Mark Kingsnorth

I have moved...

2010-11-14T20:13:00.000Z

To: www.markkingsnorth.com

John Eaves design - top view

2010-07-17T11:51:00.001+01:00

A shot of the saucer's panels based on John Eaves' sketch:

More progress on the Eaves ship.

2010-07-16T22:33:00.001+01:00

Some rough clay renders of my progress on John Eaves' starship design:

John Eaves' concept ship "B" in progress

2010-06-27T21:14:00.002+01:00

I have done some work to realise a design concept John Eaves posted here on his blog:

Fascinated by the second ship's ability to separate but at the same time maintain it's lines, I've started to put some work into realising this in a 3D model. Here is my progress so far:

Still some work to do, or course: mainly panelling on the secondary hull, the windows, the texturing, and some tweaking to the shape. Though it's getting there in between other commitments :)

In production: Mothership concept

2010-05-31T16:58:00.010+01:00

For some time last year I was working on a project for Sonnett Realm Productions, where I was tasked with realising the concept and animation of some invading saucer-like motherships. The concept was meant to very much reflect the genre of the piece.

Whilst the project is on ice, here are some test animations and images with some annotation:

Shot 1

First off, a simple shot of the saucer emerging from some clouds. The pulsing center was inspired by the saucer seen in Cocoon, but there are of course a lot of Independence Day references to the design. The main direction was that the mothership had to be black. At first the blue glow started off being much brighter than it is here, and the initial pass showed all of the ship in frame. However, to portray a sense of scale more, the camera was brought closer and only the central part of the ship is seen.

The brief part that shows the saucer coming out of the cloud was actually the hardest here, believe it or not. I faded flat 2D layers of cloud in post production to get the effect, which cut down on the render time of an actual CG cloud.

Shot 2

The shots increased in complexity at this point - the brief was to show a set of saucers descending on a city. The concept storyboard sent to me indicated a hazy-sunset type effect which I attempted to recreate in the scene here. The city is a still stock photo of night time New York, with subtle noise effects added to the windows and streetlights to give the impression of a living, moving metropolis. Noise effects were also added to the still photo of the lake to give the impression it was noise. The motherships were then rendered in to the scene and then a solid colour was laid over the entire shot to blend all the elements in together.

Shot 3

This is my most favorite - and complicated - of the shots I put together. The camera pulls out from the edge of the saucer, showing the true origins of the invaders, and pulls far out to show multiple ships devastating the land.

The complication came not only from the pullback of the camera which involved some fine control, but also from the many elements overlayed on the shot: the still background photo of the landscape had to be wrapped correctly, and the expanding mushroom cloud shot had to be synced with the moving landscape. The mushroom cloud was again a still image with distortion effects added to it.

Then the laser effects were overlayed on top of this, with lots of glow added in post production. The small fighter you see getting obliterated here was added last, where the exploding debris had to also be synced with the laser beam it hits. You can see the low poly mesh of the fighter in one of the still shots at the bottom of this post.

Shot 4

Finally for now, there is shot 4 - which is a much simpler shot, although it took longer to render because of the reflections involved in the skyscrapers. The main brief was that the saucer descends/rolls into shot from the point of view of an onlooker. After doing this shot, I noticed that the V remake had a very similar shot in the daytime. Again the whole effect is very reminiscent of Independence Day to keep the genre recognizable.

Finally, this animation shows the very first test shot I put together:

Below are some stills of the mothership I did before doing the shots above:

Unfinished projects: Andrew Probert's design

2010-05-15T20:49:00.003+01:00

Whilst doing some work for www.stphoenix.com, the producers asked me to start on a 3D model based on some sketches that the famous Andrew Probert had done for them:

Although the need for the design didn't materialize, I thought I'd post my very early work on the model here, even if it's just for the fact that it was from Probert himself:

I think this sleek and slender design showed promise, so perhaps I'll find time to progress it further.

Hawking Class starship progress

2010-05-08T19:19:00.010+01:00

Some progress, at last! Having devoted my time in recent months to Wedding arrangements and designing invites, I got round to adding some textures today to the Hawking Class I posted up at the turn of the year.

Note I am still thinking of adding a bridge...but perhaps the engineers finally realised that they shouldn't put the command center at one of the more vulnerable parts of a vessel?

Farragut Station

2010-01-30T19:22:00.006Z

An attempt to make more use of Photoshop, the only 3D here is the station. I'm quite inspired by the work of artists such as Andree Wallin who seem to work almost exclusively in the 2D realm, although I'm a little far off his work yet ;)

First Step Remastered

2010-01-23T16:53:00.006Z

A re-done version of an old image, as the model underwent a re-texturing job after this.

