The artistic principles behind SCI-FI ship design
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- Hello hello, this video is a meta dive into color, shape and the forms used to convey feeling, aesthetic and appearance for science fiction ships designs. Most people don't know much about what goes into actually making science fiction designs, so this should hopefully introduce people to the often totally unnoticed elements of creativity and skill that goes into making the iconic ships of the Sci-Fi genre.
This is also going to be part 1. I originally wanted to make this video on the structural elements like engines and guns placement and such but decided it would be both more interesting and more informative to do this instead.
Also, while this was a voted on topic, a part 2 will be made on the stuff I cut because I feel like 25 minutes doesn't do justice to the original topic choice and its more content fodder so, yea, part two eventually. Maybe.
Star Wars ships, especially the older ones, typically have a gap between to top half and bottom half of the hull, that runs all the way around the ship, and is stuffed full with greeblies.
That's because they never could get the plastic shells for the top half and the bottom half line up perfectly to get a seamless edge. It always looked crooked. By separating the shells and adding lots of noise between them, this slight misalignment becomes completely invisible. And creates an iconic look.
We have a saying in woodworking.
"If you can't hide a gap, accentuate it"
That is an interesting tidbit, thank you for sharing.
It was also handy for hiding a working seam. Many shooting models, particularly in pre-LED days, would be lit by various lighting systems (wheat bulbs, fluorescents, neon tubing) that would need servicing. Giving a studio model a "hood" so to speak made reaching these components a lot easier during production. A "gap" could help hide where the removable or hinged section was.
And that iconic look can be SO iconic that it affects even novels. In the EU novels, post Galactic Empire, a character 'obtains' an ISD 2, but doesn't want it to be the terrifyingly bland grey. Unfortunately because the Empire ordered it in bulk for those ships, and there were very few ships that size in the galaxy, the only other color he could find for his ISD was the same red used by Republic Senatorial vessels.
And thus was born the casino-ship Errant Venture.
Ill add a hidden principle/rule to this: Breaking rules is ok, but you need to understand the rule before you break it. If you dont, it will fail and come off as sloppy or weird or bad. If you understand how these rules work, you can then break them and *improve* your design
edit:i paused to write this immediatly after the main rules and just before he went on to explain exactly that. i promise om autistic not stupid XD
Break rules because you want to express something with that.
@Robotfromouterfuckingspace some days it feels like it lol
Funny thing is, the Republic Venator isn't a rulebreaker. The evil triangle-shape is broken down by squares. Its like watching the Republic turn into the empire. There is a definite design language in Revenge of the Sith, that goes beyond mindblowing, if you analyze it further. I don't speak for the rest of the prequels, but Episode 3 is a masterpiece.
I truly wish they spent as much effort on the writing and scripts in the Prequels as they did on design and effects. Visually the Prequels are beautiful, and you're right about how the design language helps tell the story.
Nooooooooooooooooooooo!
Its funny. Something I realized when you were talking about the greens of the Borg Cube looking like disease and sickness... But when i use my white-green color schemes in Battletech, Nebulous Fleet Command, and so on, people mention how peaceful and almost passive the colors look.
So not only are colors a big deal, but how you mix them can dramatically change how people see the same colors
Oh, absolutely, i dont think i got it across but part of it is the wierd, I don't know how to describe it, dark neon green? Of the borg is what makes it so freaky looking.
@@scienceinsanity6927 Agreed. The shades and tones of the color contribute a lot to how it is perceived.
@@scienceinsanity6927 I think that a big part of it is the fact that neon colors like that are typically only found in nature on very poisonous/venomous lifeforms. Things like poison dart frogs and toxic fungus; or stinging jellyfish, corals, etc. It's an instinctive warning reaction to nature's warning signs.
Ah nebolous fleet command. The closest thing to an expanse game. Love it.
The first picture I see being of an Independance-Class Libertasian/LMC Unification Cruiser from Infinite Space, and I'm happy. Finally, that game gets some love.
Man that game was the shit back then. It's a shame it never gone further than it did.
Cheers to that! Favorite tub? I always found the junkyard(?) and fellowship classes to be the best blend of style and utilitarian.
@@ornerylurker8296 i would give that prize to moat libertas ships. Gunbricks to hell and back, but they have style, if in a very brutal way.
Personally, regenland would be my favourite faction, if they stopped bolting important parts of the ship to flimsy fins and erased the existens of the mayr roth. That thing looked like it would break up rge moment the captain sneezed.
@@supsup335 That's plenty fair on all accounts! Probably why the Evstafi beat the flimsy,... trimaran? quadmaran? whatever the hell out for title of bigus dickus maximus of all conventional ships. Credit where it's due, Regienland had the best cruisers and a smorgasboard of 'em. If memory serves that was why Evstafi was explicitly stated as being based off the Absoluta with cruiser bits plastered on. Best of both worlds, with the added benefit of being a flying brick shaped gun silently screaming dispassionate apathy. Good times.
Star Trek's Federation breaks its own rules too, you can see with the Anti-Borg ship designs especially, they're more angular and aggressive, reflecting the combat oriented pose of the Federation Starfleet during the Dominon War and beyond.
