Klingon workbee

tobiasrichter

As some of you might know, I am handling the VFX for the Star Trek:Axanar project. We have currently a Kickstarter for our short movie "Prelude to Axanar" in progress, that will preceed the full movie.

One of the shots in that short movie will feature a klingon drydock facility
https://www.facebook.com/StarTrekAxanar/photos/pb.289256531188877.-2207520000.1394214774./317606071687256/?type=3&theater

In order to get a bit more "life" in that shot, I would love to have some klingon equivalent of a workbee buzzing around. These are one-manned small vehicles to perform maintenance and repair duties. The models will be rather small on the screen, so they do not need to have a lot of detail, maybe not even textures. They will be seen for a couple of seconds. Think of Low-Res models. Of course, the more elaborate they become, the closer I can get with the camera...

I was wondering if any one of you would be interested in coming up with a small model for it. Unfortunately, I would need it rather quickly - within the next couple of days.

If someone likes to participate, please post pictures here so I can give some input. If more then one emerge, I might be able to use different versions as well, as long as they fit with the design.

I will try to get anyone whose design will be used into the credits.

Thanks - Tobias

http://startrekaxanar.com/

evil_genius_180

I can probably put something together rather quickly, especially since it doesn't need to be high poly. Do you need interiors, or do you want tinted windows like the Federation models have? Also, can you convert from Lightwave? If not, I can do a .obj conversion.

tobiasrichter

Thanks a lot! No interiors needed, an obj conversion should work fine.

evil_genius_180

No problem, bro. I'm happy to help. It gives me something to do besides work on yet another Federation ship.

I started off with something more or less Workbee-ish. However, I feel it looks too much like the Federation bees:



So, I halted that and started over. I thought back to some of John Eaves' cool ships from Enterprise and came up with this:



I tried to get that blend of hard lines and smoothness that Klingon designs seem to favor. I'm trying to avoid making it look too much like a TOS shuttlecraft or a Federation workbee. Right now, as you can see, it's very low poly. It will, of course, get more polygons when I triangulate those non-planar faces, but I plan to add windows and whatnot before I do that. However, I can probably have the whole base unit done under 10k. Once I get the base unit done, I was thinking it would be fun to have a couple variations, like they do with the Federation bees. I can do one with some nasty looking gripper arms and one with a cargo attachment.

Anywho, let me know what you think.

tobiasrichter

Thanks, that was some quick work! The first one is really too close to a Workbee.

One idea is to go more in a vertical direction - instead of having someone sit in it have him standing, like an exosuit. Maybe get rif of the wings and put it upright, with some arms at the side and some engines and equipment in the back and some lights on top.

And since they are Klingons, it should have all practical use. In order to keep with the klingon design, maybe try to incorporate more triangled shapes.

MadKoiFish

Decided to do this as I wait for something to cook, given the short time and the fact today is almost gone I might just go and model something for fun as EG has already jumped in. My take is a more bab5 style stand up pod, still hung onto the known pod "train" thing for the tug stuff. The idea is clear view for the worker and a more comfortable lower slung tool mount. Sorta looks like a pod from 2001



Really liked that ridge idea in your first model EG

evil_genius_180

You could always build something too, Dan. That looks cool with the bubble, definitely something like you'd expect the Klingons to do. (virtually no protection for the pilot)

tobiasrichter wrote: »

Thanks, that was some quick work! The first one is really too close to a Workbee.

One idea is to go more in a vertical direction - instead of having someone sit in it have him standing, like an exosuit. Maybe get rif of the wings and put it upright, with some arms at the side and some engines and equipment in the back and some lights on top.

And since they are Klingons, it should have all practical use. In order to keep with the klingon design, maybe try to incorporate more triangled shapes.

Oh, cool man. I'm getting some great ideas from your feedback. I was definitely going to incorporate some triangles into the arms, which I can still do.

I was already thinking this one is looking more like a shuttle:



I'll probably just rename it "Klingon shuttle" (I'm not in the habit of throwing things that I make away ) and start on something along the lines of what you're suggesting. However, if you want, I can send you the little shuttle too. It could be flying about too. (or not, it's up to you)

I was definitely thinking practical use for my design. You've gotta figure, if push comes to shove, you could impale something (or someone) with the spikes on the front.

tobiasrichter

ItA’s no problem to use two designs, as long as they fit into the "klingon" design line.
MadKoiFish - I really like your starting point, very cool. If you now could make it less round, all edgy and some triangle-shapes, this could be a great design.
evil - looking forward to your version. We could use the little shuttle as well, just add some engine to it and your good to go.

MadKoiFish

Beginnings of the 3d bit. Squared off a lot of the shape and "de" rounded it a bit. I probably should have kept the undercut for the "belt" as it is flat vertically here. Figure is sized for a 7ft klingon. Should probably have used my klingon vs generic alice. Option to blank the windows if needed.

evil_genius_180

That's cool so far.

MadKoiFish

Arms and some more stuff. Arms have grippers and 2 welding attachments. 2 points of rotation back arm and wrist and 3 hinge points. Un-rigged of course. Clearly it is not mean to be seen this close. Dunno if this will do Hope to finish it up in the next hour or so if not Sadly I am gone most of tomorrow I think. I think you use c4d? if so would a FBX of any particular version work better than a obj or buggy 3ds and all the tri vomit that comes with those?

Aresius

Nice work. Reminds me to a work-pod from I-War2.

tobiasrichter

Wow, that looks fantastic. A very cool design - and already so much detail!
If you could just give it some basic colors for materials, IA’d call it more then done.

I use Maya as main tool, so if you could export it to fbx, that would be fantastic.

Please send it to "[email protected]" and let me know how you want to be credited!

Evil - if you want to send me your small shuttle, that would be great as well!

MadKoiFish

I will shoot off a fbx prior to setting things up to see how that fairs. Usually I collapse everything up for exports but that will have to wait until morning or the afternoon as I need to get to bed.











oh yeah I can export to fbx in various "dates" up to 2013 and way back to uh 2006 sending a 2010 one atm.

evil_genius_180

tobiasrichter wrote: »

Evil - if you want to send me your small shuttle, that would be great as well!

Cool, I'll send you that later. Lightwave can export to FBX also, so I'll try that. Though, I've never used it, so I can't say how well it works. There's always OBJ if it doesn't work.

tobiasrichter

Thanks a lot to both of you for the very quick and fantastic work! It was exactly what was needed!

Best wishes
Tobias

oldmangreg

Don't need any large background ships?

tobiasrichter

Not at the moment - we basically have all the major ships that we need for Axanar and Prelude to Axanar.
If anymore ships or elements are needed, I might do another thread, but for now, weA’re good...

tobiasrichter

Dan/Chris and everybody else - the trailer for "Star Trek - Prelude to Axanar" will be out in a couple of days, the whole short movie will be out in about 5-6 weeks - so keep your eyes open, itA’s worth it!

http://startrekaxanar.com/