Insignia Class Top View

2010-01-22T11:51:00.004Z

A rendering of the ship from the top, with some LCARS-like framing as someone mentioned they wanted a better shot of this on deviantart.

Insignia Class nebulae shot

2010-01-17T17:42:00.003Z

An image I did today, seeing as I haven't made much use of this ship...

Wintery photoshop expedition

2010-01-11T16:48:00.006Z

This is the first (ever) image I've entirely done in photoshop. Due to the "severe" weather conditions over here in England, my fiance kept badgering me for a starship in the snow - so here we are...She also named it after a boat she used to have as a child, the U.S.S. Kirrin.

Insignia/Ascension class size comparison

2010-01-06T14:13:00.004Z

To answer a question that is frequently asked about these two ships, I've done a scaled sized comparison chart to show the relative sizes - the Insignia Class is 560 meters in length and
the Ascension Class is 1400 meters in length...

New Year, New ship

2010-01-05T22:32:00.005Z

Here are some preliminary renders of a ship I've been working on in between cooking too much Turkey and singing Old Lang Syne: A ship provisionally billed as the Hawkings Class because, well, that's just what came to mind.

A little reminiscent of the Sovereign and Interpid classes, I am more using the design to test the faster creation of models and to keep the poly count down. Currently I'm not too happy with the panels and the stardrive section needs windows along with lots of other detail, but from these pics you can get an early impression:

Sulaco type ship mock up

2010-01-01T10:39:00.000Z

I mocked this up the other day as an Aliens Sulaco-type vessel. Thanks to it's angular nature it didn't take long, so I'm going to just do a little modelling tidy up and then move on to texturing it.

Encouraging results with Blender

2009-12-04T17:46:00.005Z

I downloaded the latest alpha release of Blender 3D the other day, mainly down to it's use of volumetrics. I've been agnosing over the last few weeks about how to create a realistic 3D nebula effect much like the Mutara Nebula from Star Trek II:

The 3D Sphere at the top of this post was created by me in Blender where volumetrics were used to create that of a 3D cloud, an effect I've struggled to create in other 3D apps. It actually didn't take me as long as I thought, do I'll see if I can start making future images with it.

I mainly used this page as a guide to creating it; Blender's UI is still taking some getting used to, but seems well worth the effort.

I'd animate the sphere, when I can manage to work out how... ;)

Insignia Class U.S.S. Challenger

2009-11-29T22:43:00.002Z

Some highish res images of the old Insignia Class for a Star Trek sim.

Something blue

2009-11-13T19:17:00.009Z

It seemed I'd done a fair few orange things lately, so I thought I'd try something blue.

Done for www.stphoenix.com.

Ongoing projects.

2009-10-31T19:56:00.005Z

I continue to do animation work for Sonnet films for the time being, and unfortunately cannot show anything as of yet until their official release of The Incursion. Suffice to say it's something original and I will post the final effects and development art here when I can.

In the meantime, I also continue to do stills work for Star Trek: Phoenix, any images of which I'll post here (as above). The producer wanted to show the relative scales of the two ships in the production.

Apologies to all those that have contacted me where I am yet to reply; I am working to get round to you soon.

Planetary Explosion

2009-07-12T22:32:00.004+01:00

I was asked to blow up a peaceful planet for Sonnet Realm Films a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed I had very little choice but to comply...

Done mainly in 3DS Max, where the use of glow effects really helped in the final render.

Departure

2009-06-13T17:07:00.004+01:00

Turning out very differently from what I sketched out here, this is a shot for a Star Trek Sim of a ship departing an Asteroid base.

The story required a holodeck-type effect on the doors, so I added this here but I thought it might be a little hard to explain outside the storyline:

Avalon Station profile images

2009-06-13T16:45:00.002+01:00

A very simple model, but it's design seems to be quite popular - So here's some raw shots of the station to see what actual detail is there:

Here is a close up shot, well, as close as I'm willing to go on a model that was only meant to be some background dressing in a scene!

Orange Planet & Asteroid belt

2009-06-01T23:11:00.004+01:00

Before I ruin it by putting a spaceship in the foreground, thought I'd post this up.

The barren planet texture was from a picture that Chrissie took of the rust on the surface of an iron garden roller.

Update: I fianlly got round to ruining it by adding that space station here:

Avalon station shot orbiting a star

2009-05-20T23:08:00.004+01:00

I've recently been bought a new Graphics Tablet by my very kind and understanding fiance, and boy what a difference it's made to how I create pictures. Here is a shot of the station shown in the "First Step" picture, now renamed Avalon station for the sake of a Star Trek Sim I am doing some images for.

