OK! So I reworked the textures and replaced the registry fonts. Then I had to completely rework the specular maps and all that fun stuff. Turns out what works on a white hull doesn't necessarily work so well on a grey color. Not quite the pearlescent look I want, but then the pearlescent settings didn't look right either. Also, something's gone strange with the windows on the hull above the saucer. Not sure if it was something I did recently or just that I never noticed it before.
Maybe I'll pick at that bit next.
Made another screen. I was planning on expanding the device to add the gumdrops, dials, and switches, but didn't get that far. I'm not sure if I want to add the controls to the sides or to the bottom. I looked up the Captain's Logbook from TOS and it has just three lights below the screen. Not much help there for the look I have in my mind's eye.
It's funny, I thought this would be a quickie, but it's turning into a more complicated and dedicated project. Every time I think I make progress, there's something I need to change first before I move on.
Even though you don't think it's quite right, the ship is definitely taking on a realistic look. I like it better. And not only is the font like TOS but it is easier to read the name on your ship. Double thumbs up.
Okay, let's try that whole computer box thingie! I feel like it needs something, but I can't quite think of what. I like the general shape but... I dunno.
That's just cool looking. My only observation is minor. You might want to make the shadow less severe. It almost makes the device look thicker. It's not really clear where it ends. However I love how you handled the buttons, dials and lights. Very Original Series authentic.
That's just cool looking. My only observation is minor. You might want to make the shadow less severe. It almost makes the device look thicker. It's not really clear where it ends. However I love how you handled the buttons, dials and lights. Very Original Series authentic.
Yeah, I forgot to set the shadows as I was playing with the lighting settings. I usually use Advanced Transparent Shadows, but the default is Solid Shadows. Or something like that. The final render will have the ship model as well.
It looks great. Maybe what it needs is a brainless Spock to control.
LOL! I'm afraid brain surgery is a little beyond my skill set. Plus I don't have one of those neat helmets to give my own brain a boost!
OK, so a friend of mine elsewhere suggested a little speaker. Kind of like the one on the original communicator and tricorder. Sounds easy enough. I just need to where I can add that and a mounting bracket, or rod, or...something to hold the Miranda to the display base.
First try at a model mount. Not sure if I like it, though I was inspired by a 1960s wall lamp that was chrome and clear plastic. Maybe it's the curve, the thickness of the stand, the chrome fittings or... something. I can't quite put my finger on it just yet. I also have two other ideas that are based on other 1960s desk lamps I'm thinking of trying out.
I'm also playing with the materials and lighting. If only I could remember what I used for a previous render. I really should start taking notes since I've discovered that tS7 doesn't save GI settings. And I've learned that vray is really picky about what numbers I change for materials.
I saw that and thought, "Hey, cool!" But that wasn't the effect I was after. So I enabled GI and tried again.
I'm using Cape Hill 2k HDR file (available at HDRI Haven), with Light Intensity, and Back Intensity set at 0.75. Saturation at 0, Sampling at 10, and Sampling Angle at 0.
So okay, apart from the intensity levels, the rest are defaults. At least I saved the texture settings to a library so I can reapply them. Because for some reason tS7 keeps trying to load the base maps from the install folder instead of the current project folder.
OK! enough notes. Now that I got the proper render and I like the light setup and the colors, I'm noticing some strange triangulation near the windows on the hull above the saucer. Not sure what's going on since that isn't in the wireframe, but I'm sure it happened when I reworked those windows.
Hehe That's a pretty good idea. I also realized that my scene lights are also missing from around the display screen and gumdrops. There should be a bit of glow from that showing on the underside of the ship model.
A friend of mine suggested I replace the window textures with a simple color since it's supposed to be a tabletop display. I think I can just use the same mat that I used for the bridge dome and see how that looks.
I've been in an artistic funk for...Oh, the last month or so? Well not completely uncreative, but nothing visual either. I've tried writing fiction, but only managed a dozen or so pages of text at this time. Did a few throw-aways renders for a BattleTech fan group but nothing really inspired me to follow through to completion.
