Yummy stuff. Love the dual pom-pom guns under the front lip of the primary hull. Love the deflector and bridge module, the way it looks tucked down into the saucer a bit like that. Love the (Luna/Akira-type) tactical module. Sweet. Any updates to the bridge posted on Bridge Commander Central Forums?
Hey dude, I've got a thread for the bridge up on here too, and it has been updated plenty since the thread on BCC. Just do a search for "Mithra" and I'm sure you'll find it right away. Thanks for all the praise!
I've started working more on the underside of the saucer, but to be honest I'm not entirely sure I like it... anyone have any ideas or input? My brain's run aground.
Nice thing about the underside is that I can rebuild it over and over and over with extreme ease...
Nice thing about the underside is that I can rebuild it over and over and over with extreme ease...
...the beatuy of flat saucer undersides
As for input..how about insetting those pits a little, giving their sidewalls an incline. Then you could put windows there or something, like on the sovvie
I've redesigned that horrid shuttlebay as well as the struts that hold up the main warp pylons. I think this looks a zillion times better than what it was before. I'll be adding a quantum torpedo bay directly above the shuttlebay... I'd like to make an observation deck in that area too, just not sure what exactly it'll look like yet. :S
I'd put an aft-launching torpedo launcher and/or tractor beam emitter in the secondary support pylon arch right above the shuttlebay. I'd greeble the sides of both the primary and secondary nacelle pylons (either front or back or both) as back-up/redundant long/short-range scientific and/or targeting sensor palettes. If you want an observation lounge, put it in the spine of the ship right in the area between the shuttlebay and secondary pylon arch. I'd put a couple of modified Venture-Class (Data's scout ship from Insurrection,) dropships in the grooved spots highlighted in yellow in previous image posts, one port and one starboard. Either the Venture-Class or the Arrow/Gryphon-Class by Galen or a couple of aerowings carried-over from the Intrepid-Class.
Oh my! I really like the idea of putting in Arrow class runabouts on either side... perhaps I'll design my own little variant for this.
PS does anyone know of any good greebling tutorials? I'm afraid that greebling such areas with that kind of curvature, along with texturing, are two major challenges of mine.
I'm gonna be blunt and honest, I've never successfully mapped and textured anything aside from LCARS... and even most of those would be considered shotty work. (See the Mithra Bridge Project if you need proof lol) So honestly I'd be completely lost... I've tried mapping, but... every time I do, it confuses the living tar out of me. x__x; I'll have to watch some more tutorials regarding it...
In any event though, thanks for that tutorial, it's really helpful! :]
It's just mental ray. I'm not entirely sure why it's coming out so... "fuzzy" as you put it, but I did notice it. Nothing I do changes that though. Even in scanline.
Interesting...and vaguely familiar. The dorsal sillhouette (minus the nacelles) reminds me somewhat of a Klingon Academy custom ship, the Enterprise K (the fastest, strongest, and downright sexiest custom ship ever). But since it's so obscure, I am hesitant to say this Mithra is derivative. I wouldn't fault you if it was, though. Damn fine ship you've made, and it brought back fond memories of another ship. Good work.
Glad I could help, and don't feel bad I don't get mapping at all either
If you want to get rid of the fuzziness, there's a real easy way to cheat a nice clay render in MR:
Take 1 A&D Material, set the colour to white or gray, set reflection to 0, go to the "Special Effects" tab, and turn on Ambient Occlusion.
The "Max Distance" depends on the scale of your scene, but to get started try 0.0 (infinite distance) and 64 samples.
Now the important part is to set the custom ambient light color to something bright.
You can use this alone, without any lighting and FG is not required either, or you can use it in addition to your skylight. (in that case, turn the ambient light color back to black).
For example:
White material, ambient light color 50% gray, no lights:
White material, AO off, skylight @0.5 + FG:
White material, ambient light color black, skylight @0.5 + FG:
Wait a sec...
Is that a spinning torpedo turret in the rollbar? So you can fire a burst from one tube, spin to the next tube, fire, and as it spins its reloaded/recharging each tube to fire again? If so, I think you've made it just a bit too small as the hull looks to be quite a bit smaller then a Sovereign, so you're going to be really cramped for space internally, especially under/over the part that spins, which is where all the loading of fresh torpedoes is going to occur.
