I've tried to make something more complex it the background and make it the star of the picture. I'm pretty happy with it, though the quality suffered again when uploading to dA, and I'm still not sure why.
Today is definitively a productive day!
The Starfleet Museum mentions that the USS Diana was once ordered to patrol the Elbow of Bootes looking for pirate activity. So, I decided to make a little skirmish there with some Orion ships.
I surprisingly finished this Orion frigate in a couple of hours, its design is a mix between the ship of the remastered "Journey to Babel" and the ones from Enterprise. It's very low poly, but it isn't intended to be seen from up close, but rather as small ships that moves very fast.
Here is my first attempt at doing the image.
While I'm proud of myself because it's the first image in which I render each element individually and then edit them together in PS, I don't quite like it, and I don't know why. Maybe it's that it's overcharged, or maybe the front Orion ship needs to be smaller. I can't quite nail what's wrong here. Please, tell me, what do you think of it?
Nice pic, but yes, a few things which should be reasonably easy to rectify:
1: The motion blur on the orion ships' nacelles looks pretty primitive, I'd consider doing that in-program.
2: The lighting's all wonky. You've got a star in the top-left corner that seems to be having absolutely no effect whatsoever on the ships themselves.
3: The phasers are coming from the wrong place on the hull, from the looks of it. It looks like they're merging from the lower sensor dome.
Basically, somewhat perversely, it looks exactly like every element of the picture was rendered separately and composited together in Photoshop.
The way I'd rectify it is, rather backwardsly, to actually render the ships together in the rendering program, with the light setup shared between them. Make sure your background's chosen before you even begin work on the picture. That way you know where the light's meant to be coming from. It's no crime to have some light coming from 'behind the camera', but if there's a star in the background that's that bright, it'd be reflecting off the ships really strongly.
With the phasers, it's a little harder. I tend to actually build the phasers in-program (a cylinder with a cloud alpha/luminance map and a random glow to give the 'pulsing energy' look and also get the angles of it looking right) but these things do cast light. I've tended to centre a bright, blue light with an inverse square falloff and some noise just under where they're being fired from, with a spotlight pointing in the direction they're going. It gives a nice sense of the sheer chaotic energy being unleashed.
So yeah, the basics are okay, just needs some decent work on the lighting. That's what really makes an image.
EDIT: I'm also pretty sure the program you use will have the ability to import an image to use as the background of the editing screen whilst you're working on it. That'll be a big help.
Thanks for the feedback Doomsponge, I'll try out some of the things you mentioned.
Oh, and just to clarify, all the ships were in the same scene with the same lighting, but I added the star there after the image was done (it was the last thing added, because that part of the image looked too empty), and I forgot to take into account the light source, it was a mistake of my part.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
After saying that I wasn't going to name my kitbash of the Valley Forge "Buckner Class", I've finally decided to name it... Buckner Class... I'm almost Vulcan in my logic, aren't I?
Here are some orthos and images of it, see them full size here.
I'm still leaving the skirmish with the Orion ships for later, as I think I still have much to learn before tackling that one, and I ain't in the mood for learning lately.
Got an idea on my mind for an image, but I'm gonna need a small outpost for that, so here it is. Well, here's the beginning of it. What do you think?
More progress on the outpost.
This station is very small, designed to be a listening post or something like that. The small room on the side is one deck tall, and it's the habitational area, with small cabinets for the few crew members.
love the little station as well.. the habitation thingy looks a little too small.. but there's not much sugesting size.. maybe a window or 2 to show size?
ooh! love that starbase.. Tobias did one awhile back and kicked but! goodluck with it!
@Valkyrie: It is very small, I calculated that it was big enough for a crew of 3, but maybe it's too small. I was in the process of cutting the windows to get a better sense of space when I got immersed in the Vanguard books.
Some more progress on the starbase, basically all the hull lines on the primary hull are done. I'm afraid that they might be too small to be seen from a distance, but I wanted to keep them as small as possible given the enormous size of this thing, otherwise each hull line would be a few meters wide. Do you think they are too small right now?
By the way, don't pay attention at the texture effect on the top view now, I only applied the texture to have some colors, I haven't tuned it yet.
Is this going to be a big Vanguard-sized station or a smaller remastered Ultimate Computer-sized station?
It's going to be Vanguard-sized, and it's based on your plans rather than on screencaps of the much modified Starbase 6.
I made the deflector area today (I'm still working to make it movable), as well as some moifications on the bay doors. I threw the Valley Forge there on the image for some perspective on it's enormous size.
Well, surfing deviantART I came across a much higher quality version of Masao's blueprints, so I inevitably discovered lots of little imperfections on the model.
After some thinking I decided to re-do the main mesh that composes almost the entire station. I was able to salvage the deuterium tanks, all the lights and the deflector assembly, though. I'm in the process of re-adding those to the model right now, and I know that re-doing the little progress I had is going to be much easier now.
@BolianAdmiral: I must say, TOS ships are an acquired taste for myself.
