Question about ship concept art to final in product design

Oktusha

Oktusha
I'll be honest and say that I do not keep up with everything in any game as to who is in charge of what department, new things coming down the line, what happens on the forums, ect, ect... So with that said who makes the call on things such as the final in game design of ships compared to the concept art?

The reason I ask is pretty simple really. I see the concept art and then I see what we actually get and I want to smash my head on my desk... lol... My prime example is the python and the beluga. In concept those ship along with many others were an absolute work of art. In game however, they simply fall flat to me and the python is my favorite ship in game. A huge amount of the artwork is not translated over IMO... Then the sense of scale is simply thrown out the window with the MASSIVE cockpit glass and thumbelina sized chairs peeking through. Why such a drastic change from concept to final in game design? I understand that not everything can translate over from "paper" per say to the 3D world but geez... lol...


Perhaps I'm the only one that feels like I'm flying a small ship no matter which ship I'm in due to this. The only time I get that full sense of scale is landing on a moon and looking from the outside camera while in my SRV. I mean heck the Python is 1/3 of the length of the Titanic and twice as wide and it's only a medium ship.
 

syngyne

S
VR.

You'd be surprised how huge the cockpits are. The Asp's is about 3-4 meters from wall to wall. The ship itself feels like it's bigger than my apartment building.
 

Oktusha

Oktusha
yeah I have been thinking about getting one of the VR headsets. I know a few people that have them and swear by them... lol...
 

askavir

askavir
Nearly everything in the game is huge, so the sense of size gets lost.

Stations (exteriors and interios), the hangars, outposts, planetary starports are huge, geographic features like canyons and mountains are all enormous, and the ships end up feeling small (and slow) in comparison.

But the truth is that the ships are huge, even the "small" ones:

1tHPufU.jpg

46BX3Xb.jpg

attachment.php


attachment.php


I believe when we can get out of our seats and out of our ships in stations etc we will get a true sense of the dimensions of things.
 
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Kalimero

Kalimero
I was wondering the same thing for a while now.
My example would be the Imperial Cutter. Really liked the concept art, but the actual ship doesn't really do it for me. That was quite the disappointing reveal for me back then...
I'd have to imagine that it has something to do with how they lay out there ships. FD seems to care more about fitting everything in the ship they want it to have, rather than going with a design and just setting the stats of the ship to be whatever.

Other then that time could be a factor. Maybe the concept art is old enough for them to feel the urge to rethink it before putting it in the game, either because the person working on it has changed or it's same person, but the perspective is different by then. That's generally not all that uncommon with revisiting art.
It's pretty hard to say though. At least without getting the chance to ask one of their team who is part of the process.
 

Clarion-Z

Clarion-Z
askavir said:
Nearly everything in the game is huge, so the sense of size gets lost.

Stations (exteriors and interios), the hangars, outposts, planetary starports are huge, geographic features like canyons and mountains are all enormous, and the ships end up feeling small (and slow) in comparison.

But the truth is that the ships are huge, even the "small" ones:

http://i.imgur.com/1tHPufU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/46BX3Xb.jpg

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=108960&d=1458419520


https://forums.frontier.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=108977&d=1458425651


I believe when we can get out of our seats and out of our ships in stations etc we will get a true sense of the dimensions of things.
Click to expand...

Nice pictures :D It's cool to see elite ships compared to real world objects. Even the sidey seems like it could hold a party inside of it.
 

Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
Oktusha said:
yeah I have been thinking about getting one of the VR headsets. I know a few people that have them and swear by them... lol...
Click to expand...

If you are in the UK try to get to an Elite or gaming convention where Frontier are at.

I went to Lavecon this year and basically got to try out other peoples kindly shared Vive & Rift. Ideal if you are on the fence, perfect for realising what the game can be.
I'm still short a grand for a new 1080 graphics card and the VR headset but I've also decided I will wait for Generation 2 to come out. That having been said I went from "that looks cool I may buy it" to "that is cool, I will buy it" :D
 

Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
bitstorm said:
stuff
Click to expand...

