Another fun thing regarding the star destroyer is that the first few imperial star destroyers were launched a few months before the end of the clone wars meaning that they probably originally had Venator style paint jobs
If you are referring to Booster Terrik and the Errant Venture then he wasn't a Pirate, but a Smuggler. The New Republic allowed him to retain the salvaged ship provided he turned over the vast majority of the ISD-II's weaponry. :)
Booster Terrik! Man got bored with smuggling, so wanted the smuggling to come to him. Got his hands on an ISD during the Thyferra campaign and managed to keep it, but severely down-gunned. Could never find enough red to paint his ship for a reasonable price, and considered it an attack on him by the long-dead Emperor that the only paint he could find at sufficient price and quantity was Star Destroyer White. I think Booster finally managed to get the red paint as compensation from one time the New Republic needed the Errant Venture, though I'm not sure about that.
I always found it such a shame that in Mass Effect, the codex talks about how a ships radiator panels start heating up during battle, forming new patterns nicknamed "war paint" or "tiger stripes". Such a cool mix of looks and function. But it never shows up in the cutscenes! They just keep the normal colour scheme!
I found Mass Effect really didn't care about the in game visuals of spaceships. The Systems Alliance, Turian, and Geth ships look just like upscaled or downscaled versions of each other instead of having different models.
I think it's one of the badab war IA books for 40k that mentions some salamanders void armour that does the same, when it heats up it turns from salamanders green to intricate patterns glowing red from heat. Always thought it was a cool idea
To be fair, the Codex does mention that the visible-light tiger stripes are only on older warships with those types of radiators. Up-to-date radiators are efficient enough to only emanate light in the infrared range. I do like how all the hard science is buried in the codex, so that people who only care about space opera tropes aren't at risk of being put off, while the science enthusiasts get a bunch of really cool details.
@@cp1cupcake Alliance cruisers and dreadnoughts are distinct from one another, but you have to know what to look for. The similarities make sense in-universe since the only real *role* difference is the amount of firepower they bring to the table, and that's directly tied to the ship's size. Too bad we never got to see Alliance carriers, since they were a big deal in the lore. My big sore point when it comes to fleet visual design is that in the lore the Quarian Migrant Fleet consists of a variety of ships sourced from all over the place, but we only ever see the two designs. It would have been cool if there were a bunch of other races' designs thrown in there.
And we don't see any awesome fan films showcasing Mass Effect ships and their occasional battles... I swear, Mass Effect needs more Codex lore exposure to the masses.
And then there's the Orks, where painting your ships (and anything else really) provides actual tangible benefits so long as you have enough orks around XD
Things like the victory stripes are one compelling reason. Those were added to limit friendly fire incidents. So having a ship with a recognizable visual pattern, especially if it was done in sensor reflective paints, could be useful. Say a hospital ship that has a cross on it that reflects light at a specific frequency while the hull is painted in a different "frequency" so an optical sensor could see the reflection of the lidar scan and would pick up the frequencies and annotate the icon of the ship in the command plot with possible non-combatant status. Of course you still have to be close enough to get a solid visual confirmation on the ship, but it would help reduce friendly fire.
@@Wastelandman7000 I know in one of the XWing novels, it's mentioned that one of the insectoid species had a white fighter, but in the ultra violet range it was a fancy pattern of colours
@@cooper10182 There was a pretty entertaining post on Reddit I saw a while back that pointed out that to Romulans and Vulcans, the Romulans painting everything green might carry the same connotations as humans painting everything blood red. Of course, the connotation is lost when viewed by humans or Klingons who don't have green blood.
They use IR markings for that in real life in some militaries. Lots of gear worn by US troops include little IR-reflective bits that they can unmask when they know friendly air support is overhead. That way, when an AC-130 paints the entire battlefield with an IR flood light, they can clearly see where not to shoot at, but to someone without night vision goggles, the IR-reflective bits will be a lot less obvious than flares or smoke might be.
@@Virgil38 I don't know, both [Insert Your Favorite Here] and [Insert Your Favorite Here] are pretty good, I think that [Insert Your Favorite Here] is the best of the three.
Imagine seeing a space craft and it's using the same colours and symbols as the faction did thousands of years ago when it was just a random hodunk tribe in the hinterlands in their equivalent of the bronze age. I'd call that commitment.
You could say that the modern tradition of painting shark mouths on combat aircraft is a continuation of the ancient Greeks painting eyes on their triremes.
in Star Wars: X-Wing: The Bacta War Rogue Squadron paints their fighters in their personal livery. E.G. Wedge paints his in the same color as his parents gas station, Corran paints his in Corsec colors, and Gavin paints his to look like a krayt dragon. this is done to show that they've turned "Rogue" and are no longer part of the New Republic.
Chris Foss always made my favorite spacehip art. If you're advanced enough to launch fleets of starships, then the paintjob on the ship doesn't matter. You might as well make it as vibrant and eye-catching as possible. It reminds me of late WW2 American aircraft that got rid of camouflage paint and just had the bare shiny aluminum finish because it didn't matter if they were detected.
One fun thing to add to differentiate species when it comes to ship decoration is differences in vision. Aliens might paint their ships in all kinds of patterns that make sense or look good to them, but if they see a different spectrum of light it might look totally different to a human. This can be relatively minor, like the Vargr from Traveller seeing in the same spectrum as humans but having comparatively poor color vision, so their reasonable color schemes look eye bleeding garish to a human; up through Star Wars' Kaminoans seeing mostly in the ultraviolet, so to humans all their pigments look white or black. Aliens without eyes like the Eridians from Project Hail Mary (they "see" through highly developed sonar) don't care at all about markings or paint, so their ships are just whatever color the hull material is.
Notible the Imperial Sunburst in Traveller has to be to distinctive in multiple spectrums. The shape of the symbol and that it is contrasting to the background is what matters not the colour,
Amusingly, I can also see the opposite for an alien species like the Eridians; they can't see what their ships are colored, so the protective coatings applied to the bare hulls of their ships makes them an eye-searing bright neon party of clashing colors that look hideous to us and others whom share our visual acuity
@2:24- I'm going to correct you regarding the color schemes of submarines. Yes, we typically go with Black, as that is a good medium for most circumstances at sea, but in WWII in the Mediterranean Sea most combatants went with a royal blue, as the sea itself was very clear and the reflection off the bottom of shallow areas tended to return that color. The other thing about paint for submarines: It has to be extremely flexible- almost rubber-like, as the hull contracts and expands with depth-changes. That's a major challenge for paint manufacturers............................
The hull is also compressed when at depth. I remember reading about a WW2 American submarine skipper who's cabin door would jam below a couple of hundred feet due to the compression and flexing of the hull.
@@igncom1 ... and are not bad in the tabletop wargame B5Wars. Sure, they hit decently hard (not as hard as, say, Earth Force or Centauri warships, but they still hit pretty hard and have several good toys for countering things like mass fighter and missile attacks via the energy mine... which is why B5 has less strike craft strength than most other universes) but they're brought down by their lack of technological prowess. However, even the Minbari were impressed by the Nova class (the Nova did get to fight the battle it was built for, and the Minbari warrior caste was so impressed by it that they gave the class top targeting priority) and ordered the worker caste to design and build their own (... though they had similar problems to several subvariants of the Nova class in terms of powering everything, it's hard to argue against *_12_* neutron lasers).
They painted their ships that way to seem more advanced technologically than they really were to other races. It kinda works, they look far more advanced than Humans, even though they are not by the time of the show.
This is why I like the liquid crystal skin system from GURPS. Basically, it's a skin material designed to create any pattern you wish, from parade colors to combat camo, with a key command. Need to maximize your camo against visual targeting? There are settings for that. Need to show where the hanger bay is? There's a localized setting for that. Need to ensure that everyone can see you? ... you know the drill already.
In the Honorverse, the shape of nearly every starship in that setting is identical because of the constraints of the sublight propulsion system universally used, leading at least every warship to be a double ended spindle with hammerheads at each end. But each star nation in the setting has its own method of identifying them. Manticore's ships have bright white hulls that use configurable nanotech smartpaint and display only their pennant numbers for identification while Andermani ships are similar but have their names on their hulls in gold leaf. I remember reading somewhere where Weber said that would have to most likely change if the book universe were adapted into a television or movie format though. As visual audiences would need an easier method of distinguishing between ships of two different factions.
