Design & Modeling of Galatic Starships

Project: Celestial Conquest: Rulers of the Void
Studio: Arcane Horizon Studios (Indie Team)
Role: Concept Artist + 3D Modeler (UE5 Game Assets)
Category: Sci-Fi Hard Surface / Starship Design
Style Freedom: HIGH — you are encouraged to bring your creativity

Project Overview
Arcane Horizon Studios is developing Celestial Conquest: Rulers of the Void, a large-scale sci-fi strategy RPG featuring five major human civilizations with distinct aesthetics.
This job posting is specifically for Faction #1: The United Solar Federation (USF) — the main democratic superpower of the galaxy.

About the Faction – The United Solar Federation (USF)
(Included so you can understand the tone and direction for ship design)
The USF is a beacon of democracy, progress, innovation, and unity within the Galactic Nexus. Their society champions freedom, equality, and advancement through science.

They were born out of rebellion against a religious authoritarian regime (The Divine Crusaders). Their fleets symbolize:

Clean, efficient engineering
Balanced design philosophies
High-tech but grounded aesthetics
Practical military structure
Defensive strength and technological superiority
Idealism meeting realism

USF ships should feel like the pinnacle of practical futuristic engineering — modern, streamlined, militaristic, and believable. Think:
Mass Effect human ships
Star Citizen UEE
Halo UNSC (sleek variants)
NASA-inspired design language
Hard-surface industrial sci-fi
However — you have complete creative freedom.
We provide the lore for tone, but YOU define the final visual identity.

What We Need (Deliverables)

We are hiring ONE artist capable of delivering BOTH concept art and 3D assets.
1. Concept Phase
You will design 1–3 core ship types (depending on your rate), starting with:
Corvettes / Frigates
Destroyers
Cruisers
Battleships (optional, if time allows)
Capital Ship (optional, if time allows)


Concept Deliverables:

4–6 thumbnail sketches per ship
1 final chosen design per ship
Clean, full-color concept illustration
Orthographic views (front, back, side, top)
Optional color variants

2. 3D Modeling Phase
Each finalized concept will be turned into a game-ready Unreal Engine 5 asset.

3D Deliverables:
Game-ready model (UE5 compatible)
Clean topology, correct scale
UV unwrapped
LOD0 + LOD1 minimum
PBR textures (Base Color, Roughness, Metallic, Normal, AO)
4K textures for large ships / 2K for smaller ones
Full source files (Substance Painter, etc.)
3. Optional (If within your skillset)
(Not required, but a big plus)
Simple rigging (turrets, landing gear, docking ports)
Turntable render
Hangar pose render
Engine glow / emissive setups

Art Style Direction

We provide the lore, but you are NOT locked into strict design rules.
You have full artistic freedom to shape the entire United Solar Federation fleet’s identity — this includes silhouettes, materials, paneling, weapon layouts, and overall design language.
If you enjoy designing your own sci-fi style, this project gives you room to shine.

Who We’re Looking For

Someone experienced in hard-surface sci-fi design
Comfortable creating both 2D concepts and final 3D assets
Skilled with PBR workflows
Able to create optimized assets for UE5
Creative, communicative, and collaborative
Comfortable designing within a lore-driven universe
We expect to build long-term partnerships with the right artists.

Ownership

All assets created for this project will be owned by Arcane Horizon Studios after payment.
Artist retains rights to share concept art & models in their portfolio after game release.

How to Apply

Please include:
Portfolio (ships, vehicles, hard-surface work)
Tools you use (Blender, ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, etc.)
Estimated turnaround time

Final Note
This is the first of five factions.
If we work well together, you will be invited to design:
The Dominion of Astraan
The Divine Crusaders
The Void Corsairs
The Collective Hive
…each with completely different art styles.

We want someone who wants to build a universe, not just a single job.