After I made a basic secondary hull (actually, it'll be the one I use later), I started of with a simple loft with a single deformation to pull the basic outline spline into the proper shape (you can see the deformation jig)..
This is where I got tricky (after slapping myself for being an idiot and missing the obvious...) I built a SPLINE CAGE - yes I know, the same damn things I'd been using all along:stupid: - for the bottom area...
...and hit it with a surface modifier.
Okay, so far so good. Then I looked at what I had. There's a whole lot more geometry in the spline cage than on the loft object. Hooo-boy, I thought to myself, that's going to take a lot of tweaking to get right. Then I slapped my head again; why not just make the whole thing out of splines? So I did...
...and surfaced it.
And then because I hate extra poly's, got rid of a bunch of edges that really would have been in the way anyhow:D .
I then attached my support to the secondary hull mesh, and cut the secondary out along the highlit line...
... and discarded the inside poly's. From there I welded all the verts together, moved things around until everything was lined up (in retrospect it would have been a better idea to boollean them together), chambered the edges 1", and extruded the inner poly's in a titch.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results. What made it less daunting was looking carefully at my ref's, seeing that there was a minor groove at the base, forgetting every other method I'd ever used before, and looking it at with an eye to the basic and simple.:D
Thanks Chris. Believe me, there were a lot of false starts here and there, and then a bunch of "Boy I hope no one noticed that before I can fix it." But, I keep reminding myslef about what I said at the beginning of the tut, and what I try to remember whenever I'm making something, Break it down to it's simple componants. From there, it does get not easy, but easier...
Anyway, a little eye-candy:devil: of where everything is so far.
"Boy I hope no one noticed that before I can fix it."
Anyway, a little eye-candy:devil: of where everything is so far.
You mean, like the registry on the inside of the port nacelle being backwards? Or the fact that the engine glow is too pink? It should be blue. :devil:
I was hoping you'd do a shot like that. The ship looks great so far. :thumb:
You mean, like the registry on the inside of the port nacelle being backwards? Or the fact that the engine glow is too pink? It should be blue. :devil:
I was hoping you'd do a shot like that. The ship looks great so far. :thumb:
OOPS. I gues that's what happens when you just do a mirror. As far as the pink goes, in the original movie, the engine glow was pinkish - I don't know when it went blue... or were you joking. Gosh it's hard to tell:flippy:.
I think the blue was only on the 1701-a
TMP it was some pinkish rainbow deal at times leaning to purple. There was a top down view of the refit that had all these odd colours going on on it. But I cannot find the scan now.
I think the blue was only on the 1701-a
TMP it was some pinkish rainbow deal at times leaning to purple. There was a top down view of the refit that had all these odd colours going on on it. But I cannot find the scan now.
Yeah, I was actually joking about the engine color. Just having a little fun. I know, it's hard to tell when someone is joking based on written text.
The blue might have come around in ST 3, but I'm not totally sure. The 1701-A and later ships with the same engines definitely had blue. Now I'll have to watch all of the Trek movies, just to be sure. :devil:
Yeah, I hate it when I have to watch them. :devil: I'm watching TMP right now and the engines are definitely glowing blue. I don't know where that other color came from unless it's from one of the other movies or a horribly inaccurate publicity shot. That happens somtimes. It also could have been that color in the original movie. I have the revamped DVD version.
Did you make the screenshot yourself? Because the warp glow was blue in the first 3 movies. (I skipped ahead after I watched the first one. :devil:) And I know for a fact that it was blue on the Enterprise-A. I don't know what happend to some of those "screenshots" out on the web, but the colors have been altered. Probably somebody had their settings wrong on their scanners or, if they did an actual screenshot, they played around in photoshop too much.
There is an Andrew Probert still shot from The Art of Star Trek of the model where it almost looks purple, but I think that's just the lighting for that picture. And, that shot out on the web with the pink glow while the ship is in drydock is from that book also. That has definitely been altered because, in the movie, the nacelles didn't glow in drydock.
