Anystar, I reworked the sensor array so it is more like the studio model. I think it looks much better now. It isn't as flat looking and curves a lot better.
Today's update. I've been spending some time working on a very basic rec area so there is something to see through the windows. It is not going to be high poly by any means. I've already created some furniture and still need to do the raised floor platforms and the monitor area showing the different Enterprises. The textures are temporary for now. Hope to have better textures and lighting in the future. Both texturing and lighting is an art form that still eludes me. Find it frustrating not being able to get the effect I want. Oh well, keep trying.
Great looking interior so far. For that sort of thing, there's no point in going high poly, as it won't be seen very often or very well. Textures and lighting are things that take time and practice. You're bound to have a lot of frustrations along the way, but keep plugging and you'll get it.
Update for today. I finished the rec area as far as I want to take it. I am really pleased with how it turned out. Doesn't match 1 to 1, but it gives a really good feel for the area that will most likely be seen from the outside looking in.
As a side note, the TOS Enterprise seen on the display monitor is the one that I modeled quite a while ago (available in the downloads area). It was nice to be able to re-use something that I made.
Excellent work on the Rec Deck. It's very difficult to reconcile the size of that room with the lower saucer hull because of that darned upward curved surface. Yours looks good, but I would suggest extending the upper walkway near the windows so it goes behind the side walls of the room. Right now it looks like it just runs the length of the row of windows, so there's no way to get up there. Otherwise, the lighting looks great and I think you've chosen some really good colors and textures. Looking forward to the next update!
I was playing around with Dennis Bailey's NCC-1701 textures on my saucer section tonight and things just weren't lining up correctly. Then I noticed what was wrong.
stupid me. stupid me. On the top of the saucer, there are 6 rows of panels and 16 columns. I got the columns right, but modeled only 5 rows! stupid me. stupid me.
Wish I was doing the panel lines with a bump map now! Well, back to the drawing board for the top saucer section. Won't have to re-do the bridge or stuff like that. They were separate entities. Just the nice curvy saucer section, then match it up and blend it into the existing saucer rim.
Fixed the upper saucer section today on my lunch and after dinner. In retrospect, I am glad I redid the upper saucer as it looks much better now. I may even re-do the bottom section of the saucer as well.
Very good work. but your bridge housing looks a bit too wide, or is it just the perspective?
I double checked the bridge housing with the blueprints and it was a bit wide, so I narrowed it a bit and added the relief between the housing and the hull.
Thanks Starship. It wasn't all that bad re-doing the hull. Thank goodness too as I had to do it a third time! The top row of panels were too short (I misjudged the spline on which to end the panel at).
I was able to obtain permission from Dennis Bailey to use his textures on my model. It was very generous of him as it must have taken a lot of time to create them. Spent some time figuring out how C4D's Body Paint worked and added the Aztec texture to the top saucer section.
I double checked the bridge housing with the blueprints and it was a bit wide, so I narrowed it a bit and added the relief between the housing and the hull.
Thanks Starship. It wasn't all that bad re-doing the hull. Thank goodness too as I had to do it a third time! The top row of panels were too short (I misjudged the spline on which to end the panel at).
I was able to obtain permission from Dennis Bailey to use his textures on my model. It was very generous of him as it must have taken a lot of time to create them. Spent some time figuring out how C4D's Body Paint worked and added the Aztec texture to the top saucer section.
Al
Very nice.
The only thing I'm not fond of is that Dennis' textures seem to lack AA...
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB 1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD 32 GB RAM Windows 11 Pro
The only thing I'm not fond of is that Dennis' textures seem to lack AA...
I noticed that as well. I was also finding that the Aztec texture didn't line up 100% with my panels. I also found the texture was coming out a bit dark when compared to the hull color I was using.
With that being said and even though it may not look like a lot has changed, I have been pretty busy in redoing the Aztec pattern on the hull. I ended up applying the pattern directly to the hull, no textures used. I have been using Dennis's textures as a template while laying down the pattern. I did the lettering as Tobias had mentioned by creating a text object and laying it super close but not touching the hull. I personally like the way this looks. I really want to thank Dennis for allowing me to use his textures and I may still need some, but for the time being, I am going to give this a go on my own.