The Star Wars star destroyer is basically a perfect design for it's job. It goes into the design of WWII warships, with big cannons along the midline that can be turned to the side plus smaller guns on the sides. But space is 3D and the angled surfaces allow for the guns to be placed in ranks like seats in an auditorium. Every gun can see the target and fire, both sideways and to the front.
This is patently false and has been known/shown for decades. There is NOT enough of an offset in either spacing or angle to allow anything but the most forward turbolaser turret to engage targets to the front...you know the view most seen by approaching ships, remember the fleet engagement during ROTJ among others? The ship has to actually turn to the side or be alongside (memories of the Battle of Coruscant?) to be able to bring all the main turbolaser batteries ON ONE SIDE to bear...which then cuts off the LOS of the other side. Only the minor trench guns and forward facing secondaries along the dorsal/underside have wide enough LOS to engage targets over a wider degree covering the forward arc. The SD is also famously lacking in firepower covering it's underside and rear.
An example (as if the inummerable cutaways/diagrams weren't enough) of the limitations of the Main Turbolaser Batteries occluding each others forward firing arcs is provided in Rogue One during the Hammerhead sequence. You notice only the forward battery is firing...because it's the only one with a view to the enemy fleet.
ruclips.net/video/sbfr6k7R9zQ/видео.html
@@mikebelcher7244 which only means that they didn't angle the surface enough. the general shape would be perfect for it, just the execution is lackluster. but then it's the empire, and that's pretty on brand for them.
Actually the ISDs are no battleships. They are more or less heavy armed troop transporter with carrier mixed in.
With this in mind the ships layout is perfect.
@@thomass6434 ISDs are 100% battleships, they were used as battleships, they were designed to be battleships, troop carrying capacity was just a secondary thought due to just having the size. The ISD doesn't have enough craft to effectively deploy it's troops in mass, it has to have it's few transports make constant trips back and forth to dumb off troopers, equipment, supplies, etc. And it barely functions as a carrier, with only 72 Tie Craft on board (Fighters, Interceptors, Bombers, Etc.), which is close to the same amount that a modern, US Carrier has, and for a ship that size, that's a tiny complement, especially compared to ships like the Venator, which was smaller yet had a massively larger fighter complement. The ship was a battleship first and foremost in construction, with broadside battles being what it was expected to fight, only for it to have to deal with insurgent tactics instead. And while it's true the 8 main guns can't fire forward, all the other guns can fire forward, which the Star Destroyer has a lot of smaller turbo laser batteries outside of the main 8 turrets we see on the sides of the superstructure
Jesus, I just realized: Systems Alliance ships in ME3 use a variation on UN colors. How did I never catch that?
Because the UN never does anything and is super forgetable?
One of my favorite ships I the Deadalus from Stargate SG1. It follows most the rules you laid out. The only rule it breaks is the color rule. It is a gray ship but it is a shade of gray that say utilitarian more than bad guy.
I think the color fits perfectly because it was Military Grey. It has a similar color to a US Navy ship.
The one thing that I always felt was missing is vertical space. The design is very flat, and the Prometheus had that sort of tower.
I just mentioned the Daedalus in my comment. Great minds.
This video feels like it's 60% on mark but you missed a lot of the intersectional design philosophy of fictional starships. I could probably write for hours about it but silhouette iconography was skimmed over which is an important part of every design trying to be evocative. The merging point between human scale and machine scale was also largely glossed over and that is genuinely something i think is most important to characterizing spaceships.
When you brought up how color has different effects on perception of a ship using Systems Alliance vessels from Mass Effect, my mind went straight to how I feel that the Normandy SR-2 looked better in ME3 than in ME2 solely due to the fact that it was painted in Systems Alliance colors rather then colors Cerberus put on it.
In defence of the Quarian liveships, they actually are described as mobile space stations.
I was looking for a somewhat unique theme to apply to some ships in my setting, and one thing I came up with was swords. The society is very warlike by necessity, so it seemed appropriate. One thing this video made me realize was that what probably helped was that a sword-like shape is naturally a combination of squares and triangles, so it pretty much works perfectly!
Dreadnaught is dead for a reason. It was Free to Play, but Pay to Win. If you didn't fork over regular payments, you couldn't even paint you ship, let alone advance, and were relegated to the status of Ugly Gray Target for the people who did. The game was hardcore PvP only, with nothing environmental about it, not even shifting objectives, just forever skirmish, and kill. The ship designs might have been cool, but most players will never know, because they got tired of being whale bait and left for a more fun game where you were at least allowed to change your colors for free.
Good Riddance.
My favorite ship design is the Outlaw Star. It's one of the few examples of a ship actually using the ability to rapidly change direction in 3 dimensions during space flight.
It actually seems different than just a boat in space.
The show really did kind of embody the idea that anything that wasn't a barge shaped solid hunk of armor with space carved into it for guns was either a very pretty and expensive civie,... or the equivalent of a superiority fighter that Elite tries to go for. Personally I most appreciated the way the show leaned into the complexities of rocketry in environments with no drag. Cool maneuvers, ludicrous agility, but horrifically difficult to control and demanding both physically and intellectually.
