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skeletopen.bsky.social
@skeletopen.bsky.social
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skeletopen.bsky.social
I've found myself procrastinating putting in the time to post my final update for the Worker/Maintenance Godos. Not just on this platform, but have a dozen others. Used the intervening time before client responded to my message to practice lighting/shading. I will be moving onto something else now.
January 2, 2026 at 1:48 AM
skeletopen.bsky.social
More work on the Godos Maintenance Worker. And a logo for Panova, which is apparently an arms manufacturer, which is listed on the early Japanese box art with the weapons/equipment. #Zoids #Godos
More work on the Godos Maintenance Worker. Since I haven't heard from my client, I've been using the concept art as a way to safely practice with lighting/shading. It will help when I no longer have to look to references to decide where to place the highlights and darks. Also worked more on the back-mounted arms. The telescoping arm is actually influenced by Kotobukiya design, which seems to be a common element for parts that need to extend away from the main body. I also worked on a logo for Panova, which is apparently a Zoidian company responsible for manufacturing the Twin Anti-Air Beam Cannons mounted on the tails of Bigasaur, Gordos, Mammoth, and Gojulas. I figure that they might manufacture other types of Zoids equipment aside from weapons. I might end up simplifying the logos further. The typeface is in Zoidian, since Panova was around in-universe before the human arrived.
December 24, 2025 at 5:48 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
Just realized I forgot to post my latest artwork on here. Both commission work.
December 13, 2025 at 3:00 AM
skeletopen.bsky.social
It's been a couple weeks, so I'm posting another progress update. Worked on the main weapons and legs for the #battlecougar redesign. And the rear leg and booster for the #commandwolf, and the forest background. I gave the trees a network of roots to make them different from Terran trees.
I picture the trees on Planet Zi forming root networks. I was picturing the neural network of Pandora from Avatar when I was illustrating these, and considered making them phosphorescent, but thought it would be too derivative to be worth the effort.
August 27, 2025 at 4:55 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
I've been having a hard time picturing how the head, neck, and body of Battle Cougar are actually organized, since for the Tomy model, they are basically just three pieces. For the Head, neck, chest, rib section, and abdomen. Yeah, I have my work cut out.
July 30, 2025 at 6:54 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
Spent my time on evenings after work on the weekend slightly refining the body and head of my Battle Cougar sketch, and made a second color scheme based on Rapterra, a roller coaster I was on at King's Dominion about a month ago. Also referenced the Red Robostrux color scheme a little bit. #Zoids
July 21, 2025 at 2:43 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
First post in a while: Speed Sketch of Battle Cougar from Zoids. Although I use the "Speed Sketch" term loosely, seeing as how I spent 4 hours last night till bed working on this.

I need practice with working faster, because I'm not posting artwork often enough.
Speed Sketch of Battle Cougar from Zoids. Although I use the term "speed sketch" loosely, because I spent about 4 hours last night before bed working on this. Notes: The Long Range Surge Beam Cannon is basically a very down-sized version of the Beam Cannons mounted on the Shield Liger Mk-II, while the Short-Ranged Surge Beam Cannon is a more advanced version of the Beam Rifle mounted on Guysack, and optionally on Godos. These two are the main weapons mounted on the shoulders. I have added multiple air breaks and cooling vents to the head and shoulders. I turned the wing Machine Guns into a triple barrel vulcan, because I love it when Kotobukiya does that with their redesigns. In my head-canon, these are basically the same units that would later be fitted on Liger Zero Jaeger. I had no idea what to do with the body in such a short time-frame. I'd have to look at the HMM, ZA, and RMZs of Liger types, and extrapolate. In my head-canon, the Battle Cougar's body is basically very similar to a King Liger, which is in turn based highly on a Shield Liger. While too much of the advanced technology needed to manufacture this Zoid was lost after the Great Catastrophe (basically Moonfall, but less destructive, since it was only PART of ONE moon that fell on Planet Zi), the schematics for these two Zoids might have later influenced the Blade Liger. Maybe to be addressed in a future sketch? What few details I added to the wing are influenced from Storm Sworder. That's the closest flying Zoid in size that the Republic was able to build, and I'd imagine that the Storm Sworder engineers would have looked to the Battle Cougar for design ideas, even if the design was too advanced to recreate at the time. The thrusters mounted in the wings for example are intentionally similar to those mounted on the Storm Sworder. I intended the "Thunder-Lightning" Strike Blade on the head into something that could retract backwards, similar to Storm Sworder. This would increase aerodynamics.
July 14, 2025 at 2:22 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
I meant to post this earlier, but meh, it's not easy to both work on art and post it at the same time!