I've finished with the docking wheel and the reactor housing.
As you can see by the ship on the image, the "doors" on the docking wheel are very big. I assume that several different size of airlocks can be configured on each exit behind those doors to accommodate for smaller ships. That way a bigger airlock is also available when needed (for example, to move cargo in and out from a transport ship).
As before, great work. I would also like to comment on the docking doors... this is one thing that I'm always amused by, because it seems that EVERY fan who puts docking/airlock doors on either a ship or station makes them literally the entire thickness of the saucer section or docking arm.
What???
Why would you need an airlock door larger than a whole deck? If you want a gangway that big, fine, but have DUAL airlock doors, one atop the other, not one giant door that makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, I would assume there is a standardized airlock size, for the sake of simplicity and practicality. That just always bugs me... it always just kind of stuck out like a sore thumb. Anyway, rant over, lol... regardless of how the doors look, I love what you're doing with this.
As before, great work. I would also like to comment on the docking doors... this is one thing that I'm always amused by, because it seems that EVERY fan who puts docking/airlock doors on either a ship or station makes them literally the entire thickness of the saucer section or docking arm.
What???
Why would you need an airlock door larger than a whole deck? If you want a gangway that big, fine, but have DUAL airlock doors, one atop the other, not one giant door that makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, I would assume there is a standardized airlock size, for the sake of simplicity and practicality. That just always bugs me... it always just kind of stuck out like a sore thumb. Anyway, rant over, lol... regardless of how the doors look, I love what you're doing with this.
I think you didn't get what I meant with the configurable airlocks, or maybe I didn't express myself correctly, so, here's another try an the explanation:
The journeys that takes ships to a starbase always take at least a few days. So, before a ship arrives, the starbase crew knows about it, and can reserve an airlock for her and configure it appropriately to be ready when the ship arrives.
For a normal Starfleet vessel, a common, one deck tall airlock is enough for personnel transport (as seen on the first image with the Valley Forge). Watchtower_Class_Starbase_08.jpg
However, if a freighter needs to load or unload large quantities of cargo, it needs a much bigger door, that's when the big, configurable airlocks come in handy (as seen on the second image, with the Belleau Wood). While one may argue that the existence of transporters would make the physical movement of the cargo impractical, I can think of several situations where the "old fashioned" approach is seen as an option. Watchtower_Class_Starbase_09.jpg
@BolianAdmiral: No problem mate, it also helped me to see better my own thoughts.
So, I've finished all the shuttlebays around the secondary hull, as well as the ones on the command tower, obviously they are very big, an Archer-class like the Sagittarius would enter there without problem.
I've also changed the settings of the hull texture, to make it look less like plastic and more metallic. The original settings were fine for the Valley Forge, as it has a much smaller area and didn't had too many flat surfaces. But for the starbase, which is mostly composed of flat surfaces, the texture created an over exposed fell that didn't look good in my opinion.
Also, the "towers" for the RCS thrusters around the primary hull are in place, though I'm still not sure if they'll end up fuctioning as thrusters. Even if the starbase realistically needs the thrusters, I'm not sure if I want to make them visible, given that starships of the era didn't had visible thrusters.
Posts
endless_exploration_by_rekkert-d52688c.jpg
Full size
I've tried to make something more complex it the background and make it the star of the picture. I'm pretty happy with it, though the quality suffered again when uploading to dA, and I'm still not sure why.
Today is definitively a productive day!
The Starfleet Museum mentions that the USS Diana was once ordered to patrol the Elbow of Bootes looking for pirate activity. So, I decided to make a little skirmish there with some Orion ships.
I surprisingly finished this Orion frigate in a couple of hours, its design is a mix between the ship of the remastered "Journey to Babel" and the ones from Enterprise. It's very low poly, but it isn't intended to be seen from up close, but rather as small ships that moves very fast.
While I'm proud of myself because it's the first image in which I render each element individually and then edit them together in PS, I don't quite like it, and I don't know why. Maybe it's that it's overcharged, or maybe the front Orion ship needs to be smaller. I can't quite nail what's wrong here. Please, tell me, what do you think of it?
1: The motion blur on the orion ships' nacelles looks pretty primitive, I'd consider doing that in-program.
2: The lighting's all wonky. You've got a star in the top-left corner that seems to be having absolutely no effect whatsoever on the ships themselves.
3: The phasers are coming from the wrong place on the hull, from the looks of it. It looks like they're merging from the lower sensor dome.
Basically, somewhat perversely, it looks exactly like every element of the picture was rendered separately and composited together in Photoshop.
The way I'd rectify it is, rather backwardsly, to actually render the ships together in the rendering program, with the light setup shared between them. Make sure your background's chosen before you even begin work on the picture. That way you know where the light's meant to be coming from. It's no crime to have some light coming from 'behind the camera', but if there's a star in the background that's that bright, it'd be reflecting off the ships really strongly.