Having never watched it, just seeing that ship already says so much about it.
The Taiidan from Homeworld have some of the most charismatic looking scifi warships - a mix of practicality, simplicity, and..fish? The shark like destroyer, hammerhead like missile destroyer, grouper shaped heavy cruiser, etc. Perfectly mixes "space empire" and "alien to the protagonists"
Round is friends. Pointy is harm. Brick is wall. How much friends ,harm, or wall is your ship.
In this case basicaly every warship in my homebrew rpg universe is rather harm, unless its aiming its main weapons at you, then it briefly becomes 100% friend, aproximately for as long as the travel time of a missile
The ball is the deceptively good. The dorito is able to put all of its firepower into a single spot. And the brick is either hiding a gigantic cannon inside, or will ram you with its solid block of tritanium at the bow
Escape Velocity: Nova made great use of shape and color to make not only each faction immediately recognizable, but also the function of each ship and in some cases specific ship manufacturers.
There was a series of cargo haulers that start at a single cargo pod with a cockpit and engines on top to rings upon rings of those same pods for the bulk hauler. Then you had the pirate Manticore that cut said bulk hauler in half, threw away the front part, and used most of that cargo capacity for five each of every gun and more engines. It looked intimidating while also looking “craft produced” or salvaged, befitting its piratical origin.
The Pegasus from the reimagined Galactica series is my favorite Ship design in Sci Fi. A close second would be the Donnager Class from The Expanse.
Macross has Carriers and other ships of rather unique in design. Scale depends on purpose and user. 18:59 funny thing about the Borg Cube in Star Trek Online the Borg Cooperative as opposed to the collective use blue not only as a friendly signifier but to show optimization, while the mirror universe Borg are red glowing as they are aggressive and show an unending burning hatred of the "imperfect" inside ( almost like the beast from Homeworld Cataclysm).
I found it comical that a video about design principles is adorned with these awful border graphics and the hilarious audio waveform display 😅 great vid otherwise ⚡️
Talks about sci-fi ships ignores anime sci-fi completely. Okay my dude.
How about all of Macross, Battleship Yamato (The Yamato and alien), Harlock's Arcadia (bluenose or skullnose)
Most of my designs tend to be very utilitarian. Partly because I like the idea of a civilization having a focus on practical designs first, and partly because simple designs are easier to do.
Which means most of my ships are indeed a collection of blocks except for a couple few special ones that are fluid on purpose.
But I have a set of aesthetic guidelines for my main faction:
- Ships are always longer than they are high or wide
- Ships are always wider than they are long
- The lower sides often have "pods" at the bottom sides (around the 4 and 8 o'clock positions), similar to the hangars on the Galactica or warp nacelles on Starfleet ships. The pods are more towards the back than the front. Sometimes directly connected to the main body, sometimes offset.
- Some ships have a large hump on the top that balances out the side pods, especially if the ship is very wide. (which gives sort of a triangular shape from the front)
- If the ship is more smooth, it begins at the front.
Functionally they are multipurpose ships, but primary military. Part of the defense fleet, but also with scientific equipment (basically the inverse of Starfleet, where ships are science and exploration first, and defense second). Some have a large fighter bay at the top (as homage to aircraft carriers)
Is it wider than long, or longer than wide? You say both.
@@cardboardcrafter2482 ahh, wider than tall obviously. there is no non euclidean construction
In my setting, a lot of ships resemble hammers. They would have a fat, reinforced front end to deflect navigational hazards. (For war ships, it's basically a solid plate, save for a few gun ports. ) and all the more sensitive parts of the ship tailing behind.
Although, if I wanted elegance, I suppose I could get a similar effect with a tear drop shape.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, ship designs of the Federation universally have a pale blue color scheme, combining white (simple/innocent/honest) with blue (trust/peace/loyalty/compromise). As the Dominion War approaches, that white-blue color scheme grows increasingly grey, connoting the approach of violence to the peaceful/honest Federation.
I have a quote for your video!
“In art, design language is key, for many in the sci-fi genre, make sure things are clear, creative, futuristic and style.”
Speaking of scaling cues, Gene Roddenberry asked Andy Probert at the end of the design process for the Enterprise D to extend the length of the warp nacelles to match the proportionality of the nacelles of the original Enterprise.
16:55 i would love a dedicated video to the navy of the GodEmperor
for a weird ship design, search "the lexx" from a 90's series called LEXX , its based on a dragonfly style and is mostly organic
Something which I think should have been considered, although I understand why it might not be considered; realism, which definitely can be artistic choice. Just as an example, the real USS Enterprise, by which I mean CV 6, is extremely cluttered right below the flight deck.
A lot of steel warships tend to be extremely clutter topside because of radar, rangefinders, AA, other secondary guns, torpedo launchers, depth charges and so on. Only some of the most recent warships look like they have a minimalist approach without a lot of clutter.
