, in anticipation of an eventual complete redesign, shown in the spoiler below:
Spoiler (click here to read it):
This was drawn some time in 2005 or 2006, but no later, I'd guess. There's nothing really worth noting except for the soldier standing next to the tank.
(click to enlarge)
This was drawn in 2006, meant to be _the_ drawing for the remake of the Juggernaut. It went into extensive detail on the dimensions, capabilities and specifications of the tank, as well as labeling points of interest on the vehicle. Not that they were sensible or realistic, but hey, I tried!
The Juggernaut was not redrawn in 2008 as part of the big voxel redo of the mod- I intentionally avoided it.
Instead, somehow, the old voxel kept on surviving. Whether that's good or not is up to you:
In 2007, it was updated to have a proper suspension, which added height to the vehicle and balanced its appearance. Minor changes were made to the color scheme, and advancements in autonormals were used to improve the voxel's overall appearance.
In 2010, I updated it yet again to fit the style of my later voxels. Consistent barrel and suspension colors, and a faction-wide color scheme. Physically, the turret exterior was almost completely redone- secondary weapons were added and detail was added in an attempt to break up the turret's flat roof. New autonormals were applied as well.
Yet, I wasn't quite done with it. Even though Star Strike went dormant due to things like college, life, work and uh other games (COUGHWORLDOFTANKSCOUGH) I still did a little work on the side. In 2014, I hand-painted parts of the voxel, like the glacis and turret cheeks to give a more angular appearance to those areas.
I also drew this:
(click to enlarge)
Incorporating more knowledge of tanks this time around, the Juggernaut is redesigned to look a bit more modern, with a heavily sloped glacis, while the angles on the turret are exaggerated to provide an interesting shape.
While the guns have shrunk to 175mm in caliber, the tank gets a healthy amount of extra firepower to complement them. Most of it is for close-defense. CIWS and dazzler panels to protect from top-attack munitions and missiles; frontal twin-25mm autocannon turret to protect from attackers under the main guns; a throwback in the form of an automated rear-mounted ball MG turret to protect the blindside of the vehicle.
Though the realist in me won't stop nagging- there's not nearly enough space in the turret for 3 175mm guns (or 3 of any large caliber), their breeches and autoloader assemblies. Let alone ammunition stowage for those and the secondary weapons. Then attention turns to the uneven mountings of the drive sprockets... _________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) Last edited by EVA-251 on Thu Jun 30, 2016 10:05 pm; edited 2 times in total QUICK_EDIT
I'm not fond of the juggernaut tank... Idk why. I remember when we play tested years ago and it was a cool machine, but it looks too apocalypse esque... Especially the last I age you posted.
It also is a weird contras, nowadays, to the more realistic aesthetics of the tesla cruiser.
Maybe world of tanks took a shit on my ability to believe in 3 un tanks, too, but I'm not sure, _________________ Victory! QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2015 10:40 pm Post subject:
Quote:
Maybe world of tanks took a shit on my ability to believe in 3 un tanks, too, but I'm not sure,
Hehe...you know, they supposedly want to get the twin-gunned ST-II into the game...
As I noted in the post, I don't know if the Juggernaut would be a 3-gun tank if remade by this schematic, because the turret doesn't have space for the breeches and auto-loading assemblies of 3 guns of any noteworthy caliber.
On the subject of schematics....
Apologies for the terrible handwriting, I'm left-handed. Not sure if that excuses the drawing, though. _________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 5:20 am Post subject:
Another year, another ship, or so it seems.
The counterpart to the Soviet Union's Tesla Cruiser, the North American Missile Cruiser. Based off USN cruiser designs of the Cold War era. Large VLS missile bays fore and aft comprise its primary weapons, while the smaller 127mm guns and Phalanxes act as decorations.
Very much WIP. Fine details have yet to be added to the texture, and the most difficult part of the entire ship, the bow's normals, haven't even been started. And I imagine I might have to darken the whole thing a bit because RA2 is mean. _________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) Last edited by EVA-251 on Fri Apr 08, 2016 5:57 am; edited 1 time in total QUICK_EDIT
RA2 is going to ztype that voxel up when it comes to color.
As for accuracy and realism, it's very good. It's lovingly done and it shows that you really took the time together to do it. That said, I want to see it in game as I have concerns that the guns will just look too small, and that's my main gripe with it. It's too real, too natural, and it's not memorable.
I know you won't go for a RA2 looking design, and it just wouldn't fit into your mod, but... I can pretty much recall the silhouettes of many C&C units years after I've played. This is gorgeous, but it's unmemorable. _________________ Victory! QUICK_EDIT
DOWNLOAD LINK PLEASE! _________________ One and only developer of the Command & Conquer Dune "C&C D" mod.
m7 wrote:
I tend to release things I create so that assets are never lost to hard drive problems, accidental deletion, or me having to pretend to care about rippers taking things from my project when it is done.
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Mon May 02, 2016 5:10 pm Post subject:
@Volgin
It's a Missile Cruiser, the guns are strictly decorative. I think the ship from a physical standpoint is stylized enough, given how much shorter/compact it is relative to an actual ship. I try to avoid making toys.
@TAK
It's for a mod. Right now, these are private assets.
I ended up taking a shortcut to making the bow, by zeroing out the normals for that part of the hull, and then doing auto-normals at a very high Range setting and cleaning what came out of that.
Map ambient = 0.75, extra unit light = 0.1, I think it came out pretty well. Had to darken the foremost superstructure a few shades to allow normal details to show up.
Might end up changing the VLS missile bays a bit. The current ones derive their details entirely from normals, and the game doesn't seem interested in cooperating. Some more fine texture details might be added, like I did with the Tesla Cruiser above. _________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) QUICK_EDIT
I would add some gradient to the hull to emphasize the curvature, especially on the wider part as it seems to curve differently to the narrower rear.
On some of my hulls, I used the normals facing straight sideways and down a bit only, so the hull is basically 2 normals plus nose/tail touchup. But I made the hull layers darker the closer they are to center. Just another method of achieving the same visual effect. _________________ http://www.moddb.com/mods/scorched-earth-ra2-mod-with-smart-ai QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Mon May 02, 2016 6:36 pm Post subject:
I agree with adding gradient color to the hull.
The sides from midships to aft end are mostly flat (slope only moves inward by 1 unit), with most of the curve shape being near the bow. But with RA2's lighting, it would stand to benefit from more shading. _________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 10:09 pm Post subject:
(new) EVA-251's Voxel/Art Showcase
I've been modding CNC close to 11 years, and in that time I've made hundreds of tank, defense turret and missile battery voxels...
And exactly 2 aircraft, both of which were made in late 2005. They were terrible. Nuff said. Aircraft were harder for me to visualize and design compared to tanks, so I rarely bothered with them.
But in the last year, I conquered ships, so recently I decided I'm going to try my hand at aircraft now.
This is my first attempt at making an aircraft since 2005, the F-16. Just seemed like a fairly simple aircraft design to start with, and would allow me to stop looking at Harriers in New-SS.
Just looking for feedback/comments on it, as making aircraft is still something I'm learning.
(also, updated earlier posts with spoilers and reduced commentary)
PDC_F16FB.png
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note: middle/right planes are my initial version. Was just a tiny bit too small.
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_________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) QUICK_EDIT
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EVA-251's Star Strike Voxel/Art Showcase
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