USS Rycon by Evil_Genius_180
Yamato by DJ CheeF

#startrek #starblazers #spacebattleshipyamato #blender
Trying to create high-contrast shot, similar to the ones in Star Trek Beyond. First attempt at creating an energy beam. Took me at least an hour. The extra glows off the hull might have been overkill, but IDK. Shows how complicated Evil_Genius_180's model is. I did not expect to find such a complicated model of the Yamato from Space Battleship Yamato/Starblazers! The best part is that her textures actually work, unlike some other models that I have that aren't Blender files! It took me over two hours to figure out how to get the beams to glow the way I wanted, and I'm not sure that I even know how I did it, or how to repeat it. But I did do it, so I guess that counts for something!
April 18, 2025 at 11:51 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
Progress since I started working in Blender, and have been on and off ever since.

I had VERY humble beginnings!

There's more for tomorrow.
Model: Paladin-Class Destroyer Status: Abandoned, and will likely be started over completed, as I can likely get better results with less time. Model: Galaxy Class Status: Abandoned. Will likely start over from scratch Model: Sovereign Class Status: On Hold. Will probably just start over. I can probably do her better and faster now. Model: Resilient-class Escort Gunship Status: On hold until my skills grow to the point that I can model the complex curves I have envisioned for her. Will possibly start over.
April 13, 2025 at 7:39 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
Learning how to render in Blender.
USS Ainu modeled by Starship
USS Rycon modeled by Evil_Genius_180/Chris Martin
I was excited to figure out how to convert Starship's USS Ainu from an OBJ file into a Blender file. In my head-canon, Ainu was damaged during the Dominion War, and refit with a heavy duty secondary hull. Only to find that Blender doesn't seem to know what to do with the texture files (if they are even in the OBJ file I downloaded!). I'm starting to think that they are in the MAPS file, but I'm not sure, since I'm like programming illiterate! Given that this is my favorite model in my collection thus far, I'm not willing to give it up, so I'm either going to have to figure out what has happened to the textures and how to fix them, or use this as an excuse to learn how to texture first, and just recreate everything (How hard can it be? I'm going to regret asking that). At least the Bussard Collectors don't need to be modified. And given that texturing is what I'm least forward to learning, that means I should learn how to do that first, and modeling second, so hopefully the former will hopefully become second-nature, and not dependent on tutorials. Evil_genius_180's Rycon is a pretty neat Destroyer. I was shocked at how many vertices she has, and even more shocked that my laptop only gave the slightest bit of hesitation when first rendered! I have a LONG way to go before I can model something like her, but looking at her wireframe will give me some ideas of what I need to practice towards, as well as a newfound appreciation for his work.
April 11, 2025 at 8:55 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
Sternbach-class Cruiser, Starbrook sub-class.
#startrek
" Sternbach Class-Cruiser Starbrook sub-class First launched in 2378, the Sternbach class was designed as a replacement for the Rigel-class Cruiser, which traced it's legacy back to the vaunted Constitution class. The Sternbach class was designed to be easier to produce in larger numbers, and easier to maintain than the more specialized Intrepid class, even though both will remain in production. They are designed for longer times of operation than the Saber and Iowa-class Light Cruisers, at the cost of modularity. With the successful Quantum Slipstream flights of the Spirit and Vesta class, certain classes would be given refits, such as the Merian, Intrepid, Phalanx, and Mulciber classes, diversifying the QSD-capable starships in Starfleet's inventory. In order to do so, each design had to undergo significant modifications. Due to the limited quantities of the Bentamite crystals necessary to achieve stable Slipstream velocities, there is a limit to the number of vessels that can utilize the modifications. However, as Federation continues to study how Bentamite forms, it is hoped that Federation science will be able to artificially mutate regular Dilithium crystals into the valuable mineral, thereby drastically increasing the number of QSD capable ships in Starfleet's inventory. The Sternbach class is serving as one of the premier compact exploration and escort cruisers in Starfleet. " Finally done! I basically took the Sternbach class from Star Trek Renegades, and gave her quite a bit of modifications. I gave her a longer fantail, and I'm pretty sure I made the nacelles longer too! Finally, I gave her more contrasting color accents similar to the stripes on the Merian class, plus a few dark hull patches for contrast.
April 7, 2025 at 10:06 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
A long while back (over three years ago), I was tracing line art (which helped me to get a better idea of the design process for mechs). I managed to churn out a whopping two color variants of Iguan: the Zillon and Dark Iguan variants.

