Not much of an update,
But here is the secondary hull with the windows cut in.
I think she look much better now. Even with fewer windows, as that was something that bugged me about this ship. For a War Ship she had way too many.
Ignore the textures it was a test to see how it would work.
I think it work very well, I just need to make proper ones. So I will start to make all the textures for all the parts I have already finished.
On a modelling note I will start to rebuild the saucer the same way I have with the secondary hull.
I have cut in the panels for the top of the saucer and started work on the bottom half.
Still need to recut the windows in there and also make new life pods as the old ones where not sitting right.
I am hoping to have an update by Monday. So keep watching this space.
I have not had much time to work on the Akira this week. (The Sun has finally decided to come out in the UK.)
So here is another small update.
I have cut in panels for the top and bottom of the saucer. This took a lot less time than normal, reason for this that I have found a new technique that worked very well.
With the panels now done, I need to re-cut in the windows. I will lose one or two, due some of the panel edge lines. I also need to rebuild the life pods as there was some issue with them before.
I also need to re-build the thrusters around the edge of the saucer so this matches the rest on the ship. I also need to add details into the trench around the side.
I think I could like this revamping.
The First Contact ships were always the weakest ships of Trek...poorly designed and conceived. I was never a fan of Akira but I learned to appreciate it's unique qualities. It's good to see these improvements. The original artist was just an artist and not much of a designer (with all due respect). Tactically Akira was one of the weakest ships on the seen. All of the ships including the Akira had extremely limited phaser arcs and phaser hardpoints period. The ships fired torpedoes from a spot other than where the torpedoes were and clearly didn't utilize the tubes it did have. Even the tube placement seemed haphazard.
I say be "progressive". (So to speak) This class and others had numerous problems. FIX them. Okuda placed these ships in the older variety with the registry yet gave them some modern detail (The artist that is)
-Change the Life pods to the Defiant, Voyager versions (or alternatively choose to design an older looking one)
-Reduce the number of tubes on this ship to reflect first contacts shots of it's forward firing torp abilities and keep the aft tubes the same while getting rid of the adjacent tubes
-Put more phasers on the ship
-Less windows
(Get rid of the windows on the boom and turn them into LH Storage Tanks because this ship has no fuel reserves.
-Make umbilicals down the length of the boom to reflect refueling ports
-Gangway hatches and exterior maintenance hatches.
-Short range sensor pallettes on the bottom (long range sensors are needed aft)
Well, the Akira is unbalanced in general terms, yes. But it is balanced for its purpose as a torpedo-boat. Kicking it around in 360A°. The CGI-shots with misplaced launches is a dire thing and really badly done, I agree there...
I have added the windwos into the saucer. I had to lose a few due to the panels lines but not to many.
Took a liitle longer as there was a load of errors that need to be cleaned up. But that is now all done.
I rebuilt the RCS thrusters so they matched the other on the ship.
On the original model there are none of the saucer except for brackest on the edge of the saucer. This where I had the old RCS. Even though the new ones match the others on the weapons pod and nacelles. I am not sure about these ones. I also had to move them a little so they dont sit next to the escape pods at the front of the ship.
Next thing to do is rebulid the Escape pods, not sure if I will modell a full pod or just the part that is seen on top of the saucer. Once that is done it on to redoing the details for the sensors at the front of the ship and to add details to the trench that goes round the rim of the saucer.
Then it time to start adding the textures.
Here is a close up on the RCS Thursters. Yes I am aware of the gap. I will be fixing that.
Hm... the RCS look rather odd, right now they small the ship down, making it look like something like twice the Defiant-size. It's somewhere between 460 to 800 meters actually, depending on whether you ask for Hutzels size (840m), and the Technical Manual (460m). Bernd Schneiders Ex-Astris uses the on-screen references to give a size-approximation of about 440.
But as said, right now, it seems barely more than 240meters, due to the exagerated RCS.
Yeah they are bit on the large size. I might go back to the old ones and just paly with the textures.
going back over the thread it looks like I had the same issue the first time I did them.
as for size she got 22 decks not including the weapons pod.
Length wise she just a little smaller than the ENT-E. So she is big, but yeah those RCS make her look smaller.
This is an interesting project. As a big fan of the Akira, it's always nice to see someone taking a shot at her, even if it's a re-imagining of sorts. I like some of the modifications you did to the ship. When I worked on her a long time ago, I struggled to not make many modifications myself. I still ended up doing too much, but the movie model used is so low quality and lacking details, that it's inevitable.
I do think you have a few issues that are more modeling related than anything else. The entire deflector area mesh is looking a bit messy, and the catamarans aren't flowing quite right either. If you wish, I can point them out with more precision later, as right now I'm at work. Still, you are doing a fine job with your re-imagining. You are almost making me thinking of taking another crack at this
Ok, I attached two pics from you model where I signal the problems. On the first screen there are 3 things that I see problems with:
1 - This area seems to have pinching of some sort. Is the catamaran done with subdivision surfaces? If it is, it's probably because of too many polys close together.