Yup so much rep here. Remove the huge rear-most horizontal wings and it looks alright. Possibly angle the other rear-most more to 45 degree offset to make a true V tail design and it looks ok.
If I was tweaking I may also increase the lower rear wing size slightly but now i'm getting into minute details.
Hmm, maybe on reflection my major beef with it is that they add nothing, as an Aerospace engineer I can tell you the main reason elevons exist is to save weight by having a diagonal do the job of both horizontal and vertical.
By having non-vertical stabilisers you no longer need horizontal ones and here we have both and it frankly looks odd.

Edit just realised I posted to a different thread here on the same topic (Beluga) but thinking I already had a reply. Basically I prefer the concept art but have a big issue with that horizontal rear wing on the Beluga.
 
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Red Anders

Red Anders
The Clipper made me take a screenshot of its seats. That's a pretty ringing endorsement in my opinion.

afa09e88e8.jpg


...and I say this every time someone posts it but the concept art for the Beluga would be the best-looking ship in the game by a mile. The front end of the in-game version is OK, although nothing like as good as the concept, but the back end is... I don't know, I guess it's easy for me to sit here drinking beer after a day not working as a professional 3D artist and then start criticising things but it's a bit like the Porsche Boxster in that the original idea of its form seems to lose its thread about halfway along the ship. By the time we get to the back we've arrived at 'I don't know what the question is but the answer is MOAR FINS'. It's not that it's a terrible looking ship by any stretch of the imagination but it does suffer badly when compared to the concept.

Edit: However it does look more like an actual Beluga at the front.
 
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Oktusha

Oktusha
nice... yeah I'm not bashing any of the ships we have as they look good and trust me you do not want me to make the 3D model for them... lol... I just thought some of the concepts looked better and wasn't sure of why the vast difference between them. Similar to concept cars. You see one and think "OMG, I would buy and drive the heck out of that!!!". Then it is finally put into production and it is just a normal looking car or never put into production at all.... lol...
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
Evaluate the sense of the scale is difficult on a screen, it is rather true. Animated characters in the stations would allow a better perception
 

Moonax IRL

Moonax IRL
Maybe there are considerations that we are unaware of at present. Possibly it was designed with its large wing area for atmospheric flight.
 

bitstorm

bitstorm
Red Anders said:
The Clipper made me take a screenshot of its seats. That's a pretty ringing endorsement in my opinion.

http://i.imgsafe.org/afa09e88e8.jpg

...and I say this every time someone posts it but the concept art for the Beluga would be the best-looking ship in the game by a mile. The front end of the in-game version is OK, although nothing like as good as the concept, but the back end is... I don't know, I guess it's easy for me to sit here drinking beer after a day not working as a professional 3D artist and then start criticising things but it's a bit like the Porsche Boxster in that the original idea of its form seems to lose its thread about halfway along the ship. By the time we get to the back we've arrived at 'I don't know what the question is but the answer is MOAR FINS'. It's not that it's a terrible looking ship by any stretch of the imagination but it does suffer badly when compared to the concept.
Click to expand...

Aye, that's my feeling too.. I also am not design professional.

But the in-game one seems to go from sleek, smooth, minimal and curving up front, to blocky, square and overcomplicated spoilers/panels at the back.
 

Lateralus

Lateralus
Maybe the concept of the Beluga did not fit that well with the eventual internal layout requirements FD had in mind? It's very flat looking after all; that might not suit the needs of a large passenger cruise liner.
 

askavir

askavir
Lateralus said:
Maybe the concept of the Beluga did not fit that well with the eventual internal layout requirements FD had in mind? It's very flat looking after all; that might not suit the needs of a large passenger cruise liner.
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I also think this.

The original design was a bit flat. Which would mean that either the ship would be overall smaller (much less bulky) than the released version, or it would be too long for the landing pad to keep the same volume.

Anyway, I think the large horizontal wing in the back kind of looks weird and out of place.
 

[VR] Frank_G

[VR] Frank_G
bitstorm said:
This Python conept art?

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net...rYfSUak.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150709154331

Not sure that looks better. But I do agree on the Beluga, concept is superior.

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net...a-Liner.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150307200857

vs

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net...a_Liner.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160922082520
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The Beluga concept is awesome, especially with those observation decks all over the hull. What i like better on the actual model is, that it is closer to a whale. Just like the ingame Python is closer to a real world pythons head. Those are design decisions that can be clearly identified and assemble a more consistant look throught the game.
 
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