I was wondering if some of you could help me out. I have exported what I have done so far to an OBJ file along with the matching MTL file and textures. I was hoping some of you could import the OBJ into your software (e.g. Max, Lightwave, etc.) and let me know if you experienced any problems with the import. Did it load okay? Did you have to make adjustments (e.g. phong angle, etc.)? Did textures load okay? The only place textures are used are for the display screens in the rec area. Everything else is done with materials.
Feel free to post any renders you do for comparison. I really hope this works as I would like to provide the finished model in both C4D and OBJ format in the Downloads section.
The saucer is far from finished, but if there are things I could be doing to help make the model more universal, then that is the way I would like to go.
I was wondering if some of you could help me out. I have exported what I have done so far to an OBJ file along with the matching MTL file and textures. I was hoping some of you could import the OBJ into your software (e.g. Max, Lightwave, etc.) and let me know if you experienced any problems with the import. Did it load okay? Did you have to make adjustments (e.g. phong angle, etc.)? Did textures load okay? The only place textures are used are for the display screens in the rec area. Everything else is done with materials.
Feel free to post any renders you do for comparison. I really hope this works as I would like to provide the finished model in both C4D and OBJ format in the Downloads section.
The saucer is far from finished, but if there are things I could be doing to help make the model more universal, then that is the way I would like to go.
Imported into Max fine as far as I can tell, if there was any lights, I don't think they got imported... but here are some shots... the textures appear to have loaded... shots rendered in Max 2011 with finalRender and GI... only thing I really had to do in the way of the model, is render with 'Force 2-sided' turned on.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB 1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD 32 GB RAM Windows 11 Pro
The renders look great. This is very helpful. You are right about the lights not exporting. Also, I noticed the luminance channel of the materials seems to have not come through either. All of the monitors have a luminance channel on them as does the top bridge beacon light and the three lights that shine on the top of the saucer.
I am using Riptide for C4D which is an OBJ importer/exporter, which does a fairly good job, except for these couple of things. C4D doesn't seem to export the materials when creating an OBJ file. I will have to check at the C4D Cafe to see if there is a way to get lights and luminance to export.
Nightfever,
I tried looking for any type setting in Riptide that would allow exporting of lights but didn't see anything. Also, my lights are under a NULL object, so maybe that is messing things up.
ChrisGFX,
I exported in both FBX and DAE (Collada) from C4D ver 11 and then imported them back in. Both worked pretty well, but as Nightfever said, the FBX worked better. I got all lights, textures and materials. In Collada, the textures did not import and I had to add them manually. It may act differently in different software.
Here is a new zip file containing the textures, FBX and DAE formats. NCC-1701_2ndTry.zip
If someone could try these formats, it would help out a lot.
With Chris2005's help, I downloaded the Dry Dock model by Prologic9. Thanks again Chris. Cinema 4D imported the Lightwave model almost perfectly, needing only a bit of tweaking on the materials with textures.
I put together this really quick scene with the portion of the saucer that is done along with a space background. The background was created using the Planet X Generator plug-in for Cinema 4D.
With Chris2005's help, I downloaded the Dry Dock model by Prologic9. Thanks again Chris. Cinema 4D imported the Lightwave model almost perfectly, needing only a bit of tweaking on the materials with textures.
I put together this really quick scene with the portion of the saucer that is done along with a space background. The background was created using the Planet X Generator plug-in for Cinema 4D.
Al
Looks like it imported a lot better than when I did it... of course, I don't know of any tools for 3ds max that can directly import LW files... and aside from the Enterprise still being a flying saucer It looks very nice.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB 1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD 32 GB RAM Windows 11 Pro
Its not the FBX file in the Zip Archive. Can you uploading the org. C4D File ?
I work with C4D ...