2 - Here you have the same problem again. This area is actually too round. There's actually a concavity here on the original model, but since you are modifying quite a bit, it's at your discretion. Still, I think poly flow can probably be improved to avoid the pinching.
3 - Here's a part that I don't get. There's a clear segmentation here that shouldn't exist at all. Even if you are doing it different, it should still be nice flowing.
In the second image I started pointing out a few problems, but that cage is very messy. The green line should be followed through pretty much the entire mesh for that area. I was going to get my old mesh, but the wireframe for the deflector is actually kinda bad as well. The catamaran one is pretty good though. I attached it as well. The catamaran is a pretty tough shape to get right. I ended up using the old Nico Weigand method of building a spline cage and taking it from there. Anyway, let me know if you need any more specifics.
Thanks for the advises. Both the Cat and secondary hull where built with Subd.
I will be going in to clean up the Cat's and that advised will be very helpful.
I'll have to have another look at the secondary hull.
I might have some better advice for you in a couple of days...I was toying around with rebuilding the nacelle for my Akira yesterday, and I'm thinking I might just have to remake the whole thing
Yeah, had to do that myself.
I am thinking of redoing it again, but this time less blocky. However that will wait untill I have finished everything else frist.
With the windows cut back in, it was time to start to fix some issue with the escape pods.
The ones I had before where stretched and different sizes.
I have gone back and remodelled them and recut them back into the main hull.
Now they are all the same.
It was mention that the RCS that I had rebuilt for the saucer made the ship look smaller than it actually is. So I have gone back and grabbed the ones I had on there before and just move them around and add the yellow for the RCS so they stand out a bit better
I am now moving onto the sensor pit in front of the bridge. I am not happy with what I got there, so I will remove what I got and just put in a load of greebles so there is more details.
I am also thinking of doing the same thing with the trench around the saucer rim, but we will see on that one. It is then onto reworking the Cats and a few other things then she will be ready for texturing.
Then I can call her done.
Nice progress I would perhaps shorten the bottom phaser strips just a bit so that they don't get so near to the deflector area...federation design usually avoids clutter on this type of thing. Makes it all look cleaner
The thrusters still seem too big... But I like the phaser array.
There are no thurster on the saucer for the original model. I have used those "block" that are around the side for them.
The current version are not that big, they are just big enough for a fully grown person to clime inside. on other ships the RCS are far bigger.
It might look a little bigger than they actaully are due to the yellow that suround the thrusters. But that just a marking and not the actual thursters.
Here a small update.
It was mentioned by Viper. That the lower phaser was too close to the secondary hull.
I have cut part of it out and reattached the end so that the end of the array is no longer that close to the secondary hull. It is also like this on the original model.
Thanks.
I am using the current version. Blender 2.63a.
With the Escape pods finished, I moved onto the sensor pits as it looked a little plain.
I am not sure if this is meant to be a sensor pit or some sort of cargo door as the original model has no detail here. I went with have a sensor pit.
Here is the old version.
I have complete remodelled this whole section adding a lot more in there.
I am very with the way I got it, but not too sure if there is too much gold?
Most of it was copy and paste and re-angle the objects.
Looking good, liking the more detailed sensor arrays. I still think you really need to have another crack at those warp nacelles though, that blocky shape behind the bussard domes is easily the weakest part of this model. I reckon if you remodel it so that the shape is more flush with the dome and then blends into a more blocky shape towards the back it'll look a whole lot better. Other than that minor detail this is cracking stuff, keep up the good work.
Posts
But here is the secondary hull with the windows cut in.
I think she look much better now. Even with fewer windows, as that was something that bugged me about this ship. For a War Ship she had way too many.
Ignore the textures it was a test to see how it would work.
I think it work very well, I just need to make proper ones. So I will start to make all the textures for all the parts I have already finished.
On a modelling note I will start to rebuild the saucer the same way I have with the secondary hull.
I have cut in the panels for the top of the saucer and started work on the bottom half.
Still need to recut the windows in there and also make new life pods as the old ones where not sitting right.
I am hoping to have an update by Monday. So keep watching this space.
So here is another small update.
I have cut in panels for the top and bottom of the saucer. This took a lot less time than normal, reason for this that I have found a new technique that worked very well.
With the panels now done, I need to re-cut in the windows. I will lose one or two, due some of the panel edge lines. I also need to rebuild the life pods as there was some issue with them before.
I also need to re-build the thrusters around the edge of the saucer so this matches the rest on the ship. I also need to add details into the trench around the side.
The First Contact ships were always the weakest ships of Trek...poorly designed and conceived. I was never a fan of Akira but I learned to appreciate it's unique qualities. It's good to see these improvements. The original artist was just an artist and not much of a designer (with all due respect). Tactically Akira was one of the weakest ships on the seen. All of the ships including the Akira had extremely limited phaser arcs and phaser hardpoints period. The ships fired torpedoes from a spot other than where the torpedoes were and clearly didn't utilize the tubes it did have. Even the tube placement seemed haphazard.
