submarine design

[sethpargin]

Critiques? Also, any tips on making nice, clean line work in photoshop?

[arenhaus]

Doesn't really read as a submarine. More like a fantastic flying or riding machine.

What functions do all these greebles have? A good design should work believably; piling stuff on randomly may look superficially cool but seldom produces solid designs.

Also, any tips on making nice, clean line work in photoshop?

Use vector tools. Or use Sketchup to build a model and render it as line art. Or draw it on paper with rulers and templates.

[The Fez]

When designing a watercraft, it's generally best to consider the properties of water. How do you even move through that stuff, anyway? Firstly, your design should feature an obvious or implicit mode of propulsion The primary means of propulsion underwater, at least for the last, oh, 150 years, has been a propeller. There are other systems you could conceive of, such as a system that takes in water and then forces it through a jet system, ect. Maybe that's what you've drawn. I don't know. I don't know what all of those protruding cylinders are supposed to do. It certainly seems like they're supposed to facilitate egress of some kind, but their detailing makes them ambiguous in terms of purpose. I would also affirm the previous comment that, in general, it doesn't read as a submarine. Alien vessel. Yes. Alien vessel underwater? Dubious. It doesn't strike me as being necessarily aquatic in nature. I could see it floating around an alien hive city on some forsaken world, but not necessarily plumping the violet depths of some distant ocean.

It may be best that before you (or anyone, for that matter) post a concept, you should provide a brief description of A. what it is, B. What it does, and C. how it does it. That's the base essence of concept design.

As far as doing clean lines in Photoshop, it's not exactly the best program for the job. It is, at the core of its black heart, a photo-editing platform. That it happens to have tools which can be used for painting, ect. is merely secondary to its primary function. That being said, you can achieve "clean lines", but not by any means which could be described as efficient or conducive to your ends. You can always take a hard round brush, and set the brush size to scale with pressure, or you can develop shapes with the pen tool and then apply a stroke to your path. Or, by way of ability, be able to draw clean lines with a brush in general. You will always discover, however, that Photoshop functions much better at painting, and not so well for lineart. Some people swing it, but it is, more often than not, a frustrating endeavor (at least in my experience). Check out Salaryman in the exclusive sketchbooks subforum for examples of clean digital lineart. He uses Sketchbook pro to do lineart, however.

[Amos38]

I'll put my two cents in for Sketchbook Pro too. It has some really nice user friendly rulers for drawing curves and straight lines. The program is fairly cheap - around $30 or $40.

[sethpargin]

First crit on here, and my mistakes are so obvious now that you've pointed them out. Lol. It never would have dawned on me that it didn't read as aquatic in nature without your crits. I even tried to draw from blow fish anatomy a bit, and the cylinders are supposed to be a water jet system that can be aimed via hydraulics to affect trajectory. Really helpful, guys! Thanks.

I think I'll try SB Pro. I find myself attracted to works with line art, and though it's time consuming, I've heard Feng Zhu talking about how it's a plus to see in portfolios, so I'd like to build that skill up. He uses Painter, which does have a nice quill pen tool, but the program is so damn buggy and dense.

[JOvictory]

to me this makes pretty good sence, what is the reason for the big belly? is it a fuel tank or just to enlighten the sealevel? i feel like it is a pretty good design

[sethpargin]

I wanted the belly to be a source of light for underwater exploration, lit from the bulbs on the outside, but also from within. Inside it could take on water or release it as needed as a sort of ballast. In addition, a researcher could enter this hull so it could be a sort of observation deck.

[The Fez]

I wanted the belly to be a source of light for underwater exploration, lit from the bulbs on the outside, but also from within. Inside it could take on water or release it as needed as a sort of ballast. In addition, a researcher could enter this hull so it could be a sort of observation deck.

That's a logical move. However, I think you could better refine the relationship between the top mounted cockpit and the belly-side 'observation deck'. I would look closely at deep-sea research submarines, examine how they handle piloting systems and observational systems, and how they streamline those functions. As in, do they necessarily need to be divided between two portions of the craft, or is there a way to centralize the piloting systems, and then provide observation on the numerous areas of the vessel? I think you can do it without necessarily compromising the animalian quality of your design.

[arenhaus]

I even tried to draw from blow fish anatomy a bit, and the cylinders are supposed to be a water jet system that can be aimed via hydraulics to affect trajectory.

Well, blowfish aren't exactly very hydrodynamic looking, and you haven't quite succeeded to make the water jet system to look like a workable water jet system. The jets are positioned more like broadside cannons, and it is not obvious that they are gimbaled in any way, so they don't really communicate the idea of propulsion. Plan your pseudo-engineering better.

I wanted the belly to be a source of light for underwater exploration, lit from the bulbs on the outside, but also from within. Inside it could take on water or release it as needed as a sort of ballast. In addition, a researcher could enter this hull so it could be a sort of observation deck.

So if I understand you right, it is a ballast tank AND a lighting system AND a habitable volume connected to the rest of the ship? I can repeat the advice about planning your engineering better. Ballast tank and habitat requirements are pretty much opposite; combining the two makes as much sense as combining ship's stores with garbage compactor.

[Velocity Kendall]

mercedes went the other way, they searched for roughly cubic animals that had evolved to move in a fluid environment; i present the Boxfish.