The Next Great Starship Episode 1.6 (English Subtitles)

The Next Great Starship, the modding competition that gives fans a chance to create a space ship for Chris Roberts' upcoming epic space sim game, Star Citizen™, is about to get real for 16 teams!
------------------------------------------

Roberts Space Industries is a spacecraft manufacturer within the persistent-world game "Star Citizen" and its companion single-player spaceflight sim, "Squadron 42." RSI is also your portal for information, updates, and purchases of your very own spacecraft with which to trade, plunder, and protect the citizens of Star Citizen.

Be sure to visit Roberts Space Industries here and on your favorite social platform:

RSI - http://RobertsSpaceIndustries.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RobertsSpaceIndustries
Twitter - https://twitter.com/RobertsSpaceInd
Google+ - https://plus.google.com/115090625624883320504/posts

Sandi: Phase 1 of the competition is underway.

Last week, the judges selected four teams to move on.

This week, more teams advance and more teams are cut on The Next Great Starship.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to episode 6 of The Next Great Starship.

We're here in Austin with all of our favorite judges.

Mark: Mark Skelton, art director here in Austin, Texas.

Dave: Dave Hobbins, a concept designer in Santa Monica's studio.

Chris R: Chris Roberts, project director of Star Citizen, head of Cloud Imperium Games.

Chris O: Chris Olivia, Chief Visual Officer for Cloud Imperium Games in Austin, Texas.

Chris R: Well, you're Chief Visual Officer, not just in Austin, Texas, but you are in Austin, Texas.

Chris O: Yay. Really? Alright. I didn't know that.

Chris S: Chris Smith, lead vehicle modeler for Cloud Imperium Games.

Dave: Pretty good. Yeah. Chris S: There you go...

Chris R: It's pretty awesome,

because we're finally getting to see the teams actually work on the spaceships,

and the concept phase is always the most interesting part of it.

We're also seeing these designs for the first time during the show.

In the past when we went through all the submissions,

we of course had to look at all the submissions, so we already gave our thoughts,

so we'd seen them, and now we discover the concept work as we're watching it.

And that's actually pretty interesting.

So yeah, it's fun and I'm looking forward to seeing what we see in this episode.

Chris O: It's a lot more exciting now that we're seeing the whole ship instead of just a weapon.

It's a whole new ball of wax.

Chris S: There's a lot of promise so far, too.

Sandi: Alright, guys. So, we're going to see five teams today.

Three of the teams are going to go through, and two of the teams are going to go into the Save Pool.

And they all got the mercenary gunship specs. Let's check those out.

Alright, guys. A lot's at stake. Are we ready, excited?

Chris S: Let's do this. I'm ready. Chris O: Ready and excited.

Sandi: Okay. Let's roll the first video.

Shimapan: When we first received our design brief for the competition,

the first thing I thought about immediately was the Mi-24 Hind,

because of its very similar role in history.

So, we started off with that and then we branched off.

We want to give the turrets as wide of a firing arc as possible,

so I tried to put them in a location on the ship where they had almost full hemispherical views -

from the ship partition. We thought also that it would be cool to have a drop pod that could detach -

and basically allow the ship to drop off the drop pod without slowing down.

Into the workflow, I did some ink sketches initially, then I did some drawing to Photoshop,

then I passed it back and forth between my team and I,

and after that I did a detailed paint over it trying to figure out what the final shape layout is going to be.

But we still had some issues with the shape,

and we had some design things that we weren't really happy about.

So, I think it wasn't until the concept art when we finally figured out -

what kind of engine configuration we wanted. So that was one thing.

We put together our final issue on iteration 1 of our concepts.

I really enjoyed the judges' feedback from last week. I just thought I'd let you know that.

And we hope to see you in the next part of the competition.

Chris S: There was a little...

Chris O: I don't have anything to curl. Chris R: That's not working. You can't do it...

Chris O: What do you want me to curl?

Sandi: Look, he doesn't need to curl.

Chris R: He doesn't curl water bottles.

Mark: Those are for wussies...

Sandi: Chris Smith, what did you think?

