3DUSS Sirius

evil_genius_180

OK, long winded story time. (you have been warned )

A little over two years ago, I was contacted by Steve Neill about a project he had in the works. I'd seen Steve's work on his gorgeous scratch built 66-inch Enterprise model on Doug Drexler's old blog and went over to Steve's blog, watched some of his videos and commented. I guess he checked out my blog too, because he wanted some help with a short film he was making. In the film, a Starfleet captain (Steve) was aboard the Enterprise following the refit she needed after being damaged in the episode Balance of Terror. In the short film, Steve is aboard the Enterprise (with his dog Rosie, of course) for a quick "run around the block" to test the systems, when a distress call from another ship comes in. In the film, Steve (aided by the computer) fights the Romulans and saves the Enterprise. As a result of his actions, and based on a strong recommendation from Cpt. Kirk, Captain Neill received command of his own ship, the USS Sirius.

The live action shooting for the actors went well and the CGI effects were underway in late 2011. The original idea had been to use Steve's 66-inch Enterprise for the film but, unfortunately, there was a problem getting the camera rig for it. So, he was obviously disappointed, but decided to go all CGI for the effects. Originally, one of my Enterprise models was going to be used for the ship that got destroyed. Dave Clarke (IRML) did a beautiful job of making my ship go "BOOM." However, without being able to use the Enterprise model, my CGI model was also going to be used for the Enterprise in the film, and they were also using a few of my other models.

So, life happens. Unfortunately, Steve's wife was dying of cancer at the time and there were projects that got in the way. So, the movie never got finished. However, Steve every now and then updates me on it and tells me that he and Matt Boardman are working on the effects in their spare time. (note: these are guys who don't have spare time )

So, last year, I e-mailed Steve and asked if he minded if I took over the Sirius idea for some fan fiction and artwork. As people know, I'm not much of an animator and I lack resources and knowledge to make movies. However, I have had training in fiction writing, I just haven't done it in a while. For the artwork, of course, I wanted to make my own model of Steve's Sirius design. (seen here) I bugged Steve about getting a copy of his model to use as a base to make my own. He said he'd send it to me, but he has as bad a memory as I do, so it didn't happen. And I moved on and built a few other ships in the meantime.

So, the other day, Matt Boardman e-mailed me to answer a question I'd had about the logo he made for the project on my blog, and he not only answered that but he also sent me the model of the Sirius. I'd been just about ready to build mine using Steve's renders as references at that point, so it was fortuitous timing. So, Matt sent me the model and I got to work on Saturday. Here's where I'm at so far:









(Full disclosure: the nacelles were built previously, after I contacted Steve about using the Sirius idea. Also, the deflector is from my Enterprise model)

Here's Steve's background on the ship:

Steve Neill wrote:

The back story on this ship is itA’s a least 20 years old. And had at one time different old style nacelles. After Captain NeillA’s successful mission he is given a ship of his own. SheA’s beat up and has a rag tag crew but itA’s all his after driving a desk for years. Before my wife got cancer and passed away last year we had planned to finish the Sirius and do another episode. The crew has to fix up the old ship and get her going again to do some of the dirtiest jobs in star Fleet.

Personally, I love not only the design but also the story. I get tired of only seeing "the best and brightest" from Starfleet. It's about time we saw "the other guys."

So, that's what I'm working on right now.

BolianAdmiral

I like this design... it looks unique, yet also looks like it fits. Looking forward to the progression!

evil_genius_180

Thanks.

evil_genius_180

Work continues.









The saucer section is now pretty much done. I added a few small stylistic and functional changes, but most everything is as it is on Steve’s design.

BolianAdmiral

Nice work. Not sold on the guns on the top of the saucer, but that doesn't matter, since it's not my design. I like the pearly-white color you have on the hull... very nice.

evil_genius_180

Thanks.

It's not my design either. I actually like the guns. Steve said that this ship was a test bed for new technology over the years, so I think those were prototypes for some kind of new phaser that would have been sunken into the hull of whatever ship they would up being used on. One thing I did for mine that he didn't do was give the barrels some room to rotate up and down, so that you can fire in more than a 360 degree circle. (less than that, since you wouldn't fire at your own bridge )

There is actually one "canon" design that looks like it has big cannons on the back:

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Soyuz_class

The background information claims they're sensors, but do we really believe that?

evil_genius_180

I got the shuttlebay area done. The doors work, but they’re not rigged. I went with sliders because they’re easier to explain than a garage-style door. The garage-style door would have to go up, right into the control room thingy. In order for the slider doors to work, the outermost part doesn’t move, only the inner two sections on each door do. It’s a tight opening, but this was the best way to go, given the relatively small space. I’m thinking this ship carries a smaller type of shuttle than the Type F from the TV show.

xumucane

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

There is actually one "canon" design that looks like it has big cannons on the back:

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Soyuz_class

The background information claims they're sensors, but do we really believe that?

We do not. It was a causality loop, what are you gonna do?

I dig the basic shapes of the ship a lot. I really like the way the neck interfaces with the saucer. I'm not sure I like the darker border around the rim of the saucer. How set in stone is the taper of the engineering hull? My brain went straight to martini shaker, but that's because I'm an alcoholic. I don't know if you have the liberty to massage that shape at all, but I'd be interested to see some variations for that section.

I really like the idea of telling some stories that show a little of the underbelly of Starfleet.