Hi trekki,
Not sure which one you want in C4D. If it is the space dock, I am not sure if I have the rights to redistribute it in a different format. If anyone can help clarify this, it would be appreciated. I would be more than happy to upload a C4D and OBJ version of the Dry Dock model with credit going to Prologic9, providing it is okay to do so.
and aside from the Enterprise still being a flying saucer It looks very nice.
Chris,
This update should help take away from the flying saucer look. I was getting overloaded with trying to texture everything, so took a break and started actual modeling again. It is looking okay, but something isn't quite right. If anyone has any ideas as to what it might be, I would appreciate hearing them.
It is looking okay, but something isn't quite right. If anyone has any ideas as to what it might be, I would appreciate hearing them.
From the angle of your image, it looks like the secondary hull tapers too much going back to the hangar doors. There doesn't seem to be enough of the hull back there for the underside fantail. Also, the ring for the deflector dish looks too big and the segmented rings around it are too close together. This is a very tricky part of the ship. The secondary hull has subtle bulges and curves that are really hard to nail down. You're close, but you'll need to find some good reference photos and diagrams to get it right.
Seems like it might be lens distortion caused by focal length. Any chance of an orthographic render of this? That may help in diagnosing proportion problems.
Keep up the good work, though. I like what you've done with this model so far
Posts
Anystar, I reworked the sensor array so it is more like the studio model. I think it looks much better now. It isn't as flat looking and curves a lot better.
Today's update. I've been spending some time working on a very basic rec area so there is something to see through the windows. It is not going to be high poly by any means. I've already created some furniture and still need to do the raised floor platforms and the monitor area showing the different Enterprises. The textures are temporary for now. Hope to have better textures and lighting in the future. Both texturing and lighting is an art form that still eludes me. Find it frustrating not being able to get the effect I want. Oh well, keep trying.
Al
Update for today. I finished the rec area as far as I want to take it. I am really pleased with how it turned out. Doesn't match 1 to 1, but it gives a really good feel for the area that will most likely be seen from the outside looking in.
As a side note, the TOS Enterprise seen on the display monitor is the one that I modeled quite a while ago (available in the downloads area). It was nice to be able to re-use something that I made.
Al
stupid me. stupid me. On the top of the saucer, there are 6 rows of panels and 16 columns. I got the columns right, but modeled only 5 rows! stupid me. stupid me.
Wish I was doing the panel lines with a bump map now! Well, back to the drawing board for the top saucer section. Won't have to re-do the bridge or stuff like that. They were separate entities. Just the nice curvy saucer section, then match it up and blend it into the existing saucer rim.
Al
Al
Sometimes, I got the same problem... I donAât have that much of hair too.
Good that you could correct the trouble without a complete redo.
I double checked the bridge housing with the blueprints and it was a bit wide, so I narrowed it a bit and added the relief between the housing and the hull.
Thanks Starship. It wasn't all that bad re-doing the hull. Thank goodness too as I had to do it a third time! The top row of panels were too short (I misjudged the spline on which to end the panel at).
I was able to obtain permission from Dennis Bailey to use his textures on my model. It was very generous of him as it must have taken a lot of time to create them. Spent some time figuring out how C4D's Body Paint worked and added the Aztec texture to the top saucer section.
Al
Very nice.
The only thing I'm not fond of is that Dennis' textures seem to lack AA...
Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB
1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD
32 GB RAM
Windows 11 Pro
I noticed that as well. I was also finding that the Aztec texture didn't line up 100% with my panels. I also found the texture was coming out a bit dark when compared to the hull color I was using.
With that being said and even though it may not look like a lot has changed, I have been pretty busy in redoing the Aztec pattern on the hull. I ended up applying the pattern directly to the hull, no textures used. I have been using Dennis's textures as a template while laying down the pattern. I did the lettering as Tobias had mentioned by creating a text object and laying it super close but not touching the hull. I personally like the way this looks. I really want to thank Dennis for allowing me to use his textures and I may still need some, but for the time being, I am going to give this a go on my own.
