otaking77077

How to use 3D to draw massive ships.

Added 2025-02-27 21:09:26 +0000 UTC

Good day and hello!

It is I, Paul Johnson! And today I'd like to share the process I use to draw large spaceships! Or even small spaceships.

Obviously, the TIE Fighter animation required a lot of Star Destroyers and capital ships. And since the game team had kindly shared with me how to rip the 3D models from the game, I had access to all of the ships, space stations etc in 3D format. So I used those to set up my scenes!
The 3D models themselves are rather low-poly, which was fine by me as I want to draw all the details in myself.

A typical 3D setup shot looks like this:

I then ink over everything and add in all the details and greebling etc by hand. I added in some turrets as well for this shot:
Then come the background and flat colours, all done in Photoshop:
Tone 1 of shading:
Tone 2 of shading:
Lights! Adding tons of tiny lights always makes something look huge. Model makers in Hollywood have known this for decades.
And that's pretty much it! Here's another example from the rear view of this craft (It's Vice Admiral Thrawn's Victory-class Star Destroyer, hence why it has the little wings):
Then the inking:
Background and flat colours:
Shading (plus some airbrushing):
ENGINE GLOW!
Then all it's missing is the lights:
The same process was used for most of the ships, really:
Finished shot:

The useful thing about building your ships etc in 3D is that you can model them pretty low poly, like so:
Draw up your sketch for whatever background you need:
Drop your crappy 3D model in:
Then paint your background and ink a ton of detail over the basic 3D ship:
And then colour and shade it.
If i then need to have any shots of this ship from different angles, the proportions and everything will stay consistent, as there's a crude 3D model under there as a base.
I'll still have to repaint the background though... ;____;