It's a stylistic choice on my end, because when we first did the Crusader, we looked at the Genesis Starliner and we wanted to keep some of its core shapes and things like that. So when we did the Starlifter and the Star Runner, we kept some of its elements. And one of the elements was that it had a hump on it, which we thought was pretty cool. So it kind of just transitioned across all of the new ones that we've done. And it looks cool. It kind of adds to its silhouette, which is nice.
TL;DRSarah McCulloch explains the external cargo container mount as a mag-plate-like system, inspired by farm machinery, that grabs and lifts containers to make loading easier and clearly signal the ship's delivery purpose.
Yeah. So this would be almost what I imagine mag plates to be. And your cargo container could drop down on a hydraulic system and pick them up and then pull them up, so that loading is a bit easier for you instead of manually loading it with a crane or something like that. This thing can just come across, grab them and pull them back up to its surface, and then they can sit there and off you go with your precious noodle cargo containment and stuff. That's my thinking anyway on this: it's always, how can I make people's lives easier when we're making this kind of thing. And mag plates definitely do it for me for this, because these can be quite big containers.
Yeah, because thinking about it, it would be easy enough to take something like a Starlifter or whatever and just load it up with a bunch of internal shipping containers full of Bennies. But if you're trying to design something purpose-built as a delivery vehicle, where it clearly says this is for this purpose, having this stuff on the exterior is probably one of the only ways to really communicate that.
Yeah, that's it. It's just thinking about those little things that really do help with the design and making it feel a bit more solid rather than, as you say, loading things little by little. And because I live by a farm, I was looking at all the haystackers, and they've got these big bars that go across and it's all external. And so I was thinking maybe some sort of grabber or some sort of magnetic plate would be pretty cool. And that's how I came up with this idea, because there's a lot of farm machinery by mine. And that's how I get a lot of ref for a lot of this stuff.
Yeah, that's it. It is influenced by MISC, because we do have the Hull, which I think is such an awesome idea: this external cargo, and you can see it, and some of the shapes as well are really nice, and I like the thrusters, the shapes of them and things. And Crusader, they've been building ships for the longest time, so they're kind of like, how can we make it bigger and better?
That's a very good question. I mean, have you seen those videos where people have sculpted toilets out of them and utilized them for making false nails out of them and things like that?
Well, I think at this point they can be used for anything. I think I could probably fashion it into some sort of heat sink. Like you doping up your ship item instead of like a fuse.
My first concept was a fire extinguisher, a sci-fi fire extinguisher that had to have different types of foam in it. So the fire extinguishers that you see around, I think it's Port Olisar, are mine from when I first started, like six years ago, when I was innocent and just did fire extinguishers.
Mercury. Sorry, the Star Runner, the Mercury. It was my very first one that I ever did. I'd worked on other ones, but just in terms of parts of corridors or engine rooms, like the Starfarer engine room I did way, way back.
Yeah, that's it. I dabbled in quite a lot before I started on the Star Runner. It was interesting because I kind of learnt from the ground up all the stuff that I needed to know, which was really cool. And it's fun.
TL;DRShe says it might expand and collapse like the Hull series, and could combine extra cargo storage with a magnetic plate for specialized deliveries like vending machines, as an all-in-one package.
Maybe. I don't see why not. I think it would be fun to do it. Or, like I say, it's got that section and it also has some sort of magnetic plate as well. So you've got this double thing going on where you can have extra cargo storage, or maybe if you're opening a store, you could grab some of these vending machines and things like that. You've got a special delivery of just little vending machines that you can stick to this.
Yeah, that's it. So you've got an all-in-one package: you've got your shop stuff and then you're basically set. And that's what Crusader is all about, solving stuff, because they've been building ships for one of the longest times. So you'd think they'd be pretty good at it by now, right?
TL;DRConcepts get sent back mainly when they don't look like their intended role or are too wacky for the purpose, but experimental pitches can still prove valuable, and the process is one of refining toward what the art director wants.
