Disney STAR WARS ship design: Why it's ugly and how to fix it.

Here were are again.

You know what has always been weird to me with Star wars? That there are no multi-person fighter ships.

It feel like there are single person fighters, shuttles and then capital ships.

The ghost, slave one, the twilight and the falcon are examples of ships that have firepower and also carry a crew.

But they are definitely the exception.

Why didn't the republic ever have long ranges battle ships for like, 5 crew? I feel like that would help writing a bit. Give them options

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You know, people always slag Lucas for doing things to sell toys.

But maybe that's what good ship design takes. Maybe you have to have the mentality that a 9 year old needs to create their own adventures with it.

I remember hearing about the design process of Leia's flying hallway in TFA. they wanted to make something that people wouldn't notice. The prime idea was that they needed something to bring her into that scene. They didn't want to overshadow the moment with the delivery method.

It wasn't a ship, it was an entrance to the scene. Where the hell is the fun in that? You can't do anything with that. It's not a design, it's a door.

Maybe Lucas was really good at tapping into his inner child.

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Here were are again.

You know what has always been weird to me with Star wars? That there are no multi-person fighter ships.

It feel like there are single person fighters, shuttles and then capital ships.

The ghost, slave one, the twilight and the falcon are examples of ships that have firepower and also carry a crew.

But they are definitely the exception.

Why didn't the republic ever have long ranges battle ships for like, 5 crew? I feel like that would help writing a bit. Give them options

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Didn't the Y-wing carry a rear-facing gunner? Maybe I'm thinking of McQuarrie's original concept.
 
Didn't the Y-wing carry a rear-facing gunner? Maybe I'm thinking of McQuarrie's original concept.
Just in the concept art.

But I'm talking about shuttle sized ships with offensive capabilities. Long range ships. The U wing is probably the closet thing we've seen. But it's still a landing craft

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Welll, I didn't know there is this thread and that there are many who didn't like the design of the ships in the new movies as I do.

For me, I feel that Doug Chiang is not a good designer. Yes, I seen his other works. He is more of a CG illustrator than a concept designer as someone correctly pointed that out here which I agreed and seeing the OP video of Doug saying he can design a better X-Wing but the T70, if its designed by him, is still the same shape with a sleeker fuselage which I admit is not bad but the stupidly incongruous tiny engine cans and uber ugly tandem wings destroyed the overall design. Heh, one short example and its a true story. I seen countless car designers worldwide in the 70's and 80's trying to design a supercar to out-Countact-the Countach but in the end only one person did it and it was done by the original designer of the Countach with his Diablo. No, I still like the T65 anytime. Doug did not out-T65-the T65!

However, I do have the T70 Revell kits. I can't do anything about it since its canon and I wanted something from TFA.:unsure I tried to like the ships in the new movies. Trust me, I did but I can't. LOL

He said he wanted to create an iconic ship for R1 with the Uwing..., heh! And he needed over 700 designs to come up with the crap in R1. The only ship(s) iconic in R1 are the sweet T65 and all the OT ships. And that Imperial 4 wings cargo ship? WTF. The OP video's Uwing is so much better and yes, balanced!

As I said in the Bandai thread before I know (now) that this thread exist that all the space ships are fictional. Its does not have to be ugly. And if they want to sell toys, its even more important for ships to be pretty! Even in real life, fighter jets are usually pretty. Lucas created SW for the stories and the eye candies. Well, eye candy certainly aren't present in the new movies. I read someone Tweet to Joe Johnston that Lucasfilm should draft him back to design for the new movies in which Joe himself clicked Like on the post. I felt that said something!

Have you guys seen the new Awing? OMG, Lucasfilm should save all the money paid to their designers and just use all the discarded Ralph Mcquarrie designs for the new movies instead. Some of the designs in the concept books are better than what was used for the movies. I don't understand. The only thing I like in TFA is Rey's bike and really loathe the rest.
 