#zoids #iguan
Added some lighting and shading, which I'd say is about 10% complete. Also added the handheld beam cannon, which I never got to coloring. I've always loved the Dark Zoids color scheme. Black and Neo Green is is always badass, and I really enjoyed deciding where to put the Deocalcum glow, which is the mineral that makes Guylos Dark Zoids more powerful than their counterparts.. If I went about shading/lighting, I'd probably have had to use lighter blacks for the base colors, as well as the light. Incomplete concept for an arm-mounted beam vulcan for the Dark Iguan, to be mounted in place of the quad rotary machine gun. Kind of comparable to the beam vulcans mounted on Leena's Gun Sniper, and I see this weapon being mounted on small and medium-sized Dark Zoids. #gatlinggun
April 3, 2025 at 6:32 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
A small series of design sketches for a Pre-ENT starship. A combination of the warp ring, and the warp nacelles.

This was actually inspired by Outlaw Star, and how ships in that universe land on their tails.

#startrek #ent #outlawstar
An attempt at a forced perspective, and starting to use colors more, even for rough sketches. One thing that I loved about Outlaw Star is how the creators/designers depicted the infrastructure necessary to support the landing of their starships. Before the invention of transporters, Starfleet, the civilian government, and the colonial governments would have need of similar infrastructure. They would at least have gravity plating, which would make boarding and departing a little less complicated on world, but now, I find myself wondering if it would just be easier to build starship docks in orbit instead of all of those launching/landing gantries on the surface. You can tell from the ship's name where the color scheme got it's inspiration. That the Vulcans use a red color scheme on their ships was complete coincidence! I made the hull shapes relatively simple like Masao Okazaki's design, but used John Eaves's concept sketches as reference for details. Like most things that I work on, in the end, I abandoned this after about a couple of weeks.
March 30, 2025 at 2:07 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
Some Star Trek art for today!
#Excelsiorclass #USSLeondegrance #Startrekrenegades #Sternbachclass #Startrek
This was actually by first completed piece of art, from over two years ago! USS Lancelot (a design from Bernd Schneider, the Ex Astris Scientia webmaster) undergoes the last of her trials before her commissioning. Today's assignment: survive the lightning storms, intense radiation, severe turbulence, and intense pressures from diving underneath Saturn's gorgeous but turbulent upper cloud layer. USS Leondegrance (NCC-2177) provides close up support just in case any unexpected shielding or hull integrity malfunctions rear their ugly heads, but so far, Lancelot's shields are holding back Saturn's lightning storms like a champ, while her flight systems are functioning perfectly in the intense turbulence! USS Speculator (name/registry from the old Trekmania website) flies shortly above and behind just in case either vessels need a free tow. As of 2310, the Excelsior class has proven herself as a reliable workhorse of the Federation. Of all of the sights I could think of if I had a chance to tour the solar system, viewing the clouds of Jupiter or Saturn would easily be towards the top of my list. Due to particles constantly flying around at high speed, they create constant lightning storms! It's too bad that we'd need some REALLY good radiation shielding, because gas giants have a really strong Van Allen radiation belt due to having a very intense magnetic field. Fortunately for the three vessels, their gravimetric-based shielding effortlessly deflects the harmful radiation away, so it can't cook their crews alive! Also, the impulse drives are more than powerful enough to break Saturn's escape velocity if things start to get sketchy, which is very important, since sinking too far into a gas giant's atmosphere would be just like being inside of a submarine that has gone down too far. WIP of a Sternbach class refitted with Quantum Slipstream. At least the ventral is done (unless I decide to alter the shading, which I might do!). The Sternbach class is a design from the fan-film Renegades. I liked the idea of an arrowhead with a short neck, so rather than making my own new design, I did what the Federation Council would be more likely to do: refit an existing design. There were aspects of the Sternbach class that I wasn't a fan of, and so I made refinements.
March 28, 2025 at 6:23 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
Two art uploads today. One is a SNW interpretation of the Kearsarge class from the Starfleet Battles miniature game, and the other is another WIP of a dog portrait.
#startrek #starship #havanese #maltese
Kearsarge-class Light Cruiser from Starfleet Battles, reimagined in the Strange New Worlds design aesthetic. There might also be a bit of Dan Uyeno (AKA Madkoifish) influence for the secondary impulse thrusters in the VERY thick nacelle pylons, which the original Kearsarge doesn't have, but it just made sense to me that pylons that thick would have something important inside of them! In the end, I kind of settled with just making this an artistic experiment for gaining a bit of practice, and then abandoned it after about a month of work! This fella is a WIP portrait of a napping Havanese/Maltese. The background is the hardest part for me, so I've been focusing on that first!
March 26, 2025 at 1:33 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
Art piece from about a year ago, and one of my first completed pieces altogether. A lot of the artwork that I will post here will inevitably be Star Trek related, but I LOVE myself some Space Battleship Yamato!
#andromedaclass #spacebattleshipyamato #starblazers
The Andromeda class is definitely a class starship design, just as much as the Yamato herself. She's has this delicate balance between sleek and muscular, however, I believe that recall her designer saying that he intended Andromeda to be intimidating. All members of the Andromeda class appear to start with the letter "A", and of course, the name Atlantis would have to be used at some point! This was my first time attempting to do an ocean, while the rest of the background is actually based on the expanse of stars shown in the beginning scene of the first episode of the second season. I must've used at least 3 different shades of blue for the stars alone.
March 23, 2025 at 12:18 AM
skeletopen.bsky.social
Old colored lineart WIP that will STAY unfinished. I might revisit it from scratch one day. I'd love to do a redesign for good old Nama's Gun Sniper Blade Unit!
#gunsniper #zoids
This is from about a year ago: Gun Sniper with an incomplete lineart, and an even more incomplete color scheme based on Blue from Jurassic World. I even worked on lineart for legs that are more accurate to therapsid physiology! But alas, the chest laser cannon, the wrist beam vulcans, and the tail sensor never made it beyond the scribble stage, while the left-side missile pod was never installed! There are also some caps missing, and who-knows-what-else! Even though ultimately uncomplete, I did get a lot of valuable experience with organizing layers. My plan was to use the lineart as a base for many other variants. I not only did the lineart for the alternate tail rifle barrel used by Naomi's Gun Sniper, but also wanted to set about redesigning an old fan variant from Nama's 3D Room, which is hopefully still around, but is really old, and dates back to the early 2000s, back when Zoids was as it's peak craze! I didn't get very far, as there was still a lot of lineart for the base unit that was (and still is) unfinished. I did detailize the double beam vulcan unit mounted on the chest though, as well as the cool roll cage! One of the two CGI images I used as reference for the Blade Unit. I never got to the thigh armor/micro missile pods and the mini beam vulcans mounted on the sides of the booster pack. I really liked the externally mounted canopy roll bar! RIP Helcat. At least I think that was a Helcat. Now it's scrap metal. The clearest rendering of the Blade Unit. For some reason, the wrist-mounted beam vulcans are mounted on the booster. If I were to redesign this, I'd probably mount the beam vulcans on arms similar to the Spino Sapper's saws, make the booster units sleeker and more aerodynamic, make the arms mounted on the boosters for the blades moveable, and probably add an additional arm to the blade unit mechanism, so that it can twist around, again, similar to the arms on the Spino Sapper.
March 20, 2025 at 9:46 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
A new day, another pet portrait. Delilah, a yorkie. Done for a friend.

