hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Another fairly quick doodle -- this is over-greebled right now but I was just exploring what might work with the intent of deleting it later. 28213
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 11/08/2026I wasn't keeping careful track, but I think a little over 2 hours with about another 30m spinning the viewport and not doing much before bed. But remember I am reusing the texture and using a bunch of BMS kitbash greebles I didn't make for the higher frequency detail. 010
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Apropos of all this geonodes, a reminder that you can define some random color and UV offset attributes for a setup like this along with all your panel solidifying and save a ton of time with a single reusable package. 060
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 11/08/2026As always, my laziness is powered by the BMS starship kit (though I rarely use it unmodified these days) 1120
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 11/08/2026A quick work in progress -- generating random silhouettes and just elaborating on them to force myself to try new shapes. Also, now that I'm on 5.2 and have geonodes bevel my panel split setup is one globally editable modifier at long last. 2202
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 10/08/2026A scene from the Second Witch King's War -- the orange creamsicle wheeled tanks are holdovers from much earlier in the war, dragged out for one last hurrah. As always, 100% blender. 17017
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 04/08/2026A reprise of a piece from a few years back. I enjoy the Homeworld cinematic compositor tree. 0748
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Still poking at the compositor and material setup with the test model. Probably time to make a better model for this. 0407
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 30/07/2026A bit of lazy texturing and paneling. TBH this is a fine concept but would need to be rebuilt for anything more substantial than a warmup. Still not really happy with the lighting and compositing setup but it is at least at the point where it's reusable now. 0607
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 29/07/2026If you guess the plane there's extra credit. 191
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 29/07/2026A little bit of WIP stuff -- cut up a plane model in the tradition of ILM and made something out of it. No textures because laptop. 1449
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 29/07/2026A bit more work on compositing and materials (don't mind the model, it's just a placeholder) based on some of the 3d SW art by EC Henry/Angelos Karderinis (and the original concept paintings) I'm not quite happy with it yet but part of that is just an issue with the placeholder model. 1525
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Not really happy with this warmup -- result of a bit of silhouette sketching. But I have to wrap it up eventually. 1151
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 20/07/2026It's a shame he turned out to be a bit of a sex pest but that's par for the course for the 70s SF scene. 020
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 20/07/2026Back and trying to get into the swing of things. Will I make a warmup that isn't a fake book cover with a bullshit name? No, never! 28715
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 29/05/2026And another scale comparison -- this is not a small spacecraft! 0150
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 29/05/2026Of course I got distracted and started modeling internals for no reason, why wouldn't I do that? 512512
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 28/05/2026Long time no PBR (and TTT). This is a (WIP) tether-limited freighter with a large post-tether DV budget. The composite hull is partly for insulation and partly for collision protection in crowded environments. Hydrolox propulsion and a few thousand tons of useful cargo. But mostly tankage. 316934
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 24/05/2026This is all that's going on - the cuts on some planar faces are due to a mix of laziness and reducing UV distortion. But basically it's just a mix of knife cuts and extrusions. 100
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 24/05/2026It's entirely poly modeled. Unfortunately there's not a good way to describe random extrusions. I use a free addon you can get from the blender addon database that makes all faces planar to help generate interesting shapes and work quick and messy. Other than that there's not really any trick 100
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 24/05/2026A quick and crunchy texturebashed ship just to get the shapes down 410621
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 21/05/2026And in service red (red is the Stealth Color in Yad because they are aquatic). Does this matter in space? No! It's an F-117 situation where some admiral said 'paint it red because red is stealthy and badass' instead of listening to her people and painting it an actually stealthy grey or blue. 0162
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 21/05/2026A very large MMO warship -- more stuff from the end of the period I'm focusing on in TTT. This one belongs to Yad and is notable for its size (~680m) 310518
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 20/05/2026And because it's better, with the old ship instead 0446
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 20/05/2026A revised background with some advection bullshit on the background. I should maybe paint a flow map instead of doing it this way but whatever lol. 15810
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 18/05/2026And a fun little dither experiment with the cruiser. 0346
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 18/05/2026A bit of earlier tests of the background and compositing setup in yesterday's scene starring @elukka.bsky.social's missile cruiser and an An Nath class. Obviously these ships don't actually coexist but the An Nath is probably representative of many ships that exist in Elukka's setting as well. 25511
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 18/05/2026A bit of work on a revised illustration compositor setup resulted in an actual finished piece. Obviously due credit to Peter Elson, whose work this piece is shamelessly trying to emulate. While there are still problems with the setup, it at least works really well for stuff like this. 29520
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 10/05/2026Also a bit of crunchy telescope imagery and dithering as a little treat. 1130
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 10/05/2026But 'End-Vanguard' or 'Zero-Vanguard' is more faithful; the mouth symbolizes endings rather than beginnings in Naran Lat and zero is a mouth. A common motif here is 'Teeth of the Witch King.' But if you were translating it to English, a more faithful effort might be 'Horseman [Of The Apocalypse]' 1202
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 10/05/2026A bit of work revising the Padanshee. This is a hard to translate word and is often translated poorly as 'Vanguard' (sanewashing) or 'Mouth-Vanguard.' 'Padanshee' refers to both the class of warship as well as the Witch King's volunteer troops. 111417
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 06/05/2026It's all 3d with a bit of extra processing to fake a more 2d look 010
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 05/05/2026And an illustration dither because I believe everything should be illustration-friendly. 0102
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 05/05/2026A bit of quick environment work -- I started doing Piotr Kryński's excellent environment art tutorial but found an interesting shape and got distracted (and disregarded a lot of the composition stuff in the process). So I'll have to go back and do the actual tutorial. 🙃 2315
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 04/05/2026And some fun little dither experiments that came out of the process but that were not suitable for something that needs to be printable. 071
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 04/05/2026A poster commission for @tomwhite.bsky.social's retro game inspired by classis like Escape Velocity for the Playdate handheld, Hyper Vector. You can check the game out here: play.date/games/hyper-... 1465
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 02/05/2026Sometimes you just wake up and decide to make a shitpost art. 2415
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026For additional context, this is why 37t makes for a monster. This is a PR-3 next to the Scale Lada. This is a *very* aggressive tank with a very big gun but the savings you get from even a slightly smaller fighting compartment and reduced profile are huge. 040
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026Whereas the LCDT proposals reflected a more cautious foreign policy centered around slow, deliberate military buildups, a preference for supplying local allies instead of sending troops, and a (somewhat quaint) fear of an invasion on the home front. This school of thought didn't prevail. 130
hailsanta.bsky.social @hailsanta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026So the PR-3 speaks to the Hall's decisions about its modern diplomatic and military posture (stridently interventionist, very willing to fight foreign wars of choice, and willing to carry the grudges from the Second Witch King's War to their ultimate conclusion) 120
