3DEnterprise J Extras

bbelt

As promised, here are som WIPs for additional models that are related to the Enterprise J.

First of the Shuttlecraft:



This is the executive shuttle primarily used for diplomatic or non-combat/scientific situations. Think of it like a flying limo. The front portion is designed to seperate and act as a life boat if the rest of the ship is in danger.

Now for the bridge:





Still alot to be done here. Holographics are utilized on this bridge for both tactical, communications, and assistance with navigation. There is also an additional crew member and that is a temporal officer who sits to the station far right of the captain.

jbridge2tm0.jpg

Marian87

I love the shuttle and also like the bridge, but i think it is a bit too big for 10 people, unless you have in mind more equipment or something

bbelt

The bridge is inspired by the galaxy class bridge. It is supposed to be spacious for not only decor, but also to allow room for the installation of additional equipment and stations.

At active stations, there are fifteen people on the bridge. You have the Captain, First Commander, Conn officer, Opps officer, Temporal Officer, Tactical officer, Engineering Officer, Communications officer, Science Officer, Hazard Control, Sensor Officer, and three security guards. When the ship is in down-time, only seven officers will be on the bridge.

Marian87

I guess that's plausible, keep it up;)

BolianAdmiral

I actually like the big and spacious bridge... it's nice to have a more "open" area, to make the crew feel more comfortable.

Lonewriter

great start.

black campbell

i like the big bridge idea, as well, but think the small holoemitter wouldn't be necessary by this point -- maybe holographic designs floating near the respective stations, not just in front of the captain. it would probably be hard to render well, though.

Falin

heck, why don't we just get rid of all the counsoles and have holo-ineracted floaties to do the work with.

bbelt

The holoemiter located in front of the captain has several functions. Not only can it show details such as tactical, ship, and planet information, but it functions as a holographic communicator as well. Each station will have some sort of holographic setup installed. So far only the tactical station is shown. (It's the purple grid just behind the captains chair) I have not designed the other stations yet.
The only reason about why I haven't gone the way of a holodeck/bridge environment is the problem with reliability. Starfleet may be on it's way, but the technology is still in it's early years for complete interface usage.
Anyways, I still have alot to go on the design.

black campbell

i agree you wouldn't want just the holos like falin suggested. were this not an anti-cybernetics/robotics universe (data excluded), i would think some kind of direct networking might even be the case...but that's just me spitballin'.

i like it, though.

Aresius

The bridge looks a bit non-symmetrical. That's not very good with Starfleet ships.

BorgMan

I'm not sure if I like this. The bridge doesn't 'feel' like 25th century. I suggest a more organic shape, rounded walls, that sort of stuff. Look at the Prometheus bridge and the few interior scenes of the J we have for inspiration. If you want I can whip something for you up to get ideas

bbelt

Like I mentioned, I still have alot of work to do on it. I found numerous screen caps from the show which I am using for reference. However the hallways tend to be to angular and techno looking. I want something else for the bridge. My main goal is to take it back towards the Enterprise D's bridge. So expect to see more curves as the design progresses.

As far as the symetricalaty of the design goes, I still have two more stations to install on the other side of the bridge and widen the doorway leading to the observation lounge. Hopefully that will improve the flow of the design.

One of the Enterprise J's missions is Diplomacy with non-federation species, and representing starfleet. Numerous guests may be on the bridge so I want an appealing look to it. I know you all on the forums can help me guide it that way.

Some of us do with 3d models what others would do with hundreds of sheet of paper. We will change and change a design until we get it right.

Spartan

I think you have a pretty decent start here but I have a couple of suggestions. The first thing would be to really think about the scale of the different pieces in the interior. More specifically building the different chairs, consoles, doors, etc along the same scale. The way you have this now, many of the chairs along the wall look too low to the ground, and some of the others look to high up. Anyone who sat there would probably have their knees in their face or their feet wouldn't be touching the floor.

One thing that really helps me is I have a model of a plain figure that I put into every interior scene I start putting together. (I forget where I got it at the moment, but I'm sure you can find an open source mesh somewhere on the web) I use this to get the relative heights of cielings, doors, chairs, consoles, everything. For me, the key to making an interior look as real as possible is the scale of the objects.

