Chato'matou'Gormoshk: Artwork

[Josh]

On my hit list of aliens I'd like to see in freeorion these guys are definitely up there. I'm not sure if it's their sunny disposition or endearing gem-like charm, but I think these guys have promise. Their claims to fame seem to be symbiosis and spectral sensitivity, not to mention their crystalline nature.

There is another thread that covers this topic, but I have a few reasons why I didn't post there:

1. It's shrinkshooters thread, and even though he's not here, I'm hesitant to hijack it.
2. It only covers ships, this is a more generic Chato'matou'Gormoshk thread for anything Chato'matou'Gormoshk related.
3. Many images are missing. Not ideal for a public reference thread, plus nobody can see the images.

Also, I'm refraining from suggesting and storyline changes for aliens. It may be fun, but frankly I didn't design these guys and it's not my area of expertise anyways. Also, I went the obvious route this time (for shame) and didn't do anything particularly new or innovative; if taken to its logical conclusion, crystal beings = crystal ships, so I went with it.

Here ya go:

Chato'matou'Gormoshk Ships


Don't these guys have a short hand for their name? Typing the full length every time is just preposterous.

[Tortanick]

I'm surprised no one else commented, I wanted to see other's opinions before I posted. As always you've got some nice designs although for some reason I don't feel like I have much to say.

taken to its logical conclusion, crystal beings = crystal ships, so I went with it.

I'd be careful with that sort of logic, if we apply the same rule to humans we'd be travelling in biological ships, however Kharagh said he approved of crystal ships back in ShrinkShooters thread so all's well this time

For shorthand you could use Chato'matou, I just copy and paste their name whenever its needed.

Their claims to fame seem to be symbiosis

you just triggered my pendacisism: its debatable weather they're symbiotic or parasites, the Chato'matou themselves worry about it, myself I think they're parasites but its probably not much worse than battery chicken farming, bad but not enough to brand a race evil. That's one of the things I loved in ShrinkShooter's drawing of a Chato'matou'Gormoshk is that you could see this: the Chato'matou really looked out of place, an alien entity attached to the cute Gormoshk. Anyone still got that picture?.

[pd]

I'm fine with crystal beings = crystal ships. I didn't realize at first glance, that these are crystal ships. This might have to do with the simple diffuse shading, instead of a shiny, glossy approach or it could be something else. Whatever it is, I believe the designs would benefit from more variety in scale of the individual forms. Big hulls should have bigger crystals than smaller ships have, while still featuring the equally sized small crystals to show of the scale.

I like the smallest ships most and I think it's because they got the scaling of individual forms relative to the total ship size right.

References I found quite interesting(in case you need some more):
Rutile, Kyanite, Adamite, Garnet, Quartz, Tourmaline, Aragonite, Pyrite, Sphene

[Geoff the Medio]

Don't these guys have a short hand for their name? Typing the full length every time is just preposterous.

If they don't, they're going to have to. A name that long will not fit into the UI properly.

(At some point I may also write a mini rant about silly-looking alien species names with unnecessarily irregular spellings and gratuitous apostrophe use. This one gets some bonus points for not ending in "ians" though)

[Josh]

THANK YOU, I thought I was the only one who felt that way

Don't get me wrong, I like the races in general, but the names are sometimes just pretentious. I'd rather have something that at least rolls off the tongue or has some etymological root, like the Tamans from UFO AI. They don't all have to be so... long. Anyways...

@pd: I really liked the way these ships turned out in general, especially the medium and larger sized ones . I personally don't see anything wrong with the way the crystals are forming up, but if you really want it to be changed, I'm sure I can oblige.

Pretending for a moment that these aren't ships made of literal crystal, at least the basic patterns look okay right?

[Bigjoe5]

Hmmm? I don't know how you're pronouncing Chato'matou'Gormoshk, but it certainly seems to roll off the tongue naturally to me. I put the accents on Cha (pronounced "sha"), ma, and moshk.

And yeah, I think incorporating different sized crystals into the larger designs would give a more impressive indication of scale.

[utilae]

A name that long will not fit into the UI properly.

Really? It seems like the UI could be a little more flexible. But it is true that shorter alien names will appeal to the player more.

[shrinkshooter]

I Tort warned me of the idea of crystal ships to go with crystal beings a long while back when I first proposed the idea, but although I agree with him, I still really like the idea of crystalline ships. What I was thinking, though, was that to make them look properly crystal, I'd want them to look smooth and glassy, which would require highlights and gradients and maybe some glows on pointed edges. At least that's what I think of when I think about making something look glassy, a couple good examples are pd's hi-res shield and stasis pods. I'm not sure how you would translate this shiny-ness into the game unless it were a static picture or angle, but I'm sure someone knows a heck of a lot more about that than I do.

I'm hesitant to hijack it.

Hijack away. But it's a little late to be saying that now.

[GlasShadow]

here is a little Crystal fighter i threw together its just under 700 polys

[pd]

I've just added this tiny bit to the 3D Content part of the guidelines.

We should aim for something like this in terms of quality. Also, have a look at this post for reference.

So, technically what we need is:

• low poly meshes for the ships(There aren't any poly limits yet, just keep is reasonable.)
  color, specular, self-illumination and normal bump maps for each of the meshes.

It's most likely necessary to build high poly models to create the normal bump maps, although they can be painted in certain cases.

[GlasShadow]

um wha?, seen all these before.

here is a little Crystal fighter i threw together

just an idea as the concept art is rather vague

also which end of the guardian thing is the front?

[pd]

Sure, I just wanted to clarify what we need.

It would be nice to have a detailed sketch of at least one ship, but there is none at this point. I might develop Josh's concept further once I'm finished with the Trith.


The guardian's front is where the arrow is pointing to.

[pd]

Here is something interesting I just came across: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeiMfLmJtzk

[eleazar]

Here is something interesting I just came across: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeiMfLmJtzk

That's truly amazing!


I think the basic concept of these ships need some elaboration. A bunch of nearly uniform crystal spikes, just doesn't provide enough visual variety to make the various ships interesting or easily distinguishable. Since currently the silhouette is the only distinguishing feature, ships will likely become hard to distinguish at random angles.

Try varying the size and geometry of the crystals that make up a ship, to create distinctive features, focal points, and interest.

[pd]

Here is something interesting I just came across: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeiMfLmJtzk

That's truly amazing!

I came across the entire documentary, where this scene is taken from. It's called "How earth made us" and it's quite interesting.