"I remember reading somewhere where Weber said that would have to most likely change if the book universe were adapted into a television or movie format though." They changed the ships for the Tales of Honor comics.
As always, Homeworld is the gold standard here. From Taiidan tiger stripes, Kushan angular paint, solid yellow Coalition, dazzle-camo Vaygr, to leopard-print Turanic, every faction has distinctive and unique liveries. I don’t think any other series matches it in use of design language
The one thing I thought about for my setting is how countries like to put their flags all over everything. Such a visual is important to identifying the affiliation of real-life naval vessels, but even though it does little or nothing to help identify a spacecraft, I decided to have the nation flags painted on the sides of their ships in my sci-fi series. Not over the entire vessel, just somewhere on the side where it looks good.
Over _everything?_ You know that only certain kinds of countries go that far, right? Anyway, I do something similar with all my spacecraft designs nowadays. Instead of flags I use insignia akin to those on military aircraft. In space where there's no up and down for orientation, a roundel should work better than a flag. When perspective shortening comes in because it's looked at at an angle, how would you tell 🇮🇹 and 🇭🇺 apart? Most of my insignia designs aren't roundels, though. I place them on multiple surfaces to have one visible from about every direction. Sometimes I use flags too, but square variants of flags, because they have to fit where I chose to put insignia normally.
@@frankbruder3097 I specifically said NOT over the whole vessel. Only in a certain spot on each side. I figure the flags are there more as a ceremonial function than anything else. Looks good when in dock or in some sort of parade. Perhaps even when flying over a city to impress their own populace or intimidate others. Identification comes down to ship profile and electronic IDF. Crews pretty much never look close enough to even see the flag, especially if they're on opposing sides in a war.
I like to think that paint schemes used, can vary even within a setting. Depending on the role a vessel has to fulfill, the paintjob will be different: Military vessel: likely darker colors preferred, to minimize reflected light to avoid detection (important for large vessels/stealth ships) However darker colors increase the need for heat rejection (or dumping it into internal heat-sinks, to maintain stealth capabilities) "Construction" Vessels: Bright signal colors. Cargo vessels: balance between cost-effecttiveness and appearing professional. Passanger Vessel: similar to cargo vessels, + evoke more confidence into the safety of the ship. Luxury vessels: being opulenten and doing stuff just because you can.
I'm reminded of a description in one of the William Shatner authored Star Trek spin off books. A Starfleet vessel with an explicitly stealth mission had a surface coating that was black with what are effectively sparkles mixed in. Intended to prevent both visual and electronic detection.
I actually read that book! That was a special black ops defiant I think. Kirk was resurrected by the Borg I think and was going to use him as a Locutus 2.0. Kinda a quasi sequel to Generations and I remember liking it quite a but!
I was about to go down to the comment section to mention the old Terran Trade Authority colorful ships ... aaaaaand you went and mentioned Chris Foss!! Awesome!
Bit of a fun tangent, the RCN painted two ships with dazzle camo for the centennial of the Navy in Canada and they looked so good they never repainted them. So if you are looking at a big naval exercise and see blue and gray dazzle camo it’s ether HMCS Regina or HMCS Brandon.
It reminds me of the “Frontlines” book series, where ships start out in dark colors so as not to be visually spotted by other human fleets, but once humanity is fully in the war against blind aliens, the Earth nations paint their ships in highly visible colors like high-visibility jackets so that they avoid shooting at each other.
In the book version of the Expanse, most of the ships are either unpainted, have minimal markings, or are painted matte black as camouflage against the black of space. Because there are hardly any windows (or even exterior cameras) flashy designs aren't needed. The standout for this is Jules-Pierre Mao's yacht, the Guanshiyin, which has this elaborate mural adorning its hull. The only purpose for this was to show how ludicrously wealthy Mao is, which I think is some pretty interesting worldbuilding on the authors' part.
NOTE: White/lighter colours absorb heat slower but they also radiate it slower than darker colours. So there's a pretty decent argument for going with either of those choices, or any given point in between. Ideally of course, you'd be able to vary the reflectivity of the outer hull so you could have it be as reflective as possible in direct light/heat whilst being as radiative as possible for all the shaded parts.
e-ink? or rollers that are dark on one side and light on another. I think I've seen signs with rollers that are triangular (or more sided) in cross section. Maybe one side could contain the livery colors.
@@augiegirl1 Bah! I've had several white cars, and they show basic dirt and dust far less than darker or flashier colours! Still, their loss was your gain, clearly! 😁
@@jakeaurod Either of those would probably work as basic, reasonably low tech method of doing it at least somewhat, assuming there's not minor issues like the e-ink cells having performance issues at either or both extremes, or the rollers getting stuck in place due to expansion or outgassing/leaking gases or liquids when heated and then freezing when shifted away from the lit/hot side.
@@DrBunnyMedicinal The only dark-colored vehicle they've had in my lifetime is the maroon 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that my dad got 2 years before I was born; he sold it in the early 2000s, when I was in my mid-20s, to a person who had the time & money to restore it properly. All their other vehicles have been silver or light brown/beige. My first car (which my mom got when I was in kindergarten & I learned to drive in) was a beige 1978 Dodge Aspen, & my second car was a silver 1989 Mercury Sable, bought in 1999. Since then, I've had 4 white & 2 silver cars: a white 1989 Chrysler New Yorker bought in 2003, a white 2005 Mazda 3 bought in 2006, Grandpa’s white 1995 Mercury Grand Marquis inherited in 2008 (the Mazda became my husband’s primary car after Grandpa’s car became my primary car in 2014), a silver 2001 Grand Marquis bought as a backup in 2018, a silver 1997 Grand Marquis bought in 2019 after Grandpa’s car was totaled, & my current car is a white (with a navy blue upholstered top) 1995 Grand Marquis, bought in 2021 after the 1997 was totaled.
I love that Star Wars is starting to get into painted ships with these new pirate designs in The Mandalorian and Skelton Crew. It's like you said they add a lot of character to the ships.
they aren't "spaceships" really but the livery design of the wipEout games has always been my favorite. I wish more things would incorporate that sort of motorsport inspired graphic design.
The Chris Foss style deserves its own video, but there are very practical reasons for that kind of vibrant, distinctive and possibly personalised paint job, that was explained in Larry Nivens Known Space IP. ... instant identification. In that case ever single space suit was adorned with a custom design, from impressionist art to semi p0rn0graphic to cat pictures, for the simple reason that you could instantly tell who was who without having to look for a ID number and do the translation in your head ("D53F345A is that the David guy or one of the new ones from Io station?") And in an emergency being able to tell who's who and call them over voxc without thinking ("Red Ferrari [with a classic sports car drawn on their suit] there's a loose power cable behind you!! Jet forward"). It would become a point of personalised expression. That can also extend to ships if there's a lot of smaller mass produced ships .. A unique appearance because Humans are evolved to identify each other and places by sight, colour and patterns, not by a string of numbers. Then there's scale, which is hard to judge outside an atmosphere. But a yellow and black checkerboard pattern can give you a frame of reference and reduce the chance of a collision when eyeballing distances. And also prevent the embarrassment of going in the wrong ships airlock. Helping surface dwelling primates navigate instinctively by eyesight in a zero gravity vacuum is a major safety and convenience factor.
Also didn't go into stuff one would expect like basic signage such as "AIRLOCK" "Turn clockwise to Open" "Danger Beware of Thruster Blast" "Lifepod" etc.
in my fictional universe the ships are shaded with desaturated green with blood red accents. The in-universe reason is that the hulls are made out of fungi-based chitin to help protect the crew and equipment, and are mostly bare, the red paint acts as signaling for other ships to know what is the specialization of the one they're looking at. One pattern will show it's got exotic minerals and refineries on board, another will show it's a civilian ferry for example.
Fun fact - In the original Star Wars Expanded Universe there is an entire fleet of 100 Victory-Class Star Destroyers known as Crimson Command because, when they were being constructed, their outer hulls used a unique alloy because the material normally used for it was unavailable. This alloy was a deep red, hence those ships getting the moniker of Crimson Command. Just an interesting tie-in to you mentioning that it isn't just *paint* that can affect a ship's colour scheme.
