The Armory - Guns, Knives, and Axes

[Smitty-48]

You're nothing but a tease then.

I'm not publishing original art this good to an internet forum, this is professional quality stuff.

If I'm publishing this, I'll do it on my own site.

[Smitty-48]

Thing is, in terms of the book, I don't go so deep into the detail of what the Apollo looks like.

I give you a general idea, but i leave it open for you to imagine what you think it looks like.

[Smitty-48]

The other joy is that I've got the whole universe mapped in my head now.

Why they are fighting, what they are fighting for, how they are fighting, what the battle spaces are.

It's tight. Spacemerica fuck yeah, I'm in love with it already, it's way better than Gundam or whatever.

[Smitty-48]

I got the love story in place.

That's the most challenging part, to make it sweet, make it hot, to get the love interest right.

Then you fall in love with the characters, and then you throw tragedy at them, and you feel sad for them.

You don't want that thing to happen to them, but neither will the reader, and then they're hooked.

In terms of the military dialogue, could be disorienting for a non military audience

But my wife says she gets it, even tho she doesn't know the jargon,

In terms of the battle scenes, it's the shit,

I'm a professional tactician, these machines fight like soldiers, so the tactical side is practically unique.

In terms of the sex, the sex is hot, my wife blushed when she read it, I can write good sex scenes,

The political context is believable, that side of it is tight as well, the future history aspect.

I've got a timeline sketched out for a Book One, Two, Three, so already in Book One I know where I'm going,

Main character arc from youth to old man, plotted.

[Montegriffo]

Well, don't forget your mates when you're looking for location caterers.

[Smitty-48]

Well, don't forget your mates when you're looking for location caterers.

This is where the art takes it, the concept art and storyboards

Once you have the design and its tight, it comes to life and you can see the movie in your head.

Even the style I would do it in, sort of make it look like it was filmed by NASA,

like war documentary style camera, to make it more real, less Star Wars like,

Little bit faded, less color, more space like, that bleached light you get in space.

[Montegriffo]

Sounds like it will mostly be green screen studio work.
We like big battles with lots of extras, we did the frozen lake battle for King Arthur (the Keira Knightley one) at Pinewood Studios. 250 hairy bikers dressed as Vikings and they wanted them all through in 20 minutes.
It was still the largest permanent water tank in the world, they built it in the 50s for WWII Naval films like The Cruel Sea.
Covered it with polystyrene ''ice'' and fought an open battle there.
This was in the winter too. There were hot baths and soup on set for the poor souls who had to fall in the water.
I did a 25 hour day on that job 4am until 5am the next day.

[Smitty-48]

Sounds like it will mostly be green screen studio work.

Yeah, it would look more real if it was computer animated.

The computer could filter to give it the real space look.

The main thing to make it look the Voyager space probe was filming it.

Not George Lucas style, but to make you feel like you're looking at Saturn, the real Saturn, not a movie Saturn.

The light in space is different, cause you're looking through vacuum not air.

It's whiter, there's no color to the light, it's a harsh light.

And real space is darker than movie space, more shadowy,

[Montegriffo]

Talking of Voyager, I watched this last night. I can remember all their flypasts and the fantastic pictures they sent back.
Good movie if you have the time.

[Smitty-48]

Like in most of these space movies, there's no shadows.

The ships and whatnot are always lit up as if there is some light source which wouldn't be the case.

So in my scenes, things contrast from the light to the dark and back

Like if something is not lighting you up in space, you basically disappear.

Space is pitch black where there is no light source.

The Voyager can see something as massive at Jupiter, but it won't see something small until the last moment.