November Challenge: Jo'feen's Ship

Completed piece:
Attachment 40136

==--==

Well, I've done enough lurking around here for the past while; this contest seemed too good to pass up on! I'm currently attempting NaNoWriMo, and have begun a novel set in a game world I've actually mapped around these parts before. I took raypunk as my theme - that is to say: raygun-toting, jetpack-powered sci-fi fun. Because my protagonist relies upon her ship (as players of the game would), it made sense to map it out, even just to help me keep track of where the medical supplies and such are.

Being raypunk, I thought initially of using a rocket, but I thought this would make for a pretty monotonous showroom if that was all the game's players could choose from. Instead I've gone for a trimaran hull, based very loosely upon the chunkier-looking tin plate toy spaceships of the time.

Attachment 39872

I have a little more information up at my Tumblelog, here.

Love the trimaran design! Looking forward to seeing this one come together and glad you took the challenge plunge!

Very clean! Looking forward to seeing it finished.
M

Reminds me of MegaTraveller on the old Atari for some reason! Looking good!

Well, I have an update, slow though the progress may be! I'm looking forward to cracking on in Photoshop, getting some lighting and better colour effects in.. but I'm getting ahead of myself there:

Attachment 40087

I've now added a colour scheme, much more in the way of furnishings, and some patterns. The scheme may appear a tad bold: this is part of the raypunk aesthetic I have in mind for the Median project. These colours are actually based on a pulp magazine cover, which I leaned on mostly because I've never actually used such a bold scheme before. As ever with this NaNoWriMo project, I'm learning at some pace! Nothing is final, though. Seeing the thumbnail already has me thinking about lightening that blue, and of course the wings will need more decoration than that.

Mostly I'm focusing on the shape of the access ramp and engine now. I'm not entirely sure where to even start on the engine, which is to be housed astern, but I intend for the ramp to drop down from the main hull's cargo area, much like the Millennium Falcon and Ebon Hawk's ramps do in the Star Wars films and Knights of the Old Republic.

I doubt I'll manage to make a very nice presentation of this, but I'm learning and having fun. I'm happy for that alone. :)

'nother update; this part didn't take me as long as I thought!

Attachment 40107

I’ve tweaked a few colours, added some texture and some raypunk labelling which I hope puts the work into a much clearer context. Barring any further tweaks to the ship’s design or epiphanies on the colour scheme, I think all I have left to do is map the Bellen in profile, and come up with some sort of Ynsharr Industries emblem.

very nice little ship - took me a "minute" to find the bridge, since its so much darker, I think I would lighten that up a bit :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tilt

very nice little ship - took me a "minute" to find the bridge, since its so much darker, I think I would lighten that up a bit :)

---

Thanks, Tilt! I wondered about that myself, but I'd opted for a darkened bridge in the story/design in the hopes that such a thing might allow greater visibility of the instrument panels and the view outside, if needs be. It does look a little heavy on the map though, so I'll try lightening it by a few shades.

### Latest WIP ###
Attachment 40135

There we are, then: what I suppose shall be my final effort. I lightened the bridge up a little, and added a second sheet in the style of the "Serenity" blueprints - I hope this is okay! If needs be I'll cut that and just submit the top-down map.

Ta for the comments! Hopefully I can resist the urge to tweak this before the deadline, and get on with the actual NaNoWriting - I only passed the 25,000-word mark last night. :P

Nice to see more SF mapping here!

-Rob A>