Chris S: So, I thought this was actually really good.

The design of the ship was cool. I thought everything - it seemed it was laid out pretty cool.

They had the two turrets; it looked like they have thruster placement in the right spots.

There was a diagram with a lot of little detail bits, which I wasn't able to read at this point...

It looked like it was very well thought out, and I thought the design was pretty cool.

Chris O: The only negative - it's a little bit, I think, over exaggerated in some places.

I think they can just tone it down as far as the boldness of some of it,

but overall it's just beautiful presentation and really nice design.

Chris R: I'm actually super impressed.

That's my favorite one to date, so far, of the concepts that we've had.

I'm impressed. They've only had, I think, 19 days from when we told them what the specs to do that.

I sort of like the feel of it. The rendering style was really nice.

I'd like to study some of this stuff a bit more, because I didn't see the front thrusters so much.

So I could see the back end, just how they would articulate...

Chris S: There was one on the nose, like, on the top.

Chris S: But yeah, I agree. Chris R: Yeah. So, I'd have to look to see if that was in there.

There was... The two manned turrets, although the one on the bottom was sort of flushed in there.

Pretty damn impressive. They get my vote so far.

Sandi: Alright. Thumbs up from the "Chris couch". What did you think?

Dave: I liked it a lot, too. I thought it was a kind of a daring design.

A little bit of Bird of Prey with the forward swept wings extending from the rear -

and the main fuselage, coming forward.

It's a bit of an ugly duckling in a way, but I like that about that,

because some of these things aren't attractive from the get-go...

They're very purpose built and things are added on and compartmentalized, and I like that.

It gave it a robust sort of feel. There are a lot of WW2 aircraft that aren't the sexiest things,

or the most streamlined, but they look like they can take care of the business.

Chris S: They grow on to you.

Dave: Yeah, exactly. They have a character of their own, and they become cool.

And I feel that this really has that potential.

I liked a lot of the surfacing, though I felt that there was almost too much,

and it felt a few pieces needed to be unified to move the eye around.

But other than that I thought fantastic job.

Maybe just refine a few of the motifs and the exhaust, and intakes, and other things like that...

Chris R: And I think of those...

I'd like to see maybe a little more insight or detail on how some of the pieces work.

I was mentioning the turrets - they look kind of flush.

How can I get a field of fire? Are they going to get in the way of other things?

Where are the landing gear? How does that deploy when you land?

Just that kind of stuff.

Chris S: Perhaps, once they do a pre-viz on the 3D,

they could do a little block-out animation that could be fleshed out a little bit.

Chris R: Yeah, but it's sort of super cool for me.

Dave: The turret behind the rear cockpit -

it seems like some of the muzzle flash would be right over your head,

so some little shielding there that maybe... The other rear guy doesn't need as much observability, but...

Mark: I like the broken neck. Like you're saying, it's kind of the ugly duckling,

but that makes me want to love it more.

Dave: Yeah.

Mark: You know. And I like the big engines.

They look like if you were standing in front of those things, you'd get sucked right in them and tore up.

Like, those things are huge. The paint job was really nice, too.

Chris S: Yeah. It had some good variation options.

Mark: Yeah. I liked the variation in it.

Yeah - it was weighted really nice, and it feels like in the back it's a nice chunk of ship.

And then you've got the neck that comes down, which just had a nice flow to it.

The detachable thing in the back, I haven't really seen that before.

Chris S: Yeah, it's kind of split up in the middle.

Mark: That's very interesting. I'd like to see more, maybe a block-out of that... How it would animate.

Like, click, click, things popping off and then it detaching.

Chris O: It seems like that's a sort of general theme of what we'd like to see more of. Stuff like that.

Chris R: Yeah, we want to see more on the concept stage,

where we understand how the functionality works.

Because I definitely even know on our internal development...

Our first stuff, we were designing it and going "oh yeah, that's cool," and then we get it in to the game,

and we're like "alright, how do you get in the ship?"

Or how do you see in the cockpit, or how the thrusters work.

So now we're very focused on not just the form of it, but the function of it.

It's different than games I've done in the past, where you could sort of cheat it.