And, of course, you can mix and match livery paradigms within a single setting to further distinguish the vibes of individual factions. I.e: The military superpower has lifted the matte grey stealth coatings, small, reserved markings, and maybe a few orange highlights straight off a 5th gen fighter jet; The loose coalition of prideful merchant houses has two dozen different combinations of bright, garish colors to choose from; The expansionist empire prefers black and buff for the not so subtle allusion to the Victorian period Royal Navy; The plucky underdogs sport bare metal and mylar, because they can't afford the time it takes to apply a paint job and/or are trying to eke out all the performance they can from inferior technology; Etc.
Still say Captain Harlock's Arcadia is the finest pirate vessel to sail outer space, it's best feature is a skull & crossbones armoured plating across the front hull that's designed to ram enemy ships.
Even dull "grey" vehicles have markings and hull livery. That's a proud tradition that extends even to even the space shuttle because the crew want you to know who they are.
A great example of this is from Oban Star Racers! They did a lot of clever work in their unique species' races. I fully recommend a piece on that series!
I feel like the “anti-radar/-sonar materials are naturally black” section could’ve included an honorable mention to the ships from Star Trek Online. If I’m not mistaken, some of those cool black-&-white color schemes reflect different hull materials & armor plating - and look damn cool at the same time! Also, waiting for the day when an IP has ship armor plating (eg anti-sensor, blaster-resistant, high-strength, w/e) that’s naturally hot pink, with all the derision/infamy/love that comes with such an eye-catching color scheme! 😆
My 2 personal favorite markings: 1) The Redtail airplanes from WW II and 2) The words "Abandon All Hope" scrawled on the hull of a Chig stealth fighter in Space: Above and Beyond.
LOL! When I saw the title of the video, the first thing i thought of was the art of Chris Foss, which I absolutely adore. Great choice showing him creating concept art for Jodorowsky's Dune. The second though I thought of was the plethora of paint jobs and decals available for the many ships in Elite Dangerous (which I also adore). One of the fun things about multiplayer events is seeing the various customizations that people show up with on their ships. I can be like a classic car show, if the cars were capable of hyperspace jumps and bristling with weapons!
Going Full Chris Foss should scare the crap out of your opponent, because it says that things like 'mass' or 'thermal profile' or 'being detected' are beneath your concern. You are to fast, tough, and advanced to care if some schmuck can see you coming to kill them.
Remember: not everything has to be a nihilistic future dystopia like the expanse where ships are intentionally ugly because aerodynamics don’t matter in space, which is something Holden is genuinely depressed over. If you want space aggressor camo, go for it, rule of cool baby.
the ttrpg Lancer has a really cool approach to spaceship decorations that I'm so surprised I've never seen before. the ships have these huge stylish holographic projections somewhat on the style of figureheads from the age of sail. but of course they don't need to worry about drag or weight with a hologram so they can get pretty wild with it
You mentioned materials naturally having different colours but not "Structural colour" like on insects. This uses texture to shift the wavelength of reflected light. This could make excellent camouflage or thermal control in space while adding little or no weight.
I always liked the look of a pure white spacecraft, maybe with some suble weathering, and bright colorful decals on it. Be that the logo of the space agency or company or the flag of the home country of the craft. Also I think it would be cool if the paint was an in universe protection against radiation simular to how irl paint is used to prevent rust.
Missed opportunity to show off the rebel ships of I-War, which were hijacked Federation ships covered in graffiti and taunting slogans. One is featured prominently on the I-War Defiance box art
I think purely in a realistic sense warships would always be completely reflective to deflect energy from lasers as much as possible, but I do love brightly coloured ships, especially industrial ones. Still silver is cool, it's very early jet age
You mentioned the Invasion Stripes used on Allied aircraft in WWII, as well as the nose art popular on aircraft of the era. Something else that's fun to point out is the identification symbols painted on the planes, known as Roundels, are also color-coded, and they evolved throughout WWII to aid with friend-or-foe situations, especially since one of the Axis Powers, Japan, was formerly an Allied power from WWI, and still carried the Allied-style circular roundel vs the cross-shaped roundel typical of Central Powers like Germany. Both the US and Brits had roundels that incorporated a red bullseye center. The Brits had the three-color bullseye typical of WWI European Allied powers, and the US had a blue circle with a white star and a red bullseye center. Since Japan's aircraft also carried a red circle, the Brits and US both dropped the red bullseye center in the Pacific Theater (the US dropped it altogether), and the US added a set of horizontal bars to make their roundel more distinctive. To this day it's pretty typical for Air Forces to mark their planes with some type of color-coded roundel, either in their national colors or in a subdued pattern to match the aircraft's paint scheme.
Can't remember which novel it was in, but one of the TOS ones has Scotty give an explanation for why the ship was white instead of gray. The white paint was supposed to be ablative so that it was easier to see where the ship was damaged by high energy sources if sensors didn't work.
I remember I didn't like drawing colorful ships, just gray, white and black. Then I discovered Cris Foss' work and changed my mind a little. Excellent channel recommendation for the public.
In my sci-fi, hull color is mostly determined by material. One is an element called iron^3. While a little less dense against collision, it resist heat and laser damage, and has a slight green hue. Later there is a black/purple glossy stealth ship that was made specificly to try and counter the MC.
Just because your setting is realistic doesn't mean your ships can't have Drip. Since there is no stealth in Space, paint your spacecraft to look fabulous.
I use glass bonded ceramic pigments, which are baked into the fuselage. Then, more pigment is applied, and finally sealed with a coat of oil and glass dust, and baked again. For a smooth, reflective, heat proof, radar proof, idiot proof surface. It could look like porcelain, it could be red, it could have gold letters, melted into engraved notches... I also do metal finishing, leaving the metal bare, to display the crystal structure. Shiny black, color case hardened (looks like tie dye), and red steel are all achievable. But lately, I've been making aluminum planes, with porcelain on the outside, painted, and engraved with precious metals. Cause I'm too Bouje to even sell anything, so I just inflate the prices of all my designs.... Or it wouldn't be Sci fi
Big missed opportunity to talk about Thrawn's Chimera and other cases where important character uses a generic ship model, which is made distinctive by custom paint scheme
Allegedly, the British Royal Navy's low accuracy (by WW2 and later standards) and annoying tendency to explode at the Battle of Jutland in WW1 was due in part to paint. It seems the crews practiced reloading the main battery guns plenty enough, but actually firing them in gunnery practice meant having to repaint the guns and turrets afterward: the muzzle blast would burn and blacken the paint, and the Royal Navy took how showroom-fresh a ship looked into consideration (among other factors) when deciding whether the officers were running their ship properly. And, since the Admiralty didn't spring for many repaintings, the budget for cleaning up after a day of target practice either came out of the ship's general fund, or the officers' pockets personally. Accordingly, most ships decided the cleanup from target practice beyond the basic minimum wasn't really worth it, especially since they could flatten a target almost as quickly by volume of fire if they found ways to reload faster. In fairness, better fire control and fire direction techniques were bigger factors in improving the gunners' accuracy. But not bothering with target practice beyond the bare minimum to save on repainting costs, and especially storing live shells and propellant in the turret to compensate with faster reloads, was never a wise idea.
1. the venator is the most beautiful ship in star wars, fight me 2. I absolutly love the homeworld games for their artstyle and paintjobs 3. did anyone find anything about syncverse, I coldn't find anything, it looked great
Life seeing rank, unit, kill counts, veteran symbols, and personal decals, especially on fighters, mechs, and power armour Production origins and local variants too, like Forge Worlds in 40k
It's not about traidtion or not that the rocket is painted or not. Like in case of Vulcan-Centaur I didn't understood why ULA wasted the paint on the bottom half of the booster during the 2nd flight, but Tory mentioned that it is coated with some kind of insulation and the paint helps protecting that insulation layer.
As someone who works with industrial paints due to selling it, I can confirm another reason to use paint is to provide an additional seal, as depending on additives, resins, etc. used in the base of the paint, the paint can form a tight seal over the surface painted, which can help to hold said surface together, keep it air or water-tight, or even to increase material hardness without effecting rigidity. 🐍
Narn: "We like red." Centauri: "We like purple." Minbari: "We like blue." Drazi: "We like green (and nothing else)." Humans: "Yeah, we're just sticking with the color of metal."
