For one of the scenes in the upcoming animation "The Western Outpost", the main protagonist arrives at the industrial city seated in the middle of the desert. As the protagonist looks upon the city, there will be several ships traveling about. To emphasize the fact that the Western Outpost is a bustling metropolis, we wanted to have a good variety of ship designs flying about. Even though the scene is less then ten seconds, I ended up making eleven different ships. We were planning for twelve, but found out the last one wouldn't be necessary due to the scene getting quite crowded. Besides, we had quite a lot on our plate with the ships we did end up creating.
Creating vehicles is something that is quite fun and challenging at the same time. There are so many factors to think about while designing, like "how is the vehicle going to be used?" or "does it fit in the given setting?" or my absolute favorite (and most important), "does it even look cool?". In this particular instance, the airships I imagine as more industrial freight vehicles. So, I went with a boxy, "heavy" look.
That being said, it's surprising how mashing different shapes together can sometimes go a long way as well.
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