Sandi: 16 teams will be competing to have their spaceship immortalized - in the upcoming game Star Citizen. Last week, five teams qualified. This week, five teams will join them. Welcome to The Next Great Starship. Hi, everyone. I'm Sandi Gardiner, and this is the second episode of TNGS. This competition is about designing a starship for the upcoming space epic Star Citizen. Created by Chris Roberts. And our other judges: Mark Skelton. Mark: Art Director and style guru extraordinaire. Sandi: Sean Tracy. Sean: Crytek CryEngine evangelist - and the mean judge, apparently. Sandi: Chris Olivia. Chris O: Chief Visual Officer, Cloud Imperium Games. Sandi: And Chris Smith. Chris S: Lead Vehicle Modeller. Sandi: Now remember, to enter the competition teams had to design a gun. So we're going to do this again. We're going to see eight teams. You're going to vote on five: five are going to go through, and three are going to go into the Wildcard race. Are you ready? In the mood for judging? Alright, let's do this. Let's roll the first video. Alexander: Hello. I'm Alexander Lortkipanidze and I live in Georgia. I do modelling, I do texturing. I take pretty pictures and try to make them a reality. Andrew: Good time of day. My name is Andrew. Obviously enough, I'm also from Russia - from Vladimir, to be precise, a small city not far from Moscow. I'm a technical artist, and my specialization both generally and in this particular team - is to animate and integrate. I get a model and I make it breathe. Alexey: Hello. My name is Alexey Pyatov. I'm from Irkutsk. I deal primarily in concept art, and I normally specialize in sci-fi and game production. I'll be doing concept work and visualization. Sandi: Alright! Mark? Mark: I like that design a lot. This is one of my favorites from the competition. It's a great silhouette. I love the gas canisters that are just kind of stuck in the side. I love how the front kind of animates and turns, and then when it stops, I like how it kind of opens up a little bit. That feels really cool to me. Feels almost like a swordfish. It has that kind of long piercing nose on it. I think it's weighted really well, and I think the textures and how they implemented it are really nice. So, it's one of my favorites. Chris O: I concur. Sean: Yeah. Chris S: Agree with everything. Yeah. Sean: Actually, I agree completely, as well. It does look like a render in the end, but I mean it's a really good design. Mark: Even the concept work, man. Sean: Yeah, the concept artist work, the stuff that he was showing on screen there. Mark: Amazing stuff. Some of the best I've seen. Chris R: I like it. It's definitely one of my favorites. It's got the right amount of detail. It has a sense of weight. It looks interesting. I like the way it sort of closes in and opens up. You can see the execution on the concept. You can see the modeling, the detail in the modeling, the texturing. Pretty much all phases with the possible exception of in-engine implementation. That's some of the best work we've seen. That work's as good as anything that we would probably outsource to be in the game. Chris O: That's a great example of, like, doing really, really good concept and following it very, very closely. Sandi: Alright, well - a lot of love for this team. Have we got any negatives? I mean, questionable on in-engine, so? Sean: Just not sure whether it is or not. And if it is, that looks fantastic. But I'm not sure it is. Mark: If they did implement it in the engine, it would be nice to have maybe the metals be more metal. I mean, it looks like there's like a powder coat on it right now, which is cool, I dig that, but maybe have some spots that have variation in spec and gloss, that would've been nice. Chris S: My only comment would be, when the front barrel animates, it kind of looks like a cake mixer a little bit. I mean, I love the textures and modeling, too. It's a great gun. Sandi: Let's roll the next one. Benjamin: Greetings! My name is Benjamin Turner. I live in Mesa, Arizona. Being the only member on team Belafonte, all of the roles that are needed for the competition kind of fell on my lap. So, this is my entry for the competition, in-engine. But let's fire up the particle system and animation, so you can see it in motion. It's a little bit less outstanding without any sound effects, I'm sure it'd be a lot cooler with that "pew-pew, pew-pew, pew!" Sandi: Okay, well. In-engine? Sean: Yeah - absolutely. And definitely one of my favorite in the competition. It's a unique design, yet it looks very utilitarian - but I guess it would be anyways. And the in-engine implementation looks fantastic. I love the counter-rotation on the barrels. And the variation in material across that. It's really well done. Sandi: Chris, your opinion? Chris O: I liked it. It was an overall nice design, it looked pretty powerful, beastly. I think it could've had a