I can't even find the motivation to finish my Retrotech Trek display model or move on with my Metroid Containment Lab scene. BUT! I was inspired after watching some gameplay footage of the game Iron Harvest. It's an RTS dieselpunk style game with post WWI era troopers supported by mechs instead of tanks.
Four legs, lots of rivets, an access hatch on the bottom, machine gun turret on top, and an engine deck on the back. Or an alternative idea to the four legs is two legs where the hip joint is integrated into the ball.
So I did this in about 20 minutes or so. The turret is loosely based on the Renault FT.
It's crap, even for a concept sketch. I think maybe a four-legged crab walker would work better. But it's gotten me arting again, so there's that I guess.
Right! I took a break to just sit and imagine and I think I have an idea. So I cut panels into a sphere and placed rivets all over. The cube is to let me know where the front is supposed to be.
OK, bodged up a turret. I tried a few different designs and figured the Renault FT turret didn't really fit. I thought about the AMX 40 turret (it looks like a duck!) but that didn't really suit my idea either. So I came up with this design. I'll need to rework rivets to match the ones on the hull. Not really looking forward to that because I had my numbers backward.
I did an extrusion at 0.025 with a bevel at 0.01. What I needed to do was extrude at 0.01 and bevel at 0.02.
*sighs*
Now to decide which gun I want to house in there. Either the Hotchkiss M1914 or the Vickers machine gun. I'm also considering a rifle port for the gunner in the ball itself. We'll see how I detail it as I go.
Maybe I'll stick the Vickers .50 in the turret and have the Hotchkiss poking out of a couple of sponsons on the hull? Hmm...
We can all appreciate how much work went into that.
For real. The rivets alone had to take a while.
Placing them in a sphere is easy enough. Though it did take me a few attempts to figure it out.
First I move the rivet to the edge of the surface where I want it. Then I set the axis point to the middle of the grid. Copy the rivet, move it in a circle around the axis 5 degrees, and repeat! Once I have a circle of them, I group them and flip the circle 90 degrees. I reset the axis of the grouped objects to 0,0,0, at 0 degrees and delete the rivets at the top and bottom that aren't in contact with the surface of the sphere.
That gives me the verticle lines along the panel edges. Copy - rotate - copy - rotate. For the rest, I then delete the rivets that don't border the top and bottom edges of the panels. Copy - rotate - copy - rotate and so on until done.
I find it's easier to do it that way than mess with arrayed objects. I never seem to get them aligned properly that way. So I do it semi-manually.
The turret took a little longer because I had to match a few different angles. First the tilt of the top slope, then the sides along the panel lines, then the armored belt around the bottom of the turret ring.
There will be even more rivets. So far I've managed to place over 400 of them. 378 on the sphere alone, IIRC.
As for the guns, I think I'll go with TWO Hotchkiss French machine guns in the turret! That'll be my next post. Of course, if I build the entire gun (which is likely) that means I'll need to think about designing the interior as well. The diesel engine, the drive train, the number of crew (2 or 3) and their seats, the turret basket, and all that. But right now I just want to figure out the exterior before I get into the interior.
Posts
Maybe I'll pick at that bit next.
Made another screen. I was planning on expanding the device to add the gumdrops, dials, and switches, but didn't get that far. I'm not sure if I want to add the controls to the sides or to the bottom. I looked up the Captain's Logbook from TOS and it has just three lights below the screen. Not much help there for the look I have in my mind's eye.
It's funny, I thought this would be a quickie, but it's turning into a more complicated and dedicated project. Every time I think I make progress, there's something I need to change first before I move on.
Yeah, I forgot to set the shadows as I was playing with the lighting settings. I usually use Advanced Transparent Shadows, but the default is Solid Shadows. Or something like that. The final render will have the ship model as well.
LOL! I'm afraid brain surgery is a little beyond my skill set. Plus I don't have one of those neat helmets to give my own brain a boost!