For example: When modeling a chair, I stand up and see where my own desk chair seat lines up with my leg. Then, when modeling the chair in Max, I line up the top of the seat to the same area on the leg of the figure in the scene. Once you have that translated, the rest is rather simple.

Lastly, I would echo some of the other comments by many of the others here. One major crit I recieved for my first interiors was making sure to keep corners and edges just a little rounded. It adds to the realism!

bbelt

Thanks for the tip Spartan. I never really attempted to model realistic interiors until now.

bbelt

Thanks to the tip from Spartan, I went in and rescaled the entire bridge. Boy was he right about the scale being off. The doors were to large, the chairs to small. This looks much better now.

Aresius

Right, it looks better, but still not symmetrical. Starfleet engineers always kept an eye on this issue and even alien bridges had much symmetrical lines.

bbelt

Could you please explain on what you mean Aresius? Except for one side having an extra station and turbolift locations, the bridge is symmetrical. If there is anything that you are seeing that I am not, please let me know.

[Deleted User]

not 100% symetrical but why does that matter the birdge is designed for use not whether one side matches the other.

Spartan

Great! The scale looks a lot better. Now that you've got that down, the next thing I'd tackle is rounding off some of the sharper edges you have and think about adding some additional geometery in some other areas as well. The arches look like they need some additional segments to make them more rounded and smooth.

Also, IMHO, the chairs at the left side of the bridge are FAR to close together for anyone to sit at and be able to have some elbow room to work. When designing the different stations keep in mind that normally a bridge has the following: Tactical, Helm, Operations, Science, Environmental, Engineering, and Mission Ops. It looks like you have a chair for each of those folks but some are too close together! I'd really spread things out a bit.

That may be where some are getting with the symmetry issue, making sure each area has ample room even though they may not be in the direct view of your camera..

bbelt

Update:



Smoothed out the pillars and added another set. Balanced out the workstations as well. I may redo the conn and ops station.

Question: Do you think that in the 26th century, starship bridges will still remain in the "symmetrical style" or start going into the way of the relativities bridge? That bridge had no symmetry what so ever.

Also, what do you all think about a two story bridge?

Aresius

Answer 1: The Relativity was a timeship. It's doubtable that Starfleets fleet do only consist of timeships in that age so we should take their bridge as an exception.
I think starship bridges will remain symmetrical even beyond.

What do you mean with a 'two story bridge'?

bbelt

Here is an update of the shuttle:



and the bridge:



And what I mean about a two story bridge is something where the space is utilized for a command center in both the horizontal and vertical axis. The first floor could be where conn, ops, tatical and command stations are located. While on the second floor could be science, engineering, sensors access to bridge escape pods, and various other aspects. Something that I have been toying around with for a while.

juanxer

Here I found an interesting design for a two-storied bridge: William James Cuffe, 'Bridge Design', SciFi Fantasy Art

bbelt

That is kind of along the lines of what I was thinking. The more that I have been working on all of my models, I have been contemplating on making this the bridge for the Enterprise G (minus holographics) and making a two story bridge instead for the J. You know to really show off the shear size of the ship.

Dr-Timelord

Its got a different feel to it, that's for sure. but its good work so far

black campbell

Maybe something in the lines of an...I don't know, operating theater. A central pit where the captain and command staff could work in an entirely holographic environment; maybe see things from the POV of the ship herself. A balcony around with the secondary stations -- science, etc. Break the traditional forward is the viewscreen idea -- with holographics, you wouldn't need that. Have everyone facing in toward command.

I have no clue if that made sense; the cld meds are kicking in.

[Deleted User]

bout your idea

would be good for wep and other critical crew in there at a time of battle where they can see in real time what the enermy are doing status of the shields weps and this would be faster to targeting and eeliminating the enermy

BorgMan

A two story bridge is a great way of dividing command sections. I thought of a three story bridge some time ago, I could scan it in if I find it

juanxer

There are some good bridge ideas in several Japanese animation series and movies: they usually hierarchize posts into multilevel setups. Perhaps combining their sense of placement with the airy feel of ST's bridge consoles and such…

[Deleted User]

I love the concept! I do agree that it should have a more... fluid?... feel to it. It would be more in keeping with the design suggested by the exterior of the J. Just my opinion, of course. I have to ask guys like you to do this stuff because when it comes to all this computer-generated art, I am a mental midget.

Keep up the good work. I am sure that wherever your vision takes this project, it will end up looking great!