Galaxy Prime Art 5: Sector Marshals

This was my first multi-ship image in the series I created for the Galaxy Prime RPG. Yeah, it's the same ship repeated over and over, but I actually did put four of them in this scene so I could get the angles right and convey a sense of perspective.

GP pg. 183, "Depending on which side of the law you live on, the sight of the
Sector Marshals is either a welcome sight, or if you're a pirate, it's time to pray
that your Q*Drive is faster than theirs.

I remember this one being a pain in the you-know-what because I was kept having to tweak the "exhaust" to get it just right. Plus, the cratered surface of the moon took a lot of work. I also recall that the surface texture of the ship's was problematic. It looked better in color than in b&w, so it took a little doing to get them to work in print. because of the problems I had with the surfaces, I didn't try for a strong retro look with this illustration. I let the lines stay smoother than usual and also let the highlights stay softer.

All in all, though, I liked the way it all turned out in the end.

Galaxy Prime Art 4: The Getaway

This week's image from the Galaxy Prime RPG was, if I recall correctly, one of the early images in the series. As such, it's a bit smoother and cleaner than the later images. The more I created, the more I realized that I wanted them to feel "old school," as though they had been copied out of an old pulp magazine, like Amazing Stories or The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (the latter a favorite of mine, growing up).

GP, pg. 82, "When setting explosives on a timer, always make sure
you leave enough time for your getaway.

Like last week's image, this one is at the bottom of the page and the ship looks like it's about to fly off the bottom of the page.

By the way, if you're interested in this level of detail, this is a 3D model I purchased a few years ago, and you can see more about it here at the Daz3d Web site: http://www.daz3d.com/stinger.  The original model was created by an artist named Kibarreto, who did an excellent job with this vehicle. Check it out at their site, and you can even see the cool details inside the cabin and on the undercarriage.

Galaxy Prime Art 3: Space Battle

This is probably my second-favorite piece that I did for the Galaxy Prime Role Playing Game.

GP, pg. 120: "When facing a Runarian Dreadnaught, the best
strategy for an Izars Heavy Fighter is to run!"

Because of time considerations, this is the only real action shot in the book The other images are cool, but a bit static. Honestly, I just didn't have the time or skill at that time to create cool space battles. It took a few images to develop the skills and speed I needed to make something like this.

By the way, this picture is particularly effective in the book because it's at the bottom of the page, so it looks like both ship and laser blast are about to speed off the page to escape capture.

For those of you interested in this type of detail, if you look closely at the Dreadnaught, you'll see that there is a slight curve to the ship. I achieved this by bringing the camera in close and using a very short focal length; as in the real world, this contributed a little fisheye effect to the picture, which I think helped enhance the sense of movement and menace. This also accounts for the distortion of the outer nacelle to appear a lot bigger than the other one.

Galaxy Prime Art 2: Icarus

As promised last week, here's another sample of art from the Galaxy Prime Role Playing Game by Epic Age Media. Like the work in this series, this is actually created and rendered in a 3D program called Strata Design 3D. I've been using this program for a very long time (it's currently on version 7.5 and I started waaaay back in version 3 -- probably around 1999-2000).

From GP, pg 125: "The L'Kri are known for their fast ships that
utilize powerful Q*Drives to traverse the vast distances between systems."

This particular ship design is called the Icarus, named after the doomed young man who flew too close to the sun in Greek mythology. The L'kri, by the way, are on of my favorite races from this cool game. I've got to hand it to game creator James Shade... he really came up with some super cool aliens for this game.

Galaxy Prime Art - Blast from the Past...

I was looking through my archives the other day and found some cool images that I hadn't posted here. These were created for the Role Playing Game, GALAXY PRIME, that is published by Epic Age Media.
These are all 3D images that were originally created in a very cool program called Strata 3D. I then used a lot of Photoshop wizardry to give them a cool, retro look.

From Galaxy Prime, pg 113: "Short-range interceptors and light fighters
usually have room for two crew members: A pilot and a gunner."

I've made several illustrations for the book. I'll post them here, one a week, every Friday until they run out. Hope you enjoy them!

PS: Scroll down -- there's more GP art below.