I would also like your take with this on the B5 ships, as some of them are pretty weird.
The only thing i conscioudly missed from this vid was a nod to the elegant line of Light to Heavy Fighters from Freelancer. Specifically the Dagger, Stiletto and Saber fighters.
My eternal love goes to them and the gentle purring growl of their engines.
I will say you forgot one thing about warhammer ships in general: while they are all very busy, they make extensive usage of various patterns of shapes that come together to make other shapes with each constituent part being distinct enough to not to melt into a morass. Their broadsides are a very good example, utterly covered in filigree but clean, with highlights for the guns as they’re studded in devil intervals. The viewer’s eye sort of marches along their flanks in much the same way one expects the ships themselves to march to war while between their prow armor and bridges they evoke and impression of a stiff and stood soldier and their war drum ready to stride unflinching into the battlefield. With the unstated benefits of making it very easy to gloss over or ignore other stupid immersion breaking detail.
Also bonus! My favorite boats are the tritachyon hulls from dreadnought. I still hold that the death knell of the game was officially sealed when they kept nerfing tac cruisers just to buff those fugly corvettes but anyway, bright white hulls with glowing green accents were the perfect choices to highlight their ships as basically floating health pick ups from any other shooter game. They were rounded and friendly looking, almost soft in fact, very much the image of a doctor in scrubs or a lab coat. But their entire shape would come together over all in the the silhouette of a big and blunt triangle, implying just how happy, willing, and more than capable they were to absolutely ruin someone’s day if they amde the mistake of underestimating one.
While the ISD is amazing, the best villain ship in my opinion is the shadow battlecrab from babylon 5. It looks like a black spider from your deepest nightmares, that even telepathically screeches at you to drive home the utter evil it's made of.
I'd give the Shadow vessels a very close second. In my eyes, they lose a little bit of functionality as they are essentially capital ship sized fighters.
I've always been amused that the Paris class looks like a rifle, I mean its basically a MAC with engines so it kind of is just a rifle but it has the shape of a small arm.
Halo human design was heavily influenced by Aliens, the spaceship in it, 'Sulaco' is often described as ,a gun in space'. Well, a rifle.
Greetings I am A High Lord of Terra, despite the miniscule amount of heresy in this video, The Emperor approves.
Oh man, loved Dreadnought back in the day... Fantastic work with the video.
The FTL Music in the background is very fitting for a video like this.
Ya know, you could just...Do the power armor video anyways? Who's gonna be able to tell your lying?
The ten guys in my patreon who voted and whome also pay me, i think. But fair point.
After watching this all the way through I can confidently say that I will forget all this useful information and never change how I build
While the parsability is good and all, the ships should still make sense from a mechanical point of view. Engines should be roughly in line with the centre of mass or you'll get the rocket sled syndrome. Nothing should be blocking the engines drove cone, and yes, this is something non-movie star wars ships did a lot. You probably also need a toilet and a sink.
There should be enough space for all the systems on your shuttles, otherwise you'll get a cardboard box painted in ship colours rather then an actual ship.
And other considerations.
For internal space I always take 3 m as deck height floor to floor. That allows for comfortably high rooms and stuff between the rooms.
maybe si could redesign the ships from that game you mentioned
and if a ship does break the rules of convention, it needs a reason
for example, why would a ship need all those guns, in lore answer (madeup) the reason it has all those guns is because it's meant to intimidate and make anyone hesitant on attacking since they will likely be outgunned immediately, namely for intimidation more than anything
this makes sense and could help explain some more questionable design choices
Realism was not something talked about in this. Take a look at most surface ships over the last 100-150 years and they are filled with clutter topside. If an after action report in WW2, the captain of the USS Enterprise asked for her armor to be removed in place of more AA guns.
It is a large part of why the answer the USN had to "how many Bofor guns do you want" was "yes".