You might want to think about an alternate, only if your current idea doesn't work out, where you've got 2 dual-tube launchers on partially swiveling mounts so they can at least partially correct their aim (think Last Starfighter's Gunstar).
It's a rotating disc, and the scale is in fact accurate. Granted there is a lack of space for a loading mechanism, but I'm not worrying about it right now, since I might not even keep that particular pylon structure anymore. On the other hand, I've actually been thinking of that dual-tube launcher idea. I believe Saber Class starships have something similar? It could indeed work. I'll investigate it later on when I have a better idea of what I want that area to look like, exactly.
Thanks once again, Melak. You continue to demonstrate excellent helpfulness and resourcefulness. I have implemented your methods.
Updates: Been working on more hull lines, this time on the saucer section. Also added docking ports to port and starboard of the saucer outer ring... I think they've come out nicely... Though one hull line segment should probably be adjusted for thickness.
I'm already aware of the various little smoothing issues here and there. I'm correcting them.
Any other suggestions so far? I'm really liking the feedback.
The pylons were cool, but this is your ship. Those things ate saucerAâs front are hummm... "vertical" phaser stripes? If so, ItAâs something different and innovative, for sure. I believe it gives a tactical advantage to the ship when in combat.
Posts
I've started working more on the underside of the saucer, but to be honest I'm not entirely sure I like it... anyone have any ideas or input?
Nice thing about the underside is that I can rebuild it over and over and over with extreme ease...
...the beatuy of flat saucer undersides
As for input..how about insetting those pits a little, giving their sidewalls an incline. Then you could put windows there or something, like on the sovvie
Forgive my crappy mspaint.exe skills
Hellsgate, I'm not sure where there's gonna be room for it... Got any ideas in that regard? o.O;
I've redesigned that horrid shuttlebay as well as the struts that hold up the main warp pylons. I think this looks a zillion times better than what it was before. I'll be adding a quantum torpedo bay directly above the shuttlebay... I'd like to make an observation deck in that area too, just not sure what exactly it'll look like yet. :S
Anywhooooo, have a pic. :]
http://wiki.maquis.com/w/Maquis_SIM_Project/Arrow
PS does anyone know of any good greebling tutorials? I'm afraid that greebling such areas with that kind of curvature, along with texturing, are two major challenges of mine.
You might want to do your mapping beforehand though, as this could potentially make that a little bit more difficult.
In any event though, thanks for that tutorial, it's really helpful! :]
If you want to get rid of the fuzziness, there's a real easy way to cheat a nice clay render in MR:
Take 1 A&D Material, set the colour to white or gray, set reflection to 0, go to the "Special Effects" tab, and turn on Ambient Occlusion.
The "Max Distance" depends on the scale of your scene, but to get started try 0.0 (infinite distance) and 64 samples.
Now the important part is to set the custom ambient light color to something bright.
You can use this alone, without any lighting and FG is not required either, or you can use it in addition to your skylight. (in that case, turn the ambient light color back to black).
For example:
White material, ambient light color 50% gray, no lights:
White material, AO off, skylight @0.5 + FG:
White material, ambient light color black, skylight @0.5 + FG:
Is that a spinning torpedo turret in the rollbar? So you can fire a burst from one tube, spin to the next tube, fire, and as it spins its reloaded/recharging each tube to fire again? If so, I think you've made it just a bit too small as the hull looks to be quite a bit smaller then a Sovereign, so you're going to be really cramped for space internally, especially under/over the part that spins, which is where all the loading of fresh torpedoes is going to occur.
You might want to think about an alternate, only if your current idea doesn't work out, where you've got 2 dual-tube launchers on partially swiveling mounts so they can at least partially correct their aim (think Last Starfighter's Gunstar).
Thanks once again, Melak. You continue to demonstrate excellent helpfulness and resourcefulness. I have implemented your methods.
Updates: Been working on more hull lines, this time on the saucer section. Also added docking ports to port and starboard of the saucer outer ring... I think they've come out nicely... Though one hull line segment should probably be adjusted for thickness.
I'm already aware of the various little smoothing issues here and there. I'm correcting them.
Any other suggestions so far? I'm really liking the feedback.
The ship is looking really nice Aeries ! :thumb:
As for inspiration, take a look here : http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/nx-tech-briefs-01/
And other "Ent-tech" posts, they are really inspiring.