Ok gonna use this awesome video as another opportunity to make a text wall about the ships from the novel that I'm writing. I'll keep names vague here to stop people from copying me because the book isn't finished. Essentially you can tell a lot about the nation you are writing about by the way they build their ships. For example, in my story, there's the Empire, which builds angelic ships with gold and white plating with floral patterns worked into the accents. It's part of their facade of attempting to appear as the good guys. On the other side of the conflict, there's the Federation, a militaristic spartan-like warrior society with military greys marked with small trim accents and splinter camo patterns. The imperial ships look like they're designed to fight with speed and grace and also show the empire's immense wealth and power. Federation ships are angular and practical designed to kick ass above all else. Theres a little plot point about both sides attempting to build stealth ships. The imperial ships are detected imediatly on radar because they attempted to incorporate gold into the hull accents, and it gave huge radar returns because of its reflectivity. Theres stuff from other nations too, with the monolithic stone-carved ships of the Republic, the avian/gothic designs of the United Houses (think modernized and practical 40k aesthetic), and the steam train inspired sloped wedge ships used by the People's Republic. The Central Provinces adopt a sea creature aesthetic with blue on white colors, and the Confederacy uses chisel shaped ships which fight in a manner similar to battlestars. I always thought that it was cool to write about how a ship's design and color scheme influenced both politics and the battlefield, and about how some bad decisions made in the name of aesthetics came back to bite some militaries in the butt.
Also, setting wise, one can take into account things beyond just culture and tradition, like for example IFF range and relevancy. If the setting favors close combat instead of BVR engagements, AND if weapons systems require proper positioning and maneuvering by the launching platforms, then easily recognizable paint schemes can help with building SA and provide better, quicker and more reliable IFF then any electronic system present. Just ask any pilot that was ever required to fly with the eyes outside the cockpit. The opposite will be true for settings that favor stealth and range. In such scenarios you would prefer not being seen more then being seen for what you are or mistaken for a foe. At range anyway, you will only rely on electronic IFF anyways.
Keep your ship's size in mind. Paint costs money, and space WILL sand it off. And the sun will bleach the rest. Oh, and some metals don't grip paint well (titanium), so maintenance workers will flake bits off, just by walking on it, ala US Stryker IFV's. Paint... big BIG decisions!!! Also, if you wanna have a sleek paint job, you might have to reorganize your sensor placements. Fittings may need to be taken into account. One coat might not be thick, butt two coats are, and fine fittings might be too fine for one. "What are those lines there?" "Those are radiator fin housings." "A lot of these have been painted over!"
Another good thing to consider is some smaller, practical markings. Bright highlighting for things like ports for refueling umbilical to plug into or highlighted reinforced hull segments for docking clamps to latch onto to make safe docking easier, and the reverse too, you wouldn't want a docking clamp crushing your phased array radar panels or damaging the hatches on your VLS tubes. Safety markings for EVA maintenance crews to make sure they stay a safe distance from things like the engines, RCS thrusters, or anything that might suddenly move like radiators, amiable sensors (especially ones like radar that could accidentally cook someone who gets in front of it if it's on), or turrets (even if those hopefully shouldn't be moving while you have anyone EVA). Even markings directing anyone to the closest airlock in case they need to get aboard rapidly. They can also be used to help approaching shuttles or fighters safely approach a hanger bay. Either by avoiding accidentally frying by flying in front of an active radar or by helping them know their relative speed so they don't accidentally plow into you at high speed.
I can't find anything on Syncverse. Can anyone provide a link to where I can see more of that art? I have a fondness for coloured spacecraft that began with my beloved copy of Spacecraft: 2000 to 2100 AD and continued with Homeworld.
Bit OT, but there was a Lucasarts giant mecha game from the 90s, Metal Warriors. The game had a wonderfully subtle way of using colour to indicate damage. Your Mechs started off in bright red colours, but as they took damage, the colour gradually faded. Eventually they'd start to give off sparks, then your arms would be blown off so you could no longer fight, only move. The loss of colour was a very nice visual damage cue.
In a realistic setting it wouldn't really matter what the painting or livery looked like because you'd be separated by 100s or 1000s of km launching missiles and such, which is one thing I love about the combat in The Expanse. At best, opposing alien forces would have radar profiles and peeks through telescopes. One thing I love about Homeworld's color schemes is that they were inspired partly by the Terran Trade Authority art / worldbuilding books from the 70s, which was itself an evolution of 60s futurism. But it was fewer sleek rocketships and more industrial, functional machines whose coloring and patterns hinted at obscure details of which only the pilots would be aware. If you search that name, there are digital versions of the books. Homeworld's ships are the same sort of feel.
Hiding military vessels not by steath as thats practically impossible in space, but by changing the efficiency of your engines to look like a poor vessel is a super cool idea, kinda like how the falcon looks like trash and worn down.
@@mryellow6918 Yeah, or a "silent running" mode that basically cuts engines to just what's needed for course corrections and closing any heat-sink ports, essentially cooking the interior of the ship for long as is safe. The game Elite: Dangerous has a mode like that. The range at which you can target another ship depends on how hot its exterior is. So either drop deployable heat-sinks (like bread crumbs) or use silent running to mask your heat, but risk damage to your ship modules and (eventually) hull.
For my concepts, I tend to go with anti-flash white for better thermal management, along with pastel color markings, similar to Cold War-era RAF bombers.
I kept thinking about that one pirate captain in the Star Wars EU who went nuts looking for enough red paint to completely cover his star destroyer
Another fun thing regarding the star destroyer is that the first few imperial star destroyers were launched a few months before the end of the clone wars meaning that they probably originally had Venator style paint jobs
If you are referring to Booster Terrik and the Errant Venture then he wasn't a Pirate, but a Smuggler. The New Republic allowed him to retain the salvaged ship provided he turned over the vast majority of the ISD-II's weaponry. :)
Booster Terrik! Man got bored with smuggling, so wanted the smuggling to come to him. Got his hands on an ISD during the Thyferra campaign and managed to keep it, but severely down-gunned. Could never find enough red to paint his ship for a reasonable price, and considered it an attack on him by the long-dead Emperor that the only paint he could find at sufficient price and quantity was Star Destroyer White. I think Booster finally managed to get the red paint as compensation from one time the New Republic needed the Errant Venture, though I'm not sure about that.
Didnt he turn it into a casino as well?
@@arstotzkanatthedmz4486 and a Mobile smuggler base, yes.
I always found it such a shame that in Mass Effect, the codex talks about how a ships radiator panels start heating up during battle, forming new patterns nicknamed "war paint" or "tiger stripes". Such a cool mix of looks and function.
But it never shows up in the cutscenes! They just keep the normal colour scheme!
I found Mass Effect really didn't care about the in game visuals of spaceships. The Systems Alliance, Turian, and Geth ships look just like upscaled or downscaled versions of each other instead of having different models.
I think it's one of the badab war IA books for 40k that mentions some salamanders void armour that does the same, when it heats up it turns from salamanders green to intricate patterns glowing red from heat. Always thought it was a cool idea
To be fair, the Codex does mention that the visible-light tiger stripes are only on older warships with those types of radiators. Up-to-date radiators are efficient enough to only emanate light in the infrared range.
I do like how all the hard science is buried in the codex, so that people who only care about space opera tropes aren't at risk of being put off, while the science enthusiasts get a bunch of really cool details.
@@cp1cupcake Alliance cruisers and dreadnoughts are distinct from one another, but you have to know what to look for. The similarities make sense in-universe since the only real *role* difference is the amount of firepower they bring to the table, and that's directly tied to the ship's size. Too bad we never got to see Alliance carriers, since they were a big deal in the lore.
My big sore point when it comes to fleet visual design is that in the lore the Quarian Migrant Fleet consists of a variety of ships sourced from all over the place, but we only ever see the two designs. It would have been cool if there were a bunch of other races' designs thrown in there.
And we don't see any awesome fan films showcasing Mass Effect ships and their occasional battles... I swear, Mass Effect needs more Codex lore exposure to the masses.
And then there's the Orks, where painting your ships (and anything else really) provides actual tangible benefits so long as you have enough orks around XD
Also painting the hull is Busywork for Swabbies.
Imagine Orks on the Errant Venture
@@streakermaximus the speediest ship in the galaxy, even outclassing the Falcon
@@clancykohl Da Red unz gow fastah, but diz unz da beeegezt!