@@cp1cupcake I like a bit of in universe realism, legitamate reasons why something is made the way it is
like a idea I have fora carrier ship is a diomand like shape ship that is semetrical on both sides even on the interior to make it as simple to make as possible and make sure there is a backup system as well
the carrier is not tall but it's not flat, and it has double hangers with reinforced window and blastshields with one on top and one on the bottom, this way, it ahs no blindspots on top[ or bottom
the weapons it has are limited but effective, identical from top to bottom as well, allowing it to have no missed firing ark blindspots
basically think of a venator with a bit more firepower, a bit larger, but more appropriate as a battleship when neeeded
World building is also something to take into account. For example I designed the Sunrider class of Knights (Large multi-role ships meant to serve as flagships for entire fleet formations and to carry powerful spinal mounts) to be almost like a Viper. It had a sort of hexagonal body, like a Halcyon destroyer, with "Wings" and a large glass observation deck on top. It was a luxury military ship. It was designed to be kept kind of far in the back line, allowing it's fleet to do work for it. It was also built by a young officer who knew he would be the first to receive one and designed it for that luxury. (Ironically he didn't get the first Sunrider. He got the first Legion class.) Then you have the Legion and eventually the Bismarck class Paladins (bigger than Knights and more heavily armed and armored, ranging from 1km long to 2km long.) which were more like Halcyon class Destroyers. They still featured the large observation deck, and early variants of the Legion class featured the wings which held additional fuel or equipment, but were more combat focused. Since that was what was requested by the nations military. You also have the truly ridiculously sized Leviathans which are just giant long rectangles with multiple prongs on the end because they are the command and control center for an entire campaign, and are meant as basically massive mobile space stations. Even larger are the Nation Ships, which carry massive amounts of people and roam the galaxy as a form of insurance policy for the nation who owns them, as part of a back up plan if they ever get destroyed. These are literally just massive rectangles because they aren't meant to dock with anything bigger than them. They are kind of like arks. Another example I like is the description of the Redacted, a mobile base for a project whose purpose was to create people who were dead. (Not zombies, more black ops the country who used them had death certificates and would always deny they existed.) The ship literally was a "headache of a design" because it was "Multiple ships slapped together and the interior has just the right amount of drywall to not notice you're in about thirty different ships." it was meant to be a lot to look at, because it was never meant to be seen, and it was cobbled together using what resources were available. For where I was inspired, go find the Sunrider Visual Novel (The Sunrider class is basically the same, it was one of the first ships I used to write and the series inspired a lot of my work so I haven't had the heart really to change anything, though there are several key differences inside the ship and to it's capabilities.) and of course the Halcyon class and the Imperial Star Destroyers helped inspire designs. I do love this video, lots of great points not just for visual descriptions, but written descriptions. It's important to know what a ship looks like so you can convey it over to another person. And these points were spot on, thanks for the help.
The Cygnus from Disney's The Black Hole is a work of art.
Finally! I have been looking for this kind of information and these guidelines.
Okay, in regards to color combinations, can anyone tell me what color combo radiates; “Hey, I’m friendly. If you want to crack open a couple of cold ones and watch some funny things on the internet with me, I’ll be very happy to accommodate. But if you come wide at me, then the chainsaw’s coming out!”? I ask this because I play space engineers, and I want my warships to have the proper color scheme for my personal starship philosophy.
I go for grey and orange myself. The orange pushes the grey into friendlier territory while still looking menacing in the shadows. Any of the more "bright, happy" colors accenting grey works. White and a bright color is too much. Black and a bright color looks silly. But grey can be tuned to any degree of angry you want. Grey and saturated color? Gaudy. Grey and faded color? Industrial. Grey and dark color? Military.
I agree with the guy above. Orange is a pretty lively and comfortable colour but its still just a shade lighter than deadly fire.
Roughly a 50/50 mix of white, and then either sunflower/gadsden flag yellow or a natural orange. It gives it a bright, welcoming palette that still has an implied liveliness and energy that should be noted
23:34 "greebly overdesigned detailed nightmares" ok well can't say I'm well versed in 40k, but you said church ships. that description definitely describes gothic churches lol
Looking at the UNSC ship in 8:20, looks like someone put a comically huge Colt 1911 inside a ship and the muzzle is poking out of the front...
And considering what MACs are in those ships, I think it's a pretty accurate description.
What's the ship shown at 24:45? It almost feels like a Star Destroyer if the Mon Calamari made it.
I love brick shape ships. Ugly as hell, but it can still smash your face.
I have tried to come up with a better design than the star destroyer for decades to no avail. It ticks all the boxes and is just such an aesthetically pleasing shape but it takes more than triangles to achieve this, look at that ironing board of ugliness which is the first order dreadnaught. It's too good and because of its simplicity I doubt I'll ever top it.
My favorite is Sulaco from Aliens.
The Daedalus class from Stargate and the Defiant class from Star Trek are my favorite ship designs. You lose points for not mentioning either.
Adding onto anothers comment about mixing colours lets review a few classics
Red and white = hospital/medical
Blue and silver = Envoy/peacekeeper
Red and black = Aggressor/Evil
Yellow and Grey = pirate/salvaged
Blue and Black = Robotic/Cold
etc.
i think what makes 40k ship design "work" is that despite they are noisy and greebly, the ships designs remain consistent between most of the various imperial patterns, so if you can understand one type of imperial battleship, you easily figure out how to see most other patterns of them
They also still have distinctive silhouettes with realatively clean prow and engines, so you always can easily judge where which part of the ship is, where is it facing and how is it moving
The thing that makes them work is that most of their fine details are organized into repeating patterns. Repeating patterns read as negative space. So all the viewer's eye actually sees is the axes along which the repeating patterns flow, while most of the fine detail gets overlooked.
Though frankly, I feel that most Imperium ships suffer from not looking different enough from each other. They're all basically the same shape: a giant stack of thrusters at one end, a big beaked prow at the other, and a spiky mass of greebles in the middle. Different ship models may differ in size, and the fine details. But at a glance and in a vacuum, you would be very hard-pressed to tell one kind of Imperium ship from another.
So a flying cathedral
10:00
"So... How many guns do you want on your ship?"
"All of them."
"Ok... One inch? Two inch? Five inch? Ten inch? Fifteen inch? Twenty inch? Fifty inch?"
