The main reason I used the gradient wasn't just for the shading but it was mainly for the simplistic wide spaces of emptiness that was very meh. And when recolouring the rebel ships I saw heavy use of gradients (and the lanius have A LOT MORE may I add- this is why I will never do a Lanius hull any time soon- it's to unique for me to freehand atm and it has to many gradients for me to splice things up like I want to)
I can lower the gradients a little bit but I guess a full way to fix the problem if I take hours of my time going across ALL versions of the vintage rebels and adding shading- which if I will do this I might as well create a better hull for the Kestrel as well as update the Slug ships to not be so asymmetrical. (trust me, select the outline and flip it, notice how it does not match at all).- going with this I would like to point to the Federations cruiser 'light side' and the rebels- they also got the gradient effect making things not quite even.- also the website you linked with there method of shading isn't quite FTL's style- however I am well aware there are other shading methods in FTL because it's kinda obvious as they are on the ship hulls I've done ^^; It doesn't surprise me that you did research with this- I've seen you've watched many videos and sites on these topics on game creation such as Extra Credits.(and I say keep it up! )
The normal vintage rebels looked fine due to the orange stripes- but the "black and red" pirates look much more bland- even after me adding black outlines of where the stripes are there wasn't much I can do... I even attempted adding more cool pirate markings but it didn't work.
I will reduce the gradients- however adding the additional shading may be a bit problematic as once upon a time I tried doing so before- it didn't quite work out due to the... 'unique' shapes on the craft.
I also learned once upon a time that gradients, I always admired the more simpler styles of doing things (meanwhile I overcomplicate with the simple stuff with other things...), however that 'Plastic' look is slightly what I think the rebel riggers would go. But either way, here it is with a reduce gradient.
Here it is with 50% reduction. Doesn't look like plaster like it did without gradient but not like plastic either.
Top row is without change, Second row is with change.
Edit: it is a bit subtle even when side by side but it is a difference. (50% difference I should add)
Edit 2: finishing the final touches on the gibs on the remaining "type B human pirate" hulls- besides the 2 vintage pirates where I do not quite have a response on how the hull should be yet.
I also didn't do any gibs for the "purple + black" pirates due to lack of knowledge on them but it should be a quick job for anyone to do. (I am a bit edgy to start on the Zoltan C/ Mantis C's instead of continue with the pirates- it has been fun and all! but these are some guys that was long due.)
I also want to clearify that I am not doing this because I feel like I have a responsibility to. I am not doing this because I want to suck up to anyone or simply because I want to force CE to be a big part of "my" work and try to look cool amongst my friends and others. That is not what I am doing. I am mainly doing this because I will eventually need these hulls for my overhaul mod and that these are just recolours and I feel that EVERYONE should be allowed to use these type B, C's, D's, E's, what ever you call the non-trio. 'But Raven there has to be more to it! I mean you also donated non vanilla ships such as federation artillery frigate, federation defender, mantis mine layer, and also you are planning on giving in a new slug ship as well as possibly thinking about making more ships for other races for possible CE use! There has to be more to it or did I miss something?" Well you got half of it right. The other thing why I love contributing to this mod specifically because me and sleeper, we may be on different parts of the world, we may speak different languages natively, we may not talk that very often and so on. But we do both like FTL, we both like the vanilla game and it's 'lore' and such. And this mod is amazing in my eyes and if I can help it inch it's way to be 'better' then that is great by me.
I am not doing this for the things I said for the opening sentence (won't repeat myself). It is mainly a labour of love to you guys and stuff. I do not need to do it. But I want to do it. Making these hulls gives me something productive in boring day to day routine and it brings other people joy and happiness.
R4V3-0N, a dreamer.
I'm very much aware that you aren't obligated to contribute to CE (no one is) and I think it's great that you let us use all those ships you made. I mainly wanted to give my opinion on why the old Rebel ships look flat and what distinguishes them from the new ones.