WAAAAAGH
Things like the victory stripes are one compelling reason. Those were added to limit friendly fire incidents. So having a ship with a recognizable visual pattern, especially if it was done in sensor reflective paints, could be useful. Say a hospital ship that has a cross on it that reflects light at a specific frequency while the hull is painted in a different "frequency" so an optical sensor could see the reflection of the lidar scan and would pick up the frequencies and annotate the icon of the ship in the command plot with possible non-combatant status. Of course you still have to be close enough to get a solid visual confirmation on the ship, but it would help reduce friendly fire.
@@Wastelandman7000 I know in one of the XWing novels, it's mentioned that one of the insectoid species had a white fighter, but in the ultra violet range it was a fancy pattern of colours
@@cooper10182 There was a pretty entertaining post on Reddit I saw a while back that pointed out that to Romulans and Vulcans, the Romulans painting everything green might carry the same connotations as humans painting everything blood red. Of course, the connotation is lost when viewed by humans or Klingons who don't have green blood.
They use IR markings for that in real life in some militaries. Lots of gear worn by US troops include little IR-reflective bits that they can unmask when they know friendly air support is overhead. That way, when an AC-130 paints the entire battlefield with an IR flood light, they can clearly see where not to shoot at, but to someone without night vision goggles, the IR-reflective bits will be a lot less obvious than flares or smoke might be.
Thanks for shouting out [Insert Your Favorite Here]! It’s a totally under appreciated design IMO!
I'm actually not a big fan of [Insert Your Favorite Here]. A better representation would be [Insert Your Favorite Here].
Totally a Culture ship name.
@@Virgil38 I don't know, both [Insert Your Favorite Here] and [Insert Your Favorite Here] are pretty good, I think that [Insert Your Favorite Here] is the best of the three.
I really need to read those works again. @@davidmonaghan1896
Imagine seeing a space craft and it's using the same colours and symbols as the faction did thousands of years ago when it was just a random hodunk tribe in the hinterlands in their equivalent of the bronze age. I'd call that commitment.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
You could say that the modern tradition of painting shark mouths on combat aircraft is a continuation of the ancient Greeks painting eyes on their triremes.
Space Roman Empire is always a fun gimmick. (Stellaris even has it as one of the possible naming schemes for ships!)
@@benjaminlee985 in space, no one can hear you scream "Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!"
40k Imperial ships are all aquilas all day.
I always love to see ships that arent just grey boxes, as much as I love all the ones that are.
in Star Wars: X-Wing: The Bacta War Rogue Squadron paints their fighters in their personal livery. E.G. Wedge paints his in the same color as his parents gas station, Corran paints his in Corsec colors, and Gavin paints his to look like a krayt dragon.
this is done to show that they've turned "Rogue" and are no longer part of the New Republic.
Ooryl had a bare X-Wing...unless you see into the UV spectrum.
@@Tetsujinhanmaa Zraii says its a masterpiece.
in a star wars d&d campaign i played my group had a venator that had tentacles painted on it's underside reminiscent of Cthulhu
Chris Foss always made my favorite spacehip art. If you're advanced enough to launch fleets of starships, then the paintjob on the ship doesn't matter. You might as well make it as vibrant and eye-catching as possible.
It reminds me of late WW2 American aircraft that got rid of camouflage paint and just had the bare shiny aluminum finish because it didn't matter if they were detected.
And that shiny finish looked really cool. I suspect it inspired the Naboo ships in Star Wars, too.
One fun thing to add to differentiate species when it comes to ship decoration is differences in vision. Aliens might paint their ships in all kinds of patterns that make sense or look good to them, but if they see a different spectrum of light it might look totally different to a human. This can be relatively minor, like the Vargr from Traveller seeing in the same spectrum as humans but having comparatively poor color vision, so their reasonable color schemes look eye bleeding garish to a human; up through Star Wars' Kaminoans seeing mostly in the ultraviolet, so to humans all their pigments look white or black. Aliens without eyes like the Eridians from Project Hail Mary (they "see" through highly developed sonar) don't care at all about markings or paint, so their ships are just whatever color the hull material is.
Notible the Imperial Sunburst in Traveller has to be to distinctive in multiple spectrums. The shape of the symbol and that it is contrasting to the background is what matters not the colour,
Amusingly, I can also see the opposite for an alien species like the Eridians; they can't see what their ships are colored, so the protective coatings applied to the bare hulls of their ships makes them an eye-searing bright neon party of clashing colors that look hideous to us and others whom share our visual acuity
@@williamnixon3994 Something like that turned up in at least one of the Sector General novels IIRC.
Yeah but the hull could also impart different sounds to a non visual alien so they might choose different materials based on the sound.
@2:24- I'm going to correct you regarding the color schemes of submarines.
Yes, we typically go with Black, as that is a good medium for most circumstances at sea, but in WWII in the Mediterranean Sea most combatants went with a royal blue, as the sea itself was very clear and the reflection off the bottom of shallow areas tended to return that color.
The other thing about paint for submarines: It has to be extremely flexible- almost rubber-like, as the hull contracts and expands with depth-changes.
That's a major challenge for paint manufacturers............................
So basically if you want a painted submarine you'd have better luck going with dyed anechoic tiles instead of straight paint?
The hull is also compressed when at depth. I remember reading about a WW2 American submarine skipper who's cabin door would jam below a couple of hundred feet due to the compression and flexing of the hull.
*"The guy's a veritable red comet!"*
- Gaia upon seeing Char Aznable zip around during the Battle of Loum
The Narn ships in B5 were quite distinctive.
They have my favourite fleet from that series.
@@igncom1 ... and are not bad in the tabletop wargame B5Wars. Sure, they hit decently hard (not as hard as, say, Earth Force or Centauri warships, but they still hit pretty hard and have several good toys for countering things like mass fighter and missile attacks via the energy mine... which is why B5 has less strike craft strength than most other universes) but they're brought down by their lack of technological prowess.
However, even the Minbari were impressed by the Nova class (the Nova did get to fight the battle it was built for, and the Minbari warrior caste was so impressed by it that they gave the class top targeting priority) and ordered the worker caste to design and build their own (... though they had similar problems to several subvariants of the Nova class in terms of powering everything, it's hard to argue against *_12_* neutron lasers).
They painted their ships that way to seem more advanced technologically than they really were to other races. It kinda works, they look far more advanced than Humans, even though they are not by the time of the show.
Always loved the Narn cruiser; only ship in the series to use painted camouflage.
to be honest, all of the Races ships were quite easy to distinguish due to shape and color, but Narn's were definitely one of my favorites :)
This is why I like the liquid crystal skin system from GURPS. Basically, it's a skin material designed to create any pattern you wish, from parade colors to combat camo, with a key command. Need to maximize your camo against visual targeting? There are settings for that. Need to show where the hanger bay is? There's a localized setting for that. Need to ensure that everyone can see you? ... you know the drill already.
In the Honorverse, the shape of nearly every starship in that setting is identical because of the constraints of the sublight propulsion system universally used, leading at least every warship to be a double ended spindle with hammerheads at each end. But each star nation in the setting has its own method of identifying them. Manticore's ships have bright white hulls that use configurable nanotech smartpaint and display only their pennant numbers for identification while Andermani ships are similar but have their names on their hulls in gold leaf. I remember reading somewhere where Weber said that would have to most likely change if the book universe were adapted into a television or movie format though. As visual audiences would need an easier method of distinguishing between ships of two different factions.
"I remember reading somewhere where Weber said that would have to most likely change if the book universe were adapted into a television or movie format though."
They changed the ships for the Tales of Honor comics.
As always, Homeworld is the gold standard here. From Taiidan tiger stripes, Kushan angular paint, solid yellow Coalition, dazzle-camo Vaygr, to leopard-print Turanic, every faction has distinctive and unique liveries. I don’t think any other series matches it in use of design language
The one thing I thought about for my setting is how countries like to put their flags all over everything. Such a visual is important to identifying the affiliation of real-life naval vessels, but even though it does little or nothing to help identify a spacecraft, I decided to have the nation flags painted on the sides of their ships in my sci-fi series. Not over the entire vessel, just somewhere on the side where it looks good.
Over _everything?_ You know that only certain kinds of countries go that far, right?
