You may remember me promising to post pictures of another FFSW project in the works: The ISV Cerberus. Today I’m fulfilling that promise (be sure to read to the end for an important question).
The Cerberus is a military-variant Series 3 Firefly that served the Independents during the Unification War. She was part of the Independents 12th Cavalry Unit, and served a support role as gunboat, troop transport and armored attack vehicle until she was breached in the Battle of Sturges and left for dead.
It would be many years before she would be recovered and ultimately sold to Austin’s Savage Yard, where a certain Firefly mechanic would take an interest in her (documented in the Inside Serenity series that aired as part of The Signal, Season 3).
We’ve developed a backstory for the Cerberus, including crew and missions, and hope – at some future time – to release some fan fiction documenting her adventures.
Silent Running: The Cerberus lies in wait for an Alliance cruiser. While vastly outgunned, the Series 3 gunboat’s agility and speed made it the perfect ship for surprise attacks that, done right, could damage or even disable a cruiser.
How we came to develop a full-blown 3-D model of the Cerberus all started with a casual conversation with Serenity’s designer, Tim Earls, often mentioned and much admired here. The conversation went something like this:
AG: So, Serenity is a Series 3 Firefly, right?
TE: Yep.
AG: So, ah, given any thought to what the Series 1 and 2 were like?
TE: Yep.
AG: …and?
TE: What would you like to know?
AG: What they looked like, how they’re different, when they were in service, how many were made and, um…
TE: Yes?
AG: Did one of them have guns? Please say “yes”…
TE: Ah, yes?
Tim and I had a lot of conversations like that when we were developing the history of the Firefly. That conversation, of course, led to the concept drawings Tim did for Serenity Blueprints Reference Pack. And, of course, once we had those drawings, we couldn’t resist trying to make them into fully-realized ship designs. As for which one to start with – guns, duh!
When the Independents’ guerilla tactics forced the Alliance to give up aerial engagement in favor of ground assaults, boats like the Cerberus’ ability to fly low and fast while firing her belly canons made them the scourge of Alliance troops.
The Cerberus is the first to come to life, but (hopefully) won’t be the last. Developing a film-worthy 3-D model from scratch has been a real learning experience for us. We were lucky enough to team up with Sean Kennedy, the absolutely brilliant CG designer who did the special effects for the upcoming Firefly fan film, “The Bellflower”. We saw his work on some early clips of the film and said, “Oh yeah, we gotta work with this guy…”
The heavy, scan-resistant armor combined with a multitude of ground and anti-aircraft weapons of varying size and type made the Firefly gunboat the ideal support vehicle for Independents ground forces.
So, now that we have the “Big Dog” all but completed, what next? We plan to have some beautiful hero images of the Cerberus in the upcoming Serenity Poster Set (that has yet to be officially announced, so shhhh…) And, because we made so many environments for our girl, we thought, perhaps, you all might like some of the images as desktop themes? (This is the part you needed to read to the end for.)
If you’d like a Cerberus desktop theme, let me know. Also, let me know what screen size you’d like and I’ll get them rendered and posted ASAP.
Hey, good job Sean. So that’s what you were doing. It’d be nice to see some larger images so we can see the details.
Hi DV – well, I guess if someone needs a 1920×1080 desktop for their HD monitor, that should be pretty big
That would be great.
That “parked” shot is fantastic (and appropriately menacing).
Just what you need to make Alliance officers soil themselves!
Any chance of dual monitor wallpaper? I have two running at 1280 x 1024.
Hiya Ben – yeah, that’s my *favorite*, too. I wanted the Cerberus to be terrifying to her enemies, but feel like home to her friends. Like a Rottweiler you can trust to play with the kids, but will tear the arm off someone breaking into the house.
Michael – How about we do all three images at that resolution, so you can have a different view of the Cerberus on each monitor?
My desktop is 1440 x 900. Please, please I want a desktop! Any size will do.
I love the landing scene but would take any of these. My res is 1280 x 800.
Thanks Andy. We can always count on you for keeping your primises!
jim
Yea! Posted the info. Now I can talk about it a bit.
The posters are still in the works. These wallapers are just the teeny tiny teaser versions. I spent a lot of time rendering out 300 DPI poster images (not shown here so you’ll have to wait). But my favorites of these three are the landing and desert fly-over.
BTW: Admin, I did not do all the effects for Bellflower. We had a team of specialists. I did lots of modeling and texturing and a little animation. Scott O’Brien is the person doing the heavy load of visual effects (credit where credit is due).
I expected a few guns to be sure, something akin to a WWII flying fortress, but the Cerberus is absolutely bristling. Now since ‘bristling’ is very apropos for a ship named after a large, multi-tasking canine, the more bite the better. I’m personally drawn to the landing image, but I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to three or four dozen more.
How does a two headed dog decide which rabbit to chase…?
Looks awesome! I’ll take 1920×1200 images, please…
William – all the guns were Tim Earls’ idea – and each one has a purpose. Because the gunboat is designed to be effective against ground, air and space-based targets, she sports a combination of anti-armor canons and anti-personnel machine guns (on the bottom), rail guns and a packet plasma canon (on top). The packet plasma canon work especially well on the huge, slow-moving city cruisers in use by the Alliance and the rail guns are good ship-to-ship weapons.
And – right you are – we modeled the design after the Flying Fortress. Those anti-armor canons can be loaded with hi-yield explosive shells, making them effective against ground targets. And then the “dragon” missiles tucked under each wing, while designed to take on capital ships, will make short work of most fortified ground targets, as well.
Like all Fireflies, the gunboat is – at it’s core – a simple ship with a flexible design suited for many tasks. If it hadn’t been pitted against an enemy with superior tech and overwhelming numbers, it might have even helped the Independents stay that way.
