Juvat: Relax, Dude. No, I didn't see anything to indicate this was ~FROM~ said era, BUT, I fully expect there to be maybe one or two *left-over* ~DURING~ TNG/VOY/DS9. There's bound to be one or two in either Starfleet operation or decommissioned and in civilian operation as perhaps an orbital urban housing project with an on-board vertical farming project or two and/or as a parking station, during/following the Dominion War?
I personally fail to see why one or two Lotus-Class stations being leftover during DS9/TNG Relaunch wouldn't even be a vague possibility, as there's dozens of refits/reconfigurations of the Ournal-Class/Buckingham-Class "mushroom"-style standard Starfleet Headquarters throughout the internet.
I'm not the one who needs to relax...er, dude. I think you may need some ritalin as excited as you get about morphing people's ideas into your fanboi world. This station, as it stands, looks as though it is set during the TMP era so to throw out ideas about Janeway tech (I'm waiting for you to bring this up) among other 24th century stuff is asinine. Just let the work be.
I'm not the one who needs to relax...er, dude. I think you may need some ritalin as excited as you get about morphing people's ideas into your fanboi world. This station, as it stands, looks as though it is set during the TMP era so to throw out ideas about Janeway tech (I'm waiting for you to bring this up) among other 24th century stuff is asinine. Just let the work be.
Don't waste your time. The guy is a joke and if he's lucky he'll realize it at some point.
Practicing linking images from my blog site rather than using the attachments feature, which is again full and I don't wish to start the great purge just yet. This is several days old, so blog visitors may have already seen this.
Tried to give a closer shot of the inner landing bays, and even started on some maintenance bays along the piers, but they are just big empty box areas currently. I'm jonesin' to detail the concourses but many things interfere currently. I'll just do what I can, when I can. Until then, they are just big glowing stripes.
In response to some recent posts; The station is in fact named Lotus Class, and since the only other instances of that name I've been able to find are from fan fiction or the FASA role playing game: specifically- the Lotus Flower class neutronic fuel carrier. FASA is not considered canon, even though some of their designs, including the Lotus Flower, did end up in background LCARS files. I didn't feel there was too much conflict so I went with the name because of the reasons I stated earlier in this thread and on my blog.
It is starbase intended to be a new construct just when the "Great Experiment" starships, like Excelsior and Ingram are still undergoing their construction and trials. The design of the station has taken this new breed of ship into account (which is why I wanted that inner docking area; it's a primo spot for bigger craft) but they are still not yet the run-of-the-mill starship, which this station still has to serve in the here and now ( uh ...future). Still, I think the Lotus Class architects underestimated just how big the ships of their future would get.
Here, there won't be any runabouts raising up from the elevators, but their precursors certainly will. In fact, anything that wants to park inside and fits, can and will utilize the exterior lifts, which are currently nothing more than big gray rectangles. However, anyone with an imagination is free to presume these stations last well into the TNG era and beyond and is just as free to picture runabouts or shuttlecraft of the 6,7, or 8 type buzzing all around. More power to them. I myself won't be including any TNG constructs in my art until further notice. As for weapons, any I finally decide to arm the station with will be entirely defensive (though powerful) and won't necessarily be discernible at any discreet distance. Still, I have yet to figure any of that one out.
Began adding more detailed windows to the pier areas and have included two more small maintenance bays.
Minor Update: Started another render before heading off to work this morning. Slightly different lighting setup.
I will be adding another larger bay at the very end of the pier under the gangway. It'll be level and connected with the lower complex of maintenance bays.
When I compare your station and mine, Basill, I am amazed at how good yours is. This is much harder work than I ever realized, and you make it look easy!
For a brief intermission, I'll put up some images of the Abbe class as I've tried to replace it entirely with elements of my own construct instead of using stand-in saucers and engine nacelles.
I haven't touched this ship in years until I pulled it out recently for this station and the Northampton test shots. Now I've finally begun work on the primary hull and her impulse engine cowling. Her impulse engine is especially interesting because of the way it is spread out due to the ship's interconnecting pylon structure.
In an attempt to see how others have interpreted Eric Kristiansen's design, I've been studying Enterprise-E's Abbe class model as well as some pictures of a resin kit from Thomas Models I downloaded a few years back. The only other reference I have is the first book the ship was listed in, before some impressive upgrades were made.
I realy like the wide impulse deck treatment, and actually think it might look nice on a classical refit for this reason.
