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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

ART - Collector UFO


testarossa

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This is my first concept and it is rough because I expect to tweak the design after I hear some comments. So go easy on me!

 

I tried to make the hull look like an organic looking metal (if that makes any sense.) And then in the interior I thought perhaps it would be good to have a piece of abduction equpment on the outside of the craft. In this case in that middle compartment which would not be inside the ship.

 

Anyways tell me what works and what doesn't.

 

Collector_UFO_concept.jpg

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-I think it looks cool.

 

-looking at the floorplan I would say that it is too small (about the size of three medium scouts, with another medium scout on top?).

 

-I don't quite get what you're saying about abduction equipment inside/outside the ship :blink: :shrug: :huh?:

 

 

-for the hull, don't we have an alien hull texture somewhere?

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-I don't quite get what you're saying about abduction equipment inside/outside the ship  :blink:  :shrug:  :huh?:

 

 

The Collector contains the Alien Medical Rooms (aka Alien Examination Rooms) :)

 

Vaaish: Do we know whether we are going for the original UFO floorplans or new ones?

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And then in the interior I thought perhaps it would be good to have a piece of abduction equpment on the outside of the craft. In this case in that middle compartment which would not be inside the ship.

 

"in the interior [...] on the outside of the craft" ???

"that middle compartment which would not be inside the ship" ?????

 

... now that I think of it, you mean that the lower floor's middle compartment would have no floor, is that it? so there would be a trapdoor-thing through which humans or animals can be hauled in?

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hmm... I know this is rough so I'll not concentrate on the technical side of thing much. I'd recommend that you not use that texture for the hull, it's a little distracting. For more of the direction I'd like to see the UFO's go check out this thread: http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=992&st=210 Ignore the concepts for the terror ufo and battleship later in the thread. In terms of size it should be comparable to the original Xcom ship class.

 

That said, I do like some of the ideas you have with this. it has an alien appearance and the pod approach would make it fit with some of the ideas that were tossed around for the upper level UFO's. However I think there are a few too many hard edges on the back and the pods can meld into the central hull to make it appear even more "grown" You don't have to design the interior for the UFO's as we will design them later and might even have several variations.

 

overall you have a good start :)

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Maybe stand the main hull on top off of the lower pods with a trunk of somekind.. like a waist. That would look really weird, and would break up the 2 sided symmetry vs. 3 sided symmetry a bit.

 

It may or may not suit your design philosophy. Just an idea that hit me when I looked at the design.

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And then in the interior I thought perhaps it would be good to have a piece of abduction equpment on the outside of the craft. In this case in that middle compartment which would not be inside the ship.

 

"in the interior [...] on the outside of the craft" ???

"that middle compartment which would not be inside the ship" ?????

 

... now that I think of it, you mean that the lower floor's middle compartment would have no floor, is that it? so there would be a trapdoor-thing through which humans or animals can be hauled in?

 

Yeah sorry about that explanation I wrote it at 4:00 a.m. :D . but you were right at the end. That very central compartment would have no floor. When you would walk into it there would be grass beneath your feet, or whatever tileset there is. And I thought a piece of abduction equipment could be hanging through the ceiling from the floor above.

 

I'll rework this idea and do some pencil sketches of various angles so you can get this idea. I'll do one from beneath as well so you can geet the idea of the adbuction equipment.

 

 

And Vaaish you think it needs less straight walls? I was looking for a thread like that to find the texture I needed! So I will incorporate something like that from now on.

 

Thanks for the feedback I'll work on some new concepts based on what you all said and post them soon.

Edited by testarossa
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And then in the interior I thought perhaps it would be good to have a piece of abduction equpment on the outside of the craft. In this case in that middle compartment which would not be inside the ship.

 

"in the interior [...] on the outside of the craft" ???

"that middle compartment which would not be inside the ship" ?????

 

... now that I think of it, you mean that the lower floor's middle compartment would have no floor, is that it? so there would be a trapdoor-thing through which humans or animals can be hauled in?

