Grand Space Opera

This contest was held on CGNetworks in 2004 and drew out a large crowd of very talented artists, and resulted in stunning artworks and some great spaceship designs.
However since the competition was about creating (space-) scenes and documenting the design process, the actual spaceship designs played a fairly limited role in the finished entries and you'd have to browse through seemingly endless very graphics-heavy galleries with leftover rubbish.

I personally spend weeks sifting through the entire 3D section for spaceship designs and was close to abandoning the project many times because of the ridiculous loading times: In hindsight, I must say the final result simply wasn't worth the effort, so in order to spare other people the trouble, and give the designs the attention they deserve, I've decided to upload all of them here.

Where it's been possible, I've cited the artists and name of the craft so you can do likewise. You should really consider buying the book with the top-entries and at least check them out on the official competition-page. If you know the personal homepage or gallery of any of the artists, please drop me an email so I can add it to this page.
If you own any of them please let me know so that I can remove them.

You can see a larger version of most of the pictures by clicking on them, and if you want to link to a particular artist, you can get the link by clicking the name.

Adrian Tee

A bunch of way cool black capital ships

Neo Aff

A mean capital ship with a strong Startrek vibe:

Neo Divinitus

I don't know what those glowing rods in front are for, but the rest is sooo cool!

Hellatorius

Some sort of badass vehicle for orbital bombardment

Alexander Preuss

A couple of spaceships from the winner of the contest:

Ohyama X-type fighter

Ohayama Battle Cruiser

I really like the organic shape and armoured look of this one

Andres Santiago Paredes de la Torre

Attack ship

It may be retro, but it a good way and I really like the guns here!

Carlos Tenorio

Starship

This is perhaps one of the coolest spaceships of the entire contest. Dan Rubin seem to have made one of his very best models based on this concept art.

Daniel Enrique Pittaluga Rubira

Guardinas of the universe lil ship

Hard to make this one out, but here it is anyways...

Darko Markovic

Fly small

I really like the rugged business-like look of this one

Eric Claeys

Scoutship

A nice mix of engine- and cockpit-pods

Fred Bastide

Slug ship

A bit too bulky and slow-looking for my taste, but the curvy shaped hull, repeated oval shapes and greeble is top notch. Ryan Wood made an excellent Lego version of this craft.

George Kim

Fighter and transport

The transport isn't particularly advanced, but the fighter has some interesting shapes

George Pourikas

Road Runner

Slightly Viper-ish craft, I like the nose but the gun is hot!

Gerardo Damian Barbero

This thing is just really wierd, but it's nice to have a fresh take on spaceship design once in a while.

Henry I Pashkov

A very prolific spaceship designer with a vast range of styles and cool ships.

Airbike, Alliance Battleship, Fox, Fury, Kania, Night Bird, Pollux, Raven, Red Shadow, Saber, Saliminga, Snow Leopard, White Cross

James Kaufeldt

Hover City

This one is really nice, both as architecture and engine

Jason Lee

Bomber, Gemini Fighter, Ship2, Widow Fighter

Jeremy Hampton

Dropship

Jeronimo Cabezas

A couple of really interesting concepts: I really like the chubby swallow-tailed one, but the first and second ones definitly have potential!

Jonas Silius

Shichil assault ship & fighter

A couple of very intersting alien ship concepts

Jorge Lescale Mucino

All, battleship, AI ship, Power ship, Transport

Interesting concepts with a nice retro-vibe

Josh Belay

Kevin Porter

Mother Ship & Fighter

Interesting organic concept - although this one may be a bit over the top, repetition of design elements is usually a great way to create coherence within and between crafts.

Levent Gocer

Aircar

Maciej Frolow

Corvette, Fighter & Imperial Battlecruiser

Aliens amd alien technology is by definition one of the hardest things to design. One of the more widespread takes on the problem is by going wierd and organic like here.

Mark Watkins

While the second one is fairly boring "make some fairly simple curvy shape and slap texture on it, the first one has a good oil-platform vibe, that could be nice for a space station.

Martin Sen

The shape may be a bit boring and trainlike, but a lot of work has obviously been put into the texture and colouring of this one.

Michael Cavro

Figher and Indy

The basic shape fits the small fighter well, but not the bigger one imo: The basic chain-link shape is a bit too boring, and the horns just look wierd instead of improving the layout.

Michael Wilson

Definitly a strong whale/Mon Calamari Cruiser inspiration with the first one, while the second seem like a really interesting concept for an engine, gun or the like.

Michael Moir

The first fighter is a bit too retro to my taste, but the sharp spikes on the second one rocks.

Moriz Füllgrabe

Xerxes defence craft

I don't really like crafts wider than long, but the angles and texture of this one just look too much like business not to be liked.

Octavian Emil

This one look more like some kind of roleplaying monster (and a good one of those), but apparently it's actually a landing craft.

Omar Carias

This "Space Cow" is absolutely adorable

Panu Uomala

A bit of readily convertable concept art and humor.

Patrick A Haraguti

This "Shark ship" looks like a really cool dropship concept, and the spidermech is not bad either.

Radu Octavian Prop

The batplane as alien fighter and a SW Imperial Stardestroyer parted up in modules... I think the fighter is really pretty, but perhaps a bit too much - it doesn't really look mean enough and I don't know what way it's supposed to fly. On the other hand this is not nessecarily bad from neither an alien perspective nor in a combat situation - but hey, I'm only human!

Sascha Michael Maerz

I don't really get why the artist isn't designate this Y'rr Warship as a Russian style space station, but we can use it as inspiration for what we want, right ;-)

Shaun Lupton

I've includede the fininshed scene of this artist because it was the only picture of his black ships which look pretty mean.

Shawn Weixelman

I really like the stratified look of the rear section of Shawn Weixelman's Lady McBeth:

Stephane

A couple of crafts with really cool colourscheme well design and great greeble:

"Pod" - I really like the pointy shrimplike look with barely touching elements of this one.

Tony Bela

Destroyer & Fighter, both with x or cross-configuration, the fighter is really cool, and the destroyer is not bad, great details, but a bit too angular and it's hard to figure out which way it's supposed to move.

Torsten Thuenen

This must be the wierdest entry to the contest, but hey, the inspiration for Serenity must've come from somewhere ;-)

Taavi Torin

Jewlery can be an inspiration too!

Udom Ruangpaisitporn

Not much coherence, but there's a lot of interesting shapes thrown together here.

Valentin Schwind

A more clean basic design, but very stylish nontheless

Vance Fry

Another ship that only appeared in the final scene