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3DInterceptor
evil_genius_1804256
Posts: 11,034Member
A couple weeks ago, I was watching the 1961 film Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. While I was watching it, I came up with an idea to do a space ship based off of the submarine Seaview from that film. For those who donA’t know what IA’m talking about, look here. Though, as with most of my A“goodA†ideas, I didnA’t start right away. Real life distractions and things like playing the video game Mass Effect took up much of my time. However, I finally got a few days ago.
Back story:
For starters, this is from my own Sci-Fi universe; not Star Trek, Star Wars, BSG, etc. Though, while it is my own thing, IA’ll be borrowing from other Sci-Fi and even non Sci-Fi stuff. ItA’s hard to do anything completely original. In the past, IA’ve even had ideas that I thought were original, but they later turned out to be something that had been done before and I hadnA’t known about it. So, IA’m not worried about being totally original.
The year is three thousand something. Humans no longer live on Earth, (for reasons to be determined later) but they live on a series of colonies spread across the Milky Way galaxy. TheyA’re also part of an intergalactic community originally formed by a race called the Korvellins, known as the Korvellin Alliance. (think United Federation of Planets, Galactic Republic, etc.) And, of course, there are other races and factions throughout he cosmos. After all, you canA’t have a big Sci-Fi faction without having adversaries. Though, not all races and factions are enemies of the Alliance, some simply choose not to join. IA’m still working on the details of some of the races, but IA’m thinking the Korvellins have tentacles. They also breathe a different atmosphere than humans, so they donA’t typically serve on the same vessels as humans due to the need of cumbersome environment suits. (other races have this issue too, but not all)
Space travel isnA’t done through any conventional ideas of faster than light travel. Instead of warp drive or hyperdrive, the ship uses something called subspace streams. The idea is that these naturally occurring, crisscrossing streams exist in subspace and ships ride the streams at great speed to get to where they need to be, making accurate stream maps a necessity for galactic travel. (similar to the slipstream in the TV series Andromeda) So, the ship doesnA’t have to have any kind of FTL engine, it simply generates a field that allows it to transition into subspace and, therefore, into the streams. Much of the galaxyA’s streams are mapped, meaning you can travel to most of the galaxy, though there are unmapped areas. Stream mapping is extremely dangerous, because you run the risk of getting lost and you also donA’t know what youA’ll find when you leave the stream and return to normal space. Sensors work within the stream, but scanning normal space while in the stream (or vice versa) is not possible.
So, the ship IA’m building belongs to the Korvellin Alliance Defense Force. Much like modern day Coast Guards, the Defense Force has its own command structure and vessels and is independent of the Alliance Navy. The ship is an Interceptor, meaning itA’s fast. Note: Interceptor is the type of ship, not the shipA’s name. The jargon you see on the right side of the background in the images (KAPV 015824ST) is the shipA’s designation. KAPV stands for Korvellin Alliance Patrol Vessel, the rest is the shipA’s unique identifier. Though, A“STA†unofficially stands for A“Star Trek.Aâ€
Since itA’s an interceptor, itA’s designed to move more quickly through the subspace streams than most vessels, allowing it to catch other vessels traveling through the streams. ThatA’s why I thought a submarine was a good starting point, since theyA’re designed for rapid underwater travel. Though, what it makes up for in speed, it lacks in weapons. ItA’s only going to have a couple heavy cannons and a smaller rear cannon (some kind of particle beam technology.) So, itA’s not useful as a front line ship, but it is useful as a scout, a courier or a border patrol vessel. In the last role, the high speeds it can travel would allow it to rapidly evade invaders and make it to a command base to warn the defense forces of a possible invasion, if it couldnA’t handle the problem itself.