I say be "progressive". (So to speak) This class and others had numerous problems. FIX them. Okuda placed these ships in the older variety with the registry yet gave them some modern detail (The artist that is)
-Change the Life pods to the Defiant, Voyager versions (or alternatively choose to design an older looking one)
-Reduce the number of tubes on this ship to reflect first contacts shots of it's forward firing torp abilities and keep the aft tubes the same while getting rid of the adjacent tubes
-Put more phasers on the ship
-Less windows
(Get rid of the windows on the boom and turn them into LH Storage Tanks because this ship has no fuel reserves.
-Make umbilicals down the length of the boom to reflect refueling ports
-Gangway hatches and exterior maintenance hatches.
-Short range sensor pallettes on the bottom (long range sensors are needed aft)
I have added the windwos into the saucer. I had to lose a few due to the panels lines but not to many.
Took a liitle longer as there was a load of errors that need to be cleaned up. But that is now all done.
I rebuilt the RCS thrusters so they matched the other on the ship.
On the original model there are none of the saucer except for brackest on the edge of the saucer. This where I had the old RCS. Even though the new ones match the others on the weapons pod and nacelles. I am not sure about these ones. I also had to move them a little so they dont sit next to the escape pods at the front of the ship.
Next thing to do is rebulid the Escape pods, not sure if I will modell a full pod or just the part that is seen on top of the saucer. Once that is done it on to redoing the details for the sensors at the front of the ship and to add details to the trench that goes round the rim of the saucer.
Then it time to start adding the textures.
Here is a close up on the RCS Thursters. Yes I am aware of the gap. I will be fixing that.
But as said, right now, it seems barely more than 240meters, due to the exagerated RCS.
going back over the thread it looks like I had the same issue the first time I did them.
as for size she got 22 decks not including the weapons pod.
Length wise she just a little smaller than the ENT-E. So she is big, but yeah those RCS make her look smaller.
I do think you have a few issues that are more modeling related than anything else. The entire deflector area mesh is looking a bit messy, and the catamarans aren't flowing quite right either. If you wish, I can point them out with more precision later, as right now I'm at work. Still, you are doing a fine job with your re-imagining. You are almost making me thinking of taking another crack at this
Keep it up!
Frequent updates at our Discord channel!
Yeah I know about the deflector area, keep trying to clean it up but does not seem to work.
as for the Cat's please do.
1 - This area seems to have pinching of some sort. Is the catamaran done with subdivision surfaces? If it is, it's probably because of too many polys close together.
2 - Here you have the same problem again. This area is actually too round. There's actually a concavity here on the original model, but since you are modifying quite a bit, it's at your discretion. Still, I think poly flow can probably be improved to avoid the pinching.
3 - Here's a part that I don't get. There's a clear segmentation here that shouldn't exist at all. Even if you are doing it different, it should still be nice flowing.
In the second image I started pointing out a few problems, but that cage is very messy. The green line should be followed through pretty much the entire mesh for that area. I was going to get my old mesh, but the wireframe for the deflector is actually kinda bad as well. The catamaran one is pretty good though. I attached it as well. The catamaran is a pretty tough shape to get right. I ended up using the old Nico Weigand method of building a spline cage and taking it from there. Anyway, let me know if you need any more specifics.
Frequent updates at our Discord channel!
I will be going in to clean up the Cat's and that advised will be very helpful.
I'll have to have another look at the secondary hull.
Frequent updates at our Discord channel!
I am thinking of redoing it again, but this time less blocky. However that will wait untill I have finished everything else frist.
The ones I had before where stretched and different sizes.
I have gone back and remodelled them and recut them back into the main hull.
Now they are all the same.
It was mention that the RCS that I had rebuilt for the saucer made the ship look smaller than it actually is. So I have gone back and grabbed the ones I had on there before and just move them around and add the yellow for the RCS so they stand out a bit better
I am now moving onto the sensor pit in front of the bridge. I am not happy with what I got there, so I will remove what I got and just put in a load of greebles so there is more details.
I am also thinking of doing the same thing with the trench around the saucer rim, but we will see on that one. It is then onto reworking the Cats and a few other things then she will be ready for texturing.
Then I can call her done.
Frequent updates at our Discord channel!
Agree...
...to disagree.
There are no thurster on the saucer for the original model. I have used those "block" that are around the side for them.
The current version are not that big, they are just big enough for a fully grown person to clime inside. on other ships the RCS are far bigger.
It might look a little bigger than they actaully are due to the yellow that suround the thrusters. But that just a marking and not the actual thursters.
It was mentioned by Viper. That the lower phaser was too close to the secondary hull.
I have cut part of it out and reattached the end so that the end of the array is no longer that close to the secondary hull. It is also like this on the original model.
Looks great Freak. What version of Blender are you using now?
Brian
I am using the current version. Blender 2.63a.
With the Escape pods finished, I moved onto the sensor pits as it looked a little plain.
I am not sure if this is meant to be a sensor pit or some sort of cargo door as the original model has no detail here. I went with have a sensor pit.
Here is the old version.
I have complete remodelled this whole section adding a lot more in there.
I am very with the way I got it, but not too sure if there is too much gold?
Most of it was copy and paste and re-angle the objects.
Here is the new version
Here is also where the ship currently stands.