Yeah, the challenge for doing pre-TOS bridges is not making improvements, but also not making purposeful flaws that would be remedied in upgrades. Since TOS came out the 60s, I try to take some inspiration from the 50s scifi. In "Forbidden Planet" I liked the large astrogation dome, so the small dome on the center console is a holographic imager, that would have been one those ideas that was interesting in theory, but didn't pan out in practice.
Playing with colors schemes and lighting taking cues from "The Cage" and TOS bridges.
Used some square spots on the overhead display area. Will most likely recess this area.
Originally had the overhead area the same material as the console panels, but I favor the top.
I plan to redo the conn dais to make it more blocky.
and here's a concept for a 27th century deep galactic explorer. Less than 100m long with a crew of (perhaps) 10. Warp 9 in 22.6 seconds, hyperwarp (high 9.9+) to coaxial warp stabilization in under 3 hours. Living space is contained in a single holodeck that takes up two full decks in the equatorial band of the sphere, with point-to-point transport.
And...she's actually missing eyebrows, and eyes, and teeth, and a tongue due to a horrible transpor...er, file appending error. Ah, but she's still good for scale reference.
The first chair I attempted did look like a transporter error. I didn't like the darkness of the red wood either.
The LT has vampire hair. Blender's particle systems do not ray trace reflect. Probably too much reflection in those screens anyway.
I might go with blues instead of blacks. I do plan to add a bevel to the edges but that will be later. I'm working on the extra 7th station right now. I was looking at machines and appliances from the 50s and they had a lot more rounded corners, so I'm going to see how things look with well rounded bevels. Since the TOS Enterprise was done with the styling of the 60s, I want to try more 40s and 50s styling for the Hyperion, but not go the extreme style of say, Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon.
The first chair I tried to build using a cube and it didn't work too well. I built this one out of plane and extruded surfaces. It's a Sit Number Chair for maximum butt and lumbar comfort. Powerful magnetism in the base clamps it solidly to the deck so that only you get thrown around the bridge during violent encounters, and can reverse polarity to allow position adjustment with the kind of gliding ease you don't get with a goddamned stuck caster wheel with fibers and hairs wound tightly around its axle.
I decided the best way to do this was to add a plane and align it to the console. I used planes as guides for cuts in the console and added insets and extrudes to make it seem as if the switch panel was a unit that could be removed and replaced as they typically are in real life. I took my guide plane and removed the rotations (as the station I'm working on is rotated 120d), and using a schematic from cygnus-x1.net, begin making knobs and buttons. I had arrayed them to take advantage of instances, but of course, when I joined them to the plane, the arrayed objected vanished, so I to apply the arrays to make each damn little button mesh. Each switch was raised above the plane, then joined to the plane. I put the rotations back into the plane, and lowered it slightly into the station console so that only the buttons protruded. This way I should be able to individualize each control panel by deleting faces, moving, and adding new buttons.
Switched arrayed on the control plane.
Switched raised 1mm above control plane.
Distance from the cappy's chair to the helm stations is about 5.5 feet. Plenty of room. I'm going to make a male figure to plop into the set for scale references.
I'm going to make a male figure to plop into the set for scale references.
Why male? (ignoring the dreadful episode "Turnabout Intruder," which has fortunately been retconned) Are you implying that they couldn't have a female captain?
Yeah, plenty of space between the CO's seat and helm/nav. You certainly don't need the several meters of "wasted" space that the Enterprise-D had between these on its bridge. :rolleyes: (Voyager wasn't any better)
The bridge isn't that wide, so I don't think I'm going to include rails for the crew to bust their ribs and hips against when being thrown across the room. I'm staying truer to the Trek styling, otherwise I would have done more technical seats inspired by aircraft, ships, and spacecraft, including the safety harnesses that cheap plastic corporate breakroom chairs don't afford. Ah, the budget constrains of 1960s television shows.
I did two panels last night and the other two this evening. Selecting faces in Edit Mode, duplicating switches, and moving them around worked well. Was getting some shadowing from the unseen anchor planes so I had to lower those deeper into the console (if a few centimeters is "deep"). Now I'm thinking the panels are a bit too crowded and will delete some of them.
