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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Oct 27, 2019 18:35:33 GMT
When designing space ships how do you avoid ending up with ships that look like other fantasy ships? I don't think it's possible to look at pics of and read descriptions of every fictional space ship in the world. So is it okay if your ship ends up resembling other authors work? I love space stories but ship design is something that I have never paid any attention to. And I sort of have face blindness when it comes to looking at pictures of things. So to me it feels impossible and overwhelming to look at a picture of a ship and know if it has been used before.
I was looking at spaceship pics on one of the free pic sites and I was thinking, some of these are cool and would make fun covers, but what if they're from video games? How would I know if the design was unique or not? How do artists make their spaceship pics unique, because again, do they have to go and look at every other picture ever of every other space ship before designing theirs?
Do we have any spaceship designers on here? Also same question about space stations!
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Post by dormouse on Oct 27, 2019 19:34:06 GMT
When designing space ships how do you avoid ending up with ships that look like other fantasy ships? Most writers use very similar generic designs according to their covers. I assume that's the point - this book is about spaceships shooting. But you can imagine anything you want. If a ship is built in space & never lands on a planet, there are no constraints. You could have one that looked like a wine rack. Or they might build prefabricated blocks like Lego which captains can join in any way they want. If you did that, you might want your cover to show conventionally shaped spaceships shooting at it  |
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Oct 28, 2019 6:53:41 GMT
I'll have to wait until operation Organize TUOK is complete before I decide this stuff. TUOK has a bit of everything. But I have finished mission 1 and am on mission 2 now.
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Post by robertlcollins on Oct 28, 2019 13:52:16 GMT
To some extent descriptions of spacecraft will depend on what said craft is supposed to do. Winged ships will probably be ones that go from a planet’s atmosphere into space. Sleeker ships will be for travel only in space.
If you have differing races, you might consider giving their ships features that only they would have. Look back to Babylon 5. You could tell which race’s ship it was because of what it looked like. I think, though, the real contrast would be in the interiors of ships. One race or power might prefer darker lighting and another bright lighting. Or narrow corridors versus wide, or certain color schemes, clean versus worn, and so on. The same goes for space stations, although the purpose of a station is going to affect its appearance (military post versus trading post versus habitat).
As for book covers, you might think about not having ships so much as symbols of races or governments over a star field. That could give your covers more distinction than the generic “spaceships fighting” sorts of covers.
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Post by davidvandyke on Nov 3, 2019 16:08:56 GMT
Sleeker ships will be for travel only in space. If you have differing races, you might consider giving their ships features that only they would have. Look back to Babylon 5. You could tell which race’s ship it was because of what it looked like. I'd suspect that there would be no need for sleekness in a ship that never hit atmo. They could be lumpy, blocky, or whatever suited the mission. In my works, warships tend to be simple shapes--cylinders, spheres and so on--because they're strong structurally, least vulnerable, easiest to maneuver, etc. I do like the idea of ships having "looks" that make them distinctive by species or polity. Think Klingon, or Romulan, or a Star Destroyer, or the Vorlons from B5--you instantly know what you're looking at. As for where to get the ships, stock images sold though reputable sites aren't supposed to be ripped off of franchises, but many ships will end up somewhat resembling others. That's unavoidable. |
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