Star Citizen Live: Gamedev - Making Ship Up II

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

I suppose most notably was the Mercury, but I also did the SRV as well. Because I've been here a while now, I've also done the ship weapons, ship items. I've done promotional work as well for a lot of the ships that have been released. I've pretty much been involved in a lot of little things and a lot of big things as well. Just whatever needs to be done at the time, really.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

So a lot of what the thumbnails give you, firstly, is weight and also style language. So just from looking at this you know pretty much straight away that it's Anvil. So we do these little series of thumbnails to just get our initial shapes down and to just make sure that it has a correct weight and flows well with the rest of the series of ships. And we can explore as well new avenues of shapes without really diving into anything serious and have a little bit of fun really, which is also what it's about.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

You also want an individualized silhouette. You want ships to be able to be read from a long distance away. We talk a lot about, if you follow Star Citizen's development over the years, LODs or Level of Detail, where we create a ship that's super high poly and detailed and then we bake it down to LOD 4 and then 3 and then 2 and then 1. You want a ship that can still be read, its silhouette, from far away. I'm reminded of those old World War II spotter cards where they used to just have the silhouettes of ships on playing cards. That's how they would teach soldiers on the ground how to identify which ships in the air were friendlies and foes just based on the shape. Everything we know about the visual language of a ship starts with its shape.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

Yeah, exactly. And colour as well is really important as we get a little bit further down, because obviously you want to recognise who they are, even from a distance. So as I say, what we do here is we just block out these series of things and see what we come up with.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

Usually, yes, but designers, man, all they do is tell you what you can and can't do. We're not doing that here today.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

No, we're having a bit of fun today. Because usually, yeah, you do start off with a design brief, and it'll tell you its role, its size, what exactly is its purpose, and then you go from there really, and then you do a series of little thumbnail blockouts and that type of thing.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

It does bring up a good point. There's a common misconception. When we refer to the design of a ship, it's often considered a visual thing. In game design, and especially in Star Citizen, design is done by folks like John Crewe and Stephen Hosmer. It's a technical thing. It's a shorthand for technical design. Design happens on paper, in spreadsheets and stuff. It should have this many seats, it should have this big an engine, such and such shields and stuff like that. That's where design of a ship comes from. And then, like Elune said, that gets handed over to a concept artist, and the concept artist has to work to bring that to a visual representation.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

Well, I do try to accommodate the design language as best as possible, really. But there is a backwards and forwards, like, hey, this would be really cool, can we try and fit this in? Or it would be really awesome if we got this instead of this. So there is this back and forth that you have to have because, as you say, design's very text-based, whereas this is quite visual, and we can see visually. And then once we've got this little thumbnail, we can block it out in 3D quick, and then we put little people in, and if it's got cargo we put cargo in it and see if it actually works, and then we can go back to design and be like, hey, look, we've got some room for extra, or not, basically. So sometimes you can wangle stuff in.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

It's a very collaborative process.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

It is.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

It is. There is a lot of Anvil. I thought with CitizenCon coming up, you can do a little bit of Anvil stuff. I went out on a ledge there. It is Argo as well. There is Argo here. Some shapes from Argo as well.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

Actually, Argo and Anvil both share that kind of central sphere. You see it in the MPUV. They do share a common thing.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

They do, which is why I thought, see what they look like together. Why not?

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

Ooh, that's a good question. To be fair, I actually really like Argo, because it's quite industrial, and it was my first real go at it, and I really actually enjoyed doing it. So Argo's fun, Anvil's really good as well. I enjoyed doing a bit of that.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

Almost always. That's one of those things that are determined by a mixture of the design team and the lore team. There's always a good back and forth between design and lore about, if it's that kind of ship, what manufacturers would be producing that kind of ship?