Anyway, I do something similar with all my spacecraft designs nowadays. Instead of flags I use insignia akin to those on military aircraft. In space where there's no up and down for orientation, a roundel should work better than a flag. When perspective shortening comes in because it's looked at at an angle, how would you tell 🇮🇹 and 🇭🇺 apart? Most of my insignia designs aren't roundels, though.
I place them on multiple surfaces to have one visible from about every direction.
Sometimes I use flags too, but square variants of flags, because they have to fit where I chose to put insignia normally.
@@frankbruder3097 I specifically said NOT over the whole vessel. Only in a certain spot on each side.
I figure the flags are there more as a ceremonial function than anything else. Looks good when in dock or in some sort of parade. Perhaps even when flying over a city to impress their own populace or intimidate others.
Identification comes down to ship profile and electronic IDF. Crews pretty much never look close enough to even see the flag, especially if they're on opposing sides in a war.
Oh my god, thank you for putting the name to the artwork I loved so much when I was a kid.
I loved all the sci fi art Chris Foss made!
To paraphrase Data: Any other color seems like a missed opportunity when purple is an option.
I always had a special place in my heart for the G’Quan Cruiser.
It's a beautiful ship
I like to think that paint schemes used, can vary even within a setting.
Depending on the role a vessel has to fulfill, the paintjob will be different:
Military vessel: likely darker colors preferred, to minimize reflected light to avoid detection (important for large vessels/stealth ships)
However darker colors increase the need for heat rejection (or dumping it into internal heat-sinks, to maintain stealth capabilities)
"Construction" Vessels: Bright signal colors.
Cargo vessels: balance between cost-effecttiveness and appearing professional.
Passanger Vessel: similar to cargo vessels, + evoke more confidence into the safety of the ship.
Luxury vessels: being opulenten and doing stuff just because you can.
If ever there's new Stargate media, someone needs to do up a couple F-302s with nose art. A mongoose would be a fitting animal face, for instance.
I'm reminded of a description in one of the William Shatner authored Star Trek spin off books. A Starfleet vessel with an explicitly stealth mission had a surface coating that was black with what are effectively sparkles mixed in. Intended to prevent both visual and electronic detection.
I actually read that book! That was a special black ops defiant I think. Kirk was resurrected by the Borg I think and was going to use him as a Locutus 2.0. Kinda a quasi sequel to Generations and I remember liking it quite a but!
Da Red Wunz Go Fasta!
But green iz da best!
They do in 40k
Mines purple, have you seen were I parked?
Three times faster
a nice use of space engineers music "The need to create" in the background.
Thrawn likes art
I was about to go down to the comment section to mention the old Terran Trade Authority colorful ships ... aaaaaand you went and mentioned Chris Foss!! Awesome!
Bit of a fun tangent, the RCN painted two ships with dazzle camo for the centennial of the Navy in Canada and they looked so good they never repainted them. So if you are looking at a big naval exercise and see blue and gray dazzle camo it’s ether HMCS Regina or HMCS Brandon.
I want more nose art in space!
The Starfury fighters from Babylon 5 were flying canvases that always got your attention.
It reminds me of the “Frontlines” book series, where ships start out in dark colors so as not to be visually spotted by other human fleets, but once humanity is fully in the war against blind aliens, the Earth nations paint their ships in highly visible colors like high-visibility jackets so that they avoid shooting at each other.
My absolute favorite painted ship is Grand Admiral Thrawns "Chimaera", hands down coolest Star Destroyer in the entire series.
In the book version of the Expanse, most of the ships are either unpainted, have minimal markings, or are painted matte black as camouflage against the black of space. Because there are hardly any windows (or even exterior cameras) flashy designs aren't needed. The standout for this is Jules-Pierre Mao's yacht, the Guanshiyin, which has this elaborate mural adorning its hull. The only purpose for this was to show how ludicrously wealthy Mao is, which I think is some pretty interesting worldbuilding on the authors' part.
NOTE: White/lighter colours absorb heat slower but they also radiate it slower than darker colours. So there's a pretty decent argument for going with either of those choices, or any given point in between.
Ideally of course, you'd be able to vary the reflectivity of the outer hull so you could have it be as reflective as possible in direct light/heat whilst being as radiative as possible for all the shaded parts.
e-ink? or rollers that are dark on one side and light on another. I think I've seen signs with rollers that are triangular (or more sided) in cross section. Maybe one side could contain the livery colors.
After my maternal grandpa died, my mom & dad didn't want his car because “white is impossible to keep clean”; that's why my husband & I got it.
@@augiegirl1 Bah! I've had several white cars, and they show basic dirt and dust far less than darker or flashier colours!
Still, their loss was your gain, clearly! 😁
@@jakeaurod Either of those would probably work as basic, reasonably low tech method of doing it at least somewhat, assuming there's not minor issues like the e-ink cells having performance issues at either or both extremes, or the rollers getting stuck in place due to expansion or outgassing/leaking gases or liquids when heated and then freezing when shifted away from the lit/hot side.
@@DrBunnyMedicinal
The only dark-colored vehicle they've had in my lifetime is the maroon 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that my dad got 2 years before I was born; he sold it in the early 2000s, when I was in my mid-20s, to a person who had the time & money to restore it properly. All their other vehicles have been silver or light brown/beige. My first car (which my mom got when I was in kindergarten & I learned to drive in) was a beige 1978 Dodge Aspen, & my second car was a silver 1989 Mercury Sable, bought in 1999. Since then, I've had 4 white & 2 silver cars: a white 1989 Chrysler New Yorker bought in 2003, a white 2005 Mazda 3 bought in 2006, Grandpa’s white 1995 Mercury Grand Marquis inherited in 2008 (the Mazda became my husband’s primary car after Grandpa’s car became my primary car in 2014), a silver 2001 Grand Marquis bought as a backup in 2018, a silver 1997 Grand Marquis bought in 2019 after Grandpa’s car was totaled, & my current car is a white (with a navy blue upholstered top) 1995 Grand Marquis, bought in 2021 after the 1997 was totaled.
I love that Star Wars is starting to get into painted ships with these new pirate designs in The Mandalorian and Skelton Crew. It's like you said they add a lot of character to the ships.
Most of the ships in my book are more or less gray, but one nation uses blueprint blue with bright white trim and gold highlights in their paintjob.
they aren't "spaceships" really but the livery design of the wipEout games has always been my favorite. I wish more things would incorporate that sort of motorsport inspired graphic design.
some like the Razorback might fit the bill
The Chris Foss style deserves its own video, but there are very practical reasons for that kind of vibrant, distinctive and possibly personalised paint job, that was explained in Larry Nivens Known Space IP. ... instant identification.
In that case ever single space suit was adorned with a custom design, from impressionist art to semi p0rn0graphic to cat pictures, for the simple reason that you could instantly tell who was who without having to look for a ID number and do the translation in your head ("D53F345A is that the David guy or one of the new ones from Io station?")
And in an emergency being able to tell who's who and call them over voxc without thinking ("Red Ferrari [with a classic sports car drawn on their suit] there's a loose power cable behind you!! Jet forward").
It would become a point of personalised expression.
That can also extend to ships if there's a lot of smaller mass produced ships .. A unique appearance because Humans are evolved to identify each other and places by sight, colour and patterns, not by a string of numbers.
Then there's scale, which is hard to judge outside an atmosphere.
But a yellow and black checkerboard pattern can give you a frame of reference and reduce the chance of a collision when eyeballing distances.
And also prevent the embarrassment of going in the wrong ships airlock.
Helping surface dwelling primates navigate instinctively by eyesight in a zero gravity vacuum is a major safety and convenience factor.
Damn you Spacedock... You had me at 'Narn thumbnail'!
Same.
same
same but lost me later when he failed to cover a couple big reasons including ARMOR that reflects weapons over absorbing the energy.
Also didn't go into stuff one would expect like basic signage such as "AIRLOCK" "Turn clockwise to Open" "Danger Beware of Thruster Blast" "Lifepod" etc.
Always loved the hot rod red from outlaw star.
"Yes, that should help you keep a low profile."
Thanks for mentioning KITT.
in my fictional universe the ships are shaded with desaturated green with blood red accents. The in-universe reason is that the hulls are made out of fungi-based chitin to help protect the crew and equipment, and are mostly bare, the red paint acts as signaling for other ships to know what is the specialization of the one they're looking at. One pattern will show it's got exotic minerals and refineries on board, another will show it's a civilian ferry for example.