Done in a combination of Photoshop and 3DS Max.

Asteroid Base Survey Room

2009-05-02T13:50:00.010+01:00

[Click to enlarge]
This image was created based on an idea for a Star Trek Sim storyline, where an Insignia Class ship was being constructed inside an asteroid. I posted an earlier concept image of the ship departing the base, but here it is whilst still docked.

I originally got the idea for the window affect from the following image on the net:

I then put together this rough image as a concept for approval before I worked on the final version:

A couple of Insignia Class starships

2009-04-29T21:11:00.005+01:00

Just some images of two Insignia Class Starships I did as a request for a couple of Star Trek Sims.

The USS Achilles:

...and the USS Phoenix:

Rough asteroid base exit concept sketch

2009-04-19T00:33:00.004+01:00

Although it is just an "initial idea" concept for an image I am working on for another Star Trek SIM, thought I'd post it for anyone who's interested even in my rough work.

Set inside an asteroid, the strange "exit" is because the base is intended to be protected by a hologrid which shields it from the outside world.

There are a few other ideas and images in the pipeline - any finished versions, or in-development work, will also be posted here.

USS Phoenix Animation

2009-04-17T20:10:00.004+01:00

This animation was put together last week for the unveiling in Seattle - it had to be done against a tight deadline - in an ideal world it would have been a little more polished.

A different version of the video is also at www.stphoenix.com.

Development of the Ascension Class: Photos & Album

2009-04-16T11:23:00.015+01:00

I have been busy these last few months working on a new design for Star Trek: Phoenix, a fan based production in Seattle.

Now that the final 3D Mesh has been handed over to them and they have formally revealed the design, I can at last catalogue all my work here - from initial sketches, test models, development shots through to the final textured design.

Click here to browse through all the images in one Album:

Insignia Class - the latest

2008-12-07T23:00:00.006Z

Been a long time, but I have been busy on SciFi-Meshes.com working on the Insignia Class based on feedback from the members - although no changes to the actual mesh were made, I did go about adding a more complete set of textures to it, and that has progressed it to the point where I really am happy with it now, and will be putting it to bed as far as making it any 'better' is concerned.

So, here's a selection of renders for it -hopefully time will start to free up in the new year and I'll be able to develop myself on completely new projects. But I'm sure the Insignia will pop up, from time to time:

Insignia Class - Profile Views

2008-08-31T20:31:00.003+01:00

I did this on request from a friend a few weeks ago - as it has been requested elsewhere as well I thought I'd post it here. The image contains some views of the Insignia Class starship, warts and all:

U.S.S. Pioneer - "First Step"

2008-08-24T20:10:00.005+01:00

...and it is indeed a first step - well, in many ways - this is the first image in a long time that is "completed" (although you never really feel its complete).

Space Background - 1

2008-07-06T16:30:00.004+01:00

Whilst playing with nebula effects, put this together:

The "streaks" were made out of a combination of Fractal-style Photoshop brushes here. I made up the following images and then mixed them up in 3D studio max:

First attempt at a 3d Black Hole

2008-06-22T19:29:00.005+01:00

Not to happy with this at the moment, but thought I'd post it anyway.

This is mainly done using a swirl texture imprinted on an object, but somehow it still looks a bit 'flat' to me. But maybe it'll come to some use, somehow.

Exploding planet

2008-06-08T22:31:00.009+01:00

Had an idea the other day for a scene where a weapon rips through planets like butter - here is my first test (Click to enlarge):

For now it uses 3D Studio max's standard earth texture, but I'll improve it as I go along. I also haven't worried too much about the actual beam effect for now, either.

A version with the contrast turned up slightly:

Insignia Class starship - a little more lighting

2008-06-05T22:55:00.004+01:00

Given a bit more detailed texturing, so here are some rough renderings (Not much effects on them):

Insignia Class Starship - Textured/Lighted (To a certain degree)

2008-05-29T16:27:00.004+01:00

Some work still needs to be done on the textures, but we are getting closer - here's some (Intenionally dark!) renders:

Some shots with some volumetric ligthing:

More detail to the "Neck" & additional lights on top

2008-05-11T22:25:00.004+01:00

Insignia Class - More detail added & some lights...

2008-04-19T12:52:00.008+01:00

Insignia Class - some detail to the "wings" added

2008-04-12T23:55:00.004+01:00

First Insignia Class Starship Pics

2008-03-25T21:41:00.001Z

A work in progress.