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

I don't know. I quite like a bit of company, because I'm so used to sitting in the corner by myself and I don't have that much.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

We actually do have a couple of those in the game. The Starfarer Gemini, for instance, is a ship that was made by MISC and then retrofitted by Aegis. No, the Gemini specifically. It was originally created by MISC and then retrofitted by Aegis. But yes, you bring up an even better point, is that most MISC ships are a collaboration of at least tech between the MISC manufacturer and the Xi'an. The Tevarin, the Esperia Prowler, if I remember correctly, it's Tevarin design, but then the shields come from something else. The Banu Defender, I think the Banu Defender is supposed to have Tevarin shields. At this point, I'm getting mixed up with what's what.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

Well, to be fair, the Starfarer engine room I did, so that's why I know it's got Xi'an tech on it, because it's a triangle for a start. So it's not a conformative shape like a square. And also on the side paneling is some Xi'an webbing that I did just to extenuate the tech and the body of the engine. I did that way back, but I still remember.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

I do like a pre-existing shape language, just because it is easier to start, because you've got an example that you know that you have to hit, with something that has not been defined yet.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

You can get paralyzed by choice.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

There's so much stuff that you can choose from. It can be a bit paralyzing at times, but it can be fun, because obviously with the Crusader stuff, we had Mike's ship, we had the Genesis Starliner, and then we had the Mercury, which was a bit more softer. And that was fun. And then, as I say, the SRV was really fun, because that was really industrial. I like industrial stuff. It's really cool.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

I was straight out of university, but I had actually been, from the jacket, I'd actually been also drawing a lot of Wipeout craft and little spaceships. I originally wanted to draw spaceships in Thunderbirds, because Thunderbird 2 was almost my favourite, I suppose my favourite ship, because I just loved the fact that it had a little tiny one inside. That's the one. And then I went to university, and then Paul saw my work, and then he picked me up, and I've been working here ever since. I've never left. Hi Paul. Big up to Paul. Paul sits right over there. He sits right in front. So, keeps watch.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

Oh, the Hawk. I really, really like the Hawk. I just like the angles of it. It's quite aggressive, which I really like. And I think Anvil should be quite aggressive looking, and I really, really like it. So it's fun flying around in the Hawk. I really like its stance as well when it's landed, because, as I say, it's quite aggressive. I really like that about it. It's really fun.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

Blade Runner.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

Okay, besides Blade Runner, that's like so...

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

Yeah, it's very cliché, but the new one's really good. Lost in Space is good, Battlestar Galactica.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

The new Netflix Lost in Space, I was very pleasantly surprised by it.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

Yeah, it was really good. I was quite surprised. The Expanse as well, I've been watching, of course. Like I say, the old school, like the new Battlestar Galactica and the old Battlestar Galactica, you have to watch both. Which I did.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

When I was setting up, I noticed your box set.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

I may or may not watch that on occasion for inspiration. Star Trek as well. I watched that since I was a kid. And then obviously Star Wars. I remember the first time my dad brought that home, it was on VHS with the foil cover. And I was like, what's this? This looks amazing. And that's always stayed with me. But I also like watching superhero stuff as well, like The Boys. I recently watched that and I thought that was really good as well.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

What we do is we usually do a little box, which is our maximum bounding box, and then we can basically draw within that bounding box. So I would probably render off the maximum bounding box, put it in this, and then draw within that box just to get the weight. And also you can define areas as well, like this would be the cockpit area, so you'd have cargo, say, here, maybe it's got a ramp, and then if it's even bigger or something, you usually have a bed or a toilet, kitchen, that type of thing. And you can do that within the square of bounding box or whatever. You can plan it out in colour, like certain colours and things like that. And then you can take it into Photoshop, do your thumbnails, and kind of got an idea of where you're going to go with it.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

It can be. It can be difficult. I suppose I would reference every Aegis ship that we have. We use a ref board for a lot of this, and then we've got spaceship kits. We import them and we can have a look over every sort of... all we've done, cockpits, landing gears, wing shapes, and try and steer away a little bit and break out.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

Right, because there's nothing that says we can't expand a brand. Look at what the Mantis does for RSI. I think one of the common misconceptions or traps that everybody can get into, not just us here, but the community, is thinking that a manufacturer can only be this or thinking that a manufacturer can only be that. Obviously, we base the entire manufacturer system on much like the real world. Look at a manufacturer like Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi can make sports cars like the Evo or the 3000GT and then make giant 18-wheel tractor trailers and then make tanks and then make televisions, and none of them look anything alike, but they all come from Mitsubishi or different divisions of Mitsubishi. The same way, if you invert the example and you look at just one particular model, something like the Mustang. Look at the Ford Mustang from 1960 to 2010 and look at how much even one individual model from one manufacturer can change over the course of years. With our history being 940 years in the future, many of our ship manufacturers have existed in the lore for hundreds of years. So if Ford can change the Mustang so much in just 40 years, how can Aegis grow? How can Anvil grow within the course of 100 years?