My first thought was Booster Terrik complaining about how much it cost to paint and ISD-II red.🤣
Could always ask the Jupiter Mining Corporation for their supplier....
@@leftoverthoughts2275 Somehow...Talon Karrde is his only supplier.....at a significant up charge.
Fun fact - In the original Star Wars Expanded Universe there is an entire fleet of 100 Victory-Class Star Destroyers known as Crimson Command because, when they were being constructed, their outer hulls used a unique alloy because the material normally used for it was unavailable. This alloy was a deep red, hence those ships getting the moniker of Crimson Command.
Just an interesting tie-in to you mentioning that it isn't just *paint* that can affect a ship's colour scheme.
I'm so happy you did a video on this subject. I've just begun to work with artists on some game design. That's will help me to discuss with them.
And, of course, you can mix and match livery paradigms within a single setting to further distinguish the vibes of individual factions.
I.e: The military superpower has lifted the matte grey stealth coatings, small, reserved markings, and maybe a few orange highlights straight off a 5th gen fighter jet; The loose coalition of prideful merchant houses has two dozen different combinations of bright, garish colors to choose from; The expansionist empire prefers black and buff for the not so subtle allusion to the Victorian period Royal Navy; The plucky underdogs sport bare metal and mylar, because they can't afford the time it takes to apply a paint job and/or are trying to eke out all the performance they can from inferior technology; Etc.
Still say Captain Harlock's Arcadia is the finest pirate vessel to sail outer space, it's best feature is a skull & crossbones armoured plating across the front hull that's designed to ram enemy ships.
Love the Chriss Foss shout-out. It's always instantly recognizable whenever he had a hand in designing something...
You just *know* that the dusty plasma radiator gearheads paint flames on the sides of their spaceships.
Even dull "grey" vehicles have markings and hull livery. That's a proud tradition that extends even to even the space shuttle because the crew want you to know who they are.
A great example of this is from Oban Star Racers! They did a lot of clever work in their unique species' races. I fully recommend a piece on that series!
I have vague memories of a robot racer getting distracted by the beautiful mathematics of falling debris before going crunch.
@2:53 The Turbokat from Swat Kats!
I feel like the “anti-radar/-sonar materials are naturally black” section could’ve included an honorable mention to the ships from Star Trek Online. If I’m not mistaken, some of those cool black-&-white color schemes reflect different hull materials & armor plating - and look damn cool at the same time!
Also, waiting for the day when an IP has ship armor plating (eg anti-sensor, blaster-resistant, high-strength, w/e) that’s naturally hot pink, with all the derision/infamy/love that comes with such an eye-catching color scheme! 😆
The Phoenix armor set from Mass Effect 1 scaled up to be hull plating would be hilarious.
My 2 personal favorite markings:
1) The Redtail airplanes from WW II and
2) The words "Abandon All Hope" scrawled on the hull of a Chig stealth fighter in Space: Above and Beyond.
The USS Vengeance is a monster-sized ship. I never realized until recently that the JJ Hot-Rod Enterprise is also huge.
Another thing you can do with factional livery in sci-fi settings is the chameleon ship. One that uses holographics to emulate other livery
I love Chris Foss's art. It tickles the imagination like little else can.
Alphanumerics, markings and emblems on ships are awesome!
LOL! When I saw the title of the video, the first thing i thought of was the art of Chris Foss, which I absolutely adore. Great choice showing him creating concept art for Jodorowsky's Dune.
The second though I thought of was the plethora of paint jobs and decals available for the many ships in Elite Dangerous (which I also adore). One of the fun things about multiplayer events is seeing the various customizations that people show up with on their ships. I can be like a classic car show, if the cars were capable of hyperspace jumps and bristling with weapons!
Going Full Chris Foss should scare the crap out of your opponent, because it says that things like 'mass' or 'thermal profile' or 'being detected' are beneath your concern.
You are to fast, tough, and advanced to care if some schmuck can see you coming to kill them.
Gotta looks snazzy when you're getting close enough to use your sword!
Remember: not everything has to be a nihilistic future dystopia like the expanse where ships are intentionally ugly because aerodynamics don’t matter in space, which is something Holden is genuinely depressed over. If you want space aggressor camo, go for it, rule of cool baby.
the ttrpg Lancer has a really cool approach to spaceship decorations that I'm so surprised I've never seen before. the ships have these huge stylish holographic projections somewhat on the style of figureheads from the age of sail. but of course they don't need to worry about drag or weight with a hologram so they can get pretty wild with it
You mentioned materials naturally having different colours but not "Structural colour" like on insects. This uses texture to shift the wavelength of reflected light. This could make excellent camouflage or thermal control in space while adding little or no weight.
I always liked the look of a pure white spacecraft, maybe with some suble weathering, and bright colorful decals on it.
Be that the logo of the space agency or company or the flag of the home country of the craft.
Also I think it would be cool if the paint was an in universe protection against radiation simular to how irl paint is used to prevent rust.
Missed opportunity to show off the rebel ships of I-War, which were hijacked Federation ships covered in graffiti and taunting slogans. One is featured prominently on the I-War Defiance box art
"To the Navy. Catch me if you can!"
I think purely in a realistic sense warships would always be completely reflective to deflect energy from lasers as much as possible, but I do love brightly coloured ships, especially industrial ones. Still silver is cool, it's very early jet age
You mentioned the Invasion Stripes used on Allied aircraft in WWII, as well as the nose art popular on aircraft of the era. Something else that's fun to point out is the identification symbols painted on the planes, known as Roundels, are also color-coded, and they evolved throughout WWII to aid with friend-or-foe situations, especially since one of the Axis Powers, Japan, was formerly an Allied power from WWI, and still carried the Allied-style circular roundel vs the cross-shaped roundel typical of Central Powers like Germany.
Both the US and Brits had roundels that incorporated a red bullseye center. The Brits had the three-color bullseye typical of WWI European Allied powers, and the US had a blue circle with a white star and a red bullseye center. Since Japan's aircraft also carried a red circle, the Brits and US both dropped the red bullseye center in the Pacific Theater (the US dropped it altogether), and the US added a set of horizontal bars to make their roundel more distinctive. To this day it's pretty typical for Air Forces to mark their planes with some type of color-coded roundel, either in their national colors or in a subdued pattern to match the aircraft's paint scheme.
Can't remember which novel it was in, but one of the TOS ones has Scotty give an explanation for why the ship was white instead of gray. The white paint was supposed to be ablative so that it was easier to see where the ship was damaged by high energy sources if sensors didn't work.
Great explanation
I remember I didn't like drawing colorful ships, just gray, white and black. Then I discovered Cris Foss' work and changed my mind a little. Excellent channel recommendation for the public.
0:39
Well well well, if it isn't my favourite small ship popping up again
In my sci-fi, hull color is mostly determined by material. One is an element called iron^3. While a little less dense against collision, it resist heat and laser damage, and has a slight green hue.
Later there is a black/purple glossy stealth ship that was made specificly to try and counter the MC.
Just because your setting is realistic doesn't mean your ships can't have Drip. Since there is no stealth in Space, paint your spacecraft to look fabulous.
I use glass bonded ceramic pigments, which are baked into the fuselage.
Then, more pigment is applied, and finally sealed with a coat of oil and glass dust, and baked again.
For a smooth, reflective, heat proof, radar proof, idiot proof surface.
It could look like porcelain, it could be red, it could have gold letters, melted into engraved notches...
I also do metal finishing, leaving the metal bare, to display the crystal structure.
Shiny black, color case hardened (looks like tie dye), and red steel are all achievable.
But lately, I've been making aluminum planes, with porcelain on the outside, painted, and engraved with precious metals.
Cause I'm too Bouje to even sell anything, so I just inflate the prices of all my designs....
Or it wouldn't be Sci fi
Big missed opportunity to talk about Thrawn's Chimera and other cases where important character uses a generic ship model, which is made distinctive by custom paint scheme
Allegedly, the British Royal Navy's low accuracy (by WW2 and later standards) and annoying tendency to explode at the Battle of Jutland in WW1 was due in part to paint.