little bit more alien fluid tech to it. Sandi: So Chris, what did you think? Chris S: Overall design of the gun was good. I think I agree with Chris, it could've used a little more alien manufacturing technology in there. It sort of looked only man made with human technology. And it looked a little bit similar to our gatling gun, that we already have. But I thought the texturing was pretty decent, the modeling was good. Implementing was good. It could use a little bit more work, though. Sandi: Mark, give us your opinion. Mark: The top cowling part was... It looked like there was some modeling problems with it on the top. It probably should be broke up a little more as far as that top cowling, specifically. But I love that, like, circular design on the back. It's almost like a tommy gun, you know, except it's around the back, which is cool. Really big, beefy gun. I like that, it feels like it's heavy and could really throw some lead. Chris R: I would definitely say it's pretty impressive that you had one person do that concept - and model it, animate it, put it in engine, do the particle effects. I did like something about the sort of stubby feel of the gun, because a lot of the guns we've had have all been very long. I liked the animation, I though it was really nice. It was pretty impressive. Sandi: Varied thoughts on that one. Let's roll the next one. Aeron: My name is Aeron Miles, I'm a 3D generalist, and I'm based in Surrey near London. I studied computer games design at university, although, I didn't go into the games industry. Currently I'm doing offline animation. I'm working on this project alone, so I'm covering the whole gamut. Sandi: Alright, well. Mark: Alright, who's going to say it? Sean: Who's going to say it? Mark: Who's going to say it? Chris R: What, looks like an air blower? Mark: Exactly. That's the most bad ass leaf blower I've ever seen in my life. The design, like, it's so much that, that your brain can't snap away from that. It's just, that's what it is... Chris R: Although, to be fair, I actually... Someone that grew up in England, I don't think you actually have leaf blowers in England. I've actually never seen them. I only ever saw a leaf blower when I first came to America. I think it's a complete American thing. Because it's like, we'll blow somewhere else and someone else can do the... I have to say I quite liked it, and I thought it was kind of nice when he put it on the Hornet, so you could actually see it mounted on the ship. It was sort of interesting because it wasn't the same as all the other ones, where it sort of feels like everyone kind of does some variation of a gatling gun. So I was actually quite impressed with it. I did think leaf blower, but I will say, he's English - we don't have leaf blowers in England. Mark: We give him a pass on the leaf blower? Chris S: I thought it was actually executed fairly decently. The modeling looked good and clean. And the texturing, I mean, it wasn't that roughed up look, it was sort of basic. Design wise it's not my favorite. Sean: Yeah, I would've liked to see a little more in in-engine. Not just the screenshot on the ship. I mean, that did save it for me, because it does look like a... It's a strange mix of materials on it. They don't look like they belong together. Sandi: Chris, you want to weigh in? Chris O: When I first saw it, I didn't like it at all, and then this was one of the ones that sort of grew on me a little bit. Just the unique design. Like Chris said I thought it was well modeled and put together. I agree that the color and the textures, and the color palette, seemed off putting for some reason. But I think it's a really... The way it's mounted on the ship, it's kind of a unique sort of take on it, so. Sandi: Okay, so, if a design looks very similar to a leaf blower or a hair dryer, is this negatively affecting the design? Mark: I think it does hurt the design a little bit. Because once you see it, you can't unsee it. So... Every time you look at it, that's what it is... Chris O: Just like that shirt. Mark: ...and it sticks out. Yeah - like my shirt. Chris O: It's nice sometimes to take shades from real life - and integrate them, and incorporate them into something, because it's something that we can sort of relate to. And it's usually... Small objects in the real world kind of translate in really a cool way to different things, but if it's too literal, then it will take you out of the fiction of it. Chris S: I think this gun could be helped with maybe perhaps like different materials, different color, and stuff like that, to integrate it into a ship. I mean, you can get away with a certain shape, like Chris Olivia says. But I think everything like the color and everything, and the decals on it, it kind of made it more close... It just kind of read like hair dryer or something like that. Chris R: There's pros and cons. I just thought