In this one we sort of have to do the industrial design up front as well as the actual beauty design,

so to speak.

Mark: Yeah. I thought it was one of my favorites so far, for sure.

Sandi: Well, a lot of positive comments for this one, but the competition is tough.

Let's roll the next one.

Tallon: My first ideas was that it was going to have to be grounded in some kind of reality,

because the parameters were such that the dropship had to go through deeper atmosphere,

and land, obviously. So I thought it's going to have to conform to some kind of aerodynamics,

and dependent on what kind of planet it's going to be landing on.

The idea that I came up with in the end was a vehicle that drops from the underside of a mothership,

and then falls in free-form mode in a kind of blind state,

with a front heat shield over the main visor that's covered,

and then as it comes through the atmosphere, it then deploys its cannon arms.

It's called the Shadow Mantis ship. That was the name I eventually settled on,

and the reason why is because it has these praying mantis style arms that unfold from the side,

with cannons on.

One of the ideas that I had just randomly was this B.A.T unit.

Instead of having the troops be dropped into a combat zone from the ground,

they're actually dropped in from the air. So that means that you can potentially have more troops.

I hope you enjoy the concept art I came up with.

Sandi: David Hobbins, you want to kick that one off?

Dave: Sure. I thought the sketches were really fun,

and obviously pieced on a lot of thought into the utility and various aspects of it,

and even with the single person flight gear. I thought that was cool.

The design is interesting.

I feel like there needs to be a refinement on... Between the big shapes and the smaller shapes.

It was feeling almost handheld or toylike. That said, I think it's a pretty cool direction.

I just think it needs a little more refinement.

Sandi: Mark?

Mark: Yeah, I like it. It feels like a submersible to me. It has a very aquatic feel, which is interesting.

It looks like if you were to put some heavy fire on it that,

because of its shape, the shielding would glance off of it.

It almost feels like a special ops ship, something that would be designed for a specific type of mission.

I agree with David, though. Some of the bigger, bulkier bits that come out,

they seemed too big for what the size should be. Chris O: Like, where would they go?

Mark: Yeah, and where they go. It seems like that arm that came out,

it doesn't feel like it's flowing with the ship quite as well.

It seems like it should be integrated in a little better. But I do like the design.

It's very different than what we've seen so far. But yeah, I dig it.

Sandi: Roberts?

Chris R: I feel like it's a cool design for an atmospheric dropship,

but not particularly a great design for something that's in space.

Also, size wise feels too small for what the spec is. It should be carrying about 15 tonnes of cargo.

It's meant to have two manned turrets.

Essentially on that, there was this artillery piece that could, I guess, be manned by a crew,

and the other one was sort of an auto-turret on the side,

and I'm assuming there'd be one on the other side.

So, I do like that sort of shape.

There was a couple of shots in the concept that was on the left hand side, that looked kind of cool.

But primarily our game is going to be space, and then the ships can transition down into atmosphere...

So it has some work for me, before I would say "okay, that would work as a gunship as we're seeing it."

But I like the artistic style, and I like the idea of trying something that doesn't look like a...

Say, we all think "gunship" - we all think "Hind"; we all think that kind of stuff.

This definitely didn't have that feeling, and had some potential.

I liked the blast shield for re-entry and stuff like that.

Chris O: That was a really bold design.

I think they took a chance going with that simple sleek shape up front.

But in the end, I think it needs... I think if that can be the front piece of something bigger...

Chris R: Yeah. It needs more mass. But also just the engines, also.

I'm going, "where are the thrusters and the engine?"

Yeah, I think you're totally right, if you had the front piece as something on a bigger space gunship,

that'd be pretty cool.

Chris O: It could be cool that that maybe detaches from the rest of the ship at some point...

Overall, it had a lot of potential, and it was a really - like I said, it was a unique design.

Chris S: I agree. It seemed like it was like a half of a ship.

It was sort of the front and then it needed like a bigger back.

And yeah, it was probably too small for the specs that we have.

I did like that sleek design. It reminded of like some sort of automotive design, like, futuristic,

with that little black sleek cover that he had.

