Thursday, July 23, 2009

Subfighter Day.

Yep, it's update day.

Today we've uploaded the Seafire and Broadsword to the Atlantis website. You can find them in the site library.

Nathan has of course, predictably, found several problems with the design of the Seafire, so I imagine that this means you will eventually see one or two revisions of that fighter - much as the British did with the original Supermarine Spitfire.

Enjoy the updates.

As always - more to come...

Saturday, July 18, 2009

The Atlantis Ashes... continued.

I am sitting here right now staring at an unopened word file on my desktop, feeling a great sense of apprehension. Should I open it? Or should I get my customary morning pot of tea boiled and brewed to sooth my frayed nerves?

Every now and then, I have a new short story dropped in to my inbox by a fan, enthusiast or someone wanting to help. Not everything that is sent to me is a work of Hemmingway, mind you, but once in a while it does surprise me what you - the reader - can come up with. It is both a very rewarding and very terrifying experience to see Atlantis through someone else's eyes. Sometimes they nail it, other times... they need some direction.

To be candid for a moment, Atlantis has been a project of mine for over seven years. In that time, it's grown in to something bigger on its own, and I because of that, I care about what happens to it. Taking a leap of faith and letting someone else try and alter or expand on what you've created can be daunting, and while I love to allow this, the biggest challenge is trying to gently adjust this outside content to fit with what I see as being the world, look and feel of Atlantis DSV. It is much harder, of course, to get the persont that created to see Atlantis in the same way.

The amount of material being produced behind the scenes as of late is staggering, and this will be underscored in the next day or so with another update for the Atlantis site. There are no less than five people at this moment working on things for Atlantis. These ranges from short stories to 3D work, and even technical concepts for a few planned projects.

For today however, here's a couple of developments that you can expect very soon.

First... the Broadsword.

This is the successor the SA-29 Lysander class commonly seen in Atlantis, and seaQuest 2032. It's a large fighter, and I've been sitting on the design for quite some time. She was designed and built by Luke Wrightson, and was based off the older Broadsword concept that began life as a design for the Nosferatu stealth fighter. I textured her recently and these are the results.


For a point of comparison - here is the original design.


Next up, we have the NSC's flagship fighter... The Seafire.

The Seafire is named for the Supermarine Seafire of the Second World War - essentially, the navalized variant of the famous Spitfire. Designed by Nathan Leong and Keith Carpenter, she was built by Keith last year and I spent almost all of yesterday texturing it.

Drawing from a multitude of other designs, including the SR71, SU27, Spitfire and even the SF38 Raptor, the Seafire is the NSC's answer to the UEO's own flagship fighter class - the SF-38 Raptor II.


Both of these are coming to the Atlantis site in the next couple of days. So while I witness the systematic annihilation of the Australian Cricket Team in England, I have to grudgingly give Round One of our own Atlantis Ashes series to Keith.

Monday, July 13, 2009

History demands rivalry.

Just a note to say that there is, unfortunately, going to be a delay in the release of the new Seafire class subfighter of the NSC. Some complications with the model have arisen that need it to be revised. With any luck, we'll have it back within a few days.

In the mean time, here's something that I'm working on between all these updates. I suspect it will make for the subject of a really, really big update at some point in the future - as it really is a labour of love.



In other news... I really do think that this is an appropriate time to post the NSC, and as I've had a few requests recently for more Macronesian material, I have a dastardly idea.

For those in the British Commonwealth, you are undoubtedly aware that this is a time of epic struggle between two titans of sport... (Ok, so maybe it's more of a David and Goliath relationship at this moment)

Yes, the Ashes is underway in England, with the first test last night being drawn for a level series between Australia and the home side. Last night's highlights, of course, saw a lot of British procrastination in trying to avoid a horrid defeat at the hands of the colonials, and some laugh-inducing moments of cowardice (literally) as English batsmen physically tried to hide from the fast bowling of Australian paceman Peter Siddle.

A century of sporting tradition between these two sides dictates that the rivalry must be fierce, and there can no surrender, retreat or quarter - this is a grudge unlike any other in world sport.

And so... While Keith continues the onslaught of NSC (English) ships, I'm going to respond by ramping up the Macronesians.

As I'm sure Keith is reading this, he can take it as a friendly challenge...

NSC vs. Macronesians... Blow for blow, for three weeks. It doesn't matter who wins, or even what the victory conditions are, but I'm propsing nearly a month of head-down, tail-up work in an attempt to get the entire fleets of Macronesia and the North Sea Confederation on the website and out of the way.

It's long overdue, and sure, it's a big task... And sure, I'm going to have to spend more time in Photoshop and Maya than I thought my already-wanting social life permitted...

I think it can be done.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Video: Photoshop compositing... And the mystery sub.

Well, here it is.

Apologies for the slight delay. Computers arent being very cooperative this evening

I won't say much, because as you can see - she's not my boat! Any questions you may have about it can be directed at her designer and builder... Which, I suppose you can pass through me.

(Video: 36 Megabytes, H.264. 1024x576. Right click-> Save as to download)

Content Inbound!

Yes, that's right.

It is July First, and that means it's approaching time for a significant update on the site. Over the next few days, you can expect to see around three new entries in the site's tech library, as well as a few more character biographies.

But what of that announcement?

Well, stay tuned, because at 8:00pm, Australian Eastern Standard, I will be making one more post that will put to rest this month's mystery sub.