Starship Graphics

I'm trying to find some art for the scifi section of my game system and I had a thought.
Does anyone know of a good starship creator that the images you create are publishable?

garrowolf said:

I'm trying to find some art for the scifi section of my game system and I had a thought.
Does anyone know of a good starship creator that the images you create are publishable?

Click to expand...

Are you looking for free art, stock art, or to make your own?

Anything at this point. I have been going through public domain art for the lower tech stuff but I need images for the space craft and robots and such.

There are various posters out there from Sci-Fi universes showing the ships.

Here for example EvE Online (MMO)
http://game-craft.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/EVE-ships-subcap-Tyrannis.jpg

And a rather strange and expensive idea, the video game Galactic Civilications 2 had a very good starship creator. Sadly it is still quite expensive (for its age).

I need pictures that I can eventually publish.

It won't help you now, as I am writing map tutorial guides and creating specific fantasy-based map symbol sets to meet Kickstarter goals. However, sometime after August, I will be creating a starship deck modules map symbol set that will include several starship bridge configurations, engineering sections, science lab sections, crew sections, cargo sections, etc. in varying styles (Star Wars Imperial white and black, military/industrial style, warrior style as in 'Klingon-ish', and luxury aristocratic style). These are modular, in that you can pick any particular bridge deck layout and combine it with any available additional modules to build your own custom deckplan by mixing and matching various modules. I have a sample single bridge configuration posted deep in my G+ community.

I also have a near future marine drop ship and armored fighting vehicle posted on that G+ site as well, and will be producing more.

Once I release the Starship Modules product, I plan to offer a similar Starbase Modules product in similar setup as well.

I have to complete promised products first, but creating sci-fi map material is definitely on my queue for things to do this summer.

I also have a Map thread in this same forum, currently a dozen or so threads beneath this one, so you can see the quality of my work, as well as the marine drop ship plan is posted in there (page 9). I'm a professional artistic cartographer having done map commissions for Paizo Publishing, Rite Publishing, Raging Swan Press, Conflict RPG, Dog House Rulez and many others. As mentioned I ran a KS last year to fund a series of map tutorials guides and map object sets, which I am still in the process of completing - so as to why I cannot create this kind of content for you until sometimes after August.

I appreciate it! Thanks!
Any other sites or games?

I have to show several different tech levels of ships with specific combinations of features.
Cyberage - Light rotator craft similar to Defying Gravity partial TV series
Fusion Age - Medium rotator craft similar to Babylon 5 Earth Alliance craft except with a conical ram on the front with magnetic field in the front.
Colonial Age - Heavy rotator craft/Colonyships designed to travel for decades and build colonies.

Then have several different levels of Gravitic Ships with artificial gravity, force fields, inerial compensators, hyperdrive, etc. On one end there would be Star Wars like ships with large thrusters. Then move toward Honorverse ships that move based on gravitic drives with several levels of hyperspace. Have a progression of inerial compensators starting off in low hundreds of gs to several thousand gs.

Then move into ships like the Minbari and Vorlons.
After that move into faster then light in this dimension. Star Trek warp, Stargate, etc.

Galactic Civilizations II (from Stardock) has a pretty cool starship editor and it's available for cheap e.g. from Steam.
Here's a link to a thread with some example designs.

Galactic Civilizations III is currently in the making and the starship editor is already available as a beta version.

I'm not sure you'd be allowed to use images of these designs in a product, though. Still, you could ask Stardock if they mind...

There is an Add-On for Campaign Cartographer 3; Cosmographer 3 that allows you to do ship plans and design them. The program, will HULL your deck plans.

garrowolf said:

I appreciate it! Thanks!
Any other sites or games?

I have to show several different tech levels of ships with specific combinations of features.
Cyberage - Light rotator craft similar to Defying Gravity partial TV series
Fusion Age - Medium rotator craft similar to Babylon 5 Earth Alliance craft except with a conical ram on the front with magnetic field in the front.
Colonial Age - Heavy rotator craft/Colonyships designed to travel for decades and build colonies.

Then have several different levels of Gravitic Ships with artificial gravity, force fields, inerial compensators, hyperdrive, etc. On one end there would be Star Wars like ships with large thrusters. Then move toward Honorverse ships that move based on gravitic drives with several levels of hyperspace. Have a progression of inerial compensators starting off in low hundreds of gs to several thousand gs.

Then move into ships like the Minbari and Vorlons.
After that move into faster then light in this dimension. Star Trek warp, Stargate, etc.

Click to expand...

OK, so you want original art so that there are no copyright issues with printing or publishing.
What style(s) are you looking for? Anime? Grit? Cyberpunk? Steampunk? High res CGI?
How many pieces or art are you planning on having?
What media? Pencil sketches, Black&white line drawings, Full gray-scale, Full color?
Is any money ever going to be involved in this? (Are you planning on eventually selling the books?)
Are you willing to pay someone?