OK, so a friend of mine elsewhere suggested a little speaker. Kind of like the one on the original communicator and tricorder. Sounds easy enough. I just need to where I can add that and a mounting bracket, or rod, or...something to hold the Miranda to the display base.
I'm also playing with the materials and lighting. If only I could remember what I used for a previous render. I really should start taking notes since I've discovered that tS7 doesn't save GI settings. And I've learned that vray is really picky about what numbers I change for materials.
I saw that and thought, "Hey, cool!" But that wasn't the effect I was after. So I enabled GI and tried again.
I'm using Cape Hill 2k HDR file (available at HDRI Haven), with Light Intensity, and Back Intensity set at 0.75. Saturation at 0, Sampling at 10, and Sampling Angle at 0.
So okay, apart from the intensity levels, the rest are defaults. At least I saved the texture settings to a library so I can reapply them. Because for some reason tS7 keeps trying to load the base maps from the install folder instead of the current project folder.
OK! enough notes. Now that I got the proper render and I like the light setup and the colors, I'm noticing some strange triangulation near the windows on the hull above the saucer. Not sure what's going on since that isn't in the wireframe, but I'm sure it happened when I reworked those windows.
*sighs* Okay, let me see if I can fix that.
A friend of mine suggested I replace the window textures with a simple color since it's supposed to be a tabletop display. I think I can just use the same mat that I used for the bridge dome and see how that looks.
What he said.
I can't even find the motivation to finish my Retrotech Trek display model or move on with my Metroid Containment Lab scene. BUT! I was inspired after watching some gameplay footage of the game Iron Harvest. It's an RTS dieselpunk style game with post WWI era troopers supported by mechs instead of tanks.
Four legs, lots of rivets, an access hatch on the bottom, machine gun turret on top, and an engine deck on the back. Or an alternative idea to the four legs is two legs where the hip joint is integrated into the ball.
So I did this in about 20 minutes or so. The turret is loosely based on the Renault FT.
It's crap, even for a concept sketch. I think maybe a four-legged crab walker would work better. But it's gotten me arting again, so there's that I guess.
It's a start.
I find that sometimes ya gotta just throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Will this project do it for me? ::shrugs:: Maybe.
I did an extrusion at 0.025 with a bevel at 0.01. What I needed to do was extrude at 0.01 and bevel at 0.02.
*sighs*
Now to decide which gun I want to house in there. Either the Hotchkiss M1914 or the Vickers machine gun. I'm also considering a rifle port for the gunner in the ball itself. We'll see how I detail it as I go.
Maybe I'll stick the Vickers .50 in the turret and have the Hotchkiss poking out of a couple of sponsons on the hull? Hmm...
For real. The rivets alone had to take a while.
Placing them in a sphere is easy enough. Though it did take me a few attempts to figure it out.
First I move the rivet to the edge of the surface where I want it. Then I set the axis point to the middle of the grid. Copy the rivet, move it in a circle around the axis 5 degrees, and repeat! Once I have a circle of them, I group them and flip the circle 90 degrees. I reset the axis of the grouped objects to 0,0,0, at 0 degrees and delete the rivets at the top and bottom that aren't in contact with the surface of the sphere.
That gives me the verticle lines along the panel edges. Copy - rotate - copy - rotate. For the rest, I then delete the rivets that don't border the top and bottom edges of the panels. Copy - rotate - copy - rotate and so on until done.
I find it's easier to do it that way than mess with arrayed objects. I never seem to get them aligned properly that way. So I do it semi-manually.
The turret took a little longer because I had to match a few different angles. First the tilt of the top slope, then the sides along the panel lines, then the armored belt around the bottom of the turret ring.
There will be even more rivets. So far I've managed to place over 400 of them. 378 on the sphere alone, IIRC.
As for the guns, I think I'll go with TWO Hotchkiss French machine guns in the turret! That'll be my next post. Of course, if I build the entire gun (which is likely) that means I'll need to think about designing the interior as well. The diesel engine, the drive train, the number of crew (2 or 3) and their seats, the turret basket, and all that. But right now I just want to figure out the exterior before I get into the interior.