 

Yeah sorry about that explanation I wrote it at 4:00 a.m. :D . but you were right at the end. That very central compartment would have no floor. When you would walk into it there would be grass beneath your feet, or whatever tileset there is. And I thought a piece of abduction equipment could be hanging through the ceiling from the floor above.

 

I'll rework this idea and do some pencil sketches of various angles so you can get this idea. I'll do one from beneath as well so you can geet the idea of the adbuction equipment.

 

 

And Vaaish you think it needs less straight walls? I was looking for a thread like that to find the texture I needed! So I will incorporate something like that from now on.

 

Thanks for the feedback I'll work on some new concepts based on what you all said and post them soon.

 

yes on the inside you have alot of straight walls. if you look earlier in that thread I gave you it shows an idea owhat we were planning on doing for corridors androoms in the alien ships.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry it took me so long to get a new concept on this. I took some design cues from himmler's scout and combined it with what I had before. I also didn't bother with a redone floor plan, so thats kind of open at this point.

 

I read the collector creative text entry and it seems it could line up well with this craft especially because I had planned to have that space in the middle where the ship could open up, and beam up, or pick up, whatever it was abducting. Thats what the third drawing is by the way. Just a sort of trapdoor underside view of the ship.

 

Let me know what you think of this one.

 

Collectorconcept2.jpg

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Very good, that version will fit the collector nicely. It does a much better job of melding the "pods" with the main body and blending elements from the other ufo's.

 

Nice job.

 

If you want to do a side an bottom view go ahead or move onto another craft.

Edited by Vaaish
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Is this the final concept?

 

I started a model from this and don’t want to get to far until it’s approved, but I just had to make it.

 

This is the Abductor (2 story) replacement not the Harvester (3 story with trapdoor) replacement right? (Best place to see them is at xcomufo.com’s Ufo page)

Colector.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry I hadn't even seen that this had been made into a model already. Yeah that looks pretty good for the most part! Yes this is the collector concept not harvester. A couple of things though,

 

1. What is that little thing on the back of the ship that looks like a kind of diamond shape? I would probably remove that

 

2. The front of the ship is good for the upper level but the lower half does't follow the same curve as above. I attached a little illustration to show what I mean.

 

3. Also the very end of the "wing" tips are a little to rounded, maybe make those a bit sharper?

 

Very cool though, I can't draw a 3d model for the life of me, so its cool to see the concept in 3d. Just straighten out those issues and Keep up the the good work!

 

collectorfront.jpg

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Thank you.

 

1. The little diamond thing is my idea for the small scout, I used it for a scale comparison and forgot to hide it for the render, it will be removed.

 

2\3. I modified the model with your suggestions, but I don’t know if it is right, can you post the side and front views?

 

I will work on it more after thanksgiving.

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Small Scout has been done already, as far as I know.  It looks like so:

 

I think an OMG is in order.

 

However, it look more like a medium scout then a small scout. So we can easily use both.

Edited by mikker
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What fux posted is the Small scout(probe). The medium scout was already designed.

Right now we have the

 

probe,

Recon

Collector

 

The rest of the concepts are being developed.

 

Level: Can we get some more views of the model, the position you have it in is difficult to get an understanding of how the curves flow together. Good job on what you have so far.

 

 

Edit:

Edited by Vaaish
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I had made the small scout before I had seen the one by fidell, I like his but I haven't found the model.

 

But this is about the Collector, this is it so far, I will smooth it later.

 

Edit: Reattached, does it work now?

Edit2: Attached a new one, Old one may have been to high detell for some browsers.

ShipHViews.jpg

Edited by Level
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Your attachment doesn't seem to be working you should try attaching it again.

 

I'm about to post a frontal, and side view of the collector so that should probably help you out.

 

edit: Nope, I'm not sure how 3dmax saves files, are you attaching it as a .jpg? File might also be corrupted you may want to save another copy of the file and try again.

 

Ok works now, looks good, let me finish the front and side views real quick and I'll give some feedback

Edited by testarossa
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Ok heres a side and front view of the ship some things to maybe change are:

 

First frontal view

 

1. The roof of the ship looks kind of angular, look at the attached drawing there is kind of a gentle slope from wing to wing no harsh corners. Also the wings end a little more rounded then you have them. Thats good how you changed the bottom lip though looking nice!

