3DExecutor

Warp Propulsion Laboratory

Hey everyone. I'm back after a long absence. l've been wanting to tackle this project for a while but have only recently made the time for it. This will be a filming quality model of the infamous Executor super star destroyer from Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. So far I've only made the "skirt", but I'm looking forward (really) to the greebling and detailing. This will not be an exact replica (obviously for sanity's sake), but I hope to replicate the level of detail of the filming model. Here are some renderings of the skirt:

skirt_01.jpg

skirt_02.jpg

skirt_03.jpg

Crits and comments always welcome. Thanks for looking!

fractalsponge

Just eyeballing it (ortho bow view would settle it) - I'd say the slope of the hull in frontal view is too shallow.

Good luck with this - Executor was my first serious model a decade ago, and I've always been meaning to come back to it eventually.

I suggest very heavy instancing. I think a 3D model that actually approaches studio model detail, even with just chips and boxes as detail, could easily be in the 20-30 million poly range, and much more with any kind of "real" detail.

Warp Propulsion Laboratory

fractalsponge wrote: »

Just eyeballing it (ortho bow view would settle it) - I'd say the slope of the hull in frontal view is too shallow.

Good luck with this - Executor was my first serious model a decade ago, and I've always been meaning to come back to it eventually.

I suggest very heavy instancing. I think a 3D model that actually approaches studio model detail, even with just chips and boxes as detail, could easily be in the 20-30 million poly range, and much more with any kind of "real" detail.

Yes! I'm so glad you're following this thread. It was your work that inspired me to tackle this ship. I usually do Trek stuff, but your greebling looked like so much fun and I've always liked this ship so I figured I'd give it a shot. I know this is going to be really high poly, fortunately I have a decent computer though I may need to beef up the RAM. It will be mostly chips and boxes with some higher detailed greebles mixed in much like the filming model. Here's the bow ortho you requested. I reconciled the shape with this bow shot from Jedi the best I could.


skirt_front.png

imperialfleetendor.jpg

evil_genius_180

I can hear the music playing. Looking good so far. I really love the ship and I'm looking forward to seeing this progress. I'll defer to fractalsponge's expertise as far as what is correct on this beast.

Saquist

Executor:

ekze-cu-tor?
or
e-ze-cu-tor?

Lonewriter

Saquist wrote: »

Executor:

ekze-cu-tor?
or
e-ze-cu-tor?

The first one.

Great start, this is one of my favorite SW ships, I'll be following this thread.

Wishbone_Ash

Always going to be challenging to model a ship that is literally the size of Manhattan...

As for the hull shape, I would tend to assume the top and bottom would have the same slope angle. The bow view from ROTJ is also a bit misleading as it has a great deal of perspective on it and you can easily see the model sagging despite the aeronautical-grade aluminium armature and skin the model is built from.

TALON_UK

Lonewriter wrote: »

The first one.

Great start, this is one of my favorite SW ships, I'll be following this thread.

Definitely, always annoyed me when people started using the second.

Great start, looking forward to seeing how this progresses, a monster of a ship to tackle, but one that should prove ultimately satisfying once you get stuck in, and can't hurt to have Fractal's expert eye cast over the project.

Aresius

I've yet to see someone make it so realisting that you see the gun-emplacements.... :P

Warp Propulsion Laboratory

Thanks for the comments, guys.

Wishbone_Ash wrote: »

Always going to be challenging to model a ship that is literally the size of Manhattan...

As for the hull shape, I would tend to assume the top and bottom would have the same slope angle. The bow view from ROTJ is also a bit misleading as it has a great deal of perspective on it and you can easily see the model sagging despite the aeronautical-grade aluminium armature and skin the model is built from.

Your assumption is correct, the angles are pretty much the same from what I can tell. The bottom only looks more shallow in the ortho because the lower part of the skirt doesn't extend as far back . The sagging on the filming model is pretty noticeable. It just goes to show how difficult it is to build a truly straight and plumb physical model, especially when it's over nine feet long.

I've started massing the cortex. Just a little something to get me started and to work out the placement of the various structures before I go crazy with the detail.

cortex_massing.jpg

Saquist

TALON_UK wrote: »

Definitely, always annoyed me when people started using the second.

Great start, looking forward to seeing how this progresses, a monster of a ship to tackle, but one that should prove ultimately satisfying once you get stuck in, and can't hurt to have Fractal's expert eye cast over the project.

I got used to the Star craft pronunciation and it makes more sense because it's the command ship, so Executive and Executor are linguistically parallel but when I was a kid reading about the ship I assumed the pronunciation from Execute and Executor.
Fascinating.

evil_genius_180

Looking good so far.

I've always thought it was pronounced like execute, just because it sounds very Sith-y. It's a frakking huge warship and they execute people. Plus, it fits their naming scheme of other destructive terms, such as Star Destroyer and Death Star. Having said that, there is a case to be made for the executive pronunciation, as it is a command ship. Though, I still prefer the other. Too bad they couldn't be bothered to put it into the script of ROTJ. Then there would be no need for debate.

homerpalooza67

furswift wrote: »

Thanks for the comments, guys.



Your assumption is correct, the angles are pretty much the same from what I can tell. The bottom only looks more shallow in the ortho because the lower part of the skirt doesn't extend as far back . The sagging on the filming model is pretty noticeable. It just goes to show how difficult it is to build a truly straight and plumb physical model, especially when it's over nine feet long.