Yeah, I hate it when I have to watch them. :devil: I'm watching TMP right now and the engines are definitely glowing blue. I don't know where that other color came from unless it's from one of the other movies or a horribly inaccurate publicity shot. That happens somtimes. It also could have been that color in the original movie. I have the revamped DVD version.
ok according to my 1983 TMP Video - its a pink/blue/purple glowy type thing - pretty hard to recreate (tried it )
Yeah, I hate it when I have to watch them. :devil: I'm watching TMP right now and the engines are definitely glowing blue. I don't know where that other color came from unless it's from one of the other movies or a horribly inaccurate publicity shot. That happens somtimes. It also could have been that color in the original movie. I have the revamped DVD version.
I believe the Enterprise's warp nacelle glows more of a Blue color, and sort-of matches the deflector dish.
The glow only occurs when she's at warp.
That image with the purple nacelles is a publicity shot. I also noticed the Impulse Engines were a bright yellowish-white color in that image
Did you make the screenshot yourself? Because the warp glow was blue in the first 3 movies. (I skipped ahead after I watched the first one. :devil:) And I know for a fact that it was blue on the Enterprise-A. I don't know what happend to some of those "screenshots" out on the web, but the colors have been altered. Probably somebody had their settings wrong on their scanners or, if they did an actual screenshot, they played around in photoshop too much.
There is an Andrew Probert still shot from The Art of Star Trek of the model where it almost looks purple, but I think that's just the lighting for that picture. And, that shot out on the web with the pink glow while the ship is in drydock is from that book also. That has definitely been altered because, in the movie, the nacelles didn't glow in drydock.
Careful using that picture (i have the same book, finally dug it out of storage). Two reasons, One, that's not the production model. If you look closely at the bridge, you'll see that it's not the fianl version (check page 159, top-left drawing). Second, look at the light spilling on the pylon's - that's right purple. I think the problem is that it's both; they have some kind of weird mutli-prismatic, funky thing going on, so depending on the angle, you get differnet colors.
So I gues the solution is to find or make some sort of mix of the colors on mutiple faces. Have toi think on this one, see if it can't be recreated.
More easy ... if the NX-01 and ALL ships that are showed from TNG, VOY and DS9, have blue glow ... the TMP ships (and TOS) must hae the same blue glow.
More easy ... if the NX-01 and ALL ships that are showed from TNG, VOY and DS9, have blue glow ... the TMP ships (and TOS) must hae the same blue glow.
I have to ask this - Why?, Thats like saying that all cars must use Petrol (Gasoline)
The colours are due to psycal modelmaking. I think they used a purple gel in the nacels with a cold cathode (neon light) As it grew brighter it showsed mre of a pink. as for the blue tints in the TMP thats because on video blues and purples fight like hell depending on white ballance. This happens in photos as well but isnt as apparent as it is in movie film and video. Mainly diffrences in grade and exposure. The image I posted shows the lights as yellowish due to the way it was photographed, as well as it is a scan of a book or magazine.
The directors or remake TMP is using cg. I dont know if they replaced all of the ship scenes though. I have many images showing the pink/purple/blue is varying brightnesses. One image I had showed all 3 along the nacel. The true blue started in TNG. Using ENT as a example and proof to colour is ilogical. ENT is from 2000 Not pre TNG in OUR timeline. That does not make it cannon.
^^ That explanation makes the most sense. I think with the newer shows, since they knew they'd be using computers (even as far back as early TNG) they knew they'd need to create effects using a computer, so they made computer-friendly stuff. However, in the 60s, computers were the size of a building. In the 70s, the size of room, and they were still fancy calculators. So, they did all of these cool things to build these complex models so they'd be pretty on screen (TOS bussards) not even thinking of how it would effect a computer artist because there were none. That's why those old physical models are the hardest to recreate (those friggin' bussards!!) Today's models are made with the CGI artist in mind, so it's a blue glow because we can all do that.
Plus, I think on the director's edition of TMP, they did change the engine glows around because they added some CGI shots of the Enterprise. And, obviously, those artists had to be able to create a glow to match the others, so I think they fixed them all. That way, they were all blue and matched.
It was my understanding that the intent of the added effects in the directors cut was to only use techniques that were available at the time the movie was originally made and to not use cgi.
No, they used CGI for all of the new shots. Foundation built a CGI version of the Enterprise, added the "steps" leading to V'Ger with CGI, and build a CGI version of V'Ger sans the cloud.
Right. The point was to make it look like it could have been done for the original movie. They didn't want to jar the audience out of it's viewing experience.