A bit late to the party here (but I brought my own booze:D:behave). O.k. what do we have here: Real Life vs Fantasy; which one will win?
Anything is possible in StarWars fantasy world; how these ships are flying? Because it's fantasy and you'll have to accept the second (or third) degree of Sci-Fi engineering!
Yes! Now the TIE fighters are entering atmosphere and gravity and shooting at you! Why? Because they can...:rolleyes
Another thing about space ship design (for fantasy, once again people: work with me here!) it's: how does it look on the screen? Why Lucas and Co adopted that type of "look" in the first place. Well, a long time ago in a film called "2001 A Space Odyssey" Stanley Kubrick hired real NASA engineers, not only to design the entire look of the movie, but the space ships also. And these were making sense in a "Real Life" concept.

While that movie influenced Lucas (as well as its love for Flash Gordon) this was not his aim; he wanted to do a 180 in terms of design and felt that the movie couldn't have a sleek look (shiny missiles Flash Gordon types of ships) nor a "Real Life" look (2001 ships).

The "Used Future" was the only road that he could take (mind you, most of the Empire ships are always sleeker and generally more into the 2001 look... more white and less colors).

Right when someone said: prequels were too Flash Gordon in terms of look. Yes, it was a wink to the '30s era (it's George's films after all).

Now with TFA and RO we're slipping into an Alien/Nostromo look (orange panels on those AT-AT anyone?)...and a mix of "Real Sci-Fi")

As for Rey's ship balancing on two legs, it's obvious they're using some sort of G.C.D. (Gravity Control Ducts) to make sure the ship doesn't topple over...sheesh, do I have to explain everything?
 
You know, people always slag Lucas for doing things to sell toys.

But maybe that's what good ship design takes. Make you have to have the mentality that a 9 year old needs to create their own adventures with it.

I remember hearing about the design process of Leia's flying hallway in TFA. they wanted to make something that people wouldn't notice. The prime idea was that they needed something to bring her into that scene. They didn't want to overshadow the moment with the delivery method.

It wasn't a ship, it was an entrance to the scene. Where the hell is the fun in that? You can't do anything with that. It's not a design, it's a door.

Maybe Lucas was really good at tapping into his inner child.

Agreed.

GL favored a lot of designs well-suited for toys, but I think he just leaned that way naturally.
 
You know what has always been weird to me with Star wars? That there are no multi-person fighter ships.

What about the Snowspeeders?


How about the 3-manned ARC-170? (@3:30)


Or the B-Wing prototype flown be Hera and Sabine?


Or the 2-manned Tie-Fighter?


Just in the concept art.

Not the Clone Wars era Y-Wings. (@2:26)


While not as prominent as the regular fighters we're accustomed to, what we've got is lot more than none at all.
 
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What about the Snowspeeders?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3acC49W3yQk

How about the 3-manned ARC-170? (@3:30)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmbS_Mn2a8

Or the B-Wing prototype flown be Hera and Sabine?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98K3FIXogR4

Or the 2-manned Tie-Fighter?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoJikGGQne8



Not the Clone Wars era Y-Wings. (@2:26)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3jck2l3V0k

While not as prominent as the regular fighters we're accustomed to, what we've got is lot more than none at all.
You didn't read my full post. I said long range fighter ships for like, 5 crew.

I mean battle ships the size of slave one, or the falcon.

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TFA TIE does not count. That's one of THE laziest "designs" in the movies. They said "change the solar panels, add some guns and antennae, and throw in another seat. But don't make it any bigger to accommodate that seat."
 
You didn't read my full post.

Well what did you expect when you said "there are no multi-person fighter ships"? Are the examples I listed not technically ships that can fight?

I mean battle ships the size of slave one, or the falcon.

What about these ships?

resistancebadboys_zpsw0ey3g8q.png


While slightly larger than the Falcon, they look like they can handle themselves in a fight more so than any big-sized ship the Alliance had.
 
The ships aren't going through a design process like the originals did. You have illustrators, not designers, throwing together full color digital paintings and no thought process shown. The TFA and Rogue One "Art of..." books make this evident. ...

At celebration Europe the designers said that they churn out 5-7 production paintings a day. Not just designs for one ship, but complete paintings of sets. As seen in the art books. I do wonder where´s time to actually think about a design or develop it.

I could have designed better ships!!!

You can still design better ships and show them here ;)
 
Despite the very cool name, the TIE Striker looks like a fat fly. If we take the design and break it up, e.g. look at its silhouette, we see an insect. A fat body with ,in proportion, tiny wings. It is far from the aggressive look of the Interceptor or the bumbling yet menacing because completely removed from anything similar in our world look of the TIE fighter.