it was interesting, because it tried to do something different, which is nice, because normally when you think "weapon", everyone sort of just goes one way. Mark: Yeah, he definitely gets props for uniqueness. It's definitely one of the more unique weapons that we've seen. Sandi: So, props for the uniqueness on this. We'll see if it gets into the final five. Let's look at the next one. Niklas: Hello. My name is Niklas. I'm 22 years old. I live in Hamburg, and I work as a 3D artist in the game industry. Malte: Hi, my name is Malte Resenberger. I'm 28 years old, and I came from Berlin to Hamburg because of my 3D job, and I've worked in the games industry for about six years. Sean: That's absolutely phenomenal, that particular design. I think the presentation in in-engine is fantastic. The material variation along it, the way the shot it... I mean, there are tiny critiques, like, don't have such a deep depth of field, you're going to get halos on your objects, and things like this - and they have a little bit of that, but I mean... All in all, I think this is absolutely one of the best ones. Mark: I like the gun in the front. I like the barrels in the front. I like the detail that they did. I like the nurnies. Chris R: But, like, the back doesn't feel like the front. Mark: The back just fell apart completely for me. Chris R: Sort of felt like they've got their crocodile skin going in the back... Mark: Yeah, the big, like, hexes - it's almost like they ran out of time and went, like, "screw it, we'll just put a big texture on there and go for it." They needed to break the back up more than it was. Because the front part, you could tell they spent a lot of time on. And I like the way that the integration is. With the design in the front barrels, the way that they fit together, look really nice, and there's a lot of nice detail there. Chris R: I agree with Mark. I sort of felt like the front was really nice, I liked it... And in the back, it just didn't have the same level of detail or interest for me. I, sort of, didn't necessarily like the pattern. It didn't feel like it fit the front of the gun, it sort of felt like they took two different guns and then glued them together. Mark: The way they broke it up was not... Chris R: Yes. I mean, in the engine it was great, implementation... There's a whole bunch of stuff that's really impressive, but design wise for me... Yeah, I sort of felt like someone has sliced and diced, and there was a cool gun on the front and there was something on the back that didn't fit with it - and also didn't seem to have as much time and attention spent to it. Sandi: Front vs. back, for you two. Chris O, what did you think? Chris O: Well, yeah, I think that it is very different and I found myself, just, "oh wow, the front is cool, and then just this big blobby thing in the back." I think if they took some of the elements and the shapes from the back, and, sort of like, used them in the front and vice versa. Maybe opened it up a bit and had some of the straight structure towards the back to, sort of, "cohesify" everything... Chris R: Maybe their idea was the back's the Xi'an, the front's the human... Chris S: Right, that's what I'm thinking. They kind of went very alien in the back and then very human made in the front. And I agree, they should probably mix it up a little bit more. I really... The front barrel design is one of my favorite of all the guns. I mean, the material looks great, that sort of glossy white paint job. The detail is great, and the logos. But yeah, the back kind of falls apart. Mark: For me, because it was so big - those hexes were so big - and they just kind of slapped it on there, it made the back part feel like a different scale than, like, the front part. You know what I mean? And that blew it for me too. Sandi: But an overall feeling? Chris S: It's a good gun. It just needs some work in the back. Sean: Their in-engine work is one of the best, too. Chris R: Definitely, I think it's good. Chris O: It's impressive that Brendan Fraser's doing this stuff. Chris R: He's multi-talented. Mark: He is. Sandi: A lot of likes from the judges, so we'll see how this goes. Let's look at the next one. Patrik: My name is Patrik, and I currently work as a lead artist in the games industry. On this project I'm responsible for modeling and texturing. Next up we have Peter, who also works in the games industry as a concept artist, and on this project he is responsible for all the concept art and the blueprints that we need. And last but not least, we have Gustav, who is currently working in the gaming industry as a VFX artist. He is responsible for all the visual effects and the CryEngine integration on this project. So right now two of us work and live in Malmö, Sweden, and one of us lives in Vancouver, Canada. Sandi: Chris Roberts, come on, tell us what your thoughts are. Chris R: They obviously