I use to do that, but I got complacent with the autobackup. Needless to say, I've started to save two copies every time along with the automatic backup.
Rear landing gear rebuilt and rigged. I'll add the door, walkway and other greebly bits later. For now I'm just happy I got it redone. I changed it up a little as far as the gear setup is concerned. I did away with the double struts on either side and ended up making it more similar to the forward gear. This accomplished two things: it looks better since it has a similar setup to the front and it's beefier this way.
I also cut the remainder of the windows (A measly six? Yes, a measly six.) for the captain's quarters and the upper crew lounge. The other thing I started was something I wasn't sure I was even going to bother with, but I figured what the heck. The last two renders are the bridge module/escape pod. It's still very rough, but this is the route it's going. It will be a low warp capable shuttle that has seating for the entire crew.
So, after I lost just about EVERYTHING on my other computer I managed to recover a few things. Luckily, this ship was one of those things (sans textures). I think I got maybe three or four uncorrupted model files total.:( Anyway...
Finally got the motivation to start texturing properly. The nacelles are my first attempt at unwrapping the right way. I think I'm on the right track. This is just the diffuse (and only panel lines and registry for now), but after I sort the maps for the rest of the model I'll go back and work on the bump and spec maps. The registry on the inboard side of the nacelles will go away after I make textures specific to each side.
Sorry to hear you lost nearly everything. Did you have a HD failure? Those suck.
Yeah, complete failure. Won't even slave into my new computer and when I try to restart the old one I might get 10 minutes of functionality before the BSoD.
I've been experimenting with the lighting and materials on the nacelles and the deflector. The backglow of the the deflector was a pain for me so I finally just threw an omni light behind the dish. I was irritated that that was all I needed to do to get the effect I was after. The big change with the nacelles is the blue grills. I had some transparent geometry there, but I decided seeing the coils so clearly along with the crap light took away from the whole thing. End result = joyous me. I'm pretty happy with where it's at now, but if anyone can suggest any areas for improvement I'm all ears.
Amazing how often a really simple solution is the one that looks the best, heh. I had a similar thing with the deflector and impulse drives on the Antietam, and ended up with a really simple thing looking really nice. It's looking really nice, I like the sort of 'tough' image it sort of has.
I've been stuck for the last few months on where to take this mesh. After I decided that I wanted the bridge to double as an escape pod and trying to edit the model to make it work I just got frustrated the more I tried to hack and cut into it. Finally, I decided that the best thing to do was to just start from scratch. So, the main hull has been completely redone. Most of the previous elements like the nacelles, deflector and phasers won't be redone because overall I'm really happy with them for the most part.
Forward unto change! The old mesh is blue and the new is red. Some major updates to the shape of the hull are in the areas around the deflector and the bridge. On top of that, the nacelle pylons are now integrated into the mesh instead of being hastily made thrown on objects. I think that the mesh is also a lot cleaner now and it'll be a lot easier to map for texturing later on. If anyone can see glaringly obvious issues or you'd just like to see closeups of specific areas let me know because I'd love the input.
Thanks! Yup, it's box modeled. It's funny because both versions were made that way and they're both turbo smoothed with the same iterations. Yet, look how many more polygons are on the new one. It works out, though, because another reason I wanted to redo the hull was due to the segmentation and now I'm pretty sure I've eliminated most of that unless you get half a meter from the surface.
I was leaning that way, just looking for some input. Now I'm working on a way to create a more integrated landing gear system so that idea would've been on hold for a while anyway.
Well, since the forum issues have caused my last couple of posts and an update to go bye-bye here I go again.
I've been really busy with work, family and RL, but I've found some time recently to work on the Rapier again. I also stopped because I was facing some creative block that kept my motivation at an almost non-existent state.