I actually do like it sort of hidden, and then the turret pops out, and then the other things pop out.

Chris R: Yeah. I like the idea of deploying turrets from something sleek.

Chris S: Seems like it needs some more. There is a little bit that it needs to push it that extra inch.

Sandi: Alright. So it sounds like brownie points for a bold design,

and maybe some work in creating more mass and sculpt for it.

Let's roll the next one.

Four Horsemen: Hey, everyone. This is Team Four Horsemen.

We ended up with ten thumbnails, and then we started cutting them up into pieces in Photoshop,

and basically sticking parts from one image into another.

With a basic shape for a ship in hand,

Tobias started refining the Frankenstein of thumbnails into more readable formats,

with me working the shapes, adding details, balancing out the shapes, all that stuff.

After that we made a very rough block-out to see if the shapes that we had in 2D also worked in 3D.

For the interior we wanted to have a bit more of a lived in feel,

because the crew lives there from day to day. It's their home.

So we wanted to have a small living area available to crew when they're not engaged in combat.

Have a bench or two,

and a table for mission briefings or just occasional poker playing between the crew, or whatever.

We also embedded a cargo crane in the back of the ship, into the tail...

(Judges: Wow. Nice.)

Here's the more refined concept that is based on the block-out, so they actually match,

which illustrates how we want to move forward with our ship design.

Sandi: Chris Roberts, I heard a lot of comments from you.

Chris R: Yeah. Actually this is my new favorite. I actually really... I really liked it.

I would say that my comments would not really be so much about...

It felt like a gunship to me. It felt really nice in some of those 3D views.

My questions and comments would be more down on the engines and the thrusters;

how they're moving and how they're working.

because I like those big, I think they're the thrusters or arms, on the side.

I'd have to actually spend some time and say where are the four TR3 engines in the back,

where are the four TR2 maneuvering jets in the front,

because it sort of felt like they combined some of those things. Maybe they didn't.

Chris O: Are your thoughts on those small thrusters on the engines on the side,

would they physically work in space as far as maneuvering it properly?

Or is it an amount of cheatability? Chris R: Yeah, yeah, yeah... It's not...

It's not the look of it. The look of it is cool.

I'm just talking about literally the physical... Because we are actually simulating these ships properly.

So, the thrusters have to be placed in the appropriate positions, that the ship can actually...

Because literally we'll put it into the engine,

and if we don't have our thrusters set up correctly, the ship won't fly properly.

Sandi: New favorite for you, too, Chris?

Chris O: No. It's close, though. It's up there.

It's a perfect example of how you've got to trust the process sometimes,

and how the process of concepting stuff out works as far as the initial silhouettes and sketches,

moving into blocking it out,

and then how really putting a thought into it can lead to a successful finished design.

And that definitely showed successful design.

Chris: Really the only comment or critique I would have would be - well for one,

figuring out where exactly the thrusters might be so it flies correctly...

But those big engines on the side, while they were cool and I like them,

would maybe work on a little bit more, because they seem a little bit too blocky.

The rest of the ship was a little bit more rounded, or whatever, and it had this cool shape language,

but these big things that felt like big nose pliers to me, when it kind of went together and up,

because they're so blocky and square. Maybe you could chamfer off one edge off of it or something.

Just to make it a little bit more cohesive with the rest.

Mark: I love the call-outs that he did for the interior. That was fantastic.

As far as what room goes where and how they all fit together.

You could tell he thought out, like, "okay, right behind the pilots would be the engine room,"

"so if something crazy happens, the engine room is right there."

It feels like kind of a Gundam ship to me, a little bit. With the way that those...

Chris R: You want it to transform?

Mark: Yeah, kind of a Transformer type ship.

Chris S: Like the legs and the...?

Mark: The legs of a Gundam ship.

Which is not bad. I mean, that's pretty cool.

The only thing that's kind of weird to me is that if you just glance at the ship,

it looks like a smaller ship than what it is. You know what I mean?

If you look at the cockpit, how big it is, compared to the rest of the ship.

Chris R: I didn't feel that. I felt like you definitely got the scale.

