3DMotion Picture Drydock

tobiasrichter

A new WIP thread - and this is going to take a while. The "Motion Picture" drydock sequence is still one of my favourite VFX scenes - and I love that dock. It is amazing how much detail this thing has. So I thought I give it a try and model that beast with all that detail - maybe for future use in the Phase II series, who knows. WonA’t have that much time to model it, so progress will be most likely slow. But here is the first pic after about 2 hours...

Stay tuned...

BTW - I am still looking for accurate plans. I have a lot of HD screengrabs, but no blueprints. So if anyone has something on that heA’d like to share, IA’d appreciate it.

wjaspers

Look at this thread, not much to show, but there are members who do have references:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=110400

VALKYRIE013

oooh Shiny!

i have a few odds and ends somewhere, i'll look around, you probably have most of what i got allready. Basil on here built a dock as well, he might have some.

looking forward to what maya can do on the dock!! .. and i'll have plenty of questions

Thanks!!

edit
http://ncc1701.us/18.html
http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=18643
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/tmp-dock-probert-av-presentation/
http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/frs-3.php

all i could find in a few minutes.. Hope it helps!!

Buckaroohawk

All that detail. All those lights. My brain is screaming just thinking about it. I have no doubt, though, that when you're finished this will likely be the finest TMP drydock model ever built (except for the real one, of course). I'll be watching this thread closely.

IRML

I shall be watching this one

in case you don't know already, there's this site called st-bilder where this guy basically puts every trek image on the internet in a gallery, you might find some refs in there

tobiasrichter

Yep, thanks - thatA’s where I got most of my HD grabs from. Really an excellent source...

Still looking for a blueprint...

publiusr

Post some questions over at www.starshipmodeler.net or here http://thomasmodels.com/
Some info on Mr. Kimble who worked with Probert http://probertdesigns.com/Folder_TECH/Probert_HOME.html
http://www.intelius.com/search-summary-out.php?ReportType=1&qf=David&qmi=&qn=Kimble&qs=TX&searchform=name&trackit=74&focusfirst=0

tobiasrichter

Thanks, found some additional reference pics on modeler magic - ed miareckis restoration doc.

A bit of progress - finished the "lighting arrays", next will be the basic framework.

somacruz145

Wow you just have to be perfect, don't you ? It's shaping up really nicely !

Shadowknight1

somacruz145 wrote: »

Wow you just have to be perfect, don't you ?

Of course he does, do you not recall his almost obsessive work into redoing his ST2009 Enterprise to be more accurate? :P

Looking good tobias!

tobiasrichter

Thank you - well, I am tired of redoing models - so I try to get them to hold for a couple of years, especially the ones that I do for fun, where you can take that time. But this is really going to be a tough one - there is really tons of detail that I wasnA’t aware of. IA’ll make the best out of the reference I have, it covers a lot and the rest will have to be filled up.

Got the basic framing for the mid section and started on the detail between the frames (one of the things I wasnA’t aware of )

VALKYRIE013

are you going to proxy model the others? something like build 1 for each level, and side, then proxy the rest of the line? just wondering.. cuz the poly count is going to be astronomical!!

looking excellent good sir!! and of course any wireframes or tutorials on how you did some of the things will be appreciated!! ( i'm learning!!)

Buckaroohawk

The real killer in modeling the TMP drydock is that no matter how closely you detail it according to the reference materials you find, you're likely to miss something that someone else will notice. Then you'll have to go back and add that detail, and someone else will mention another missed greeble or light. For the sake of your own sanity I think you'll have to decide on a level of detail that works for you and stick to it. I know how much of a perfectionist you are, Tobias, but it's not worth turning your brain to jelly. Even what little you've done so far looks great. Just stay on that path and I know the finished product will be astonishing. Don't pay too much attention to the nit-pickers who might say "But you forgot this," or "What about the so-and-so that connects to the thingy there." That way only madness lies.

tobiasrichter

IA’ll surely do some instancing where it is possible, but there are lots of variations of elements -e.g. the detail stuff where the frames connect look different. The polycount will be pretty high - one frame with detail is about 30K at the moment - with 36 frames all in all, the connectors and the main structure IA’ll be ending up with approximately 2million polys.

On the detail level - I try to stay consistent with all my models, and donA’t worry, IA’ll keep my sanity No screw or bolt modelling on this one.

Tobias

mattc

tobiasrichter wrote: »

Thanks, found some additional reference pics on modeler magic

That guy is a major leage a#%h&#e.

Still, nice job so far.

EBOLII

which guy?......

tobiasrichter

Another hour of work - finished the detail between the frames on the in and outside - still have to make lots of variations of that.

Matt - who are you referring to? Kurt? In that case - IA’ve never had any problems, on the contrary.