Anyway. Since I've mostly ironed out the major structural elements of the primary hull for version 2.0 I started getting into some details; namely the RCS quads and the airlocks for now. I didn't like the way the last ones seemed like they were just slapped on all willy nilly. You can see the old style on the nacelles. I still think that I'll add some grills in the exhaust ports for more depth along with a few other small details. The airlock's not much to look at because most of the detail left will be texture work aside from the handholds. I'm going for the TMP-E style airlocks because I both like them the most and the references are easy to come by.
The next step will be the "saucer" rim. I'm reworking the deck layout slightly so that the crew quarters will have portholes to bring some detail to the rim area. Also planned will be some exterior equipment hatches and sensor strips. We'll see how this goes.
Opinions greatly appreciated on the RCS quads as far as look, size and position. The airlock is approximately 2.3m in diameter (couldn't quite get it to 2.4m like I wanted due to my skill level with sub-d modeling) for reference.
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Glad to see the lady is recovering though, and I agree with the backgrounds, they strengthen the image for inspection
Keep going mate!
I also cut the remainder of the windows (A measly six? Yes, a measly six.) for the captain's quarters and the upper crew lounge. The other thing I started was something I wasn't sure I was even going to bother with, but I figured what the heck. The last two renders are the bridge module/escape pod. It's still very rough, but this is the route it's going. It will be a low warp capable shuttle that has seating for the entire crew.
So, after I lost just about EVERYTHING on my other computer I managed to recover a few things. Luckily, this ship was one of those things (sans textures). I think I got maybe three or four uncorrupted model files total.:( Anyway...
Finally got the motivation to start texturing properly. The nacelles are my first attempt at unwrapping the right way. I think I'm on the right track. This is just the diffuse (and only panel lines and registry for now), but after I sort the maps for the rest of the model I'll go back and work on the bump and spec maps. The registry on the inboard side of the nacelles will go away after I make textures specific to each side.
The ship looks great, I'm glad it survived.
Yeah, complete failure. Won't even slave into my new computer and when I try to restart the old one I might get 10 minutes of functionality before the BSoD.
Thanks! Me, too.
You aren't the only one. I was almost heart broken.
I've been stuck for the last few months on where to take this mesh. After I decided that I wanted the bridge to double as an escape pod and trying to edit the model to make it work I just got frustrated the more I tried to hack and cut into it. Finally, I decided that the best thing to do was to just start from scratch. So, the main hull has been completely redone. Most of the previous elements like the nacelles, deflector and phasers won't be redone because overall I'm really happy with them for the most part.
Forward unto change! The old mesh is blue and the new is red. Some major updates to the shape of the hull are in the areas around the deflector and the bridge. On top of that, the nacelle pylons are now integrated into the mesh instead of being hastily made thrown on objects. I think that the mesh is also a lot cleaner now and it'll be a lot easier to map for texturing later on. If anyone can see glaringly obvious issues or you'd just like to see closeups of specific areas let me know because I'd love the input.
Well, since the forum issues have caused my last couple of posts and an update to go bye-bye here I go again.
I've been really busy with work, family and RL, but I've found some time recently to work on the Rapier again. I also stopped because I was facing some creative block that kept my motivation at an almost non-existent state.
Anyway. Since I've mostly ironed out the major structural elements of the primary hull for version 2.0 I started getting into some details; namely the RCS quads and the airlocks for now. I didn't like the way the last ones seemed like they were just slapped on all willy nilly. You can see the old style on the nacelles. I still think that I'll add some grills in the exhaust ports for more depth along with a few other small details. The airlock's not much to look at because most of the detail left will be texture work aside from the handholds. I'm going for the TMP-E style airlocks because I both like them the most and the references are easy to come by.
The next step will be the "saucer" rim. I'm reworking the deck layout slightly so that the crew quarters will have portholes to bring some detail to the rim area. Also planned will be some exterior equipment hatches and sensor strips. We'll see how this goes.
Opinions greatly appreciated on the RCS quads as far as look, size and position. The airlock is approximately 2.3m in diameter (couldn't quite get it to 2.4m like I wanted due to my skill level with sub-d modeling) for reference.
rapierv2_3dwip001.jpg