Mark: And that's minor, because if you're walking around that thing, you're going to see it in full scale.

Chris O: So was it the big plier things that made it feel small to you?

Mark: I think it was just the whole shape was kind of reminiscent of a fighter jet-ish, a little.

Just the hull, I'm talking about - how it kind of tapered off,

and you've got that fighter jet front that goes down into that cockpit area.

Chris S: Those big side things throw the scale off a little bit.

Because it's a big simple shape, and that kind of looks like it could be...

In manufacturing, it's hard to do big simple shapes like that without adding a lot of weight.

David:I thought it was an extremely communicative, clear, presentation. Obviously a lot of work went

into this. There was also a variety in illustration style. Some felt, even if they were digital, theey were still

cool "grey marker" artefacts and guache touches almost, at least, it evoked that for me

which was fun, it made the ovall presentation full of variety and interesting to look at.

Design-wise I thought it was pretty cool, that said, the large, what did you call them?

Chris S:Pliers. David:Pliers, whatever, garlic press, who knows what, those read as a much

smaller object than what they were, so for that I would say what you said about adding bevelled edges

add a little more sophistication, but also a secondary form...

Chris S:Break it up into smaller units.

David:Yeah, large complex things are rarely just boxes, other than skyscrapers, I can make

counter arguments, I think some, although I liked the surfacing and design, the graphic break up

of panels and thusters, it still felt slightly soft, slightly cartoonish in proportion, but I think when they

get into a more refinded modelling pass they are going to tighten up some of these edges

and it will come together great. So, really good job.

Sandi:Right, the competition seems to be getting tougher. A lot of love for this one, let's roll the next

I see the mercenary gunship as a viable, minimalistic, compact and very cost efficient ahip

As a style guide I used the already existing ships in the SC universe.

The floor of the cargo space has several purposes, it functions as the landing gear, but can also

be extended for cargo switching.

A thick main hull gives great armor for the crew and the ship systems.

The main challenge for me was to create the design only in 3D without a 2D concept in a short time.

For the gunship I decided to create a heavy hull design to ensure the ship would be able

to resist enemy gunfire. In front of the ship and at the rear there ia one manned turret seat.

When the gunship approaches for landing the wings rotate 90 degrees.

During the landing phase 4 small thrusters are placed near the cockpit for more stabilisation.

On both sides are doors, two for gargo and two for crew members.

Sandi:Chris O, what do you think?

Chris O:About what? Sandi:THAT what, Vision cut.

Chris O:It was, erm, ahh,it was kinda ugly. I'm trying to think whether it was ugly in a good way

or a bad way. Ahm, there was a lot of time spent making it all shiny with pretty lights,

not even pretty lighting but, just like, lights everywhere...

ChrisR:That last, or the second one, there's two concepts? Concept 1 and concept 2.

ChrisS:Which one do you like?

ChrisO:I liked-disliked both of them equally. I think if they think about the overall shape I think it

could be something a bit better. ChrisS:Silhouette?

ChrisO:All I see is an ugly ship, I don't like it.

Sandi:Chris Smith?

ChrisS:The first version I actually liked better than the second version, even though there was

something about it. The main thing that bothered me was that every shape in the ship was just huge.

There were no "big" and "small" parts to convey a sense of scale. Everything was big and it

looked cartoony. It looked like it was made for a Toy Story movie or something. ChrisO:Or Spykids

Mark:Buzz Lightyear would drive this ship.

ChrisO:If we were thinking that was his finished detail, or he was waiting to do more detailed

paintovers later. ChrisS:But even the general shapes, you want to have small and big variations.

Everything, even on the interior, he has these scurity bars that were like "THIS" thick around.

I mean, you want little detailed stuff.

ChrisR:I think on the second one it was much more guilty than the first one of scale.

ChrisS:One thing that was good about it was they thought about thrusters. The thrusters worked

that was a cool thing, they had some pre-vis animation, awsome, though I don't agree on

the first concept at least, where they had the whole ship lifting up on these little platforms.

I don't think if that is mechanically possible without huge hydraulic engines, it seemed fragile.