I've started massing the cortex. Just a little something to get me started and to work out the placement of the various structures before I go crazy with the detail.

cortex_massing.jpg

Yeah, we all wish we had one of the physical models from star wars
Great job so far

stfanboy

OOOOH AHHHHH! Looking great so far! I can't wait to see you hit the details. :thumb:

Warp Propulsion Laboratory

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

homerpalooza67 wrote: »

Yeah, we all wish we had one of the physical models from star wars
Great job so far

I would do humiliating, despicable things to have the Executor model in my living room...

Here's a render of the massing of the "undercarriage". I had to make some changes to the skirt; it's amazing how errors just pop out when I start to add details. Oh well, it's part of the fun.

engines_massing.jpg

I'll do the massing for the "shark mouth" then it's off to the races!

stfanboy

Was hoping to see a update this weekend. Been waiting for it. That's coming together nicely. For being a ship of death and evil it's very elegant looking.

evil_genius_180

The engine layout is looking good.

Warp Propulsion Laboratory

Small update today. Massing of the shark mouth was pretty much a no-brainer, but I still needed to do some guesswork to fill in the blanks even though there are some pretty good references online.

sharkmouth_massing.jpg

So that's pretty much it for massing. Greeble time is nigh! :argh:

stfanboy

YAY for greebles! Do you plan on installing some hanger bays in the future?

evil_genius_180

Woo hoo! Greeble time. Better you than me. (sorry :shiner:)

Aresius

@stfanboy: Not before Tuesday, I s'pose...... :P

@topic: Nice update.

stfanboy

Aresius wrote: »

@stfanboy: Not before Tuesday, I s'pose...... :P

@topic: Nice update.

Yeah I see what you did. Definitely won't be this coming Tuesday. furswift has a lot of detail to munch through on this beauty.

stonky

Good stuff, looks like you're making good progress!

Warp Propulsion Laboratory

Hey guys,

Sorry for the delay, life stuff, new job, etc. Hope everyone's doing well. Here's the latest update:

All the trimmings...

greeble_trim_00.jpg

greeble_trim_01.jpg

greeble_trim_02.jpg

greeble_trim_03.jpg

So I did the "trimming" around the skirt as well as the side trenches. The trenches are more detailed than those of the studio model, but not as much as the Millennium Falcon close flyby shot. The trim around the skirt is about the same level of detail as the filming model. I'll need to see how detailed I can make this model to see how close up I can shoot it. Right now the model is under a quarter million triangles, so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to add more complex detail, but of course the cortex, drive section, and shark mouth will be hungry for polys. I'll be adding normal maps in the future for more detail.

stfanboy wrote: »

YAY for greebles! Do you plan on installing some hanger bays in the future?

I would really like to do that, but again I'll need to see what's in the polygon budget. I'll probably build some simple ones in the shark mouth and add some modules to the trenches towards the front, as that's where I'd imagine they'd be. Let me know what you guys think about the level of detail so far. Thanks!

DarkSapiens

Nice work on those details!

I didn't remember the ones in the trenches protruding so much, judging by the close-up model, but perhaps it was due to the viewing angles…?

stfanboy

She is really looking good. Great update sir! :thumb: I bet the trench was driving you nuts. The Executor is the Manhattan of space.

stfanboy

Furswift, I just came across this 9' scratch build of the Executor. Maybe these images will help with the details. Keep up the good wookiee.

http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=67701

evil_genius_180

Holy crap. My hat's off to Franck. That's stunning work. I'll bet that took ages to do.

Yours is looking good so far, Furswift. :thumb:

Warp Propulsion Laboratory

stfanboy wrote: »

Furswift, I just came across this 9' scratch build of the Executor. Maybe these images will help with the details. Keep up the good wookiee.

http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=67701

Wow! My hat's off to Mr. Mathieu! Definitely an inspiration. I'd love to see it in person. Just one question: does it light up? :shiner:

The trench did indeed drive me nuts. Not a single repeated section, just an endless wall of greebling.

Nice work on those details!

I didn't remember the ones in the trenches protruding so much, judging by the close-up model, but perhaps it was due to the viewing anglesA…?

Thanks for the crit, DarkSapiens. I reduced the height of the terraces in the trench a bit, and it does look better.

trench_01.jpg

Unfortunately there's no way to truly reconcile the closeup model with the full-size model; they just don't scale right. But I think I did get a bit closer. More soon...

stfanboy

furswift wrote: »

Wow! My hat's off to Mr. Mathieu! Definitely an inspiration. I'd love to see it in person. Just one question: does it light up? :shiner:

The trench did indeed drive me nuts. Not a single repeated section, just an endless wall of greebling.



Unfortunately there's no way to truly reconcile the closeup model with the full-size model; they just don't scale right. But I think I did get a bit closer. More soon...

I would hope it would light up but that would be a lot of fiber optics. YEESH, gives me the jitters just thinking about the labor.

Yeah those scales in TESB and RTOJ are totally off. The shot of the frigate and the corvette next to the trench are off too. The corvette looks tiny compared to the Nebulon B. Almost the size of the Falcon.

Are you thinking about adding a bunch of bump maps to break the trench up further or are you just going to add more greeble goodness. Can't wait for the next update. :thumb:

stonky

stfanboy wrote: »

The corvette looks tiny compared to the Nebulon B. Almost the size of the Falcon.

I've always thought that this scale problem in particular was down to a compositing error - the motion and position of the two ships in the shot suggests that the corvette was intended to sit behind the Nebulon B, but the layering was flipped inadvertently when the elements were stacked in the optical printer (the sequence has a bunch of these errors - for example, the tie fighter that famously flies through the falcon).