Size wise, itA’s between 100 and 110 meters long. One thing I donA’t like about Lightwave is that I havenA’t found anything that tells me things like this. In software IA’ve used in the past, (TrueSpace and Blender) I can bring up something that shows me length, width, height, etc. I can get all kinds of polygons stats in Lightwave, but I havenA’t seen anything like that. If there is such a thing and somebody knows where it is, please tell me. (IA’m using Lightwave 10.1) The ship only has two decks. It was originally going to have three, but the bulge on the bottom isnA’t large enough and is too round to be a real deck, so I figure there are some water and fuel tanks down there. DonA’t even ask me what the mass is. IA’m not very good at math (thatA’s why somebody invented calculators) and IA’m not even sure how you calculate mass anyway. For crew size, IA’m thinking somewhere from forty to seventy. This thing is roughly submarine size and they pack more people on submarines, but a space vessel requires systems that submarines donA’t, which leaves less room for a crew.
OK, hereA’s what I have so far:
Some wireframes, for those people who like such things:
Now, to some people, probably people who donA’t do CGI or who are better at it than I am, it may not seem like IA’ve done that much so far. Though, other people who do CGI and are in the same league as me (amateur) know better. Flowing, more A“organicA†shapes like the main hull and even the engines/pylons arenA’t that fast or easy to do. They require a lot of work and a lot of it isnA’t anything that can be rushed. The main hull took two tries to get right. I had a few issues with how the final shape turned out on my first attempt, so I had to start all over again. I also had to do two tries for the engines/pylons, but that was easier. The engine shape was almost what I wanted, but it was slightly off. I could have lived with it if I didnA’t hate my first version of the pylons. So, I had to redo the engines and pylons because theyA’re connected. IA’ll separate them later, but I wanted to build them connected so that theyA’d flow together. Anyway, it was a long and tedious process to get where I am. There were some errors that have been connected.
Another thing that slowed things down was deciding if I should put the tower on there and what shape it would be. My first version had no tower:
Then I decided I wanted one, but my first attempt came out way too submarine-like:
(Note: ignore the parts where you can A“see throughA†the mesh, those are non-planar faces that IA’m not fixing because I wonA’t be using those parts. I fixed them on the final version.)
So, there was quite a process involved in this. The only thing that went kind of quickly were the view ports. Note on those: the original Seaview from the film and the first season of the TV series had two rows of four separate view ports. For season two, the ship got a A“refit,A†which drastically changed a lot of things (including, apparently, the internal volume.) Aside from adding a large launch bay for their new mini sub to the bottom, they also removed the upper row of view ports and made the bottom row into two larger ports, each bisected by a girder. Why they did all this, I donA’t know. Since IA’m making a space ship and not the submarine, I decided to do my own thing and went with a single row of four separate ports. Behind them will be the shipA’s command center.
So, thatA’s what I have so far.
Back story:
For starters, this is from my own Sci-Fi universe; not Star Trek, Star Wars, BSG, etc. Though, while it is my own thing, IA’ll be borrowing from other Sci-Fi and even non Sci-Fi stuff. ItA’s hard to do anything completely original. In the past, IA’ve even had ideas that I thought were original, but they later turned out to be something that had been done before and I hadnA’t known about it. So, IA’m not worried about being totally original.
The year is three thousand something. Humans no longer live on Earth, (for reasons to be determined later) but they live on a series of colonies spread across the Milky Way galaxy. TheyA’re also part of an intergalactic community originally formed by a race called the Korvellins, known as the Korvellin Alliance. (think United Federation of Planets, Galactic Republic, etc.) And, of course, there are other races and factions throughout he cosmos. After all, you canA’t have a big Sci-Fi faction without having adversaries. Though, not all races and factions are enemies of the Alliance, some simply choose not to join. IA’m still working on the details of some of the races, but IA’m thinking the Korvellins have tentacles. They also breathe a different atmosphere than humans, so they donA’t typically serve on the same vessels as humans due to the need of cumbersome environment suits. (other races have this issue too, but not all)
Space travel isnA’t done through any conventional ideas of faster than light travel. Instead of warp drive or hyperdrive, the ship uses something called subspace streams. The idea is that these naturally occurring, crisscrossing streams exist in subspace and ships ride the streams at great speed to get to where they need to be, making accurate stream maps a necessity for galactic travel. (similar to the slipstream in the TV series Andromeda) So, the ship doesnA’t have to have any kind of FTL engine, it simply generates a field that allows it to transition into subspace and, therefore, into the streams. Much of the galaxyA’s streams are mapped, meaning you can travel to most of the galaxy, though there are unmapped areas. Stream mapping is extremely dangerous, because you run the risk of getting lost and you also donA’t know what youA’ll find when you leave the stream and return to normal space. Sensors work within the stream, but scanning normal space while in the stream (or vice versa) is not possible.