For years people have tried to put aft torpedoes on the refit connie but the results tend to mar her fluid lines.
Here you have the impulse's dual exhaust vents widely spaced enough that a full aft torpedo bay could fit between them. This would give the dorsal an even stronger attachment point and anti-matter sourse. This would go in the area now taken up by the Abbe classes spar which now attaches in the middle. Instead of the typical Refit secondary hull, you might try an upside down version of this hull from the Carver: http://federationreference.prophpbb.com/topic135.html
Another idea for the ABBE would be to turn the aft hull upside down, make the torpedo structure more rounded, and the nacelle pylons would have that typical V-for-Victory look. Something to think about...
I've added the last of the maintenance bays and began adding some deck detailing. I've also started a little work on the concourse interiors. It is turning out to be more in depth that I anticipated.
I had to make the concourse view ports transparent and place some low detail interiors inside to begin the interiors phase. I even added little "Spacedock lounge" furniture in the larger observation areas, though it is hard to make out here. I'll try and get some closer renders later; I started this one as I headed off to bed last night. This is just the beginning, so not much to show off.
Par tof the problem with having stuff visible in the big windows like that, is that the smaller windows have nothing in them, and it's kind of spoiling it. it did occur to me that Vrooms would solve your problems! http://www.euriskostudios.com/es/plugin_pages/vRoom.php You'd need to make your own custom interior sets, but once done, could have it looking like you have spent months modelling interiors
could always do proxy modeling.. where you model some complex furniture and save it as a proxy, then the only polys would be the cube placeholder.. don't know what software you use, but you can do it in max and maya easily.. thats how you model individual blades of grass on a scenic photo.. billions of polys..
No, currently LW doesn't do render-time/volumetric instancing nativelly. You could do it with http://dpont.pagesperso-orange.fr/plugins/DP_Instance.html or Happy Digital's HDinstance, but I can imagine setting that up would be a headache for in there. Might be a major faff to put the window-boxes in using that, but it could be used to distribute low-poly furniture and people inside the windows?
As much as I like the vRoom plug-in, given the cost, it really is a luxury for me at this point. I've decided to only detail one quarter of the station's internals though, so I should get away with only a minor dose of tedium. I do like that second plug-in idea for distributing the furniture though. That could come in quite handy for the waiting areas and lounge details. I'll check that one out.
Meanwhile, I've put in a few "box interiors" UV mapped with some orthographic renders I did of a single room I modeled. No biggie. I also had to make the exterior hull double sided to fix some light problems. The hulls around the view ports are also a little too thin for my tastes, but that will have to be fixed later.
I finally put in some escalators. Not major stand outs features, but they are visible in the background and they are of course unfinished. At present they are just copies of a master that I built yesterday, using a simple 2D plan I found on the web. They are currently too small and will need to be customized to fit their individual locales and actually reach their destinations. Some tweaking and rearranging and I'll eventually have them set the way I want.
You can go a long way with texture mapped low poly interiors. For a lot of the rooms, with very small windows a simple textured polygon ofset a few metres behind the window will be fine. Cool updates so far. I have to do my large rec-deck interior.. it's going to be a lot more of a pain than that one as it's radial
sure the scale of the furniture is right?? seems a bit small (just a bit) compared to the air lock in the image... thinking that the airlock is 2 meters wide?? just a thought ! Doing great!!
I was actually afraid they might be a tad too big, but I did this rendering with everything in scale and all seems well. I based the size of my airlocks (and all subsequent windows, deck heights, and props on Dennis Bailey's Refit Enterprise airlock. I also based all other ships docked at the station on this feature or the primary hull diameter. I had estimated the airlock door (from the inside, since that is the only place we've seen real people next to them) to be somewhere between 6 and 7 feet. Probably shorter than your average door height, but not by much. I tend to be a little lazy with scale. I Sometimes just going at it by eye which often bites me in the rump, but this time I think I got things pretty on target. I also put in some of Dennis Bailey's Officer's Lounge items for comparison. I also added added some one foot scale polygons I used to judge the internal features of the station, the first I've ever employed in a model for judging such matters.
The furniture is of course based loosely on the furniture in the docking scene from The Search for Spock. I thought those couches and chairs were a pretty good size compared to their seated occupants, but it was all estimation.