Some things I liked, some implementation on the technicality side of it, but overall, yeah,

the ship design was fairly ugly, the second design was very non-pleasing to the eye,

especially the silhouette with the wheels and landing gear out.

ChrisR:so, throw the second one out, but the first one I think would have some potential if it

was getting worked on. It was certainly stubby and ugly, but aggressive. It had those missiles

It had those guns, and I did like the thought put in to have the thrusters work, that's something we

need to have done. I totally agree with Chris in ters of the scale of stuff, those big thruster nozzles,

it was almost like all that was over-size, and it did feel like there was a little too much cut and paste

almost like, take constellation cockpit and add an element from another ship on the back, I feel it

would be better to have that unified, but I do not mind an ugly, functional, aggressive ship.

What they should do is take the first one, look at scaling stuff better...ChrisS:Refine some parts.

ChrisR:Everything looks blown up or over-exaggerated, but really embrace the

aggressive, stubby side, and I do agree that the whole, a cool idea, but I don't think it practical

the whole lift, with the base pushing up the ship.

ChriO:If there was more mass to those structures it might feel better, or you don't like the idea?

ChrisR:It just sort of feels...there was another element where the engines turned round

and they had skids on them, that looked like it might work. They would rotate round for VTOL

then in front you would have some similar thrusters rotating for VTOL and it would land.

That would be cool, then the base could just drop down like on the Constellation.

That would be fine, I just don't think landing on your belly then the belly pushing you up thing.

It just feels weird to me.

Sandi:David?

David:I really wish that, obviously this person is a competant modeller, has put a lot of time

into the presentation and rendering and the animation sequences, I wish I could take all that time out

and put it back into the core shapes and proportions of the design. I do think the first one id the one

to move forwards on, although I would work on the sort of F35 rear vector nozzle.

That, when animated in particular looked a little funny or odd.

ChrisR:Also probably not very efficient in how it works.

David:I mean, they do have it on a real jet, but I might consider putting a faring or sheilding piece

that articulates with those as they move to make that motion and silhouette more interesting.

Sandi:Mark Skelton?

Mark:I think, if you put a couple of balls inside this and a big handle on back, Fisher Price

would have a sweet toy. It's really stubby, and very Fisher Price, so if they took it and slimmed it and

pulled it a little bit, that might be a start of something cool, but.....

ChrisO:It's not the stubbyness. ChrisR:I think it's the fact you don't like that everything is big features.

Mark:Everything, especially with the landing gear, the gear was right here and the ship was here, this big

so instead of having it so wide, maybe thin it up and pull it this way a little bit. Definately the first

one was more interesting to me.

David:I wouldn't want to lengthen it, I'd want to keep it short, compace, like a flattened toad,

to me that says robust and compact, and it's easily manouvrable, something that spins on a dime

If they were to make it longer then it might suggest that it's faster or...

Mark:Maybe the thickness of the walls, I guess...

ChrisR:I think the thrusters, the engines, the little details, all the stuff that moved,

they were all just too big and over-scale, so add it together it looks weird.

ChrisS:They were all the same size.

Mark:I agree. Sandi:Well, concept 1 and a few reworks for that one. Here#s the last video

our concept artist Karnac is known for increbibly detailed clean concepts,

Mark:I mean Karnac, that guy is amazing, he is legendary, everything I have seen of his

has been amazing. The initial design, I like it, he has a lot of firepower on there obviously,

it's fantastic, he's thought through a lot of the systems and how they work together, which is great

again I want to see a kind of three-quarter view, I didn't get to see that, just the top and the side,

it was cool, I can see a lot from that, but I would like to see more of the detail work that he is

thinking of.

David:I like all the thought and the layout and package architecture, and this, that and the other,

but I might try to work th profile silhouette, the cockpit fuselage area, it felt a little rectilinear,

I felt it just.....I liked that, it felt very bold and distict, but that said I felt it needed a secondary shape

in the silhouette. It had a sort of retro feel, and in a good way, sort of paid homage to Ron Cobb and

Sid Meade and film like Alien. It had sort of an "Eighties SciFi" aesthetic about it.