 

Side view

 

1. Ok the wings need to end in a little more of a point rather than that curve you have now. They do appear curved from the direct birds eye though.

 

2. Same goes for the back end. Just make the curve come down a little more steadily.

 

There are also some minor details you may be able to pick out just by looking at the drawings as well. Overall though I think its looking really great. Like I said before i can't model for the life of me, so keep it up! =b

 

collectorfront2.jpg

collectorside.jpg

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what about the bottom of it? Will a giant hole open with a huge tractor beam to pull up pray?

 

This was already discussed and drawn above post#10, yes there will be a center part of the ship that will open up and allow for a tractor beam or other abduction equipment to drop out.

 

I thought this could be incorporated into the floorplan as well, as an empty space in the center of the craft where you would walk back onto the outside terrain. This was all discussed above if this is confusing.

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I have tried to make it as close to the concepts as I could while still having two floors that people (and aliens) could fit in, if you want more done give specifics and I’ll see what I can do.

I based the floors on the first concept posted; this takes up more space then the Abductor but has less room on the inside.

 

Where should the door/s be?

 

I have not yet smoothed it and I have noticed some minor details that I will work on.

 

In the CT’s for the Collector and Reaper the rooms and equipment seem to have been switched (most likely because the Alien Medical Room and Biological Research Room switched names), in X-Com the Harvester (Reaper) not the Abductor (Collector) had the trap door and lifting equipment, are we changing this?

ColectorViews.jpg

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In the CT’s for the Collector and Reaper the rooms and equipment seem to have been switched (most likely because the Alien Medical Room and Biological Research Room switched names)

Thanks for pointing that out :)

 

edit: Are you sure of it? I've looked at the last drafts and since only the names changed, everything else is in place, and the names were already updated.

 

And that is an interesting question; Vaaish, do we want both the Collector and Reaper to have *tractor beams*? I think I find more use in the Reaper UFO, though I never really got the point since the Aliens land to harvest, they don't just take them while onflight.

Edited by Azrael
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Level you need to match the contours on the UFO side and front view better. On the side view it looks like you have your background picture backwards or you really aren't following the concept.

 

Note how that the back of the pods droops a bit instead of just going straight around the back. Also note haow that the front of the ships center pod overhangs and isn't as vertical. These ships need to have an organic feel to them and lots of straight lines will take away from that.

 

Go ahead and match the concepts as they are drawn and we can fit the interiors later. They don't have to match the xterior walls perfectly like they do in UFO defense.

Edited by Vaaish
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I agree that you should match the concept. It's the concept that we accepted. The alterations that you are proposing would be a new concept based on the old one- and we really shouldn't reconcept something that's already been approved.

 

I like your geometry, though. It's very clean. Good work.

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The Collector CT mentions the trap door but the Reaper doesn’t, I guess the rest of the equipment is right.

That's because UFOs in Xenocide are different than in X-Com, I guess that's up to art to tell us whether the Collector and Reaper have these things or not.

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Level I think thats looking really good. Like everyone said though don't worry about the floorplan because it won't necessarily match the curves of the ship. Think of apocalypse how the outside walls don't dictate the interior walls. The front view is looking good, I understand the flatness as the view I drew was kind of from a different angle.

 

Could you maybe make the concept image a little more transparent when you post it? It's kind of hard to see exactly whats going on in that last image.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I hope this doesn’t sound contentious; I just wanted to clear some things up so I could get it right.

 

what about the bottom of it? Will a giant hole open with a huge tractor beam to pull up pray?

This was already discussed and drawn above post#10, yes there will be a center part of the ship that will open up and allow for a tractor beam or other abduction equipment to drop out.

In X-Com the Harvester (Reaper) not the Abductor (Collector) had the trap door and lifting equipment, are we changing this?

And that is an interesting question; Vaaish, do we want both the Collector and Reaper to have *tractor beams*? I think I find more use in the Reaper UFO, though I never really got the point since the Aliens land to harvest, they don't just take them while onflight.