But as much as this is turning to be a matter of great import, I'm afraid I'm going to have to interject a moment with the pesky tutorial:devil: .
I give full props to MadKoiFish for his tut on the fantail and hanger bay, and in no way do I want it thought that I'm trying to minimize his efforts. In fact, quite the opposite. What I'm showing is how I did it. To that end, it might appear that I might be copying his efforts and trying to pass them off as my own; not true. The methods he used were the best methods that I've found, and have been using them for years myself, so it's more of a matter of Great Minds thinking alike.
Also, I've had this irrisistable urge to do this part of the tut anyway
Furthermore, these are not the Droids I'm looking for. *Why does that thought keep going through my head...?
For the first part, I took the back half of the secondary shape I made for the pylon supports, separtated it from the main, and cut it up until I had the shape seen in the picture.
Then I selected the rear poly cap and hinged it over...
Then I built the shape for the bottom cut-out out of a 24 itineration spline...
... and converted it and pulled it into the solid object of the next image. (note: when ever you have to objects for a boolean operation, make sure that they are solid objects (ie: no open faces) and that all verts are welded.)
I then removed the lower faces and selected my edges.
Then as Koi says, pull/extrude them over.
Scale them to zero and pull them into the center. Opps forgot to make a picture...:D
For the hanger, (again, any similarities to MadKoi's tut is only because when the man is right, he's right.) I made a cut along selected polys...
... and deleted the unwanted faces.
Then I rounded out the bottom corner.
From here, I pulled down some edges to fill in the middle (thank God I'm using pictures, otherwise no one would know what the heck I'm saying)...
... and used a FFD box to pull the new edge into shape.
Selecing the edges of the downward curve section, I pulled their edges in and tweaked them a tad untill they met with the upper edges.
After welding the vets together, I selected the joining edge...
...and chambered, welded and rounded out it a bunch of times until I had the curved joint I wanted. Also at this stage, I pulled the rest of the edges of the cutout around untill I had...
Then I selected the open edges and pulled them out like I did with the fantail's edges.
Next, I selected all the corner edges...
... and multi chamfered and welded untill I had a three stage rounded edge.
I know it's out of order, but a little note, pull the shown edges just a touch forward to highlight the flowing curve of the upper ridge.
So that's it, how I did the fantail and hanger bay area.
Posts
After I made a basic secondary hull (actually, it'll be the one I use later), I started of with a simple loft with a single deformation to pull the basic outline spline into the proper shape (you can see the deformation jig)..
This is where I got tricky (after slapping myself for being an idiot and missing the obvious...) I built a SPLINE CAGE - yes I know, the same damn things I'd been using all along:stupid: - for the bottom area...
...and hit it with a surface modifier.
Okay, so far so good. Then I looked at what I had. There's a whole lot more geometry in the spline cage than on the loft object. Hooo-boy, I thought to myself, that's going to take a lot of tweaking to get right. Then I slapped my head again; why not just make the whole thing out of splines? So I did...
...and surfaced it.
And then because I hate extra poly's, got rid of a bunch of edges that really would have been in the way anyhow:D .
I then attached my support to the secondary hull mesh, and cut the secondary out along the highlit line...
... and discarded the inside poly's. From there I welded all the verts together, moved things around until everything was lined up (in retrospect it would have been a better idea to boollean them together), chambered the edges 1", and extruded the inner poly's in a titch.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results. What made it less daunting was looking carefully at my ref's, seeing that there was a minor groove at the base, forgetting every other method I'd ever used before, and looking it at with an eye to the basic and simple.:D
Anyway, a little eye-candy:devil: of where everything is so far.
You mean, like the registry on the inside of the port nacelle being backwards? Or the fact that the engine glow is too pink? It should be blue. :devil:
I was hoping you'd do a shot like that. The ship looks great so far. :thumb:
OOPS. I gues that's what happens when you just do a mirror. As far as the pink goes, in the original movie, the engine glow was pinkish - I don't know when it went blue... or were you joking. Gosh it's hard to tell:flippy:.
Thanks Eric. NOt bad for a slap together three light rig:devil: .
TMP it was some pinkish rainbow deal at times leaning to purple. There was a top down view of the refit that had all these odd colours going on on it. But I cannot find the scan now.
That really is a pretty picture.