It seems the crews practiced reloading the main battery guns plenty enough, but actually firing them in gunnery practice meant having to repaint the guns and turrets afterward: the muzzle blast would burn and blacken the paint, and the Royal Navy took how showroom-fresh a ship looked into consideration (among other factors) when deciding whether the officers were running their ship properly. And, since the Admiralty didn't spring for many repaintings, the budget for cleaning up after a day of target practice either came out of the ship's general fund, or the officers' pockets personally.
Accordingly, most ships decided the cleanup from target practice beyond the basic minimum wasn't really worth it, especially since they could flatten a target almost as quickly by volume of fire if they found ways to reload faster.
In fairness, better fire control and fire direction techniques were bigger factors in improving the gunners' accuracy. But not bothering with target practice beyond the bare minimum to save on repainting costs, and especially storing live shells and propellant in the turret to compensate with faster reloads, was never a wise idea.
_Hi! Welcome to Space Home Depot, what are you looking for today?_
_I need 2000 gallons of paint in 'Bebop Brown'_
1. the venator is the most beautiful ship in star wars, fight me
2. I absolutly love the homeworld games for their artstyle and paintjobs
3. did anyone find anything about syncverse, I coldn't find anything, it looked great
It's impressive how fantastic your content is!
Life seeing rank, unit, kill counts, veteran symbols, and personal decals, especially on fighters, mechs, and power armour
Production origins and local variants too, like Forge Worlds in 40k
It's not about traidtion or not that the rocket is painted or not. Like in case of Vulcan-Centaur I didn't understood why ULA wasted the paint on the bottom half of the booster during the 2nd flight, but Tory mentioned that it is coated with some kind of insulation and the paint helps protecting that insulation layer.
"NASA-punk" love it, a great phrase that needs no image but I know precisely what it would look like.
As someone who works with industrial paints due to selling it, I can confirm another reason to use paint is to provide an additional seal, as depending on additives, resins, etc. used in the base of the paint, the paint can form a tight seal over the surface painted, which can help to hold said surface together, keep it air or water-tight, or even to increase material hardness without effecting rigidity. 🐍
sabeen ren’s paint jobs & the mining tie fighters are good examples
I appreciate army painting in games like Dawn of War and other games. I spent a lot of time creating the perfect aesthetic. I just enjoyed it.
I'm surprised that the painted bird pattern on early Romulan birds of prey wasn't mentioned
favorite color scheme, jolly rogers livery especially in space settings as skull squadron, twice on macross on the OG VF-1 and sequen VF-25
Narn: "We like red."
Centauri: "We like purple."
Minbari: "We like blue."
Drazi: "We like green (and nothing else)."
Humans: "Yeah, we're just sticking with the color of metal."
Ok gonna use this awesome video as another opportunity to make a text wall about the ships from the novel that I'm writing. I'll keep names vague here to stop people from copying me because the book isn't finished. Essentially you can tell a lot about the nation you are writing about by the way they build their ships. For example, in my story, there's the Empire, which builds angelic ships with gold and white plating with floral patterns worked into the accents. It's part of their facade of attempting to appear as the good guys. On the other side of the conflict, there's the Federation, a militaristic spartan-like warrior society with military greys marked with small trim accents and splinter camo patterns. The imperial ships look like they're designed to fight with speed and grace and also show the empire's immense wealth and power. Federation ships are angular and practical designed to kick ass above all else. Theres a little plot point about both sides attempting to build stealth ships. The imperial ships are detected imediatly on radar because they attempted to incorporate gold into the hull accents, and it gave huge radar returns because of its reflectivity. Theres stuff from other nations too, with the monolithic stone-carved ships of the Republic, the avian/gothic designs of the United Houses (think modernized and practical 40k aesthetic), and the steam train inspired sloped wedge ships used by the People's Republic. The Central Provinces adopt a sea creature aesthetic with blue on white colors, and the Confederacy uses chisel shaped ships which fight in a manner similar to battlestars. I always thought that it was cool to write about how a ship's design and color scheme influenced both politics and the battlefield, and about how some bad decisions made in the name of aesthetics came back to bite some militaries in the butt.
Also, setting wise, one can take into account things beyond just culture and tradition, like for example IFF range and relevancy. If the setting favors close combat instead of BVR engagements, AND if weapons systems require proper positioning and maneuvering by the launching platforms, then easily recognizable paint schemes can help with building SA and provide better, quicker and more reliable IFF then any electronic system present. Just ask any pilot that was ever required to fly with the eyes outside the cockpit. The opposite will be true for settings that favor stealth and range. In such scenarios you would prefer not being seen more then being seen for what you are or mistaken for a foe. At range anyway, you will only rely on electronic IFF anyways.
Keep your ship's size in mind. Paint costs money, and space WILL sand it off. And the sun will bleach the rest. Oh, and some metals don't grip paint well (titanium), so maintenance workers will flake bits off, just by walking on it, ala US Stryker IFV's. Paint... big BIG decisions!!! Also, if you wanna have a sleek paint job, you might have to reorganize your sensor placements.
Fittings may need to be taken into account. One coat might not be thick, butt two coats are, and fine fittings might be too fine for one. "What are those lines there?" "Those are radiator fin housings." "A lot of these have been painted over!"
Maybe they should consider structural color.
It also adds weight a more expensive paint will often be cheaper for airline planes for the price you cut out of fuel.
Another good thing to consider is some smaller, practical markings. Bright highlighting for things like ports for refueling umbilical to plug into or highlighted reinforced hull segments for docking clamps to latch onto to make safe docking easier, and the reverse too, you wouldn't want a docking clamp crushing your phased array radar panels or damaging the hatches on your VLS tubes.
Safety markings for EVA maintenance crews to make sure they stay a safe distance from things like the engines, RCS thrusters, or anything that might suddenly move like radiators, amiable sensors (especially ones like radar that could accidentally cook someone who gets in front of it if it's on), or turrets (even if those hopefully shouldn't be moving while you have anyone EVA). Even markings directing anyone to the closest airlock in case they need to get aboard rapidly.
They can also be used to help approaching shuttles or fighters safely approach a hanger bay. Either by avoiding accidentally frying by flying in front of an active radar or by helping them know their relative speed so they don't accidentally plow into you at high speed.
I can't find anything on Syncverse. Can anyone provide a link to where I can see more of that art?
I have a fondness for coloured spacecraft that began with my beloved copy of Spacecraft: 2000 to 2100 AD and continued with Homeworld.
I have a question, does anodizing count too?
Thank you for including Chris Foss :) No one else designs spaceships like that man :D
Bit OT, but there was a Lucasarts giant mecha game from the 90s, Metal Warriors. The game had a wonderfully subtle way of using colour to indicate damage. Your Mechs started off in bright red colours, but as they took damage, the colour gradually faded. Eventually they'd start to give off sparks, then your arms would be blown off so you could no longer fight, only move. The loss of colour was a very nice visual damage cue.
In a realistic setting it wouldn't really matter what the painting or livery looked like because you'd be separated by 100s or 1000s of km launching missiles and such, which is one thing I love about the combat in The Expanse. At best, opposing alien forces would have radar profiles and peeks through telescopes.
One thing I love about Homeworld's color schemes is that they were inspired partly by the Terran Trade Authority art / worldbuilding books from the 70s, which was itself an evolution of 60s futurism. But it was fewer sleek rocketships and more industrial, functional machines whose coloring and patterns hinted at obscure details of which only the pilots would be aware. If you search that name, there are digital versions of the books. Homeworld's ships are the same sort of feel.
Hiding military vessels not by steath as thats practically impossible in space, but by changing the efficiency of your engines to look like a poor vessel is a super cool idea, kinda like how the falcon looks like trash and worn down.
@@mryellow6918 Yeah, or a "silent running" mode that basically cuts engines to just what's needed for course corrections and closing any heat-sink ports, essentially cooking the interior of the ship for long as is safe.
The game Elite: Dangerous has a mode like that. The range at which you can target another ship depends on how hot its exterior is. So either drop deployable heat-sinks (like bread crumbs) or use silent running to mask your heat, but risk damage to your ship modules and (eventually) hull.
Glad Chris Foss got a mention - absolutely love his art style
For my concepts, I tend to go with anti-flash white for better thermal management, along with pastel color markings, similar to Cold War-era RAF bombers.
Homeworld was the correct choice to start this video with