So, the ship IA’m building belongs to the Korvellin Alliance Defense Force. Much like modern day Coast Guards, the Defense Force has its own command structure and vessels and is independent of the Alliance Navy. The ship is an Interceptor, meaning itA’s fast. Note: Interceptor is the type of ship, not the shipA’s name. The jargon you see on the right side of the background in the images (KAPV 015824ST) is the shipA’s designation. KAPV stands for Korvellin Alliance Patrol Vessel, the rest is the shipA’s unique identifier. Though, A“STA†unofficially stands for A“Star Trek.Aâ€
Since itA’s an interceptor, itA’s designed to move more quickly through the subspace streams than most vessels, allowing it to catch other vessels traveling through the streams. ThatA’s why I thought a submarine was a good starting point, since theyA’re designed for rapid underwater travel. Though, what it makes up for in speed, it lacks in weapons. ItA’s only going to have a couple heavy cannons and a smaller rear cannon (some kind of particle beam technology.) So, itA’s not useful as a front line ship, but it is useful as a scout, a courier or a border patrol vessel. In the last role, the high speeds it can travel would allow it to rapidly evade invaders and make it to a command base to warn the defense forces of a possible invasion, if it couldnA’t handle the problem itself.Size wise, itA’s between 100 and 110 meters long. One thing I donA’t like about Lightwave is that I havenA’t found anything that tells me things like this. In software IA’ve used in the past, (TrueSpace and Blender) I can bring up something that shows me length, width, height, etc. I can get all kinds of polygons stats in Lightwave, but I havenA’t seen anything like that. If there is such a thing and somebody knows where it is, please tell me. (IA’m using Lightwave 10.1) The ship only has two decks. It was originally going to have three, but the bulge on the bottom isnA’t large enough and is too round to be a real deck, so I figure there are some water and fuel tanks down there. DonA’t even ask me what the mass is. IA’m not very good at math (thatA’s why somebody invented calculators) and IA’m not even sure how you calculate mass anyway. For crew size, IA’m thinking somewhere from forty to seventy. This thing is roughly submarine size and they pack more people on submarines, but a space vessel requires systems that submarines donA’t, which leaves less room for a crew.
OK, hereA’s what I have so far:
Some wireframes, for those people who like such things:
Now, to some people, probably people who donA’t do CGI or who are better at it than I am, it may not seem like IA’ve done that much so far. Though, other people who do CGI and are in the same league as me (amateur) know better. Flowing, more A“organicA†shapes like the main hull and even the engines/pylons arenA’t that fast or easy to do. They require a lot of work and a lot of it isnA’t anything that can be rushed. The main hull took two tries to get right. I had a few issues with how the final shape turned out on my first attempt, so I had to start all over again. I also had to do two tries for the engines/pylons, but that was easier. The engine shape was almost what I wanted, but it was slightly off. I could have lived with it if I didnA’t hate my first version of the pylons. So, I had to redo the engines and pylons because theyA’re connected. IA’ll separate them later, but I wanted to build them connected so that theyA’d flow together. Anyway, it was a long and tedious process to get where I am. There were some errors that have been connected.