As for the answer to how a three-headed dog decides which rabbit to chase – with guns like those the answer is all three, of course!
Who needs bombs when you have a packet plasma cannon and rail guns? Besides, if worse came to worse, they could always roll one out the side door. A fifty gallon molotov cocktail made from an oil drum.
Oooo, I like that! Mind if I borrow the Molotov idea? (scribbling notes in Cerberus fic notebook…)
Heck, yeah I’d like a desktop theme. 1920 x 1200 is what I use but I’ll take anything.
Certainly, but I’m not sure how original it is. To be perfectly fair I was channeling a scene from ‘Courage Under Fire’ when I mentioned it, and I could probably mention several other war films that use a drum bomb, but maybe that’s the point. A good old fashioned drum bomb makes for good story telling.
You could also have the Cerberus pull a ‘Crazy Ivan’ over an ammo dump.
virtualFireFLyBrownCoat s
use too many differnt sizes to list: old school 800×600 as I type now.
can adapt aLmost any provided.
Can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
Your crew along with Sean Kennedy and the cast has alot of that credit around our verse lately. Hope it spends well. Always welcome in our part of the verse, drop by any time for some Bomb dropping inspiration, we enjoy the same.
Our Shuttle Craft seem to make indespensible little mini Bommers in simular 12o’clock charlie fashion to William Pace’s molotov cocktails.
I have got to get me one of those!! I love it. Can we have a 1680 x 1050? Please? This thing reminds me of an AC-130 gunship. Seems to me that she would circle a target and reduce it to dust. It could also expose her dorsal gun to the ground targets. Are you going to have a shot pointing out and labeling all of the guns, missiles, military hardware and other things of interest?
Oh and great job!
Oh, more questions. Where is the fire control center, does it have one? How much ammo did they carry? How many crew did she need? Did she carry a Spec Ops team, for ground missions? How is the protection from the rear? That seems like the weakest spot. How much was interchangeable with a regular series 3 firefly? Are you going to have some action shots? Did Mal and Zoe ever get transported by one? Does the lack of solar panels affect her performance? What is her speed, range, and maneuverability compared to a regular series 3 firefly?
Are you going to have other war related fireflies? Such as a recovery firefly, a scout ship, troop/supply transport or a hospital ship?
Thanks again!
Yeah. I *love* this boat! I’m totally enamored of the idea that there’s a ship out there like Serenity, but that can bite back.
Callouts, eh? I might do a set of orthos with callouts as a desktop. But heck, if our Big Dog proves to be popular enough, maybe we’ll do blueprints, as well? In fact, I’m dreaming of a 8-inch scale replica – on a stand and perfect for display. Mmmmm…
That would be very nice.
“Who needs bombs when you have a packet plasma cannon and rail guns? Besides, if worse came to worse, they could always roll one out the side door. A fifty gallon molotov cocktail made from an oil drum.”
William…Sometimes, when you are outgunned, you need a really BIG bomb. The molotov cocktail oil drum is a great idea if you plan to napalm ground troops, but it won’t do much in the vacuum of space. At that point a really big rocket propelled bomb is handy.
Oh, could we please have these in 1024×768 too, if possible?
Thanks
I would have suspected the gunship to not carry the full cargo bay. If they’re hot swappable-I would think a slimmer bombardment version would be attached. Or go completely naked with it. Looks great though.
Just a thought to add to what Sean Kennedy Says:
“in the vacuum of space. At that point a really big rocket propelled bomb is handy. ”
Would that vacume so strictly governed by the laws of motion, also be a good place for a “Flechet” weapon.
Since the act of pointing the projectile towards it target would deliver its mass well, and the devastation of a projectile weapon could be argueably well debated between mass verses penatration, (I favor the later thus the flechett idea)
especially for its covert construction: it is simply a handy way of transporting fence posts (hardly worth stealing) around the very fuel drum mentioned before. The transfer of mass is only rivaled by the penatation of the Flechett like posts traveling along the course quietly set forth by a silent ambushiing ship or small guidence rocket.
The camoflauge can be even taken further as well as the damage by including the fence wire, (barbed, rolled & stacked, or already strung among the posts)
Not a new design, have seen historical references since the dark ages and catapults. But was very impressed with examples from WW11 and forty years later in Columbia. Makes a mighty fine “poor man’s bunker buster”.
Blueprints would be cool. I just pointed folks from the Serenity RPG crowd over this way. I arrived here from a direct link elsewhere to the “name that part” and followed the thread down to the Cerberus.
http://cortexsystemrpg.org/index.php?topic=2033.0
“We’ve developed a backstory for the Cerberus, including crew and missions, and hope – at some future time – to release some fan fiction documenting her adventures.” – Looking forward to it. Thanks for the info on the ship as well. One or more of her sisters will pop up in more than one game campaign I think.
Any more action shots of the Cerberus? Even though they were slower then the AFAS I could see them being helpful during Serenity Valley giving air support and evacing troops.
I’d love you guys and Margaret Weis Productions get together and put the Cerberus and the AFAS into their Sixguns and Starships book that they plan on putting out in the future. For gamers these ships could be used in a Unification Wars story, soon after the war with the “Dust Devils” or as a pirate/mercenary ship. Or put it out as a pdf like Ryan Wolfe’s Future Armada series. I could see some different bases, units and stories from the war not only from the Cerberus but other ships. I mean there was a 1,000 made so there are tons of possibilies. If nothing else I hope that Sean can put together different views, what weapon’s are where on his model and deckplans. Thanks again for the work your doing on this ship.
Is there anyway to lighten up the Cerberus in silent running thru the asteroid field? Also do you have any more pictures?