I suppose it's a few things. Sometimes when you do something, it doesn't look like what it's supposed to do. That's one reason. It can be quite tricky sometimes to nail a certain look and aesthetic to a craft, especially when it doesn't look like its job role. So sometimes, I know me, I get really excited, and I make a bunch sometimes that don't even look like their role, but it looks cool, so I'll just pitch it anyway. And then it'll be like, it's a bit too off the mark of what we're looking for, sort of thing. But for me, it's kind of like a wild card. It might be really good and be like, yeah, you know what, we can use that. Or you might just be like, no, that's far too wacky, that's not going to work for its purpose, sort of thing.
The number of things that have been discovered through blue sky experimentation cannot be underestimated. Concept artists will get a brief, and trying to pull that image that only exists in somebody else's head out onto the paper is hard enough, but sometimes there can be a lot of value in discovering the things you don't want along the path of finding the things you do want.
Yeah, that's it. It is a huge refinement process of exactly what you're after. And sometimes you don't really know what you're after until you do go a bit wide of the mark or are a bit wacky, because you kind of just have to get it out into the open and just do it. Because I think you feel better as well as an artist to just try and get these ideas out, because no one can see inside my head. So it's kind of just like, well, this is actually what I'm thinking when I'm concepting this. And hopefully my art director will be like, yeah, that's good, we like that. Or, no, that's a bit overzealous and it's a bit crazy. So it is a huge refining process. And as I say, as you do it more, you do get better at doing it.
TL;DRSarah McCulloch says thruster placement, which must fit the ship's shape language, and choosing a sensible spot for an interior toilet are small details that can take a very long time.
I suppose it's integration of, I know it sounds crazy, but thruster placements. Because you have to make sure that they look right on the craft. And as I say, on the Mercury, they're built in a certain way so that they don't interfere with the exterior of the ship too much. And I spent quite a considerable amount of time getting the correct placements of them so that it didn't interfere too much with the overall shape language, because when you start cutting into stuff, you pull stuff away. It was just making sure that the flow of the ship looked correct with exterior placements like thrusters and things like that. It's little details like that that you can spend an insane amount of time on. And even stuff like choosing the right destination for the toilet in the interior of a ship can take you quite some time, because you're just like, right, okay, don't want it to be too close to a bed just in case you might hear things, that sort of stuff. Especially if it's a multi-crew. Don't want space belly or whatever. So I always try and pick a good destination for the toilet, out of the way, away from everything.
I think it can be. I suppose it just depends, really. I mean, this is probably what I would say is far too wacky, because we have a bowl-shaped noodle-firing turret thing. And as I say, a lot of the stuff is based in a lot of real-world stuff as well, so you kind of have to be a little bit careful of just how wacky you go. But a lot of the time, as I say, I do come to my poor art director with some crazy stuff. I like out of the ordinary. It's just something that I tend to do naturally anyway. So it's why I think making stuff like this is just my bread and butter.
Yeah, that's it. I love doing this with you guys and stuff, and I would have been doing this anyway in my spare time. So it's nothing crazy for me to do. It just means that you actually see what I do in my spare time now, embarrassingly creating crazy stuff like this.
TL;DRApproval depends on size and shape: smaller concepts take about a week or two and bigger ones roughly three to four weeks, with back-and-forth refinement along the way.
Yeah, it does depend on obviously size and shape. The smaller ones can take a lot less. I suppose it takes about a week or two for the smaller ones, and then it can take about three weeks, four weeks, something like that maybe for the bigger ones, just because there's so much to them. There's a lot that has to be accounted for, and then getting the feel of it right, because they're such huge silhouettes on the landscape and stuff like that. As I say, it just does depend as well. It's just a refinement process, and sometimes you might not hit it straight away, and there's a backwards and forwards that does go between. But this stage for me is one of my most enjoyable, because this is where I get to let my hair down and create crazy stuff. And not too crazy stuff really, simple stuff as well. It was weird actually, when I was making all the pieces as well, I was looking at this chap and I was thinking, actually, that looks like a cool little ship by itself, sort of thing. And that doesn't even sell noodles. That's a thing as well with different types of pieces: sometimes you can repurpose stuff like that, that you think, actually, that might make a cool ship, and you kind of save these types of things for later down the road, when you think that would actually be quite cool to work off. As I say, it's a cool process that I do love to do.