Another thing that slowed things down was deciding if I should put the tower on there and what shape it would be. My first version had no tower:
Then I decided I wanted one, but my first attempt came out way too submarine-like:
(Note: ignore the parts where you can A“see throughA†the mesh, those are non-planar faces that IA’m not fixing because I wonA’t be using those parts. I fixed them on the final version.)
So, there was quite a process involved in this. The only thing that went kind of quickly were the view ports.
Note on those: the original Seaview from the film and the first season of the TV series had two rows of four separate view ports. For season two, the ship got a A“refit,A†which drastically changed a lot of things (including, apparently, the internal volume.) Aside from adding a large launch bay for their new mini sub to the bottom, they also removed the upper row of view ports and made the bottom row into two larger ports, each bisected by a girder. Why they did all this, I donA’t know. Since IA’m making a space ship and not the submarine, I decided to do my own thing and went with a single row of four separate ports. Behind them will be the shipA’s command center.So, thatA’s what I have so far.
Post edited by evil_genius_180 on
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You're doing good on the modeling, I think the rear needs some work, though. The engine nacells might look better more streamlined, rounder more than square.
Also the tail just stops. I'd like to see it taper more than just stop. Maybe make it a minisub bay? It would conmbines a fer elements of the seaview and the original enterprise, no bloody A,b,c or do. Make it a tribute to the 60's that way.
OK, I may modify the back end. Possibly. However, there's no mini sub because this isn't a submarine.
As for the engines, they're staying how they are. I wanted them to have a mix of curves and harder edges, like the main hull has. I may make a few modifications, but nothing huge.
Haha! You slay me. Where, oh where is the infinity symbol! . Sir, do you NOT realize that the bow is the MOST RECOGNIZABLE part of the ship that inspired my good friend Evil_Genius_180 to start modeling this wonderful craft? The bow is wide and bulging because that is EXACTLY how he wants it to be.
As for your other suggestion, why would any species do that? That would make them incompatible with members of their own race. It's easier to simply build ships tailored for certain races with different atmospheres and then crew them with species capable of breathing those atmospheres.
Let it not be said that I never listen to suggestions. (I just don’t necessarily follow them
Judge Death (I'm a huge Judge Dredd fan, by the way) also suggested that I make the engines more round, which I’m not willing to do. The engines are designed as they are in order to incorporate the mix of round and “harder” edges that the main hull has. I did change the shape of the bottom slightly and add some “scoops” to the top. Whether or not they serve an actual purpose, scoops are cool. (that’s the only reason I need)
Aside from that, I also changed how I made the ship smooth. Rather than sub patching and then subdividing, which caused some problems (such as those nonplanar “flat” faces that I had to fix) I sub patched and then sub patched again. The result is that my flat faces aren’t nonplanar and there’s no funkiness in the mesh structure. It’s a lot higher poly than it was before, but it’s smooth as can be. I’m not worried about the polygon count, this isn’t a game mesh.
Every once in a while, I get a crazy ass idea that just doesn’t work out the way I’d hoped it would. This is not one of those times.
One of the things I’ve had planned from the beginning was to put some big ol’ retro fins on the back. Before I tapered the back end, I was just going to build them traditionally and stick them on straight up and down or, more likely, at an angle. Well, the back end makes putting them on at an angle so that they follow the hull contours a nightmare. So, since that’s out, I decided to go crazy with them and have them be these weird curving things. After all, the ship hardly has any straight lines, why start adding them now? The end result is actually better than I’d hoped it would be.
Yes, I realize they’re completely impractical and serve no purpose. But, I don’t care about that. I’m an artist, not an aerospace engineer. I like how they look and that’s all that really matters to me.
Also, who's to say the tail fins serve no purpose? Is there anyone here more educated about the Sorta-FTL-Drive-Slipsteam-Jobber?
