My biggest concern with it is that it looks too much like the Ambassador class. From a distance, they'll probably wind up being too similar. After all, I'm not trying to do a "mini me" starship.
I decided to keep the ship name but drop the connection to the Constitution and Ambassador classes. Instead, I'm leaning more towards the style of the Enterprise-D and the kitbashes from the Wolf 359 graveyard scene. Though, I also borrowed a few ideas from the 2270s era ships (First Contact, Voyager, etc.) It's not much, but it's at least a start. Anyone who does these kind of complex shapes with Sub-D knows that there's a lot of carefully planned out work to get to this stage. In case anyone is wondering, the nacelles are going to be on top of the saucer. Literally right on top. Another inspiration whenever I do this kind of design is the Intrepid.
I forget sometimes that people like wireframes. In case anyone is wondering, this is how I got here:
Also, some specs on this object:
L: 198m
W: 182m
H: 29.4m
The nacelles will add a bit of length, but not much. It's not going to be much more than 200m long, but the elliptical saucer adds more internal volume than a spherical saucer.
I've never done Next Gen style nacelles of this type before, so this was fun. I don't want them to be exactly like the 1701-D nacelles, so I didn't follow any schematics, I just created them using my memory of what they look like and intentionally making some changes. I figure this ship might be slightly older than the 1701-D, (but not as old as the stardate on the plaque I made) so I figure these are an older version of the nacelle anyway. I'm still working on how they attach to the ship.
I created a short pylon to attach the nacelles directly to the saucer. I like this better than having longer pylons to attach them to the central structure. I did a lot of moving verts by hand to conform to the saucer and meet up with the nacelles before and after I put on the Sub-D modifier. For those who are wondering, the nacelles are rotated 25 degrees on the X axis.
I want to get the nacelles done first because I'm building them in the center of the scene and not rotated. This makes it more easy for me to delete 3/4 of them so that I can make use of the mirror modifier. Sure, I could do that with them anywhere in the scene, I just like doing it in the center. (probably because I had to in Lightwave) So, I'm having to clone, move and mirror the parts each time I want to do a whole ship render. Speaking of, here are some full ship renders:
I had a slight issue here:
There was some fugliness there due to verts not being in correct alignment. I fixed it:
Up next is the guts of the nacelles. Then Pendants and deciding how I'm going to handle the materials.
Somehow, I managed to get lucky with the bussard collectors and they came out exactly how I wanted them to. Of course, none of my interior details really show, but it its what it is.
Here are a couple renders with the nacelle and bussard covers off:
Inside the nacelle:
Obviously, the stuff inside the nacelle isn't really high poly, as it will never be fully seen. It's just there for the effect of what you see through the covers. I probably could have done away with some of it, but I decided to just keep it all. If I ever decided I want to do a damaged image with this ship, having all of that already modeled will come in handy.
I based the color scheme on the duck egg blue that was used on the Enterprise-D. According to Andrew Probert, sky blue was also used on the -D, but I didn't like how that looked with the duck egg blue, so I just started with the duck egg and fiddled with the value setting to create slight variations.
The cutout around the deflector was a tad low poly so, before I locked in my Sub-D, I beefed up the geometry so that it's smoother. I can't think of a reason why I'd even get this close to it beyond the WIP stage, so this will do nicely.
I added the grid lines for the saucer. These are intentionally very light, as you don't see them very well on most ST ships because the modelers just cut into the models to create them. In fact, it's hard to say if the 6-foot Galaxy model made by ILM even has scored lines. It doesn't appear to. The 4-foot model made by Greg Jein's shop has layered paint on it to make the hull paneling pop a bit more. But I still don't see scored grid lines. But, I always do them on my ships because it adds visual interest.
Luckily, I remembered to do the cutouts for the impulse engines before I added the grid lines, as it would have been a royal PITA to do them later.
Making use of the excellent suggestion by @publiusr, I built a structure that goes from the top center of the saucer and taper sweeps back the upper edge of the shuttlebay, creating a spot for the bay control room. The bridge will be atop this structure, so the part on the center of the saucer is B deck, though it follows the curvature of the upper part, so the bay control room is on C deck. I also did a whole mess of grid lines. And here's a whole mess of renders.