been taught, they're in the game business, but I sort of feel like the gun's not doing much. It's pretty simple, the particle effects for me had more things going on than the gun. I mean the gun is sort of sitting there, its not really got that much detail into it, and it's not really animating that much, so I could see in it something that said "Well, there could be something cool," but I just feel like it's the initial sketch and hasn't gone beyond that. I don't know what it is, recoil, something. I mean if you're going to be animating, you're going to be showing particle effects, you should be showing how that gun's firing and moving. Sean: So full disclosure, I actually worked with Gustav on Crysis 2, and his job is actually a VFX artist. That's why all the particles and everything look phenomenal, because this guy is amazing at that. Chris R: I said they were good, I just think probably on the concept side they went for something too simple for the judge's taste here. Mark: The gun design, itself I think was lacking. The three little glowy bits around the side... Chris R: I wonder he liked glowy bits with that reason and rhyme. Chris S: Glowy bits. The thing that makes it look so simplistic is that it's all just one color, one hue. It's all very dark. I mean they put it in this jungle scene which kind of obscured a lot of it with the tree shadows hitting it. There's no texture break up. I mean you can get a lot of detail out of a gun that's not necessarily modeled really detailed, but extra detail by just breaking up hues and colors and this was just all sort of flat, one thing. Sean: Yeah, I really wasn't a big fan of the glow either. Just putting a glow on something doesn't really make it alien. Mark: Cylon. Sean: Oh, it's not glowing, it's just green. [Judges laugh] Sandi: Let's see who's next. Scott: Right now we are based out of Edmonton, Alberta Canada, and we really look forward to showing you what we've got. Sandi: So, Chris Smith, what did you think? Chris S: The design over all seemed very simplistic again, not a lot of level changes. It's all sort of very one level and just a couple of panel lines cut in. It's not the most interesting looking gun, silhouette wise. I thought the modeling was fine, and the texturing was actually ok too. I don't care for the orange tint much. Sandi: In-engine right? Sean: Yep, in-engine, in our forest SDK level, and for anybody showing stuff in the engine, you can get rid of that display info stuff, just, you know, you don't need all the debug text, just sayin'. Sandi: Chris Olivia? Chris O: Yeah, decently executed, but it, you know, like a lot of the other things, you've got this really long sort of straight, thin rotating barrel, and some of the shapes were interesting on it that I noticed in the flat shaded model, but it sort of got lost. Chris R: Yeah, the Max, when they were showing it in Max animating, looked a lot more interesting than what they put in the engine. I think that was because you could see the different parts. You could actually see the recoil where as once it got to engine I think it was just all straight orange. Sean: I think it lost a lot of thickness, especially along the barrel. I mean it looked really thin there. Mark: It has a real "Stealth bomber," flare about it. I think it's the angles that they picked. Like you know on stealth bombers they have the radar bouncing angles and the way that it's like super flat. I think that if you were to take this weapon and put it say on some stealth bomber looking plane, that it would look correct, but again, if you put this on like a Hornet, it's gonna look weird, it's not gonna look quite right. It's not to say it's a bad design, 'cause it's not a bad design, I just don't think it's a design that belongs in our universe, that's all. Chris R: Well for me it didn't, especially the final product in engine didn't capture me. It looked more promising earlier, I mean there's definitely some talent and skill there, but I didn't get an emotional connection to the gun the way that I would hope. Sandi: Well, varying opinions on that one too. Let's roll to the next one. Midris Vorslov: Hi, I am the conceptual designer of our team. Hello, I am the 3D modeler of our team. Hi there, I am a texture designer for this project. As you guess, my team consists of only one member, and this is me. My name is Midris Vorslov, I am 32 years old, I know you won't believe, but it's true. I live in Saint Petersburgh, my design idea is to make something opposite to the usual weapon. Chris S: Again, interesting design for sure. Very unique, I thought the execution was actually well done, the texturing, if you go up close was pretty good, the weathering was nice, but some of the colors I'm not too crazy about personally. And the design, although unique, I don't know, it looks like finger bones to me in the front. Sean: Yeah, that's what