The Collector CT mentions the trap door but the Reaper doesn’t.

That's because UFOs in Xenocide are different than in X-Com, I guess that's up to art to tell us whether the Collector and Reaper have these things or not.

Sorry about all the quotes but it seemed to be going around in circles with no real answer and I wanted to emphasize some things, do we want to have a trap door like testarossa and the current CT suggest or without one like in the original X-Com (the way I’m leaning)?

I don’t have it in right now but I could very easily add it.

 

I agree that you should match the concept. It's the concept that we accepted. The alterations that you are proposing would be a new concept based on the old one- and we really shouldn't reconcept something that's already been approved.

Go ahead and match the concepts as they are drawn and we can fit the interiors later. They don't have to match the xterior walls perfectly like they do in UFO defense.

Like everyone said though don't worry about the floorplan because it won't necessarily match the curves of the ship. Think of apocalypse how the outside walls don't dictate the interior walls.

I’m not sure what these comments are about, as I am not proposing alterations but am asking questions, maybe from these comments:

I have tried to make it as close to the concepts as I could while still having two floors that people (and aliens) could fit in.

I based the floors on the first concept posted; this takes up more space then the Abductor but has less room on the inside.

Which are space comparisons and not interior wall/floor plan layout discussions.

I have never played apocalypse, if you are saying the interior room doesn’t have match the outside that’s all right, but if it’s that they don’t need to fit inside the outside, I would disagree (I only say this because it’s the only thing I mentioned about floors).

 

On the side view it looks like you have your background picture backwards or you really aren't following the concept.

Yah I found it easier to rotate the model then to find and open the image in an editor, flip it, save, then reload in Maya (but I’ve done it now).

 

Could you maybe make the concept image a little more transparent when you post it? It's kind of hard to see exactly whats going on in that last image.

Nope I can either have it on or off, it was more visible in the last one because I turned off the grid, I could have the model solid instead of transparent (by-the-way it was actually the back view because of the way the model is facing).

 

Where should the door/s be?

I made a flat spot on the front for the door, I could not find any other place any could fit, if we have a non rectangle door or something else I can change it (I just realized it doesn’t need to be completely flat if slides to the sides, how should the doors work?).

 

It looks like an insect’s shell in some places can we have nicknames for some ships, like the Scarab?

 

To make the walls less straight I changed the inside of the gaps, does it look better going in or out (both are shown in attached images).

 

Note: I can not match the concept in all views, for example to make the front overhang correct in the front view it would need to be lower, in the side it would need to be higher.

 

Anything else need to be done?

 

Edit:Can't get the quotes to work, underlined my comments so they could be seen.

ColectorFront.jpg

ColectorViews2.jpg

Edited by Level
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Your doing a good job, but let me see if I can clarify things for you. :)

 

1. forget the original xcom when it comes to how a concept looks, xenocide gameplay may follow Xcome closly but xenocide art is not bound to it.

 

2. the approved concept has the drop down equipment so put it in the model.

 

3. If, after you match the outer shell of the UFO to the concept, and you don't have the height to fit the second level we have a problem. If you have enough height but the horizontal space looks cramped them we might need to enlarge teh size of the UFO to allow a larger floorplan.

 

4. Doors. possibly one in the rear and one in the front. this is where you have some leeway to change the concept to allow a door if none is specified.

 

5. It looks better, but it still needs to arch more on top to match the shape of the side view. the lower lip on the front disc of the craft is a little smaller that the top giving the craft a little over bite. and last the pods don't end flat bottemed, if you look ad the front and side concepts there is a little convex bulge to the bottom. If you can attach an obj of the model I can edit it to show you what I mean.

Edited by Vaaish
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ok load this up an let me know if it comes through ok. I've gone ahead and finished tweaking the model to match up to concept. Smoothing groups and such will probably have to be fixed.

 

EDIT: attached a quick render with a template texture.

collector.zip

test.jpg

Edited by Vaaish
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  • 2 weeks later...

I've tweaked this some more to accentuate and streamline it a bit. It doesn't match the concept perfectly but it does keep more of the idea of the 3/4 rendering.

 

I'll post tomorrow,

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