Factional Design Theory

Moving a little to the side from texture we have in essence the identity of each faction. by this I mean the way I should go about designing the aircraft, their shape, colour and insignia.

Shape-

being in the room during Justin Wyatt's initial character design lecture last... I think it was monday? Anyway, it brought back some memories of how to make characters as people, using this I think i could apply the same principles to my aircraft designing.

I remember the way he mentioned the use of shapes defining the characters, villains typically were made up of triangular type shapes as well as squares, where as the hero is made almost exclusively of square type shapes with the side kick (being used for comedy purposes) made of softer, circular shapes.

since im doing vehicles and there will only be 2 sides, instead of three. So one side should use triangles and square shapes, and the other rounded circular with square shapes.

circles are a more peaceful shape, this will probably be given to the protagonist faction, and of course the evil faction should have a more sharp and strong look using triangles and squares. A good example of this would be an Imperial Star Destroyer, from starwars, which is just a giant triangle with squares on top.

then looking at the Rebel Alliance ship of the same class you see that it is made of rounded shapes and much softer looking curves.

it is important that each side be unique in design. the design normally is based on how the faction itself operates.

for example,

In the command and conquer universe, the Brotherhood of Nod (right) and the Global Defence Initiative (left) differ greatly in their appearance and tactics, and so their units reflect this.

Nod prefer stealth and fast attack units, while GDI prefer strength and crushing firepower, so their tanks reflect this.

GDI has Large tanks, that are expensive to build and slow moving

Nod has small tanks and light armoured vehicles that are cheap to build and fast moving

are generally much smaller than anything GDI has.

<cant find an image at the moment, ill make one and upload later>

also, there logos both define the sides actually pretty well. Nod as the antagonistic terrorist force are mostly red and black, sneaky and with a deadly fast strike like the scorpion, and GDI as the protagonist force are gold painted like heros of justice only with a military vibe instead of a superhero one, and are capable of swooping in and annahilating the enemy like the eagle.


In the Homewold universe, the two sides Vaygr (antagonists) and Hiigarans (protagonists) have vessels that are the same (more or less) to the other factions, so each side has a battleship/ cruiser/ destroyer, etc. the only difference is their design.

while Hiigaran ships (top) are built on a horizontal axis, Vaygr ships (bottom) are built on a verticle axis,  making both side easily distinguishable from one another.

these two ships are the same class but are easily distinguishable from one another, with my own work i need to remember not to fall into the trap of making everything look the same. I too want both of my factions to become different and take on their own unique look.

once again, colour comes into play as a key point of their design, the calm sky blue/white colours of the protagonist ship, and the dark black/red of the antagonist ship, even without any knowledge of Homeworld this can give people a clear idea of who is who.

Vaygr insignia on the left and the Hiigaran on the right, the Vaygr insignia uses much sharper and angular shapes than the Hiigaran equivalent, also it symbolises V for Vaygr so it reflects the faction in more ways than one. The Hiigaran insignia is rounded and softer than the Vaygr one, it symbolises the planet Hiigara and its "Angel Moon" the Angel moon being displayed with wings, wings symbolising flight and freedom.

The Vaygr symbol normaly in a dark red/ Maroon and the Hiigaran symbol normally in white.

The roundels used by the airforces in world war one, the german empire Iron Cross is much sharper in shape than the softer RAF union jack roundel. of course since this is the real world their roundels exist on a more historical basis and werent designed to be Good and Bad, since in the eyes of the German Empire they wouldnt have thought of themselves as the antagonists in a storyline

In the Star Trek Universe, the Klingon Empire (left) and the United Federation of Planets (right) follow the same pattern, the klingons being the main antagonist force throughout most of the Star Trek series, its insignia is dominated by sharp razor blade like spikes in a red and black setting. where as the Federation insignia is rounded, with a calmer looking blue.

The sharp effect also applies to real life examples like the above caution sign, even without the exclamation mark we know that this catches peoples eye straight away, and is therefore an effective shape for a symbol of warning. the triangle shape and the contrasting colours immediatley make this stand out.

To make my own insignia, I need to think of a name for each faction, and a goal for each faction.