Playing with some color themes as well.
Solid black console.
I was more curious about how this would look than using it as a serious option.
The dark blue is not bad either.
Again I was more interested in how translucent emissive buttons would look. It would be quite the undertaking to assign different colors to the glowing buttons and light them from inside, so they will remain solid and non-emissive.
I like the black and dark blue. Both are snazzy. By Trek standards, the control clusters look good. By "what does all of this crap even do?" standards, it may be a tad crowded.
Looking good so far, but remember the TOS consoles were laid out such that the buttons were in a general arc described by arm's length from the chair. So, you may want to think of a curve of buttons as Jeffries did, but further place less commonly used items off that curve to full otherwise empty space if you need the appearance of complexity. For button, dial, device, etc diversity, look at photos from airliner cockpits (there was a great article with descriptions of everything on Gizmodo last week) or the space shuttle, Apollo, etc. I'd also stay away from wood on sets of that era except for very deliberate items (like armrests, and assume those were some fake laminate). No luxuries in the early days, after all. ;-)
For my button references I have been using Michael McMaster's b/ps at cygnus-x1.net in which he does assign multiple functions to each switch. I'm not going to do that because I'm not going to try to figure out the technology. I've done a little bit of that in 2013 when I was still working on the ENT era Longbow. See the attachments which are a submarine based bridge layout, the helm control station, and much of one of the control panels, in which I developed a switch plan, but I can't remember what does what now:
Helm Control
Propulsion Panel
warp reactor ignition command
warp mode input
nacelle status monitor
status function input
nacelle field adjustment control
impulse reactor ignition command
engine mode input
impulse engine status monitor
status function input
impulse engine thrust control
thrust vector control
Flight Panel
RCS unit status monitor
RCS mode input
rotation mode control
translation mode control
11 axis maneuvering control knob
Building that panel in Rhino was not fun and easy.
Paul, that you? How the hell are you?
Yes, it is. I'm great. You?
[T]he TOS consoles were laid out such that the buttons were in a general arc described by arm's length from the chair.
But...but, these chairs have E-Z-Glide Technology! For effortless, easy motion, E-Z-Glide is there to move you to where you want to be.
[Y]ou may want to think of a curve of buttons as Jeffries did...
For ships of the pre-TOS era of the 2220s and 30s, would they already have gone to the ergonomic Lt. Uhura-leaning-all-over-the-station design? My thinking is that since ST:ENT came out, as the Daedalus is of that era, it probably has control layouts similar to the NX, thus my plan is that since the Hyperion bridges the Daedalus and the Constitution, the layout should be a mix showing an evolution of design. If I was doing something from the 2240 to the 2270s, I would follow the TOS layout.
My other plan was that since the Star Trek was made with the styles of the 60s, and this is a pre-TOS design, I want to use motifs of the 40s and 50s, which I noted has more rounded designs. I may redo the console monitors as round scope-like units instead of modern squares.
For button, dial, device, etc diversity, look at photos from airliner cockpits (there was a great article with descriptions of everything on Gizmodo last week) or the space shuttle, Apollo, etc.
Always good references that compliment my hands-on experience with fighter-jets control panels from my long-time-ago military service as an avionics technician.
I'd also stay away from wood on sets of that era except for very deliberate items (like armrests, and assume those were some fake laminate).
That's just me having fun. I seriously doubt that there would be wood trim and I am going to remove it when the design is finalized, however it is claimed that unfinished Andorian fir has a scent that rivals cedar, so the crew is really going to be missing out.
I've got a question for you. I was playing around with a MakeHuman person in Blender and I can't figure out how to make the rig work like it should. (parts were moving incorrectly and independently of other parts) How do you do that?
In MakeHuman, when you export to the Blender Exchange mhx file, in the options, do not select Export for Rigify. I select only Feet on Ground, and Scale Units is defaulted to Decimeters. You can change that to meters if you want or change the scale in Blender when you import. When you import, leave the advance settings alone, and you should see a figure as presented in the attachment. Layer 1 will contain the figure's mesh, Layer 2 will have the Helper Geometry used for posing, Layer 3 will have clothing if you put clothing on the figure in MakeHuman. Layer 20 will have Custom Objects which are unselected and look similar to helper geometry but are clustered in one area. I don't think these objects are necessary as I have my female character as a separate file and appended (imported) her into the Hyperion Bridge file without the custom objects and was able to pose.