I was about to say. Chris S: Like it's sort of got a little bit of a tribal feel to them. Mark: That's like a fantasy gun, or like Dungeon, Dragons. Chris R: Warhammer 40k. Judges: or like Warhammer 40k. Mark: Yeah, it feels like it belongs in that universe. Chris O: Anything that, it looks like I can just snap off, and those little bones around it just sort of bug me a lot. I think he was trying to distract away from the bones with a lens flare half way through the video, and I didn't think that was necessary. Sandi: Sean, in-engine? Sean: Yeah, that was all in-engine, actually pretty well presented in-engine as well, he got real close in. The open design of the gun, though it was what he was going for, I'm not sure it really worked all together. And then you have like two different pieces. You have this front wide open piece, and then a weird shape in the back. Chris O: I think the bones would have worked better, well not bones, whatever they were— Sean: Carried all the way through? Chris O: Is if they didn't have a bone color too them. Sean: Yeah. Chris O: Like maybe if it was sort of a matte black. Sean: A matte black I was going to say. Chris O: Yeah, and like if it was reinforced either on the top so you had a thicker part and it seemed like it was more welded, it would have been more interesting. Chris R: I was torn on this one when I saw it because I definitely think it's props for trying to do something different. To not be the standard gun, and it kind of was going for an alien feel, although it's more Giger alien than it is what the Xi'an would be. When you go for that I sort of want to feel and understand how that gun works, so I didn't really understand how it was going to fire, like is it a rail gun that's accelerating something through that open track? What is it. Just something to help me understand why it's built that way. Those are the down sides, but I did like the attempt to do something new and I also thought the in-engine implementation was one of the better ones we had in terms of getting up close, seeing the texturing. It's not offline rendering, that's real time rendering on the system, so that was pretty good. So I think there's definitely talent there, I'm not sure that would be one of my picks for a weapon that I would want to see on a ship in Star citizen, but I think he's, all three of him are very talented. [Judges laugh] Sandi: But a quick yes or no? Props for doing something different— Judges: Oh yeah, props. Sandi: Because this basically, this is a very different video from a lot of the others we've seen. We'll see if that's enough to get through to the final five. Ok guys, we've only got one video left, so let's roll it. EP: I'm EPhalanx, also known as EP. I'm with team Tri-Tri, I'm from Boise Idaho, and it's my job to come up with the initial designs that are going to make up our concepts overall. 3DVice: Greetings citizens, my name is Vice, I come from Brovming Croatia, and I am team Tri-Tri's 3D modeler. Gryphen: Hi everyone, my name is Gryphen, I'm from Aletha Kansas, and I am the CryEngine specialist and animator for team Tri-Tri. Sandi: Chris Olivia, as our Chief Visual Officer here at Cloud Imperium games, let's let you kick this one off. Chris O: I thought it was a nice design. The concept was pretty good. They could have done a little bit more with the materials, but I think overall it was pretty solid. Sean: Safe. Chris O: Safe, yeah, somewhat safe, not taking a lot of chances, but Sandi: Mark, you concur then? Mark: It's solid, and the textures are good. They have the talent to push themselves harder, and I think honestly if they would have just gone out of their safe zone a little bit and took some chances, I think this good gone could have been an amazing gun. Chris R: I thought it was, it had nice detail, the animation was good, and it was impressive that they put it on a Hornet and were flying around and shooting stuff. I do agree that the materials could do with some work, and the lighting could do with some work in that scene, they were probably hurt by the lighting there. So I think, I think they're a really talented team, you know, using the internet to work across geographic boundaries, Croatia and a couple places in America. But yeah, I think they're interesting. I like the design because, definitely it had the weapon feel, it didn't feel exactly like everything else, but it had, it sort of felt familiar but also felt like it was slightly different to me. There were some of the details on the weapon at the end and in the front, the way they handled the muzzel area and the back, it was sort of visually interesting to me. Chris S: I thought it actually integrated well with the ship. Sean: Yeah, it did. Chris S: And it looked like one of the weapons, I mean style, general style wise that we already have. So yeah, it was definitely very solid in that way. A little bit