Al
I was wondering if some of you could help me out. I have exported what I have done so far to an OBJ file along with the matching MTL file and textures. I was hoping some of you could import the OBJ into your software (e.g. Max, Lightwave, etc.) and let me know if you experienced any problems with the import. Did it load okay? Did you have to make adjustments (e.g. phong angle, etc.)? Did textures load okay? The only place textures are used are for the display screens in the rec area. Everything else is done with materials.
Feel free to post any renders you do for comparison. I really hope this works as I would like to provide the finished model in both C4D and OBJ format in the Downloads section.
The saucer is far from finished, but if there are things I could be doing to help make the model more universal, then that is the way I would like to go.
Thanks in advance...
Al
NCC-1701 Saucer
Imported into Max fine as far as I can tell, if there was any lights, I don't think they got imported... but here are some shots... the textures appear to have loaded... shots rendered in Max 2011 with finalRender and GI... only thing I really had to do in the way of the model, is render with 'Force 2-sided' turned on.
Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB
1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD
32 GB RAM
Windows 11 Pro
The renders look great. This is very helpful. You are right about the lights not exporting. Also, I noticed the luminance channel of the materials seems to have not come through either. All of the monitors have a luminance channel on them as does the top bridge beacon light and the three lights that shine on the top of the saucer.
I am using Riptide for C4D which is an OBJ importer/exporter, which does a fairly good job, except for these couple of things. C4D doesn't seem to export the materials when creating an OBJ file. I will have to check at the C4D Cafe to see if there is a way to get lights and luminance to export.
Thanks again...
Al
I thought OBJ was pretty much supported by everything, but I could always provide an OBJ along with C4D and FBX or Collada. I will give that a try.
Thanks...
Al
Edit: but I got the best result with FBX though
yes, both supporting lights AFAIK - FBX is good for filetransfers, I'm using it alot.
I tried looking for any type setting in Riptide that would allow exporting of lights but didn't see anything. Also, my lights are under a NULL object, so maybe that is messing things up.
ChrisGFX,
I exported in both FBX and DAE (Collada) from C4D ver 11 and then imported them back in. Both worked pretty well, but as Nightfever said, the FBX worked better. I got all lights, textures and materials. In Collada, the textures did not import and I had to add them manually. It may act differently in different software.
Here is a new zip file containing the textures, FBX and DAE formats.
NCC-1701_2ndTry.zip
If someone could try these formats, it would help out a lot.
Thanks...
Al
I put together this really quick scene with the portion of the saucer that is done along with a space background. The background was created using the Planet X Generator plug-in for Cinema 4D.
Al
Looks like it imported a lot better than when I did it... of course, I don't know of any tools for 3ds max that can directly import LW files... and aside from the Enterprise still being a flying saucer
Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB
1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD
32 GB RAM
Windows 11 Pro
Its not the FBX file in the Zip Archive. Can you uploading the org. C4D File ?
I work with C4D ...
Hi trekki,
Not sure which one you want in C4D. If it is the space dock, I am not sure if I have the rights to redistribute it in a different format. If anyone can help clarify this, it would be appreciated. I would be more than happy to upload a C4D and OBJ version of the Dry Dock model with credit going to Prologic9, providing it is okay to do so.
Chris,
This update should help take away from the flying saucer look. I was getting overloaded with trying to texture everything, so took a break and started actual modeling again. It is looking okay, but something isn't quite right. If anyone has any ideas as to what it might be, I would appreciate hearing them.
Thanks...
Al
Thanks
Al
From the angle of your image, it looks like the secondary hull tapers too much going back to the hangar doors. There doesn't seem to be enough of the hull back there for the underside fantail. Also, the ring for the deflector dish looks too big and the segmented rings around it are too close together. This is a very tricky part of the ship. The secondary hull has subtle bulges and curves that are really hard to nail down. You're close, but you'll need to find some good reference photos and diagrams to get it right.
Keep up the good work, though. I like what you've done with this model so far