3DStarfleet Shuttle

Brandenberg

I have been working on a 1701 D shuttle. The glass is tinted dark but it has an interior. It needs exterior paint, but I don't entirely know how to do that yet.

Brandenberg

I have also been working on the Enterprise A and Reliant.

Brandenberg

This is a nice angle on a 1701 A refit.

BolianAdmiral

Beautiful start on the shuttle! I've always loved that TNG shuttle.

Buckaroohawk

The TNG shuttle looks really good. I love the glossiness of its hull. I noticed that there seem to be some rough spots on the curve of its forward hull and the front window is a little too wide, but overall I like it a lot. I especially like the addition of the ladder rungs on the back. For some reason I love it when ships have those, but if you're going to include them I'd put something on top of the shuttle (like an exterior storage compartment) to give the rungs a reason to be there. If you're unsure about how to add the shuttles markings and other details I suggest simply put them in as objects. It might be easier than trying to use material maps.

Your 1701-A and Reliant are looking good as well, but I have a few tips. The windows around the rim of the saucer look a bit too big and the space between the upper and lower windows is too narrow. Also, the outboard grilles on the warp engines do not glow blue. Only the inboard grilles had that effect. I really like how the Reliant in coming along. That ship is much harder to build than it looks, but yours is going well so far. Good luck on all these projects!

Brandenberg

Thanks Buckaroohawk. I had actually noticed that about the lights around the saucer and will be fixing it. I am working on making 1701 A and Reliant as close to the original as possible. I'll look into the other things you said. I appreciate the feedback.

Polaris 004

Two VERY demanding ships to model, but yours are looking great. Looking forward to seeing how they turn out. What program are you using?

Capt Dave

Nice everything so far. I'd really like to see more of the shuttle craft.

Brandenberg

Sorry about the slow reply. Have been busy learning to skin and surface paint. Essentially trying to learn Photoshop. I use Lightwave ver 10 even though much earlier versions are probably beyond me, much less Ver 10. I really admire the work being done on this site. There will be more of the shuttle craft coming. I don't actually have the back drawn correctly. Couldn't locate an image to work off of, so I was winging it. I may have an image now.

1701 A now has a dark color on the outer side of the engines and the windows are smaller. I don't think they are still quite right but closer. I have also been working on the surface spotlighting.

Thought you also might like my Freighter Fortunate, from the Enterprise series. A very demanding ship to model. It was my first project. I did this when my Lightwave skills were much more rudimentary. It needs cleaning up.

Buckaroohawk

The windows on the Enterprise are looking better, but there still needs to be a bit more space between the upper and lower decks. The placement of the upper windows looks correct. The lower ones need to be moved down slighty. Remember, there is a sensor strip that runs between the upper and lower windows. Use that as your guide for where to place the lower ones.

The Fortunate freighter looks great. The cargo containers are a little low-res, but you'd be surprised how many low resolution CGI models were used on the show. The FX for a show like "Enterprise" had to be produced very quickly, so whenever possible the FX team used simpler models to speed up render times. Also, really good texture maps can hide a multitude of sins and make a model look much more complex than it really is.

Your projects are coming along well. Can't wait to see more.

Brandenberg

Very useful observations. Thanks. Yeah, the only reason the cargo containers are low-res, was that I was getting rounding errors, and at the time didn't know why or how to correct it. I do now.