Yeah, unfortunately, the pics I have of the ship are of its most recent configuration, for Star Trek VI. The model was over a decade old by then and hadn't always been treated well, so they had to do extensive work on it. Who knows, they may have added an airlock to that side. Maybe they weren't sure if it was supposed to be symmetrical either. Plus, it had had various work done to it previously.
Many of the auction photos I found were quite sobering. It broke my heart to see missing parts or water and mildew damage on the physical embodiment of the Star Trek universe. It's very hard to think that what means so much to the fans represents just another physical asset of a corporation, to be stored, recycled, sold, or even abandoned to the ravages of time (like the Galileo shuttle).
At least with home models, both physical and virtual, we get to own a permanent piece of that world
Many of the auction photos I found were quite sobering. It broke my heart to see missing parts or water and mildew damage on the physical embodiment of the Star Trek universe. It's very hard to think that what means so much to the fans represents just another physical asset of a corporation, to be stored, recycled, sold, or even abandoned to the ravages of time (like the Galileo shuttle).
At least with home models, both physical and virtual, we get to own a permanent piece of that world
Talk about heartbreaking. It was either Doug Drexler or John Eaves who put pics up on their blog of piles of Star Trek stuff they weren't auctioning just thrown in the parking lot to be destroyed. Needless to say, some of the people who worked on the series and love Star Trek (like Eaves and Drexler) saved what they could.
A lot of the models have serious damage and parts missing. I know they were handled a lot, but it's really sad.
Talk about heartbreaking. It was either Doug Drexler or John Eaves who put pics up on their blog of piles of Star Trek stuff they weren't auctioning just thrown in the parking lot to be destroyed. Needless to say, some of the people who worked on the series and love Star Trek (like Eaves and Drexler) saved what they could.
It blew me away on one of the TNG DVD features where they were talking about when they couldn't find the six foot Galaxy class. I'm thinking "Are you freaking kidding me?" I mean, it's one thing to get rid of stuff back in 1969 when nobody thinks anyone will care ten minutes from now let alone fifty years later. But TNG? Huge hit series with four feature films? Crazy, man.
It blew me away on one of the TNG DVD features where they were talking about when they couldn't find the six foot Galaxy class. I'm thinking "Are you freaking kidding me?" I mean, it's one thing to get rid of stuff back in 1969 when nobody thinks anyone will care ten minutes from now let alone fifty years later. But TNG? Huge hit series with four feature films? Crazy, man.
What I want to know is how you even lose a model that big. It's not like somebody just walked out to the parking lot with it.
Going back to the discussion of the number of airlocks on the photon torpedo bay, I provide the images below solely for the purposes of proving I'm not entirely crazy. As far as I can tell, the model is from the final combat scene of TWOK.
That's an enlarged section of that area that ILM made specifically for that movie. (I guess they just comped in the saucer and nacelle) As we all know, the more models are made of something, the more differences crop up. It was made because it was better for closeups and it was also easier to do the damage on a larger scale.
You've got to love that second shot Chris posted, which is from the end of the film when they shot Spock's body towards the Genesis planet, that shows no damage to the side of the torpedo launcher that took the direct hit from the Reliant's phasers. :rolleyes:
Indeed she has a gap :-) I'll get a detailed shot posted after work. It isn't terribly obvious without interior illumination so I might need to go back and embiggen* the interior bore.
*My apologizes for the Simpson-ism to any grammar people
Cycles tends to behave much better with actual lights than it does with emissive surfaces. I suspect it's something to do with the mathematical representation of a light with a radius as a "perfect" sphere, compared to anything with facets of any kind, but don't quote me on that.
Also, some emissive surfaces need "Multiple Importance Samples" because they're a dominant light in the scene. In this case, the torpedo illumination is highly localized, so probably doesn't need MIS turned on.
The most fundamentally start to the engineering hull has been laid down. Engineering-297-05.png
Tons of work left to do. I'm reasonably happy with this start.
The starts of the navigational deflector is done. I'll be pushing and pulling on it some more as I carve out RCS thrusters soon. NavDef-312-01.png
You can't see them with this lighting but I do have the interior ribs on the interior of the deflector. I'll be working on lighting it later.
The sensor clusters surrounding the deflector were quite challenging. The way they conform to the curvature of the hull made this project quite interesting. NavDef-312-21.png
I haven't created the other two copies so please excuse the missing lower sensor.