BolianAdmiral

Very nice updates. I like what you've done with the landing lights by the shuttlebay, and I like also how you included elements of detail from the Daedalus-Class shuttlebay area on here as well.

evil_genius_180

Thanks guys.

xumucane wrote: »

How set in stone is the taper of the engineering hull? My brain went straight to martini shaker, but that's because I'm an alcoholic. I don't know if you have the liberty to massage that shape at all, but I'd be interested to see some variations for that section.

Nothing is set in stone. Just polygons. I tapered it the way the original model was tapered, except mine is smoother and has a lot more geometry.

Chris2005

Very cool.

Steve's an awesome person, funny too.

He made a good choice in employing your help.

Coolhand

Yeah, from the little i've spoken to him Steves a nice guy, I'm sorry to hear about his loss.

Otherwise nice work on the model EG, keep it up!

evil_genius_180

Thanks guys. Yeah, Steve's a great guy, definitely funny. He's a hell of a model builder and creature effects guru too and a nice guy.

I think I’m done with the modeling on this thing. Up next it gets good and dirty with some textures.

BolianAdmiral

Can we get some nice orthos?

evil_genius_180

Probably after it's textured. I don't like doing orthos of naked ships.

IRML

cool that they are still working on the short, is there anywhere where they post progress?

evil_genius_180

IRML wrote: »

cool that they are still working on the short, is there anywhere where they post progress?

Not that I know of, Steve just gives me a "we're still working on it" from time to time. You could always e-mail him and ask him about it.

evil_genius_180

Well, here she is in all her dirty glory. I’ve never done textures quite this weathered before, but it was fun. The textures were all created in Inkscape and Gimp, as always. (who says you need to pay hundreds of dollars for software? )



















Now that this model is done, I may get back to the D7 or I may start something else. Though, don’t expect too much in the next couple weeks. The Olympics are going to be on and I will be watching.

xumucane

Wow. Pretty! Jeez, you got her textured fast. Looking great!

evil_genius_180

Thanks. TOS textures are really easy for me. Plus, it helps that I already had the pendants and stuff done for my Enterprise. Since I had that stuff saved as .svg files, I just had to copy, paste and change the colors slightly.

BolianAdmiral

Very nice! She looks great.

evil_genius_180

Thanks.

McC

Nice work, dude! I missed the thread update, but caught it on your blog. She turned out very pretty!

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

Well, here she is in all her dirty glory. IA’ve never done textures quite this weathered before, but it was fun. The textures were all created in Inkscape and Gimp, as always. (who says you need to pay hundreds of dollars for software? )

Amen! I need to try to wean myself off of Photoshop and learn GIMP so my entire pipeline can be "free." Years and years of Photoshop experience is going to make that a hard transition...

evil_genius_180

Thanks bro.

I've never used Photoshop, so I had nothing to unlearn. However, I had that issue when I changed 3D software. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything free that I like there. Everything was too different than what I was used to. Though, I may eventually give Blender another go. I think it's a bit closer to Lightwave as far as functions than it is to TrueSpace.

McC

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

Though, I may eventually give Blender another go. I think it's a bit closer to Lightwave as far as functions than it is to TrueSpace.

I might know a guy that would happily answer any questions you might have.

evil_genius_180

I'll appreciate any advice I can get. However, it's not happening right now. But, I do eventually want to switch entirely to open source art software and an nice open source Linux OS. Lightwave is the only program keeping me in Windows. (I refuse to pay Apple's prices for one of their computers)

McC

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

I'll appreciate any advice I can get. However, it's not happening right now. But, I do eventually want to switch entirely to open source art software and an nice open source Linux OS. Lightwave is the only program keeping me in Windows. (I refuse to pay Apple's prices for one of their computers)

I used Ubuntu for a while, but switched to Linux Mint recently. Mint is "built from" Ubuntu, but is stripped-down and cleaner. It uses the Cinnamon desktop rather than Ubuntu's Unity desktop, which I find much more preferable. Scales pretty well. I run it on my little netbook as well as my powerhouse gaming laptop with equal facility.

Open source all the way!

evil_genius_180

I've used Mint before. In fact, that used to be my Linux of choice. That and PCLinuxOS. I like them both. Unfortunately, I can't run Lightwave on either because of the dongle. I've tried. I've even compiled Wine from source with the USB support patches added and then tried importing the registry leys and the program still can't find the stupid dongle.

McC

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

Unfortunately, I can't run Lightwave on either because of the dongle. I've tried. I've even compiled Wine from source with the USB support patches added and then tried importing the registry leys and the program still can't find the stupid dongle.

Yeah, I remember the dongle being a major pain in the ass when I used LW...and that was back when it was a serial dongle!

evil_genius_180

McC wrote: »

Yeah, I remember the dongle being a major pain in the ass when I used LW...and that was back when it was a serial dongle!

It's fine in Windows, except when I have it out (which is rare) and then I forget to put it in there before starting the program. Then I cuss, exit the program, put the dongle back in and re-run the program. The problem with Linux is Wine. It can't handle USB devices and it doesn't handle registry keys properly. Somebody figured out how to do it using the Linux native drivers for the dongle (yes, there are Linux drivers for it) and a custom built copy of Wine, but they never said how they did it. They just released the thing with a complex series of instructions. Some people got it working that way. However, that was way back in Ubuntu 11.04 and that method doesn't work anymore. Some people supposedly also got it running in Fedora but, again, don't say how. I don't care for Fedora, but if that's what it took, I'd have tried it if I knew how they did it. I wish people would just say how they do it, that would save me a lot of headache and trying stuff that doesn't work.

Of course, none of this would have been necessary if NewTek hadn't dropped the ball on developing Linux native Lightwave during LW10's development. I don't know what happened, I just know they stopped working on it.