more love on the texture and color maybe, but everything else was great. Sean: Yeah, something really cool about it was when he was demonstrating the gun, there was this bright purple background, and all of that was actually in-engine. And he even did all the, sort of 'flash' stuff right in-engine, so that's really, it takes some know-how to do that. That's pretty impressive. I think I know exactly what he's going for which is having that alien shell of a weapon, with a human interior stuck into it. Because it shows it off really nicely when it's up on the Hornet sideways right, because you've got this hole where you actually see the weapon firing through, but it really looks like it's some sort of alien cowling around a human weapon. Yeah, I really like this one. Mark: Yeah, it does integrate well with the ship, I'll give him that, it just like, maybe a little bit of silhouette break-up would have been nice. Sandi: Sounds like a team with talent that you guys could work with basically. Chris R: I think pretty much everyone that has stuff has talent, and some of out critiques are based upon, we have a different view of how things should look in the world than the person, but we haven't had a chance to even work with them. So a lot of times in this, direction makes a big difference anyway. So I think it's amazing the amount of talent. Last episode, this episode, the next one, it was hard getting down to 24, so it's going to be hard getting to 16. Sandi: Ok judges, you know what time it is, it's voting time. So you know how it works, send me your top five, I'm going to tally them up, top five go through. [Time passing music] Chris R: Ok, I sent it to you. Sandi: That's, that was fast. Speedy. Chris R: Well, I know what I like. Sandi: Alright guys, well the results are in, and it seems to me that you're all on the same wavelength. Chris R: Alright. Sandi: Because we've got four teams who have five votes each. And those teams are: Troyka, team Belefonte, VisionCut, and Tri-Tri. And I'm sorry to say that Sakura Moon and To the Stars and Beyond got zero votes. Which leaves us with team AEM or team Catapult. This is a really close one, so I'm going to get you guys to judge this out live and you can give us your thoughts on each team and why you chose the one you chose. Mark. Mark: I chose Catapult because, [Sigh], I just, I mean the hairdryer one, I like it, it's just I think the design is a little too weird for me. I like the clean of the Catapult desgin, it had some nice texture work, some nice nicks and stuff in it. The orange is not my favorite, but you know, maybe I can talk them into changing it. Chris R: Let's see, I went for AEM which is the hairdryer/leafblower— Mark: Always got to be different from me. Chris R: No, no, no, I would rather go for something that felt like it tried to to something unique and original, and I felt it was cool, and it kind of looked, when it was sitting on the Hornet. I would never have thought that thing would actually fit on the front of the Hornet, but it looked better on the Hornet than I thought it was. I just felt I wanted to give a nod there, and AEM would be good. I mean catapult was good too, but AEM got the vote from me. Sandi: One each, Sean. Sean: Yeah, for me it's Catapult all the way. First of all they're Canadian, they mentioned Alberta from my home town, [Judges laugh] so I've got to give them just that little couple more points. My mother's there. So it was animated in the engine, it was in engine, I didn't see the other one in engine really clearly. I mean yeah there was a screenshot, but there was nothing moving around. So yeah, Catapult all the way for me. Sandi: Alright, Chris, you could be the vote decider at this point. Chris O: I thought they were both very close. I think AEM had a sort of really interesting, bold take on it. Catapult at first I was sort of underwhelmed because it became sort of too muddy, but Mark convinced me, "Oh if it was on a stealth fighter, then it would fit a little bit better." So, I went with Catapult. Sean: Yes, rock on. Mark: Alright buddy. Sandi: Alright well, community, if you disagree with Mark, Sean, and Chris Olivia, then get in for the wildcard vote. Mark: I win, bam. Sandi: Next week's a big one. You're going to vote for your final five, and then the last three wildcard teams so that we can move on. We'll have 16 teams that go into create— Chris R: The Next Great Starship. And that's going to be the fun part, where we actually get to making the starship, spaceship, designing it, modeling it, texturing it, making it in-engine. Really looking forward to everyone here working with the talented people that we already have in our competition— Sandi: Give it up to the teams, go on. Judges: Great job. Chris R: So yeah, it's going to be fun, I'm really looking forward to it. Sandi: So tune in next Friday for The Next Great Starship. Sandi: Bye.