I haven't been able get the IK to work with the new version of MH, I've only been able to select a helper and rotate. Figure 2 of the attachments is from MH 1.0a7 and includes the face expression helpers and has IK. Version 01.0.2 seems to have better mesh geometry.
Your advice was definitely helpful. The only thing I can't seem to get working is the feet. Instead of moving those, it moves the bottom of the pants. :shiner:
I'm really liking the bridge layout and and control panels so far. It looks like your intention at bridging the gap between eras is coming along very well. :thumb:
I was thinking that maybe not every station would have that many and that they wouldn't necessarily be in the same configuration from station to station. Otherwise, it looks great.
Posts
Used some square spots on the overhead display area. Will most likely recess this area.
Originally had the overhead area the same material as the console panels, but I favor the top.
I plan to redo the conn dais to make it more blocky.
and here's a concept for a 27th century deep galactic explorer. Less than 100m long with a crew of (perhaps) 10. Warp 9 in 22.6 seconds, hyperwarp (high 9.9+) to coaxial warp stabilization in under 3 hours. Living space is contained in a single holodeck that takes up two full decks in the equatorial band of the sphere, with point-to-point transport.
Getting there.
And...she's actually missing eyebrows, and eyes, and teeth, and a tongue due to a horrible transpor...er, file appending error. Ah, but she's still good for scale reference.
The first chair I attempted did look like a transporter error. I didn't like the darkness of the red wood either.
The LT has vampire hair. Blender's particle systems do not ray trace reflect. Probably too much reflection in those screens anyway.
It's looking good. The chairs look cool, may we please see a better render of one of those?
I might go with blues instead of blacks. I do plan to add a bevel to the edges but that will be later. I'm working on the extra 7th station right now. I was looking at machines and appliances from the 50s and they had a lot more rounded corners, so I'm going to see how things look with well rounded bevels. Since the TOS Enterprise was done with the styling of the 60s, I want to try more 40s and 50s styling for the Hyperion, but not go the extreme style of say, Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon.
The first chair I tried to build using a cube and it didn't work too well. I built this one out of plane and extruded surfaces. It's a Sit Number Chair for maximum butt and lumbar comfort. Powerful magnetism in the base clamps it solidly to the deck so that only you get thrown around the bridge during violent encounters, and can reverse polarity to allow position adjustment with the kind of gliding ease you don't get with a goddamned stuck caster wheel with fibers and hairs wound tightly around its axle.
That looks great, thanks for the closeup. :thumb:
I decided the best way to do this was to add a plane and align it to the console. I used planes as guides for cuts in the console and added insets and extrudes to make it seem as if the switch panel was a unit that could be removed and replaced as they typically are in real life. I took my guide plane and removed the rotations (as the station I'm working on is rotated 120d), and using a schematic from cygnus-x1.net, begin making knobs and buttons. I had arrayed them to take advantage of instances, but of course, when I joined them to the plane, the arrayed objected vanished, so I to apply the arrays to make each damn little button mesh. Each switch was raised above the plane, then joined to the plane. I put the rotations back into the plane, and lowered it slightly into the station console so that only the buttons protruded. This way I should be able to individualize each control panel by deleting faces, moving, and adding new buttons.
Distance from the cappy's chair to the helm stations is about 5.5 feet. Plenty of room. I'm going to make a male figure to plop into the set for scale references.
Why male? (ignoring the dreadful episode "Turnabout Intruder," which has fortunately been retconned) Are you implying that they couldn't have a female captain?
Yeah, plenty of space between the CO's seat and helm/nav. You certainly don't need the several meters of "wasted" space that the Enterprise-D had between these on its bridge. :rolleyes: (Voyager wasn't any better)
I did two panels last night and the other two this evening. Selecting faces in Edit Mode, duplicating switches, and moving them around worked well. Was getting some shadowing from the unseen anchor planes so I had to lower those deeper into the console (if a few centimeters is "deep"). Now I'm thinking the panels are a bit too crowded and will delete some of them.
