Hi all - I haven't been able to make much progress lately, due to some news - see below!
However, I did make a little progress to the nacelles which can be seen below:
Responses to previous comments:
@Tochiro76 - yes the saucer bottom needs some further shapes etc to make it look a little less flat, I think this is mainly due to the fact that I have not yet incorporated some elements from the sketch. I would like to keep to Chris's original vision as much as possible though. I think option 2 for the shuttle is winning out, but I haven't got to it just yet. Even though transporters are probably more advanced...you can't deny a nice shuttle bay would be good, if done right!
@publiusr - I like your Grissom idea, and I too had wondered about incorporating the shuttlebay elsewhere. I think I am still leaning towards option 2 though, but this will be added properly next when I come to add more details to the stardrive.
Wow those are some nice tail fins:-) That ship looks like it is going fast even when it is not moving. But now the flat top of the rear area of the secondary hull detracts from the look those nacelles are giving off. Makes me think the secondary hull could be more rounded on the top somehow. I guess those nacelles look like muscle car and the secondary hull looks like bird house? Making that part of the hull different and longer somehow and streamlining it to a more narrow point and then the shuttle bay doors could be like a top/bottom of that point and they open only to let the shuttle in and then close again so the shuttle bay area is not so exposed and does not look like a bird house or as mentioned earlier a ducks rear. Lol that might be a bit to exotic though, simple is always better.
Maybe shape the underside of the secondary hull to better match those nacelles so the shuttle bay is kinda underside instead of in the middle... oh hey you know how the nemi has those two panels down there on the underside at the rear those shapes could be made into left and right shuttle bay entrance or one big door underside? That way you avoid that round hole shape completely no more duck shoot hehe:-)
That design is very wicked and very damn good. Chris' Dedication-Class reminds me of the NCC-1701 Enterprise from The Motion Picture. The saize of the saucer section and the small warp section with long nacelles and pylons give it the BIG fell that Enterprise had in it's 1979 film.
I hope we get to see the nal draft so that I can try and create a LEGO mod of this ship. I would love to try to recreate it in LEGO form, just as I did the offical Odyssey-Class. =3
Thanks for all your comments, I never forgot you all. I have been a very busy busy man. Firstly, Adam William Kingsnorth was born at 07.54 am on March 25th of this year:
However, I never forgot about my project, so in between nappy changes and all the things that being a proud father brings, I have finally managed to near the end of the modelling stage. Here are some rough renders:
That's a handsome, bright-eyed young fellow you have there.
I like the 3/4 above aft view of the ship. I really don't care for the impulse engines, though.
Do you mean the zig-zag effect of the underside, or the whole unit? I tried to capture the original sketch as much as I could, which meant having this Zig-zag underneath. Perhaps if I try and make the zig-zag look cool at the texturing stage I'll convince you otherwise
Great news Mark!
Congratulations on the baby boy!
For myself, I have a little boy in 04 years old, and a little girl in 08 years old... Yeah, education takes time, as attemption to them. But IAâm very happy with them. Hope you the same. :thumb:
That's a beautiful looking boy you have there. I have my first on its way now, due about Xmas. Congratulations.
That's a good looking ship you have there too. Nice lines, but I have to agree I don't think that detail in the underside of the impulse engines works so well, but other than that it looks great, looking forward to seeing where you go with this. Are you planning shuttle bays for the primary and secondary hulls? Looking good either way.
I think the nacelle pylons need some work: they look rather flimsy and way to long to be practical. The whole ship has a very Excelsior-esque feel to it, which I'm digging a lot, but in that light perhaps you could also move the nacelles a little bit more to the front, so as to create a flow between nacelle and pylon?
I'm seeing a combination of Vector's work with Kaden and Galen's work in here. Am I right about that?
I have seen Vektor's work before, so I can safely say things like the gradients in the background were inspired by that Although the entire mesh here is based on Chris' sketch that I attached at the start of the thread. I don't know Galen/Kaden, but I have been out of the game for a while
I have thickened the nacelle pylons a little and played with bringing the nacelles forward. My aim has been to keep true to Chris' sketch however so in the end I decided to leave the nacelles where they are for now. I plan to release the mesh so you're welcome to play with it after
As for shuttlebays, they do exist - I don't think the renders picked up on them well so I've attached an image highlighting the two saucer/neck ones in blue. The detail at the very aft of the stardrive is the main shuttlebay/cargo area.
