3DUSS Illustrious - Endurance Class

Scatter

My very first mesh. I know what I want this thing to look like, but I haven't sketched it out or anything. Basically making it up as I go along.

Currently trying to thrash out the nuts and bolts of the nacelle and how it works with the ship - am taking some inspiration from Vektor's Granduer for the nacelle shape.

Would appreciate any pointers and tips as I progressively screw this thing up. :thumb:

jeffabby

Looking forward to where this is going looks like a good base

Aresius

looks quite intersting.

Scatter

The current nacelle.

I'm kinda torn on this. On the one hand I like that it's different. On the other, it's... too different. Looks far too stylized imo. Too curvy.

Guess I'm not that torn on it then, I'm doing it again.

One question though - the bussard material is a red dielectric glass. For the life of me I cannot get light to shine through it no matter what type of light I use. Any ideas?

Starship

You can shine it using Video Post, putting a omni inside, or using radiosity.

Scatter

i've tried the omni, will look into radiosity. i'm using maxwell render which i think changes things a little...

second attempt at the nacelle an unmitigated disaster. already deleted this one.

Hellsgate

Any tentative schematics you're working from?

Aresius

Interesting nacelle look. I like the first version a bit better though.

Scatter

Hellsgate wrote: »

Any tentative schematics you're working from?

nope. she's a defiant variant, but other than that i'm going off the cuff...

aresius - i don't like either. will have another go tonight...

MadKoiFish

If your using Maxwell you need to use their materials lights and other "bits" The default max and mental Ray lights and materials will not work properly with the maxwell renderer.

Scatter

right had another crack at the nacelle.

it's taken me ages to get this right, but i'm pretty happy with it. it's just the bussard casing for now (as it's getting late here), though the nacelle itself should be pretty straightforward.

suspect getting the shape of the bussards themselves right might be a little trickier, though i think i've done this the right way in breaking it up a bit more. felt i had a bit more control on things and the mesh is a lot cleaner than my last two efforts.

Aresius

Cool, Mace-Windu-style nacelles. :P

Hellsgate

Can't wait to see how this design (Defiant Class refit) plays out.

Scatter

don't really see it as a refit defiant, just a variation of that type of design. actually envisage it to be a bit bigger, but haven't really bothered with any schematics or anything like that to check.

having said that, it might help if i had a clue how big this thing will eventually be.

i'm modeling to scale, and it'll probably be about 70m across at its widest point. will probably tip around 130m or so in length. maybe more. should be about 5 decks plus the bridge in height...

anyways, ignore the material on the bussard as it's just a placeholder. i've been mucking about with lighting and bump maps in lieu of actually modeling much of anything. i've already learned a shed-load doing this. :thumb:

Hellsgate

Well, a rough pencil doodle of concept art would help us appreciate your perspective a bit more. Just my $0.02

Scatter

a rough pencil doodle of concept art would probably help me hone my perspective a bit more

Scatter

pulse cannon and forward torp tube done.

Aresius

nice work.

Hellsgate

More updates coming soon?

Scatter

does six months fit within the "soon" parameter?

the problem with learning to do something, and then not being able to touch it for so long is that you have to re-learn everything all over again. so i've started again from scratch. literally.

not having anything sketched out means no two attempts at this are ever going to be the same. dunno if that's a bad thing or not.

haven't got far though in the last hour or three...