This thread should give an overview on what skill is needed for creating your own ship. Which programs you can use to create your art and what you should consider when doing so. These kinds of questions are asked frequently on the modding forum. Because time is valuable this thread should answer most of it. It should also be a platform where beginners and even advanced 3D artists can ask and share techniques on how to create your own 3D art like ships, rovers, probes etc. Thanks to @Chmee , @Arron_Rift , @grafton , @Pony, @Kiwi @Santobell and @JHS1985 for helping with this Guide. This thread contains the following subjects: 3D Software Texturing Software Game engines 3D Software There are many different 3D programs available. Some are more common than others, some are available as freeware and some cost several hundred dollars. There is no such thing as the best software in general. All of them have their pros and cons. Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max These two are the current industry standards when it comes to CGI. They are basically the same but Maya is stronger in animation while 3ds max pulls ahead in modelling. They use the same render engine called Mental Ray. Therefor you can basically achieve the same results. Pros: Industry standard. Any time you invest into learning these tools is well worth the effort if you are looking to get into making games. There is a lot of training resources online. runs on windows, Linux and macOS One good thing about Max is that CIG is using Max heavily and they have written custom Star Citizen scripts for Max that we may be able to use once CIG start supporting modding. Cons: Expensive unless you get it with a student license. Autodesk Maya LT Cut down version of Maya but still with the modelling/texturing feature set. No renderer but can export in 190,000 triangle chunks to .fbx or .obj and render in Keyshot. Pros: Same as Maya but very cheap monthly rental rate. This means your models can be used commercially if you decide to use some of your mods for other projects but still is closer to the student "free" option in price. Cons: Exporting in chunks is annoying, especially when you're building multi-million tri capships to the scale of CIG's behemoths. Blender Blender is a professional, free and open-source 3D computer graphics software toolset used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, interactive 3D applications and video games. With its Cycles render engine Blender gained the PBR capability and can achieve the same results as Maya or 3ds Max. Pros: totally free lots of tutorials available modelling, animating, rendering all in one direct export into Unity game engine can emulate the Maya shortcuts (useful when you get hired) powerful add-ons available runs on windows, Linux and macOS awesome community highly customizable GUI still under development, frequent bug fixes available on steam (automatic updates) Cons: Steep learning curve unusable without shortcuts Interface sometimes a bit confusing some functions don’t always work as intended poor particle effects Google Sketch up Pros: Basic version is free hundreds of assets online available Sketchup is very good for creating rough concept designs quickly. You can then take a Sketchup rendering into a painting application and draw on extra details for your concept art. This is much faster than creating a game engine ready model in Max or Maya. It allows you to test your concepts quickly in 3d before moving to Max or Maya to create the game ready model. Cons: Pro version costs around 700$ Models created in Sketchup are not usable in the game engine because the models are not optimized. You will have many extra polygons and vertices that are not needed. Avoid Sketchup for anything you want to bring into the game. Zbrush Pros: Zbrush is not too expensive and can be used to create some amazing models. Mainly it is used for more organic models like creatures and player characters as well as clothing. If Zbrush is out of your price range you can try ZbrushCore which is cheaper and will be more than enough for those just starting out with digital sculpting. Cons: The Zbrush UI is not very standard when compared to tools like Max and Maya. It depends on what you are used to. If you are just starting out then it should not bother you. If you do want to get good at digital sculpting but don’t like the Zbrush interface give Mudbox, 3D Coat or Blender sculpting a try. If you are going to do digital sculpting it is recommended that you get a Wacom tablet. Without a Wacom tablet it will be like sculpting with a brick in your hand. The Wacom gives you the precision you need to make good models. Mudbox Pros: Mudbox is similar to Zbrush but has a more traditional user interface for those comping from tools like Max, Maya and Photoshop. Cons: It has not been around as long as Zbrush and there are less people using it so there is also less training material to be found online. Texturing software As for creating 3D assets there are also programs available for texturing. Most of the 3D programs have their own capability for creating textures. But none of them are as good as Substance Painter. This toolset is highly specialized for painting onto the 3D mash which is by far the easiest way to texture a complex 3D model. But as most specialized tool it costs a lot. (Around 100$ for non-commercial use) There are other possibilities to texture your model as well. By UV unwrapping your model you can paint a texture in 2D. Most 3d software have tools for unrapping models and there are standalone UV mapping tools like UVLayout from Headus. Headus is a fantastic tool even though its user interface style looks very dated. For painting the textures, you can use every image editor. But mostly it’s done either with Photoshop or Gimp. Game engines Every game needs a game engine. The engine handles the rendering and displaying of the 3D objects. Usually the game assets aren’t created inside the engine. Currently most of the AAA studios have their own engines and sometimes an engine even gets develop for a specific game. CIG is currently using its highly modified version of Amazons Lumberyard engine which is based on Cry engine. Lumberyard comming soon Cry engine 5 comming soon Unity 5 comming soon Unreal engine 4 comming soon