I talked to Chris about the impulse engines, and he sent me back some sketches which altered the design just a little. The zig-zags are more like foreshortened arrows now facing along the forward line of the ship. Appreciate this is only a subtle change and some may have preferred a complete departure (I wondered about making the underside of the engines have a more Sovereign class detail), but again I really wanted to keep to Chris' original sketch as much as possible.
I know it isntAât present in the drawings, but I think the naceles would looks even better with transparent caps at her front. When glowing, it would produce a cool effect.
Posts
However, I did make a little progress to the nacelles which can be seen below:
Responses to previous comments:
@Tochiro76 - yes the saucer bottom needs some further shapes etc to make it look a little less flat, I think this is mainly due to the fact that I have not yet incorporated some elements from the sketch. I would like to keep to Chris's original vision as much as possible though. I think option 2 for the shuttle is winning out, but I haven't got to it just yet. Even though transporters are probably more advanced...you can't deny a nice shuttle bay would be good, if done right!
@publiusr - I like your Grissom idea, and I too had wondered about incorporating the shuttlebay elsewhere. I think I am still leaning towards option 2 though, but this will be added properly next when I come to add more details to the stardrive.
The nacelles are looking sweet so far. :thumb:
Maybe shape the underside of the secondary hull to better match those nacelles so the shuttle bay is kinda underside instead of in the middle... oh hey you know how the nemi has those two panels down there on the underside at the rear those shapes could be made into left and right shuttle bay entrance or one big door underside? That way you avoid that round hole shape completely no more duck shoot hehe:-)
I hope we get to see the nal draft so that I can try and create a LEGO mod of this ship. I would love to try to recreate it in LEGO form, just as I did the offical Odyssey-Class. =3
Nice work on the ship as well.
If you want some tutorials on materials and rendering, I like mrBluesummers's site:
http://www.mrbluesummers.com/category/video-tutorials/video-tutorials-rendering
The video tutorials are very well done, and they help me in many ways for 3dsmax.
This is where I learned how to actually work with UVW maps.
Thanks for all your comments, I never forgot you all. I have been a very busy busy man. Firstly, Adam William Kingsnorth was born at 07.54 am on March 25th of this year:
However, I never forgot about my project, so in between nappy changes and all the things that being a proud father brings, I have finally managed to near the end of the modelling stage. Here are some rough renders:
dedication_0.jpg
dedication_0a.jpg
dedication_0b.jpg
dedication_1.jpg
dedication_2.jpg
dedication_3.jpg
dedication_4.jpg
dedication_5.jpg
dedication_6.jpg
dedication_7.jpg
Next stop is the texturing and lighting.
I like the 3/4 above aft view of the ship. I really don't care for the impulse engines, though.
The model look great, though I agree with rojren on the impulse engines.
Congratulations on the baby boy!
For myself, I have a little boy in 04 years old, and a little girl in 08 years old... Yeah, education takes time, as attemption to them. But IAâm very happy with them. Hope you the same. :thumb:
That's a good looking ship you have there too. Nice lines, but I have to agree I don't think that detail in the underside of the impulse engines works so well, but other than that it looks great, looking forward to seeing where you go with this. Are you planning shuttle bays for the primary and secondary hulls? Looking good either way.
An outstanding work of art. I love that ship. First rate.
As per the ship, I like the deflector housing most, it looks fantastic.
I'm seeing a combination of Vector's work with Kaden and Galen's work in here. Am I right about that?
I have thickened the nacelle pylons a little and played with bringing the nacelles forward. My aim has been to keep true to Chris' sketch however so in the end I decided to leave the nacelles where they are for now. I plan to release the mesh so you're welcome to play with it after
As for shuttlebays, they do exist - I don't think the renders picked up on them well so I've attached an image highlighting the two saucer/neck ones in blue. The detail at the very aft of the stardrive is the main shuttlebay/cargo area.
I talked to Chris about the impulse engines, and he sent me back some sketches which altered the design just a little. The zig-zags are more like foreshortened arrows now facing along the forward line of the ship. Appreciate this is only a subtle change and some may have preferred a complete departure (I wondered about making the underside of the engines have a more Sovereign class detail), but again I really wanted to keep to Chris' original sketch as much as possible.
So, with that, attached are the latest images.