Yeah, I can't really say they don't serve a purpose. However, I try to avoid inevitable comments like that whenever possible. Because, you know somebody was going to say it.
are you going to do somthing like this for the smaller craft? as it is also from the smae series urs is based on
No underside renders because I still have to do the underside, which I'll tackle later. It won't take as long, but my back and neck have politely asked me to take a break.
p.s. when i said the human race might have split i meant genetic modification to make surviving on other planets easier, i did not mean modification that would make breeding between the different types impossible. same species different anatomies, somewhat like different types of ants in a nest.
I’ve spent the past couple days having fun. I figured, before I get any farther on this, I need to decide what I’m going to do with the materials. I started out by trying to UV map it. Ha. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, consider yourself lucky. For those who do, you understand my pain. Obviously, traditional “flat” maps are out, this thing has too many curvy lines. So, I started looking at unwrapping.
Lightwave comes with an unwrapper, but it sucks. It creates way too many parts and you wind up with a FUBAR mess. So, I found out about a plugin on the Lightwave forums. I downloaded that and it works great. However, it was creating the map for the main hull as one big blob-shaped thing. I could define edges by selecting them, but that part has 224,254 edges. No way in hell was I driving myself nuts doing that. I could also split it up by surface. Great, except that it was one surface. Yes, I can make it multiple surfaces, but it has over 100,000 polygons. (just for the main hull) So, I went back to my pre-sub patched version. It’s only 826 polygons. So, I went around and made that into a few different surfaces. Then I re-sub patched it. Unfortunately, I also had to redo the paneling. Though, that’s not that bad because I decided I wasn’t 100% happy with my first panels anyway. So, that’s all redone. Then I unwrapped it again.
After unwrapping it, I found out two things: 1. (most important) Lightwave will only export the generated texture to a .eps file that GIMP can’t import. There’s another plugin I could try, but it’s only 32 bit and I use 64 bit Lightwave. And, I don’t have money for any of Adobe’s overpriced software, so that’s out. 2. I don’t really feel like making a bunch of textures on the “sheet” it generates anyway. Since the model has no straight lines, neither would the textures.
So, after all of that, I finally decided I’m just not going to texture it. I decided, since I had to split the damn thing into different materials anyway, I’d just go with a four color scheme with reflections. The colors I chose were eggshell white, robin’s egg blue, cobalt blue and chrome. After doing that, I decided I didn’t like the robin’s egg blue and cobalt blue together, so I changed the robin’s egg blue to sky blue. I like the way it came out, so I’m keeping it. I figure, if I decide to add some grime, (the jury is still out on that) I can add it with some procedural textures with transparency. For the markings, I can do some small textures and apply them like decals. Also, I may do some stripes and whatnot by selecting faces and changing the material on them. I figure that’s faster than textures, it won’t go to crap if you get too close and I’ll have no issues with it following the crazy hull lines.
So, here it is with the new paneling and some colors.
That's my favorite texturing method.
Up next are some more engine details, then I might start on the guns. The ship will only have two big guns, it’s designed for speed and not necessarily hardcore warfare. Really, detail wise, I plan to let the ship’s flowing design and paneling do most of the talking. I don’t want a bunch of stuff hanging off of the ship because I figure the subspace streams work like a slipstream and that stuff would just slow you down. Plus, I like the idea that Gene Roddenberry and Matt Jefferies had when designing the Enterprise, which is that everything should be contained within the ship’s hull for ease of access. Anything outside would require you to suit up into an EVA suit to fix it when it breaks. So, stuff inside the hull is good. The exceptions, of course, are the engines and the guns will be external also.
In the words of Clarence Boddicker:
“Guns, guns, guns!”
(If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch Robocop.)
Since the rest of the ship has kind of a retro look to it, I wanted the guns to have a retro look also. So, I designed them to look like a cross between battleship deck guns and old school Sci-Fi laser cannons.
Maybe it's the color and the slick, wet-looking finish that's confusing people. Looks good.