3DWIP- The Seeker

komaro

New project, A star Trek ship with a different look. The back saucer area has another smaller ship.

komaro

update: down hull

colbmista

way to much meshsmooth is being usid imo

komaro

Well...I have learned to do a lot of things that way, with nurbs or hypernurbs. After that I do the panels, etc...Not sure if it's the right way. If you know a tutorial about designing organic shapes without using nurbs, i will watch it and try it.

fluxfire

Interesting start to this.... however while i do like organic style ships giving it some harder edges wouldn't hurt at least round the edge of the saucer and some of that top section on the saucer..... Looking forward to seeing more...

Aresius

Huh, interesting. An orgianic vessel of .. well, I suppose it's Starfleet, aye?

Nice work, looking forward.

komaro

Well, it was my intention to extrude the side (You can see it in this preview). I got the engine design already, but I still have no clue on the nacelle wings shapes...I need to think a bit about this part. Done some panelling...I will also begin putting the real textures on this. It's hard to know the real impact of the small ship behind when it's completely dark.

Kalic-Vadek

After your done with this Trek ship you should Convert the "base" hull to an Covenant Ship, it looks a lot like one.

publiusr

It might actually look better without nacelles at that--its all very form-fitting.

komaro

Still have no clue for the nacelle...LOL. Not really sure how bad or good that could be.
Anyway, I did some textures to get a feeling of the ship.

colbmista

your poly count must be threw the roof with this method...

komaro

Not that much for the saucer part, but the black under belly, yes. At first at least...because I had to convert this model into WRL to import it from 3DSmax to C4D. I stopped the corruptions around the saucer this way, but it created more polys. At least now the shapes doesn't break everywhere. But there are other limitations in C4D...

I don't know why but 3DSmax with my AMD X6 CPU, seams to generate more corruptions into models, then when I was with an Intel CPU.

komaro

I redid the dorsal ship to fit more my original drawing. I decided to go simple but elegant in the line for the wing nacelle. Nothing too fancy...I did try two other way before. This one I like for the moment.

publiusr

Well, in keeping with Ihles Enterprise F, and the Ori and Galaxy quest (not to mention one of Eaves designs)--how about this:

Imagine a giant ellipse, a 'superegg' shape that surrounds the entire ship that blends into the aft nacelle supports you have there. Razor thin, this could be a Federation version of this ubersleek design from this cool sci-fi travelog...
http://www.amazon.com/Planetary-Traveler-Nathan-House/dp/157252152X

komaro

Update:

komaro

Well everything I imported from 3dsmax is crap. I can't do anything with the saucer area or the down part. So...I have to redo the major part of the ship. Thanks for 3dsmax for having such a crappy compatibility with AMD. I think I will take the time to do some changes anyway.

komaro

So, here is the top saucer. I decided to separate the saucer and do 3 X over the top panels. This way the center part doesn't look too out of place...I beleive. I really like it better this way.

blackbird17

Not a bad start to a New Federation Starship, like to see where this project goes.

komaro

So I have redone the down saucer. Put the minimal amount of nurbs to get a smooth line. Much cleaner model too. Added the small variations of towers between the upper "slides" .

komaro

Doing some textures work while modeling. It was a boring Sunday, I had a lot of time in front of me...I am also learning UVW for the first time, so bear with me, it won't be perfect. I finished all the parts that were corrupted in 3dsmax too. I am still unsure about the dark brown color. What I want is a dark color, but maybe I will experiment a bit with that...

publiusr

I love the little towers.

komaro

Part of the effort I put into the saucer section. Closes ups. Not saying effort likely...

komaro

So, I did the engines today. Directly like my original drawing. I need to smooth out some curves and integrate it to the wing. Still evaluating, but I like it so far, especially with this angle.

komaro

I have rework my two main textures, to add more dept and also a level of specular color. I begun cutting some windows and panels too. I did myself a gift and bought Edge Extrude Pro (Very nice).

komaro

I ditch the textures on the saucer. Better to work on the actual surface. I am trying to pace myself, I have a tendency of overdoing it. So I go back a step or two and try to find a more simpler look. So, you can see on the top, the greyish rectangle shapes are actually pods. More suggestive and hidden like a panel. I like the idea of having rounder panels on the top nose to fit with the rounder bridge.



Ah, I forgot...I put some phaser strips too...

Ironscythe

Very nice, organic aesthetic you've got here. However, shouldn't it be "USS Seeker"? Federation ships of the line are all "USS something". Civilian ships with Federation registries are usually "SS something". Also, NCC-1801-A is a bit campy. It's so close to the USS Enterprise's registry number that it loses credibility, and I doubt that this is only the second ship with that registry, considering how advanced-looking it is. I'd go with a letter further down the alphabet, or add a couple more digits to the registry number, if I were you.
...but that's just the geek in me talking. Design-wise, it's a very nice ship. It could do with some more windows, and maybe a different texture (like radial paneling that emphasizes the curvature when viewed from top or bottom) but this is your project.

komaro

I took some of your advice. I am not that geek about the numbers. USS Seekers NCC-1901C. I tried the radial texture on the ship...it didn't fit very well because the saucer shape is more like a diamond. I found it hard to make it in photoshop, so I decided for a cubic texture in C4D. Has for windows, there was more...and I remove them. I try to put them where, I think, some would actually make sens. Always a problem for me to know hos to dispose of them...

In another update, I finally did the Ray dish...after 3 failed tryouts. I found out my original drawings was beautiful in 2d but difficult to do in 3d. So I decided on a more classic and simpler dish. I begun working on the down Hull and dark belley too...

komaro

Working on the down part of the saucer. Added the sensors, panels, windows and pods. Doing also the darker belly...

colbmista

yoour window texturing is horrible..... try modeling them instead...

komaro

colbmista wrote: »

yoour window texturing is horrible..... try modeling them instead...

The windows are modeled...the texture is blue with a luminous electric noise. If you know a technique in C4d that let you easily cut a window shape, or drilling it like in LW, let me know. But it seams not listed in google. I use Extrude pro plugin to cut a shape, but it slow and only work well on flat surfaces. Otherwise I have to work with the current polygons on the curvy surface.

I could always modeled it like an external appendices, but what's the point of making windows if they are outside the surface.

komaro

Here is the correction I made for the windows. I found a coffee script that makes round holes into a shape easier in Cinema4d. You can find the video and links here: http://vimeo.com/14452520
I just can't believe how hard it was to find...that doesn't solve the problem for a square with round corners window, but maybe there is a way with the collapse...would be easier to find another script.



Gonna think about the window's texture. I wanted a texture that would give me light and darkness, without having to assign two different textures. So I use a luminous noise effect scaled 300%.