The blue might have come around in ST 3, but I'm not totally sure. The 1701-A and later ships with the same engines definitely had blue. Now I'll have to watch all of the Trek movies, just to be sure. :devil:
Don't you hate it when you HAVE to watch Star Trek Movies?
There is an Andrew Probert still shot from The Art of Star Trek of the model where it almost looks purple, but I think that's just the lighting for that picture. And, that shot out on the web with the pink glow while the ship is in drydock is from that book also. That has definitely been altered because, in the movie, the nacelles didn't glow in drydock.
ok according to my 1983 TMP Video - its a pink/blue/purple glowy type thing - pretty hard to recreate (tried it
The glow only occurs when she's at warp.
That image with the purple nacelles is a publicity shot. I also noticed the Impulse Engines were a bright yellowish-white color in that image
Careful using that picture (i have the same book, finally dug it out of storage). Two reasons, One, that's not the production model. If you look closely at the bridge, you'll see that it's not the fianl version (check page 159, top-left drawing). Second, look at the light spilling on the pylon's - that's right purple. I think the problem is that it's both; they have some kind of weird mutli-prismatic, funky thing going on, so depending on the angle, you get differnet colors.
So I gues the solution is to find or make some sort of mix of the colors on mutiple faces. Have toi think on this one, see if it can't be recreated.
I have to ask this - Why?, Thats like saying that all cars must use Petrol (Gasoline)
The directors or remake TMP is using cg. I dont know if they replaced all of the ship scenes though. I have many images showing the pink/purple/blue is varying brightnesses. One image I had showed all 3 along the nacel. The true blue started in TNG. Using ENT as a example and proof to colour is ilogical. ENT is from 2000 Not pre TNG in OUR timeline. That does not make it cannon.
Plus, I think on the director's edition of TMP, they did change the engine glows around because they added some CGI shots of the Enterprise. And, obviously, those artists had to be able to create a glow to match the others, so I think they fixed them all. That way, they were all blue and matched.
But as much as this is turning to be a matter of great import, I'm afraid I'm going to have to interject a moment with the pesky tutorial:devil: .
I give full props to MadKoiFish for his tut on the fantail and hanger bay, and in no way do I want it thought that I'm trying to minimize his efforts. In fact, quite the opposite. What I'm showing is how I did it. To that end, it might appear that I might be copying his efforts and trying to pass them off as my own; not true. The methods he used were the best methods that I've found, and have been using them for years myself, so it's more of a matter of Great Minds thinking alike.
Also, I've had this irrisistable urge to do this part of the tut anyway
Furthermore, these are not the Droids I'm looking for. *Why does that thought keep going through my head...?
For the first part, I took the back half of the secondary shape I made for the pylon supports, separtated it from the main, and cut it up until I had the shape seen in the picture.
Then I selected the rear poly cap and hinged it over...
Then I built the shape for the bottom cut-out out of a 24 itineration spline...
... and converted it and pulled it into the solid object of the next image. (note: when ever you have to objects for a boolean operation, make sure that they are solid objects (ie: no open faces) and that all verts are welded.)
I then removed the lower faces and selected my edges.
Then as Koi says, pull/extrude them over.
Scale them to zero and pull them into the center. Opps forgot to make a picture...:D
For the hanger, (again, any similarities to MadKoi's tut is only because when the man is right, he's right.) I made a cut along selected polys...
... and deleted the unwanted faces.
Then I rounded out the bottom corner.
From here, I pulled down some edges to fill in the middle (thank God I'm using pictures, otherwise no one would know what the heck I'm saying)...
... and used a FFD box to pull the new edge into shape.
Selecing the edges of the downward curve section, I pulled their edges in and tweaked them a tad untill they met with the upper edges.
After welding the vets together, I selected the joining edge...
...and chambered, welded and rounded out it a bunch of times until I had the curved joint I wanted. Also at this stage, I pulled the rest of the edges of the cutout around untill I had...
Then I selected the open edges and pulled them out like I did with the fantail's edges.
Next, I selected all the corner edges...
... and multi chamfered and welded untill I had a three stage rounded edge.
I know it's out of order, but a little note, pull the shown edges just a touch forward to highlight the flowing curve of the upper ridge.
So that's it, how I did the fantail and hanger bay area.