PixelMagic

Nice work, Tobias. But, that's to be expected from you.

mattc

tobiasrichter wrote: »

Another hour of work - finished the detail between the frames on the in and outside - still have to make lots of variations of that.

Coming along very nicely. Did you manage to find any photos of the top of the thing at all?

PixelMagic

Tobias, you probably already know about this, but just in case, here are some very nice photos of the studio model...

http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=18643

tobiasrichter

I donA’t think they build anything on the top, as it is never seen in the movies. I have lots of pictures of the model - and the top is always open with access to the electric wiring and lamps. So IA’ll have to figure it out myself - IA’m probably going to do something like the underside, maybe a little less "greebly".

IRML

the best you're going to get for top details is just CG stuff from the shows

ext_akiradockst.jpg UtopiaPlanitiaFleetYards.jpg

I have seen a picture of one with some structures on top, a bit like the top of the spacedock, but I can't find that now

tobiasrichter

Thanks a lot - those will be helpful - the artists who did those most likely had the same problem - filling the top up with something that makes sense.

anystar

wow, that just looks incredible! i wish i could get that level of complexity and reality on my mesh!

speaking of the unfinished topside, my favorite pic of the miniature is the one whre you can see the antique radio bolted down in there controling some part of the lights i would guess! haha

i cant wait to see more, keep up the great work.

SchORscH

Extremely nice work as usual! If it wasn't you I wouldn't believe it...xD

tobiasrichter

Did the rounded frames today and adjusted the lightpods to the correct position, as well as the cablings. Then I just for the heck of it duplicated all that to what it will be later - and I suddenly already had a whopping 1.2 million polys

Well, I guess my 2 million estimate was a bit optimistic, but weA’ll see. Next up will be the connectors for the framework...

homerpalooza67

so far, so good. Ill take your 2 million polies anyday! :thumb:

VALKYRIE013

hmm... i know fractal sponge is running a flamming hot system to handle his star destroyers... and thats with Max, which is better with large loads of pollys.. i know maya is a bit of a hog and when i get up to 2 million on my work machine.. It screams for mercy...( and crashes when i turn on textures...) so the question is.. Whats ur machine like???

looks bloody marvelous!!

thorGT

VALKYRIE013 wrote: »

Whats ur machine like???

Being a long time lurker, just couldn't help commenting on a hardware related question)) Basically, it's all about the GPU, if you're using hardware acceleration in the viewport, and more precisely, the amount of memory the GPU has. A poweful GPU would help e.g. in a case where you have two or more high-res screens (which is what real 3d artists usually use).

Now as far as memory goes, most of the high-end video cards out there have 1Gb of memory nowadays. I even have a simple GTS250 at home, and that has 1Gb of memory as well! There's even the 2Gb MSI version of some NVIDIA GPU's (not sure about ATI though), which is a dream for any 3d modeller out there, and for reasonable price, by the way.

The CPU actually helps if you don't use hardware acceleleration in the viewport, and of course for the renders. Rendering (at least in 3ds max and mental ray) benefits from the number of threads in the processor, so an i7 is the best choice for a 3d modeller. But then again, if you're thinking of building a rig, 930-class processors are essentially the best bang for your buck. Don't believe them saying that the bigger the number, the more powerful it is. Well, this is a bit off-top, and thread-hijacking, and Intel advertisement, but just so that you get the idea. It's not that difficult to build a machine that can handle what you're talking about there.

And don't forget about layers and adaptive degradation (don't remember nothing of the kind in 3ds max 8, must be some new version, but it's there, and it's very useful), and you can handle a star fleet in a snap. Layered rendering helps as well.

Of course, great work Tobias, what I admire the most is you getting that close to the refs. Nice to meet a perfectionist (I'm one as well, and that's why I'm not posting here on SFM yet )

thorGT

*Sorry for double-posting*

Tobias, as you are known to follow the references to the smallest detail, could you share a bit of your knowledge? Like how do you work with 3d-references, e.g. photos or screengrabs, is it just a matter of training to get the proportions right, or do you use some tricks like doing calculations to get the right dimensions? That's the most interesting part, actually The rest is just patience and all, you know

tobiasrichter

Quick little update on the detail stuff for the connectors...

I usually work on a standard quadcore with 8Gig - nothing too special, but should handle this easily. At home (where I work on this project atm) I just have my computer, which is pretty old by now (dualcore, 4 Gig). But with layering you can work in maya with pretty heavy models, so 2-3 million should be no big problem. It probably will get a bit laggy if you want to display them all.

As for reference - if I do not have blueprints, I usually put a picture of the object I am working on in the background and try to match the overall proportions with the 3d model. In this case, this is especially important for the framework, as they have to match up, otherwise the whole model will look odd. For the detail, I just go by eyesight...