"... ... ... Yes."
19:55 I would also argue that it is important, especiall for the imperial star destroyer, to look at historical parallels and how they influence how we perceive things.
Grey in Grey colour scheme with a hint of white and a bit of black, with no colouring at all, combined with clear cut shapes (hell, even the shield generators on top of the bridge aren't perfectly round, they are spheres, but spheres with edges) - tot everyone who has gone through a history class or has seen a documentary once in their life, this design aesthetic is almost copied from the Wehrmacht. These are the signs of a fascist regime. In only a few seconds on the screen and without any words at all, most people who you'd show this to who have been raised in a western country, even if they have never seen Star Wars, they could tell you that this ship is fascist.
22:05 In my opinion the only ship that can compete with the ISD when it comes to being a perfect ship design, that perfectly tells you what it is, is The Expanse's Razorback. This is how a Racing Ship should look. Period. It is and looks like an Engine with a Cockpit taped to it, with aggressive but not outright militaristic colours befitiing of a fast, hot Racer. It radiates "i'm gonna lave you in the dust and won't even look back" energy.
The designers have said that the star destroyer's superstructures were inspired by the pogoda-like designs on the Imperial Japanese battleships and cruisers.
Power armour
SCI: I would recommend Babylon 5 Ships for a review. As they have a interesting rule, the more advanced a race is the more the they focus on aesthetics. The majority of the younger races have some utilitarian features, IE Humans. The Mimbari have big organic designs as they have artificial gravity and better construction techniques, so they can play more with design.
Also Macross. The Zentradi Space Cucumbers and UN Spacey ever shifting fleet style is nice.
I wouldn't mind the B5 ships ships because of just how weird a lot of them are.
It's a great visual communication about the people flying the ships in B5. The Vorlon, Mimbari, and Shadows all look like aquatic animals. The Narn and Centauri look like Trek ships, with sweeping lines yet clear compromises for functionality.
The Earth Alliance ships look cobbled together with legos and spare parts. The design choices made to give them artificial gravity make them look almost impractical as combat vessels.
You can really tell how long any given species in B5 has had space flight based on their ship design. :)
@@BCWasbrough then there's the Vree who fly around in the most anachronistic ships ever seen.
@@BCWasbrough NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory actually consulted with the show runners on the designs of the human craft (especially the Starfury).
Have you ever seen a dreadnought? A real one? If I had to describe the appearance of a dreadnought battleship in one word (besides imposing, because that applies to any warship) it would be busy. Real life dreadnoughts are some of the most visually busy ships to ever exist. Their decks are a cluttered mess that leave not a foot of space unused.
I'd say the problem with those game dreadnoughts is that they don't go far enough. They should add even more greebles and squeeze them all together in one area, then trim off the empty sections of hull until its surface area is 60% greeble.
10:10 oh man the Dreadnought from the past, I haven't see them in a long time since the game shut down. It was fun, had potential, but they the Devs made some awful changes like drastically altering the UI and other stuff Right before or during the Steam launch. It really should have stayed on its own launcher or added someway for the community to preserve the game on their own servers or p2p connection, but what's done is done. o7
Flag design is the same way, it has some agreed upon rules which you can break if you know why your breaking them. One particular rule of flag design is no text especially not the name of what the flag represents. Look at the flags of Colorado or Ohio and suprise they have a C and a O on them respectively. Normally text on flags is small and hard to see from a distance and clutters the design but these flags use one big letter. Another rule of flag design is three colors or fewer. Many flags break this rule and fail because they look like a painting which is hard to see from a distance or they look like colorful vomit but a few flags carefully add 4 or more colors and because they use it in a distinct way it works. Or how about no small details. The US flag has tiny hard to see from a distance stars, but there's 50 of them right next to each other so you can still see the whole group. All the flags that break rules and get away with it, do it carefully and usually only break one of the rules.
10:50
I don't think this is a hideous ship. It gives the vibe, the purpose and the feel of a battleship. A ship of the line meant to slug it out in broadside against other such ships and utterly annihilate anything smaller. It brings an image of might, power and a ship built for war. The lines of guns on it's aft broadside is just magnificent, the image it projects; dominant and imposing, with it's surface of gun gun gun and gun. It's only slight being the damned bridge being exposed on a tower.
So, I disagree with your judgement of this ship. In my eyes it is a beautiful battleship that looks like it can brawl.
15:54
This would've been good if it didn't look like it was begging to be gutted from stem to stern. The lack of frontal armor just makes it look stupid. Sure, explain away with internal armor but we're talking exterior here. That thing looks like it can slug out in broadside but would break from a single railgun shot from the front.
Now one last thing, the Imperial Star Destroyer might be iconic but the design is beyond stupid. Tarkin Doctrine at it's finest. The huge exposed bridge begging to be shot, the glaring blindspot at it's stern, the massive exposed shield bulbs, the lack, the absolutely nonsensical lack, of point defense systems and CIWS, it is stupid. Even the lack of a main battery running along the ship's centre line is indicative of this, seeing as that is how the ship would be best used, bow pointed at the enemy, giving best angle for it's armor and a centreline main battery would be most effective given the ship's shape. It also lacks guns on it's underside, immensely idiotic due to the nature of space but since Star Wars has a tendency to spit at the laws of physics and at times, even logic, it makes sense in some sick, twisted manner.