I happen to like that aesthetic, I would just be careful, and maybe, I know this team is fully capable of

pushing it, and I would like to see it pushed. I saw some simalarities with the shuttle that

Sigourney's character... Mark:I was gonna say, that drop ship she had at the end of Aliens.

It had that triangular.... David:Now obviously they have done some new stuff to this, and

I'm making no suggestion that they are copying, it's just these things are all in our shared language

and when I see a team with this much talent I want to push them to go further.

Sandi:The Chris couch?

ChrisR:I liked the thinking and the approach that went into this. Talking out what they were thinking about

where they would place the guns, what it's function and role was going to be, so the general

layout and design I liked. I always go on about the thrusters because we need that for flight,

and you could see on their design that they had the front thrusters, here's where they pivot,

here's the back ones, and that is actually how it should work, so all those element were great.

I'm a little disappointed that they did not take it to the next stage that the Shimanpan and

Four Horsemen did, but I think knowing what they did on the gun and the talent behind them

and the form and the basics of thinking where the reactor and all the rest where, for me it puts

them up there, but I would want to see the concept finished out for me to put them at the front of

the line,but I know they have the talent to get there, they are on the right track, I would just like to see

more of the details. Huge amount of promise.

ChrisO:Yeah, I think we all see the potential with that team, I just wish it was developed further.

As far as their basic shape for the ship? I think to get it away from the Sigourney Weaver drop-ship

ther escape shuttle, whatever, and they might end up doing this it's such an early stage that maybe

he can break apart the big shapes in general, cut it open and see some interior to break

up the shape.

ChrisS:The weapon range was cool, I like when they do that, since it is a gunship, how much range do

you have with each gun to protect your ship.

I liked the shape language they have too, I felt the neck, from the side, was sort of dinosaur-ish

the neck and little head, but overall great potential, their concept artist is amazing.

Hopefully in the next iteration they can show us a little bit more.

Sandi:Alright guys, we had 5 quality teams today, and you know what time it is, Email me

your top three teams and I will tally the votes.

(plinky-plonky twee voting music)

Sandi:OK guys, result in, and two teams got 5 votes each.

Congratulations to team Shimapan and team Troyka.

Now, Vision Cut got no votes, which leaves 4 Hourseman and Tallon Corp. David Hobbins?

David:I voted for Tallon Corp. Although I think I was hard on it during my critique, that said

I feel it is more original, and I guess I'd like to see designers take risks and do something new

but they really have to tackle the obstacle of the size of it, it seems more a hand-held object.

If they can overcome that, and their explanations of why it is shaped that way because of the

heat shield and other things, I think it could be a really unique drop-ship.

Whereas the other was more fleshed out, lots of work, this was a tough decision for me by the way,

It just felt a little "safe" and conventional.

Sandi:Well I'm sorry David, Four Horsemen are moving on.

David:That's fine, I just wanted to give them a chance.

ChrisR:I think Tallon Corp was good too, I just, for me, Four Horsemen was more realised and

fitted the bill much better, so for me it would be Four Horsemen every day, though that's not

to say that Tallon could not turn around and change things with another pass at the design, which

I think the will have a chance to do in the save pool.

Sandi:The community gets involved once again at the end of phase 1, you guys will get to vote back in

two teams.

All the teams will get the judges feedback they will do another pass and put out their new video

and you guys get to vote two teams back in.

Alright guys, we have one more week, 5 more teams to look at...

All:WooHoo! Whoah! (laughs) More excitement!

ChrisR:This week was great, I thought the standard of competition was extremely high.

Super impressed. Last week was good, but I feel this week is ahead of what last week.

Really looking forwards to seeing next weeks, and then looking forward to seeing what everyone

does in response to our feedback, that's a really great test of a concept artist's skill

It's not just coming up with a design in abstraction, you come up with a design to fit some parameters

and whether it's a game or a movie or something like that, generally there is other creative feedback

and you have to respond and integrate that, and if you do a good job and do it well, that

is the sign of a really great concept artist.

Sandi:Alright, on that, next week it's the final round of the concept art phase, see you next Friday.