Throwing it all together:
For some of these more subtle pieces I've started a new workflow, frequently saving renders for comparison. This has also allowed me to animate them. Not too insightful but fun nonetheless.
I really need to switch Blender to auto-save renders. It's distracting work saving the renders manually.
Posts
Many of the auction photos I found were quite sobering. It broke my heart to see missing parts or water and mildew damage on the physical embodiment of the Star Trek universe. It's very hard to think that what means so much to the fans represents just another physical asset of a corporation, to be stored, recycled, sold, or even abandoned to the ravages of time (like the Galileo shuttle).
At least with home models, both physical and virtual, we get to own a permanent piece of that world
I don't recall them showing that side of the model.
Talk about heartbreaking. It was either Doug Drexler or John Eaves who put pics up on their blog of piles of Star Trek stuff they weren't auctioning just thrown in the parking lot to be destroyed. Needless to say, some of the people who worked on the series and love Star Trek (like Eaves and Drexler) saved what they could.
A lot of the models have serious damage and parts missing. I know they were handled a lot, but it's really sad.
EDIT: At the 44 second mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I8CNYeG1lk
Various Work: U.S.S. Constellation - Matt Jefferies Concept Shuttle
What I want to know is how you even lose a model that big. It's not like somebody just walked out to the parking lot with it.
I know right, it took what like 3-4 if not 6 guys to move the model, if I remember what I heard in one of the blu-ray bonus features.
Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB
1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD
32 GB RAM
Windows 11 Pro
Cloaking device? Beam it up?
Various Work: U.S.S. Constellation - Matt Jefferies Concept Shuttle
Hate it when that happens!
Ent A engin hull.jpg
tsfshd1012.jpg
Despite this one example, I think I'll go back and add the symmetry since the vast majority of reference material puts locks on both sides.
Was that shot in ST:VI of the torpedo being fired the close up section too?
Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB
1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD
32 GB RAM
Windows 11 Pro
What I like is how the Enterprise appears to be drifting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtQUePN5y40
I guess that will teach me to read the whole post, won't it?
To answer the question Chris asked, yes that enlarged section was used again in TUC, according to Memory Alpha.
PhotonTorpedoBay-292.png
And while you can't see it from this angle, this Connie now features both port AND starboard airlocks on the photon torpedo bay.
Oops! I just remembered that I forgot a few cutouts from the top of the bay. I guess I've got a little more to do!
Out of curiosity, did you include the "gap" between the final tip of the photon launcher and the rest of it? I can't tell from this angle and it's an easy thing to miss/forget. You can notice it in that previous screenshot that has the closeup of the tube when it's launching. The red glow of the torpedo sneaks out the side.
Books: [ Ashes of Alour-Tan | Embers of Alour-Tan ] | Blender Tutorials | Blog
*My apologizes for the Simpson-ism to any grammar people
PhotonTorpedoBay-292a.png
PhotonTorpedoBay-292c.png
I think I'll leave the tubes in their current design. I am quite pleased with the way the light plays across the gap when lit from within.
Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB
1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD
32 GB RAM
Windows 11 Pro
Cycles tends to behave much better with actual lights than it does with emissive surfaces. I suspect it's something to do with the mathematical representation of a light with a radius as a "perfect" sphere, compared to anything with facets of any kind, but don't quote me on that.
Also, some emissive surfaces need "Multiple Importance Samples" because they're a dominant light in the scene. In this case, the torpedo illumination is highly localized, so probably doesn't need MIS turned on.
Books: [ Ashes of Alour-Tan | Embers of Alour-Tan ] | Blender Tutorials | Blog
Engineering-297-05.png
Tons of work left to do. I'm reasonably happy with this start.
The starts of the navigational deflector is done. I'll be pushing and pulling on it some more as I carve out RCS thrusters soon.
NavDef-312-01.png
You can't see them with this lighting but I do have the interior ribs on the interior of the deflector. I'll be working on lighting it later.
The sensor clusters surrounding the deflector were quite challenging. The way they conform to the curvature of the hull made this project quite interesting.
NavDef-312-21.png
I haven't created the other two copies so please excuse the missing lower sensor.
Throwing it all together:
For some of these more subtle pieces I've started a new workflow, frequently saving renders for comparison. This has also allowed me to animate them. Not too insightful but fun nonetheless.
I really need to switch Blender to auto-save renders. It's distracting work saving the renders manually.