Here's a Sulieman Scout ship from the pencil and paper game "Traveller" that I started in Carrara 3 but I'm now back to working on in C4. I've played with the morph function to animate the turret and weapon on top and think it's one of the neatest new features but I'm still learning so that may change.

Mike

Message edited on: 11/11/2004 22:53

Nice model and image

Yeah, that is a cool image! Nice work! Do you think some of the designs in Star Wars Ep. 2 may have been inspired by the ones used in "Traveller"?

Much of the artwork for Traveller started coming out after the first Star Wars movie.

AActually according to Loren Wiseman, one of the original creators he and Marc Miller (the author and current owner of the game) were influenced by Starwars, which they saw within weeks of starting the writing project that became the game. So back at that time much of the art was Starwars inspire, as was much of the flavor of the game. Over the years, of course it have taken on several distinct styles depending on the version. I modeled the Sulieman way back in Raydream but I've lost that model (it wasn't very good on reflection). This is turning out much better. I've got a couple more images I want to post, if no one minds. Mike

Of course we don't mind! It's always cool to see stuff like this. I used to play Traveller back when it first came out. Had I been able to build 3D stuff back then, I'd have been illustrating our campaigns all the time. Alas.... Nice model; looking forward to seeing more.

I always liked the artwork from Keith, who went on to form FASA with his brother.

Whoo! Been a while since I heard anything of Traveller. Just to date me properly, for me it will always be the original black books with the red lines and the single word "Traveller" on them. 3D was just too slow when we were still playing. I did scan a bunch of floorplans and made a sort of "Shipyard Catalog" in World Builder (a hypercard-like application). Nice image. I always had a soft spot for the detailed-model-on-top-of-messy-desk-and-blueprints look.

It's not a "messy desk" but a luck accident. It's the images I textured onto a couple of planes as guides, but the effect is pretty cool. Here's a shot from further away that show off the planes better. I've also gotten a little further with the "aztecing" bump map.

I like the second version of Traveller... Mega Traveller from the 80's for great pencil and paper art. The Steve Jackson GURPS version, which is still available, brought out Jesse Degraf's 3D art... Check out either Steve Jackson games and look at most of the Traveller books cover art or Google Jesse Degraf and go to his Traveller gateway to see his stuff. He works in Lightwave but has a couple of good mini-tutorials, one on modeling the Sulieman and a small one on how to make the texture, that are good. His work is what got me interested in 3D art, but I haven't "spoken" to him in a couple of years. At that time we were both pretty active on the Traveller Mail List.
Note: Editing is a GOOD thing when you spell a badly as I do.

Message edited on: 11/13/2004 17:47

I kept the Library Data A-Z book from the Mega Traveller series. The second Marc Miller version (with Foss art on its covers) I stayed away from because GURPS already had a Traveller license which I loved.

We'd already switched to a DI system by the time Mega-Traveller came out. There was also something just a little pushy about the marketing at that time -- "if you don't buy this supplement then your campaign will no longer reflect official history!" I still admire the elegant simplicity of the game system, though.