Playing with some color themes as well.
Solid black console.
I was more curious about how this would look than using it as a serious option.
The dark blue is not bad either.
Again I was more interested in how translucent emissive buttons would look. It would be quite the undertaking to assign different colors to the glowing buttons and light them from inside, so they will remain solid and non-emissive.
Looking good so far, but remember the TOS consoles were laid out such that the buttons were in a general arc described by arm's length from the chair. So, you may want to think of a curve of buttons as Jeffries did, but further place less commonly used items off that curve to full otherwise empty space if you need the appearance of complexity. For button, dial, device, etc diversity, look at photos from airliner cockpits (there was a great article with descriptions of everything on Gizmodo last week) or the space shuttle, Apollo, etc. I'd also stay away from wood on sets of that era except for very deliberate items (like armrests, and assume those were some fake laminate). No luxuries in the early days, after all. ;-)
For my button references I have been using Michael McMaster's b/ps at cygnus-x1.net in which he does assign multiple functions to each switch. I'm not going to do that because I'm not going to try to figure out the technology. I've done a little bit of that in 2013 when I was still working on the ENT era Longbow. See the attachments which are a submarine based bridge layout, the helm control station, and much of one of the control panels, in which I developed a switch plan, but I can't remember what does what now:
Helm Control
warp mode input
nacelle status monitor
status function input
nacelle field adjustment control
warp field geometry monitor
warp field strength indicator
relativistic effects monitor
"fuel" consumption monitor
thrust vector monitor
impulse engine thrust monitor
"fuel" control
program input
impulse engine thrust command
throttle
impulse reactor ignition command
engine mode input
impulse engine status monitor
status function input
impulse engine thrust control
thrust vector control
Flight Panel
RCS mode input
rotation mode control
translation mode control
11 axis maneuvering control knob
Building that panel in Rhino was not fun and easy.
Yes, it is. I'm great. You?
But...but, these chairs have E-Z-Glide Technology! For effortless, easy motion, E-Z-Glide is there to move you to where you want to be.
For ships of the pre-TOS era of the 2220s and 30s, would they already have gone to the ergonomic Lt. Uhura-leaning-all-over-the-station design? My thinking is that since ST:ENT came out, as the Daedalus is of that era, it probably has control layouts similar to the NX, thus my plan is that since the Hyperion bridges the Daedalus and the Constitution, the layout should be a mix showing an evolution of design. If I was doing something from the 2240 to the 2270s, I would follow the TOS layout.
My other plan was that since the Star Trek was made with the styles of the 60s, and this is a pre-TOS design, I want to use motifs of the 40s and 50s, which I noted has more rounded designs. I may redo the console monitors as round scope-like units instead of modern squares.
Always good references that compliment my hands-on experience with fighter-jets control panels from my long-time-ago military service as an avionics technician.
That's just me having fun. I seriously doubt that there would be wood trim and I am going to remove it when the design is finalized, however it is claimed that unfinished Andorian fir has a scent that rivals cedar, so the crew is really going to be missing out.
Funny.
The console looks good.
I've got a question for you. I was playing around with a MakeHuman person in Blender and I can't figure out how to make the rig work like it should. (parts were moving incorrectly and independently of other parts) How do you do that?
I haven't been able get the IK to work with the new version of MH, I've only been able to select a helper and rotate. Figure 2 of the attachments is from MH 1.0a7 and includes the face expression helpers and has IK. Version 01.0.2 seems to have better mesh geometry.
I hope that helps.
I used the Rifify setting because I thought it sounded cool. I guess I was wrong.
I'm really liking the bridge layout and and control panels so far. It looks like your intention at bridging the gap between eras is coming along very well. :thumb:
Thanks Schimpfy.
Maybe too too many buttons. :shiner:
Current era concept.
I was thinking that maybe not every station would have that many and that they wouldn't necessarily be in the same configuration from station to station. Otherwise, it looks great.
I like the Hyperion 2391 concept.