Notes on shipset creation

OK, so this is my first shipset and I hardly qualify as an expert, but I'd like to give the reasons behind some of the decisions I made when creating the space vikings, in case others find it interesting or useful.

Tools and Methods

The tools I used for this were selected out of out of availability rather than preference: Paintshop Pro 5 on a win95 PC, armed only with a slightly dodgy mouse. I started with the rectangle/ line tools to build up 3D black on white outlined boxes- This is a good way to get the perspective right. I then chiselled out the desired shapes pixel by pixel in zoom mode. Extensive copy / paste was then used to build up larger and larger ships using common elements.

Once all the outline images were complete, I started the colouring process. This is done by filling an area, and then filling in the details and edges in zoom mode. It's pretty painstaking, but once I had the first ship done I could start using copy / paste to speed things up, although even with copy/ paste some zoom work is still necessary to smooth the edges.

Once I had established a small set of colours (the orange/yellow of the stations, the red/ white of the sails and eyes, the brown/ beige of the warships and the khaki of the horns) I tried to deviate as little as possible, although the backgrounds to the troops and weapon platforms allowed me some much-needed variety.

Maintaining the viking theme

Above all else, I wanted the shipset to be instantly recognisable as a viking one. Since comparisons are often made in SEIV between spacecraft and naval craft, I started by thinking about the old viking longboats. I then picked out a few elements which would lend the ships a vikingy theme: the figurehead and tail, the shields down the side and the Red/ white stripe sail. I drew some of these things and started playing around with them.	An instantly recognisable longboat
I soon started to run out of variations on the theme, though. After all there is only so much you can do and still have it look like a longboat. I needed to be a little less rigid if I was to have enough distinct ship designs. Playing around in the paint package, I tried the tail upside down and it looked good. I was worried, though, that it would no longer be instantly recognised as viking. I tried out the escort image on a few unsuspecting friends. They said it looked like a seahorse. They only got the viking connection when they saw the longboat image.	Escort - more like a seahorse.
Although this was disheartening at first, it led me to an important discovery: If you see the longboat image first, then the escort makes sense. It's the shipset which has to be instantly recognisable, not each individual ship because they are not designed to be viewed out of context. Once the viking idea is established in the viewer's mind, subsequent images can look less and less like longboats without losing the theme. This gave a whole lot more freedom in creating images.	Another viking element - Thor's hammer, Mjiolnir as a battle station.
For example, I was just starting to run out of variations again when, through experimentation with stellar manipulation barge designs, I came up with the "ring" idea. It looked good, but it was another step away from instantly recognisable. I had to make sure that the original images would be viewed first, so that any "ring" images would be seen in context.	The prototype "ringship" - another step away from "instantly recognisable."
I decided, therefore, to only use the rings on higher- tech ships. That way, they only appear late in the game, and it also adds an element of progression and story- telling to the images: Rather than simply making the same design larger and larger, which is what many shipsets do, this gives the impression that technology is moving on, and that new techniques and materials are being introduced to shipbuilding. I thought it was important however, to make a smooth progression from "longboats" to "ringships". Because there are so many warship classes I was able to acheive this, although the change is far more sudden with the transports.	The battleship incorporates "longboat" and "ring" elements to smooth the changeover from one to the other.
I used this crossover method again with the monitor ship (baseship). In other shipsets the monitor and starbase share their images, so I decided to give the monitor some elements from the space station family. That is why it has the hammerhead of the space stations but the tail of the warships.	The baseship image reflects the crossover of warship and space station technologies.
The battlemoon (aka worldship) was just fun to do. It's hard to make a lump of rock fit into a particular theme. Then I had an idea... put some viking horns on it. Note also the big hole in the front for Suicide Junkie's Core Mount weaponry.	Battlemoon - Viking enough for you?
The barge picture was originally the large transport. I was having real trouble coming up with something bigger for the barge, so in the end I just drew a new large transport and promoted the old large transport to barge. This also healped to smooth the transition to the "ringship" theme (See below).	The new large transport	The old large transport, now the barge.

Minor themes and continuity

As well as the overall viking theme, I wanted to include some minor themes which would help to tie the images together. I also took note of the comments and names of the different ships as listed in the Devnullmod, which is the mod the Viking set was primarily designed for. These visual hints also serve to remind the player of the limits of each hull type. For example:
Ships sharing the same name (ie destroyer & Heavy destroyer, Dreadnought & Super dreadnought, all 4 cruiser sizes) are the same size - they have the same number of segments, and are differentiated only by extra accessories.	Light cruiser	Cruiser	Heavy cruiser	Battle cruiser
Compare the ears on these faster ships ( >6 engines allowed in devnullmod) to some of the other images:	Corvette - Fast	Escort carrier - Fast	Courier - Fast
The Light Cruiser is the largest warship to benefit from the "harder to hit because of small size" bonus. It is therefore the last warship to have only one tail. Larger warships also have an upward pointing tail.	Light cruiser, harder to hit, one tail.	Cruiser, bigger target, two tails.
All ships have a tail while stations do not. This indicates that perhaps this is something to do with the engines. Note also that with warships there is always a downward-pointing tail. Non- combat ships only have an upward-pointing tail.	Superdreadnought - tail down	Assault carrier - tail down	Medium transport - tail up	Large transport - tail up
The fast courier description implies that it has been stripped right down to the bare essentials in order to get more speed, so I omitted the lower jaw of the figurehead. I did the same for the prospector and mining station, whose descriptions also say that they are built using simple, rugged technology. For this reason I tried to give them a bit of a "retro" feel.	Fast courier - minimal	Prospector - Retro	Mining Station - Retro

For help on creating your own shipset, this is a good place to start.