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

Well, that's it. I suppose it's interesting because you see the new Fiats now. They've brought the old model from the past to the future now. But it's got that same style, but it's still relatively, well, it is new. And as you say, I'd expect to see these.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

The new Fiat's a good example of that. A bad example of that would be like the PT Cruiser. They're trying to bring back a woodie, and just like, no, that didn't work.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

Yeah, that's it. But then you've got people that love the classics, don't you? Like cars, like the Volkswagen Beetles.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

And then you have another phenomenon, like how manufacturers can affect other manufacturers and influence them. Like when the Dodge Charger came out, the first generation revamped Dodge Charger in like 2005, 2004, I don't know the year specifically. You then saw that trickle over to Ford when they redid the Mustang, to Chevy when they redid the Camaro. To everybody. And they all shared cues with that Charger. So a really popular design choice and design aesthetic from one manufacturer then went and influenced others. So when you see an Aegis ship and people go, oh, that looks more like Anvil. Or when you see an Origin ship, oh, that looks more like Crusader or something like that. Some of that's intentional. We love that mixture of styles and the history just like we do in the real world.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

Yeah, you expect to see, I suppose, cues. It's like, ah, that's got the DNA of Aegis, like the Nautilus, which is quite, as I say, it's quite different for Aegis. But it's really cool, and you can see its DNA within that, so it's really cool.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

Well, I suppose some variation. We do procedurally generated space stations, but, I mean, like I said, look at the variation that you see within space stations. That limited amount of variation is fine for space stations, but you wouldn't want that in a bunch of ships. I don't know, it's an interesting question. I don't think we would, though. We have a wealth of incredibly talented artists, and while we have those people here, I think it behooves everybody to use them rather than to start having a bunch of procedural generation stuff. Some games use procedural generation as the end goal. They get to that point, and then they're there, and that's it. We use it as a tool, almost as a starting point. Everything that's procedurally generated, whether it's our planets or it's our stations, we use it to get us started, and then artists from the environment team or whatever go through and then curate on top of that. Make sure you blend the biomes and stuff like that. We use it as a tool, not as an engine.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

I don't know, I like the gull wings. I'm a fan of gull wings, but maybe it's something we can explore. But I don't think we have enough gull wings in the game, personally.

Sarah McCullough · Vehicle Concept Artist

It's why I did them, because gull wings are like, I wish we had more of them, really. I would personally like to see more of them, because they are cool.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

I can tell you from experience, it's a very collaborative effort. I have named several ships in the Star Citizen universe. Basically, the call goes out. We collect names from all over the place. You don't say this person or that person can't provide a good idea. But most of the names are decided by the lore team. And the lore team is fantastic at taking in input. But I would say overwhelmingly the names come from the lore team. Which ones did I name? I named the Hercules. It was originally just the Starlifter. It was called the Starlifter through all of development. It was like a week before it got revealed to everybody, and I went to Chris and I was like, it's missing a name. What do you mean? Well, we have the Genesis Starliner, and we knew we had the Mercury Star Runner coming up. Then you have the Starlifter. It's missing a name. And he said, well, what would you call it? And I said, well, it's kind of based on the C-10, the Hercules and stuff. So just call it Hercules. That's what it does. I named the Vanguard Harbinger. I named the Harbinger part of the Vanguard. I named the Harbinger because I was a big fan of the Valiant comic book and it had just been relaunched around that time, or they were just talking about a relaunch around that time. The C-130. We've already revealed that I'm having some serious jet lag today. One or two others, but it's hard for me to remember right now. One of the best things about CIG as a company is the collaborative nature. If you've got a good idea, you've got an idea that can help move the game forward and make the game better, we don't turn you off because that's not your job or that's not your position or whatever. I'm very proud of that aspect of this company.