Posts
I personally fail to see why one or two Lotus-Class stations being leftover during DS9/TNG Relaunch wouldn't even be a vague possibility, as there's dozens of refits/reconfigurations of the Ournal-Class/Buckingham-Class "mushroom"-style standard Starfleet Headquarters throughout the internet.
Are personal attacks really necessary? Can't we all just talk about 3D art without tearing anybody down?
Tried to give a closer shot of the inner landing bays, and even started on some maintenance bays along the piers, but they are just big empty box areas currently. I'm jonesin' to detail the concourses but many things interfere currently. I'll just do what I can, when I can. Until then, they are just big glowing stripes.
In response to some recent posts; The station is in fact named Lotus Class, and since the only other instances of that name I've been able to find are from fan fiction or the FASA role playing game: specifically- the Lotus Flower class neutronic fuel carrier. FASA is not considered canon, even though some of their designs, including the Lotus Flower, did end up in background LCARS files. I didn't feel there was too much conflict so I went with the name because of the reasons I stated earlier in this thread and on my blog.
It is starbase intended to be a new construct just when the "Great Experiment" starships, like Excelsior and Ingram are still undergoing their construction and trials. The design of the station has taken this new breed of ship into account (which is why I wanted that inner docking area; it's a primo spot for bigger craft) but they are still not yet the run-of-the-mill starship, which this station still has to serve in the here and now ( uh ...future).
Here, there won't be any runabouts raising up from the elevators, but their precursors certainly will. In fact, anything that wants to park inside and fits, can and will utilize the exterior lifts, which are currently nothing more than big gray rectangles. However, anyone with an imagination is free to presume these stations last well into the TNG era and beyond and is just as free to picture runabouts or shuttlecraft of the 6,7, or 8 type buzzing all around. More power to them. I myself won't be including any TNG constructs in my art until further notice. As for weapons, any I finally decide to arm the station with will be entirely defensive (though powerful) and won't necessarily be discernible at any discreet distance. Still, I have yet to figure any of that one out.
Minor Update: Started another render before heading off to work this morning. Slightly different lighting setup.
I will be adding another larger bay at the very end of the pier under the gangway. It'll be level and connected with the lower complex of maintenance bays.
Very like GuitarEC's Crusader here
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=69719&d=1245212381
I realy like the wide impulse deck treatment, and actually think it might look nice on a classical refit for this reason.
For years people have tried to put aft torpedoes on the refit connie but the results tend to mar her fluid lines.
Here you have the impulse's dual exhaust vents widely spaced enough that a full aft torpedo bay could fit between them. This would give the dorsal an even stronger attachment point and anti-matter sourse. This would go in the area now taken up by the Abbe classes spar which now attaches in the middle. Instead of the typical Refit secondary hull, you might try an upside down version of this hull from the Carver:
http://federationreference.prophpbb.com/topic135.html
Another idea for the ABBE would be to turn the aft hull upside down, make the torpedo structure more rounded, and the nacelle pylons would have that typical V-for-Victory look. Something to think about...
I've added the last of the maintenance bays and began adding some deck detailing. I've also started a little work on the concourse interiors. It is turning out to be more in depth that I anticipated.
I had to make the concourse view ports transparent and place some low detail interiors inside to begin the interiors phase. I even added little "Spacedock lounge" furniture in the larger observation areas, though it is hard to make out here. I'll try and get some closer renders later; I started this one as I headed off to bed last night. This is just the beginning, so not much to show off.
That may be the case but if anyone can do it, you can. You are, I dare say, a genius when it comes to this.
No but really... I'm no genius. (just a little manic.)
Here's that furniture close up I promised.
Of course I've always intended to model some cheapy interiors for the smaller windows but that appears to be a zoomy way to get things done.
looking great sir! better than i've ever done!
Meanwhile, I've put in a few "box interiors" UV mapped with some orthographic renders I did of a single room I modeled. No biggie. I also had to make the exterior hull double sided to fix some light problems. The hulls around the view ports are also a little too thin for my tastes, but that will have to be fixed later.
I finally put in some escalators. Not major stand outs features, but they are visible in the background and they are of course unfinished. At present they are just copies of a master that I built yesterday, using a simple 2D plan I found on the web. They are currently too small and will need to be customized to fit their individual locales and actually reach their destinations. Some tweaking and rearranging and I'll eventually have them set the way I want.
The furniture is of course based loosely on the furniture in the docking scene from The Search for Spock. I thought those couches and chairs were a pretty good size compared to their seated occupants, but it was all estimation.