I find the Resurgent, stupid as it's design still is, to be more a more beautiful. But if you're looking for a terrifying ship, look no further than the Harrower-class Dreadnought under the Sith Empire. Terror in both name and look. More stupid than the ISD, with that massive crack down it's bow, the more exaggerated superstructure and the lack of broadside turrets that make it's hull feel empty both lore-wise (it's a Sith design damn it, it should be caked in guns and weapons) and visual wise. But it more than makes up for that with it's visual appeal, more than the ISD. At least this thing doesn't have exposed shield bulbs unlike the ISD.
Now 40k is something I am willing to accept despite the idiocy of it's ship's design. It is in the very nature of it's faction, universe and identity to be over the top, to be a flying cathedral with guns and bigger guns. The gothic architecture of the Imperium gives off oppressive, evil yet awe-inspiring vibes that it becomes a beauty unlike any other. When fleets of the Imperium arrives over orbit as your world is being overrun by Ork, heretic, xeno or whatever warp horror it may be, to deliver divine salvation... only to realize it is there to cleanse the world and you with it.
Besides, why not have a flying cathedral literally fly through hell just to get to another spot in that dystopian world? The flying cathedral providing divine protection to it's crew as they sail through the immaterium, uncertain if they will ever arrive at their destination and if so, when they will arrive - the very instant they left, or in centuries, perhaps millennia past or future.
Aesthetically (as is pretty much the case for pretty much any conceptual sci-fi ship), something to consider would be how the ship is meant to be seen. I mention this because the question came up in an SF forum with regard to why certain SW ships look the way they look, particularly small craft. Generally, long and thin is good for straight line fly passes, but not good for dynamic, maneuvering shots. In a sense, the Y-wing, as attractive as it looks in general, is not dynamically as good a looker as the broader TIEs and X-wings that can bank and roll. I suggested as a comparison, you could look at war thunder (or any air battle simulator) and compare an F-104, a very narrow and long fighter, and compare it to something with a broader wing plan, like the Sea Vixen. The broad swoops of the Sea Vixen seem to carry weight and mass in a way that the Lockheed fighter just visually doesn't...even when it gets shot down! Curiously, if I were to say what real life a/c inspired the design of the Y-wing, the De Havilland Sea Vixen would be it.
ISD-chan is second-best space waifu.
After Excelsior-chan.
I love how different species have different ship designs based on so many tiny minute details.
But in reality space warfare ships would all look extremely similar like how most period warships ships look similar to each other.
Of course their are exceptions (turtle ships) but there are only so many ways for two technologically similar groups to optimally build a ship and any massive paradigm shifts are going to cause the enemy to steal and begin using it before enough of the paradigm breaking ships can be produced (Dreadnought). After all, before the new ship exits the slipways years would have passed since conception.
You played Dreadnought as well. Yes great game but I don't remember why it died. At least I ran into someone who has played Dreadnought as well!!
So I remember years ago a friend of mine found an online tool for seeing how different gun pieces would look together(pimp my gun (I think)) and we would use that to make spaceship images, it was great for both industrial and military ships. For instance I notice that a lot of the design language for the UNSC ships from Halo is that the look kind of like a gun, alternatively when you just use a bunch of images for rail systems for the middle of a ship it looks very stripped down and industrial.
There is now a faction of Borg that use red instead of green. The cube looks angry, not scary.
Resistance ... will be annihilated.
Science Insanity: I do check several Sci-Fi videos on youtube for that very reason. I am hoping for a more, as close to reality as possible. So for me designs wraps around real world systems. So if the ships was built above earth right now, the design, and ships systems would actually function. I also think about production of the spaceship. this makes it easier for size scaling.
You know what scifi work does a beautiful job of illustrating some basic concepts of visual aesthetic metaphor and how your ship design concepts can express varying moods and ideas?
Last Exile
Thank you for this video. In designing a ship, i forgot the most important element: "blocking it out" with basic shapes, and your video reminded me to it.
Honestly I hate big flat paneling on ships. No engineer ever would design anything that way. Tons of extra weight that in most of these universes does nothing. In the expanse for example Martian ships are always shown with big flat armor and it never does anything. If you are trying to tell me it’s to stop debris why the hell is it so thick then? Maybe an 1/8 of an inch of aluminum would more than do that job. The only time anything bounces of the armour in that universe is once where the roci has special armor and it’s done correctly and only placed on the front profile and around the reactor. In Star Wars/Star trek it’s even worse! They have shields that deflect stuff and as soon as the sheilds are down the armor never does anything. What’s the point? It doesn’t make the ships look any better in my opinion. Id much rather look at something that looks like it was put together by an engineer to do a task and not some artists interpretation
Some shapes are more practical from an engineering perspective, for example you might want a sphere for a bulk cargo carrier as you get the most internal volume for the surface area, saving weight on the hull that is used for cargo. On the other hand a wedge or triangle shape is best for combat ships as to allows the most weapons to bear on a target.
