3DClass II Dock

sorceress21

Mesh build is far from done but a good chunk of the core model is complete enough for a render test. I'll do a fictional scene write up when the dock is finished.

Modeled entirely in SketchupPro 2018. The mesh here including the Okuda Class Destroyer in the scene is nearly 20 million polys. There are only two displacement maps, one in dock wall texture that appears between the long "rail" structures and upper Dock overhead and one in the Okuda hull texture. The Test scene was rendered in Thea Studio in 8K with slight post-work done in Gimp 2.0

Freak

nice looking Dock.

evil_genius_180

I like the design and details of the dock. And, of course, your Destroyer looks great in there.

Guerrilla

Neat. Could maybe use a little rim light or something to separate the ship from the background a little.

Viper

I love that I agree that the ship looks a bit too blended with the background though. Also, I feel like the big lights on the wall look a bit too CG right now. I would work on that a bit more so it looks less CG.

Out of curiosity, what was the render time for the image?

sorceress21

Thanks for the solid feedback, its all VERY helpful and yes, this is far from a finished product. Render time was about 8 hours.

Overall I'm going for a realistic lighting setup vs. a pretty one. The one thing I don't do with my art is practice presentation for the sake of aesthetics. In sci-fi I feel strongly there is way too much of that which spoils suspension of disbelief. For example putting a magic light source on a ship in deep space which is common place and nearly standard. I mean space is a dark place. The best IRL lighting setups I've seen in sci in my opinion have been 2010: The Year we Make Contact and The Expanse. Also look at the many images out there of Starfleet vessels inside the spacedock. Those images the ships all blend in as well and in my opinion are some of the best realistically lit scenes in scifi. That being said one thing I've going to play with is to add spotlights in the dock to better illuminate a ship that is "docked" like those spacedock scenes from trek. I'll play with global medium to get the beams to slightly show up a bit though in a vacuum unless there was dust or a gas present that wouldn't be present IRL. But one could say it was some kind of venting from the ship's ECS.

So yes, the ship is blended with the dock background a lot I agree. However, that's what it would really look like. The hull of the Destroyer is also non-reflective and has a sprayed on thermal coating. That's knocking down the contrast quite a bit.

Now along with the main dock lighting which I already know how to fix (I think), the big work lights definitely need help too and definitely look too CG insofar as the structure. Right now I'm not sure how to go about fixing it so idea are welcome. They are not just in how much I need to adjust the projected light but in the texture of the surfaces, especially the tube rails they're mounted on. I may just do away with them and go with something else as they are heavy poly anyway.

This scene is actually meant to sort of show the ship about ready to depart which is why all the running lights are on and the work lights are dimmed and turned off where there are no other ships docked.

Brandenberg

You mentioned "The Expanse" and that was the first thing I thought of when I saw this.

It didn't occur to me without Viper's help but I have to agree it would be great if your ship stood out a little more. After all, it's a terrific model. One thing about it is that you have those ("Too CGI looking") lights all around the ship which theoretically should light it up more than they are in your render.

What I want to emphasize is my appreciation for your design ideas. Great ship model. Great Dock idea.

Brandenberg

Perhaps I should add, I love the depressed red lit bay at the bottom. I find myself drawn to what is in there.

Brandenberg

sorceress21 wrote: »

In sci-fi I feel strongly there is way too much of that which spoils suspension of disbelief. For example putting a magic light source on a ship in deep space which is common place and nearly standard. I mean space is a dark place.

Agreed. However, this is significantly less true of objects in orbit on the bright side of a planet. I personally feel some artists over-darken these. One can easily look up photos of the international space station and see what I mean. The direct light from the sun and reflected light from the planet really light it up.

Viper

sorceress21 wrote: »

The best IRL lighting setups I've seen in sci in my opinion have been 2010: The Year we Make Contact and The Expanse. Also look at the many images out there of Starfleet vessels inside the spacedock. Those images the ships all blend in as well and in my opinion are some of the best realistically lit scenes in scifi.

If you mean those drydock images of Voyager, I agree. Not the TMP ones. Those are too flat, and they have tons of phantom lights.

One way to get some separation in the lighting is to add some ceiling lights in a different color. White probably. That would break up the ship from the background a bit as the top will be a bit different. But totally your call.

sorceress21

Viper wrote: »

sorceress21 wrote: »

The best IRL lighting setups I've seen in sci in my opinion have been 2010: The Year we Make Contact and The Expanse. Also look at the many images out there of Starfleet vessels inside the spacedock. Those images the ships all blend in as well and in my opinion are some of the best realistically lit scenes in scifi.

If you mean those drydock images of Voyager, I agree. Not the TMP ones. Those are too flat, and they have tons of phantom lights.

One way to get some separation in the lighting is to add some ceiling lights in a different color. White probably. That would break up the ship from the background a bit as the top will be a bit different. But totally your call.

No that's drydock..I'm talking about the Spacedock scenes from STIII and IV

lewisniven

That is an awesome model, the ship itself is amazing. I agree with @Viper on the lighting, it's very flat at the moment. Id take the fill lighting on the dock itself down a bit and fix the light panels, gieven how much light they're casting they should be outrageously bright, it could be that your exposure settings are out. Then point some white spotlights or something at the ship to lift it off the background as at the moment the eye isn't drawn to anywhere in particular in the frame.

sorceress21

How's this guys? Look any better? I added flood lights to the lighting scaffolds, re-modeled the main dock panel lights and re-rendered.

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Brandenberg

Yeah, an improvement. The front of the ship could use more light.

Freak

The main ship Stands out better now.