Hello.

I've been using anim8or for a while to render spacecraft models with reasonable success, however over the years I am growing weary of the modeling process...especially when starting from scratch.

I was able to try out Spore this weekend and had fun playing around with the spaceship builder...and it got me wondering if there are any dedicated programs similar to this where you can choose from an array of pre-made parts...but with a more realistic art style.

Does such a program (or an editor/builder from another game) exist?

Thanks!

If you're really serious about this, I would actually recommend using a full-blown 3D app with a rendering engine. The free choice is obvious - Blender, especially now since the 2.5 interface is looking like Heaven and Earth compared to the older ones. The commercial apps: Maya, 3Ds Max, Vue, etc.

Vue is really nice for crowd fights, as in multiple small spacecraft in battle, and grand space scenes with awesome planets.

In any case, what I recommend about the presets - start developing your own prefabricates. Model small parts. Each of these applications has an organizational system for prefabs (3Ds Max uses Xrefs, for instance).

If you're not serious, well... await other answers.