It's easier to do paneling before I get to the windows, as all of those cuts make doing what I'm doing to make this paneling more of a pain. I was initially going to do a simple Aztec, but I'm not that fond of Aztec. It looks decent, but I wanted something a bit more complex. Also, it kind of had to match what I did on the nacelles. I tweaked the colors a bit, along with the specular, roughness and metallic settings.
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I decided to keep the ship name but drop the connection to the Constitution and Ambassador classes. Instead, I'm leaning more towards the style of the Enterprise-D and the kitbashes from the Wolf 359 graveyard scene. Though, I also borrowed a few ideas from the 2270s era ships (First Contact, Voyager, etc.) It's not much, but it's at least a start. Anyone who does these kind of complex shapes with Sub-D knows that there's a lot of carefully planned out work to get to this stage. In case anyone is wondering, the nacelles are going to be on top of the saucer. Literally right on top. Another inspiration whenever I do this kind of design is the Intrepid.
Also, some specs on this object:
L: 198m
W: 182m
H: 29.4m
The nacelles will add a bit of length, but not much. It's not going to be much more than 200m long, but the elliptical saucer adds more internal volume than a spherical saucer.
I've never done Next Gen style nacelles of this type before, so this was fun. I don't want them to be exactly like the 1701-D nacelles, so I didn't follow any schematics, I just created them using my memory of what they look like and intentionally making some changes. I figure this ship might be slightly older than the 1701-D, (but not as old as the stardate on the plaque I made) so I figure these are an older version of the nacelle anyway. I'm still working on how they attach to the ship.
I created a short pylon to attach the nacelles directly to the saucer. I like this better than having longer pylons to attach them to the central structure. I did a lot of moving verts by hand to conform to the saucer and meet up with the nacelles before and after I put on the Sub-D modifier. For those who are wondering, the nacelles are rotated 25 degrees on the X axis.
Thanks! They were surprisingly easy to make.
Thanks. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. I decided to go with it this time because I didn't like my other ideas for the pylons.
I want to get the nacelles done first because I'm building them in the center of the scene and not rotated. This makes it more easy for me to delete 3/4 of them so that I can make use of the mirror modifier. Sure, I could do that with them anywhere in the scene, I just like doing it in the center. (probably because I had to in Lightwave) So, I'm having to clone, move and mirror the parts each time I want to do a whole ship render. Speaking of, here are some full ship renders:
I had a slight issue here:
There was some fugliness there due to verts not being in correct alignment. I fixed it:
Up next is the guts of the nacelles. Then Pendants and deciding how I'm going to handle the materials.
Thanks.
Thanks!
Thanks guys!
That's not a bad idea. I haven't decided what I'm doing up there, so I appreciate the suggestion.
Here are a couple renders with the nacelle and bussard covers off:
Inside the nacelle:
Obviously, the stuff inside the nacelle isn't really high poly, as it will never be fully seen. It's just there for the effect of what you see through the covers. I probably could have done away with some of it, but I decided to just keep it all. If I ever decided I want to do a damaged image with this ship, having all of that already modeled will come in handy.
I based the color scheme on the duck egg blue that was used on the Enterprise-D. According to Andrew Probert, sky blue was also used on the -D, but I didn't like how that looked with the duck egg blue, so I just started with the duck egg and fiddled with the value setting to create slight variations.
Thanks.
The cutout around the deflector was a tad low poly so, before I locked in my Sub-D, I beefed up the geometry so that it's smoother. I can't think of a reason why I'd even get this close to it beyond the WIP stage, so this will do nicely.
Thanks.
Luckily, I remembered to do the cutouts for the impulse engines before I added the grid lines, as it would have been a royal PITA to do them later.
It's easier to do paneling before I get to the windows, as all of those cuts make doing what I'm doing to make this paneling more of a pain. I was initially going to do a simple Aztec, but I'm not that fond of Aztec. It looks decent, but I wanted something a bit more complex. Also, it kind of had to match what I did on the nacelles. I tweaked the colors a bit, along with the specular, roughness and metallic settings.