And this goes on. The same can be said about the U-WING, with its stuck on x-wing engines and those flimsy wings. It COULD have been a great design with its transforming feature. The X-Wing opens its wings into ATTACK POSITION, It needs to do this for combat purposes. The "gimmicky mode" has a name and serves a purpose, inside the movie´s world and as a visual enhancement of the audiences experience. It´s the visual sign of "look out, the bantha poodoo is going to the fan".

Why does the U-Wing switch its wings? I have no real clue.

The art director on TFA who was on stage at CE3 said that the Resistance Transport ship (Leia´s ship) was inspired by something from his childhood, but I either missed hearing it or he did not actually finish that sentence, but apart from the similarities of a sideways turned Chinook heli I can´t see where he drew his inspiration from. It is one of the more disappointing designs. A flying loaf of bread, with its broad side pointing forward making a great target, probably not fitting inside some standard hangar bays... or probably a clever means of countering an imperial tractor beam, making it very hard to get it into an SD hangar and holding clamps? I do not know.

The designers all came across as cool guys, interesting people to talk to about design and movies, but I am not sure if the Art Direction in some areas just went overboard and I wish it would be a bit more grounded. I liked R1 a lot more, I must say.

Speaking of design, the same goes for costume design, the new stormies look way too IPod-y, which actually was the goal the costume designer wanted to achieve :( But I do have high hopes for E8 ;)


world and as a visual enhancement of the audiences experience. It´s the visual sign of "look out, the bantha poodoo is going to the fan".<br><br>Why does the U-Wing switch its wings? I have no real clue. <br><br>The art director on TFA who was on stage at CE3 said that the Resistance Transport ship (Leia´s ship) was inspired by something from his childhood, but I either missed hearing it or he did not actually finish that sentence, but apart from the similarities of a sideways turned Chinook heli I can´t see where he drew his inspiration from. It is one of the more disappointing designs. A flying loaf of bread, with its broad side pointing forward making a great target, probably not fitting inside some standard hangar bays... or probably a clever means of countering an imperial tractor beam, making it very hard to get it into an SD hangar and holding clamps? I do not know.<br><br>The designers all came across as cool guys, interesting people to talk to about design and movies, but I am not sure if the Art Direction in some areas just went overboard and I wish it would be a bit more grounded. I liked R1 a lot more, I must say.<br><br>Speaking of design, the same goes for costume design, the new stormies look way too IPod-y, which actually was the goal the costume designer wanted to achieve :( But I do have high hopes for E8 ;)<br>
 
I am hoping against hope there will be nice ships in Ep8. Hope there will be T75 to 85 Xwing. I really hope they are no more tandem wings and micro engines Xwing beyond T70.

Well, as least we are getting the original Ralph Mcquarrie Awing in Ep8.

I can write a long post about each and every new ship designs in TFA that I hate. I agreed about the ugly and stupid design of the Leia transporter ship. In the hands of the right designers. Someone could design a flying loaf of bread to be pretty. As did the hamburger became the YT1300. But nope, it remain a flying container/loaf of bread/pencil case/brick. Its the worse of the ugly designs in TFA.

Talking about uglies! Did you guys see the trailer for Rebels S4? The U-Wing (Ugly Wing) there seems to have only 2 engines. I hope the stupid useless wings will be shorter in the animation version as like what Blade And Brush had wonderfully redesigned in his video, he got my vote to work as a designer in SW movies.:thumbsup

I really envy people who like each and every new ships in the new movies.
 
The u-wing is OK, but would have been much better without the XWing engines. I frankly don't understand that thinking as any of us or a 12 year old can come up with that.
 
Well what did you expect when you said "there are no multi-person fighter ships"? Are the examples I listed not technically ships that can fight?



What about these ships?

http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x436/lordJeyl/resistancebadboys_zpsw0ey3g8q.png

While slightly larger than the Falcon, they look like they can handle themselves in a fight more so than any big-sized ship the Alliance had.

I thought these were the Starhawk capital ships mentioned in Empire's End?

- - - Updated - - -

I also like the new ships in the films as well.
 
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