My personal story breakers
Multi mile or kilometer long ships
No consideration for ammo storage yet months worth of fire power ? Artillery, missiles , bullets.
Just kills continuity. For me .
This would be very much easier to focus on and retain without all the onscreen clutter and movement. There at 10:16 the commentary applies equally to the content being reviewed in the video and the production values of the video itself.
Ay dreadnought. A bloody amazing game, and the only game like it other then like world of warships but nobody should suffer that lol.
Don't talk shit about Acula-Vector Dreadnoughts. Their destroyers might be hot garbage,but their Dreadnoughts looked clean Same for Jupiter arms Destroyers. As you pointed out, their Dreadnoughts look like shit, but JA DDs are amazing.
Where do flying saucers fit into this, they are clearly circles but the edge of that circle gives the impression of a sharp angle.
Discover the world of Warhammer40k 👍
4:03 Ah yes, the negotiator.
Gunboat diplomacy at its finest.
For the golfball, i think in lore they were stations converted to ships after or during the Morning War.
What is your opinion on the ship RED DWARF from red dwarf
Most enjoyable and informative.
You should look at the ships from Fracture Space.
does someone whant to talk about space marines? i have a feeling somone does
How to design a good scifi ship:
1. Ask Syd Mead.
Seriously, play eve online, then tell me all about the ship design.
Honestly, "ugly" ships can have their charm.
One of my favorite ships is the "Omega" Class from B5 and fuck, it's ugly. It's a brick with large rotation brick in the middle. But...I love it. A lot.
Similarly, the "Prometheus" from Stargate.
A box with a comically large tower at its back. It looks so stupid, but I kinda love it.....
Just because a ship is blocky doesn't mean it's ugly. Omega is well proportioned, with easily distinguishable shapes that communicate the purpose of different parts of the ship and lights on antennas, engines and inside the hangar contrasting the dull grey paint job. Prometheus on the other hand is just ugly, with no redeeming qualities. It's a kind of a ship you can build when all you have is five Lego pieces. Deadalus is a marginal improvement, imho it's too snuby. Infact most of the ships in Stargate franchise are ugly to mediocre, to my bitter disappointment.
No B5?!? Some of the best designed ships out there...
Honestly had never considered this. Thanks.
A ball has the biggest volume amoung all shapes.
Actually, the Star Destroyer was white, not grey. White looks grey in the darkness of space.
Someone else who remembers Dreadnought!!!
Whats that nice little corvette/frigate thing at the begin?
My absolute favorite ship designs are tue Destiny from stargate universe and the Leviathan from Fractured Space.
rip Fractured Space, this game was truely a feast for the SciFi eye and had amazing ship designs.
I'm more of a USR fanboy. Watchman, Ghost, Destroyer and the pride of the fleet- Colossus, mmmm!
Oh! You did talk some eve ships!
Great video thank you! 🙂
Covenant ships be triangle af
10:05 That looks fine, though? All the clutter is limited to sections of repeating elements, which makes them read as negative space. The biggest problem I see with it is that it's just boring. It's a big grey brick with no standout elements. Not even a splash of colour or obvious insignia. It has *too much* negative space.
It's a ship from a multiplayer game, it probably has shit ton of skins 10$ each.
The ugliest design was that of the Ori warship in Stargate SG1. It was basically a flying toilet seat.
It is one of the better looking ships in that franchise. The majority of others are just bad
In space, why do you need a front and back for a spaceship? Space does not have direction. So why do you to know which is the front?
Because the back will usually have more thrusters so the ship has faster acceleration in that direction and the front will usually be more armored with more weapons since doing it on all sides would cost way too much. The front is also the direction that the cockpit is looking in most of the time
Sarcastic Reply
Rule 1: Add a lot of stuff that shows how technologically advance it is.
Rule 2: If good, make it look like a good guy with it being only rusty and rundown yet still able to run liike the flash, if evil, add at minimum 2.4 billion sharp evil looking pointy things that saws "a yes, evil, but i am good" even though people say it makes it look like a mess and unable to see anything, they are haters, ignore them.
Rule 3: People who are against war have ships with no weapons, yes, even if it makes sense to arm it for pirate raids, they still don't have it. the hate violence. the ship are also either super tough or super fragile, no in-between.
Rule 4: Ignore all forms of science, that is what makes good designs, just make it what you want. people ask, just say space magic and there.
Fin.
But in seriousness, designing the ships are based on a few good principles of character designs and art directions and what people find good and appealing in said designs.
If you want a realistic take, go ahead and ask yourself how it would be or look like IRL if it had our current understanding of physics.
If it is less hard and given leaway, then how would it interact with these special items and properties? Would it change a good deal or what?
If pure fantasy, then you can just ask the question of, "Can't you make this jump with that amount of fuel left, can you?" and answer with "Alright, bet." and have fun with the rules you established in that world.