So with the Mercury, we tried out a lot of different, varied shapes of this. This was just off the back of the Hercules, so we kind of knew what direction to go in, but we also wanted to have a little bit of a different spin on it. So we took that and just ran with it, and we ended up with quite a lot of varied, different shapes and ideas. We always had an underlying feeling like this for us is our next step in Crusader Industries. And it was like a courier craft. What do we want out of this, ultimately?
TL;DRThe team borrowed the Starliner's raised midsection and anvil-like top shape and the Hercules' air-intake inspiration, and explored asymmetry, which is why several of the designs are asymmetrical.
Well, we looked at the base shape of the Starliner, and it had almost like a hump in the middle section, and then it kind of looks like an anvil from the very top. So that's what we did with a few of these. We've had this midsection that's slightly raised in the middle and then kind of just spread out further towards the back. So it kind of gives that same appeal as the Starliner. And the Hercules had these sort of air intakes, and we got some of the inspiration from that from real life aircraft. So that's what we did for these ones. But as you can see, we did quite a lot of investigation work with these because originally it was going to go really far out, because we also had in the back of our minds asymmetry as well. So that's why there's a few of these that are asymmetrical, because it's what we wanted to go for.
Well, asymmetry, I think silhouette-wise, it's a good thing to stand out from the rest of ships, which is quite nice. I know the Caterpillar is quite a nice example because that's slightly asymmetrical. I absolutely love asymmetry. And also, it was just a point of interest for us to just investigate it and see. That's actually how it looked. And as it turned out, it looked quite nice.
Well, it's mainly beetles, because they also have their wings encased in an exterior, and then they're deployed outwards. So like this one, which is like a sweeping wing. I use a lot of ladybirds' wings, which are quite delicate, but they fold out into such a cool shape.
TL;DRThumbnails are very quick first-idea silhouettes made in 3ds Max and doodled over in Photoshop, aimed at giving a ship an instantly recognizable shape and purpose even from far away.
So a thumbnail is just getting it on the paper as quick as you can. It's like your first thoughts of what you're thinking internally. And these are done very quickly in 3ds Max, and then I put them into Photoshop and just literally doodle over them. And as you can see, this is number 73. So these are very fast, but they're just initial ideas formed off everything else that's come before it. And then we obviously get feedback and then they change.
Just to find that initial silhouette. Historians might remember the old spotter cards from World War II, when they would just have the silhouettes of planes so that soldiers on the ground could identify which plane was overhead, whether they were friendly or foe. The silhouette is your first read of a ship, and thumbnails are super important to just get that initial first glimpse, like, yes, that's how we want the ship to feel, before you go into all the crazy detail that comes throughout the process of building the ship.
Yeah, and that's why asymmetry works quite well as well, because you'll know instantly, even if it's in silhouette, exactly what ship it is. That's what I want. I want an instant read, even if it's miles and miles away. I want people to know exactly what it is when it's approaching you, because that way, like you said, you can identify its purpose as it's approaching.
Data carrier as its main objective. However, I like to have little surprises on my ship. I gave it a ventilation system as well, with compartments in the ventilation system for sensitive data, or if you've collected anything in particular that you want to stay hidden, shall we say. It evolved actually into something much more complex, and for me, I want it to be a really fun experience when you're on a ship. So it's almost like a level. So you can run around, and if you're getting hijacked or whatever, you can actually get out of that situation by what you've got on your ship, in terms of placement of objects and how the flow of the ship is. Which is what I did with this.
That's an excellent question. It's something that's still being developed, still being worked out by our game and systems design teams. When we have more information on that specifically, we'll of course do a segment on that stuff, but I would encourage you to check out the original promotion page, which will have the available information we have on those game systems there. Luckily for concept artists, they don't have to worry about things like how the game systems have to work.