With the phasers, it's a little harder. I tend to actually build the phasers in-program (a cylinder with a cloud alpha/luminance map and a random glow to give the 'pulsing energy' look and also get the angles of it looking right) but these things do cast light. I've tended to centre a bright, blue light with an inverse square falloff and some noise just under where they're being fired from, with a spotlight pointing in the direction they're going. It gives a nice sense of the sheer chaotic energy being unleashed.
So yeah, the basics are okay, just needs some decent work on the lighting. That's what really makes an image.
EDIT: I'm also pretty sure the program you use will have the ability to import an image to use as the background of the editing screen whilst you're working on it. That'll be a big help.
Oh, and just to clarify, all the ships were in the same scene with the same lighting, but I added the star there after the image was done (it was the last thing added, because that part of the image looked too empty), and I forgot to take into account the light source, it was a mistake of my part.
Here are some orthos and images of it, see them full size here.
And I did a little scene with the Sheridan.
Got an idea on my mind for an image, but I'm gonna need a small outpost for that, so here it is. Well, here's the beginning of it. What do you think?
This station is very small, designed to be a listening post or something like that. The small room on the side is one deck tall, and it's the habitational area, with small cabinets for the few crew members.
love the little station as well.. the habitation thingy looks a little too small.. but there's not much sugesting size.. maybe a window or 2 to show size?
ooh! love that starbase.. Tobias did one awhile back and kicked but! goodluck with it!
@Valkyrie: It is very small, I calculated that it was big enough for a crew of 3, but maybe it's too small. I was in the process of cutting the windows to get a better sense of space when I got immersed in the Vanguard books.
Some more progress on the starbase, basically all the hull lines on the primary hull are done. I'm afraid that they might be too small to be seen from a distance, but I wanted to keep them as small as possible given the enormous size of this thing, otherwise each hull line would be a few meters wide. Do you think they are too small right now?
By the way, don't pay attention at the texture effect on the top view now, I only applied the texture to have some colors, I haven't tuned it yet.
It's going to be Vanguard-sized, and it's based on your plans rather than on screencaps of the much modified Starbase 6.
I made the deflector area today (I'm still working to make it movable), as well as some moifications on the bay doors. I threw the Valley Forge there on the image for some perspective on it's enormous size.
After some thinking I decided to re-do the main mesh that composes almost the entire station. I was able to salvage the deuterium tanks, all the lights and the deflector assembly, though. I'm in the process of re-adding those to the model right now, and I know that re-doing the little progress I had is going to be much easier now.
I've re-added all the weapons emplacements as well as the deflector assembly. Also, the docking ring is almost done.
No problem... I love this station design, and so far, you're doing a great job with it. Even the Valley Forge is starting to grow on me.
@BolianAdmiral:
I've finished with the docking wheel and the reactor housing.
As you can see by the ship on the image, the "doors" on the docking wheel are very big. I assume that several different size of airlocks can be configured on each exit behind those doors to accommodate for smaller ships. That way a bigger airlock is also available when needed (for example, to move cargo in and out from a transport ship).
What???
Why would you need an airlock door larger than a whole deck? If you want a gangway that big, fine, but have DUAL airlock doors, one atop the other, not one giant door that makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, I would assume there is a standardized airlock size, for the sake of simplicity and practicality. That just always bugs me... it always just kind of stuck out like a sore thumb. Anyway, rant over, lol... regardless of how the doors look, I love what you're doing with this.
I think you didn't get what I meant with the configurable airlocks, or maybe I didn't express myself correctly, so, here's another try an the explanation:
The journeys that takes ships to a starbase always take at least a few days. So, before a ship arrives, the starbase crew knows about it, and can reserve an airlock for her and configure it appropriately to be ready when the ship arrives.
For a normal Starfleet vessel, a common, one deck tall airlock is enough for personnel transport (as seen on the first image with the Valley Forge).
Watchtower_Class_Starbase_08.jpg
However, if a freighter needs to load or unload large quantities of cargo, it needs a much bigger door, that's when the big, configurable airlocks come in handy (as seen on the second image, with the Belleau Wood). While one may argue that the existence of transporters would make the physical movement of the cargo impractical, I can think of several situations where the "old fashioned" approach is seen as an option.
Watchtower_Class_Starbase_09.jpg
So, I've finished all the shuttlebays around the secondary hull, as well as the ones on the command tower, obviously they are very big, an Archer-class like the Sagittarius would enter there without problem.
I've also changed the settings of the hull texture, to make it look less like plastic and more metallic. The original settings were fine for the Valley Forge, as it has a much smaller area and didn't had too many flat surfaces. But for the starbase, which is mostly composed of flat surfaces, the texture created an over exposed fell that didn't look good in my opinion.
Also, the "towers" for the RCS thrusters around the primary hull are in place, though I'm still not sure if they'll end up fuctioning as thrusters. Even if the starbase realistically needs the thrusters, I'm not sure if I want to make them visible, given that starships of the era didn't had visible thrusters.
Doing a great job!
"Starting to grow on you..."? You mean it wasn't love at first sight?!?! Gasp (!)