Also posting a WIP. Time so far: 1 hour.
March 15, 2025 at 3:30 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
Art Post #2
I'm calling my cousin's Pitbull portrait finished. Also posting a comparison. Would you like me to do this with every finished portrait I post?
Also posting my first dog portrait, my family's Shi Tzu.
Donald Duck is not happy with one of his visitors.
#pitbull #shitzu #pokemonlegendsza
Benny, my cousin's Pitbull! I had to learn a lot to complete, and it took some trial and error to get the fur to look at least passable. So many shades and hues! I decided to leave the background kind of quick and dirty. Comparison between the photo and portrait. Portrait of my parent's Shi Tzu, Lola. First dog portrait. Figured I might as well post this today too. After it was announced that Totodile was one of the starters for Pokemon Legends ZA, set in Lumiose City (Paris), I immediately made the connections between Disneyland Paris and Donald Duck and Totodile's very similar voice, and tried to see how much I could get done in a single day. As a result, Donald Duck is pissed, Totodile has no idea how close he is to getting slapped silly, and I think Totodile is getting a brainfreeze. The drool on Donald's cap might have been a bit much! I'm not very good with expressions, but I think that I at least nailed Psyduck's derpy personality!
March 10, 2025 at 4:54 PM
skeletopen.bsky.social
First art post! I intend to try to post here every other day (assuming I don't procrastinate). A WIP for practice commission for Benny, my cousin's Pitbull.

My plan is to finish this today, and move onto another project.

#art #digital
March 8, 2025 at 4:41 PM