Making some rough edits to the textures as I convert things. I have most of it dealt with just some file paths that insist on pointing to old locations and all the stuff in the bussards. Hard part is reproducing all the small details and ticks as I cannot just look at the old materials. Meh.
Might be some windows not lit right and I think I lost all the tint light objects that added those "off" color rooms. I do need to tune the lit "panels" and the lower marker lights. I have a bright object in there but I think originally I had a gradient from light emission to a fall off transparency.
Once I get the bussards done the fun will be finding any errant Mental Ray materials that might exist in the scene but not applied to the mesh or as phantom multi mats. Not really found a good way to destroy old materials in multi mats.
Also some lighting issues (sensor palettes)
Here is a rough model of the commission ship I mentioned. Likely place it in it's own thread later on.
Right now I am attempting to get the ship to best match the 2d drawing and deciding how I want things to flow on the hull. The pontoons or sidewalls are the hardest part to retain the perspective drawings look and feel. Sadly things like the aft shuttle bays wont line up or behave without strange visual wonk. Compromises! heh.
The one thing not apparent in the renders right now is the inner hull is not Flat. It sorta ramps up to that central bulkhead. I still do not have that part formed right, or to my satisfaction.
I have it scaled to about 380m. This is mostly to fit a Danube class in the aft bays. Other details make me think it is a 250m ship. The VOY style lounge windows below the bridge etc. ATM the bridge structure is quite large. you can just see the 5'8ish figure on top.
If you have not figured it out it is a Atolm design. I have been a bit excited to get started on this just needed to get back my mojo to model.
oops just noticed the dummy nacelles are out of center again. I am still figuring out what is going on underneath so it is just one large object right now. In the image the lower super is broken up more.
I am going to detail her like a ship some time around Voyager, maybe just before so the nacelles will have more of a Galaxy and Nebula feel. I do plan to be as faithful as possible to the drawing colors patterns etc.
I was going to say that a very un-usual design, then you mentioned Atolm and that explains it.
He always came up with un-usual designs, Though I don't remember this one, but he did so many.
Would never know what it is no one local here carries it. Well at places I have been to in the last year or so. have not been to the large book store at the mall in over a year now.
Been following the article by Kerr on culttvman and a few other sites.
Changes made not related to replicating work from the conversion:
*Removing the copper trim around the deflector bezels(still a bit meh on this but seen enough photos from film stock that does show it appearing as airbrush or dry brushed grime)
*removing the gray on the accordion behind the bussards.
*Adjusting tonal ranges on small parts of the nacelles. Some bits were the wrong gray or were hull color vs one of the the plain grays.
Still a lot of small things to change and some I want to correct from the original work. Mostly to be done in clip studio vs anything on the mesh. Also want to clean up or redo some of the maps.
Sorry a real dearth of updates on anything. Been weaning myself from gaming and a total lack of motivation.
Add in the current project is mostly lots of tests and work that just really does not show or is something I cannot figure out a good way to show it in images without a huge string of text. Needless to say it is mostly about getting shapes to work out.
Hopefully it is evident how I changed the rim flow on the opening of the "hoop" Instead of it flowing to a flattened area I rotated it to the front lip. I have a lot of work to do redoing all the loops up there as I have not decided how to interpret the forward lip. The illustration says to me it is like the refit saucer lip where it leans forward a bit so that is what I have just the curvature is all a bit off as I kept re-flowing the loops. Also retaining the smoothing groups for now as I do not want to round loop things yet as I am moving stuff around and those loops need to lay on flat geo.
Still arguing with that bridge deck, so ignore it. What I read is something similar to my old OLD linerunner mesh from like 2006. not that that helps any in description. lol.
eugh hah. Can really tell I was not really looking at scale and machine space.
Again ignore the lower superstructure it is still a rough blob, same goes for the nacelles.
Oh also the deflector thing with the ridge is just to suggest that shape in panels. Likely the growth will be smooth across that area. I am wanting to keep things a bit simple up there right now as I try to figure out what is going on in the unseen areas. I also feel I might need to raise up the belly of the deflector housing some to better match the drawing.
Nice update! Okay, so here is a bit of backstory on this ship...
This is a ship that Atolm designed/made for me while I was in the hospital, and presented it to me just before I got my transplant. It was a complete surprise from him to me. Anyway, because of its meaning to me, I had asked MKF if he'd consider making it as a commission, and here we are. So, below is Atolm's original drawings of the ship, which he sent me.
Some changes to better match ratios in the front ortho. Only drawback is the hull sides are sloped more. Personally I like the look but the longer panels might alter ratios of the details in those areas. Also largest thing is that curve or hump to the shuttle bays. To get the lower hoop and retain the curve and to not have lopsided bays this curve is needed. It can be fudged to not be as obvious as it is now but itll be there. I also screwed up and forgot to realign the struts after changing the lower hull pontoon areas so much of the work was submerged into the hull. Also adjusted some of the angles.
Still got somethings off that need reworking such as the deflector inner and orange bit angles do not match up now. The whole thing might go away and get redone later as the ortho drawing has it more hung under the hoop than part of it. EG the brace retains thickness across the top of it. vs what I have now where it eats into the thickness. The "tilt" seems steeper in the drawing so I will have to fix that too.
I also reverting the twist on the rim as it just did not read well when I went in to clean it up.
Sample of tapered hull to eliminate that hard turn in the hull for the shuttle bays.
Very nice. I think it looks more balanced with the lowered roll bar... not as much empty space between the bridge and the deflector. I like that last example showing the tapered hull... I think that looks good.
Quickie doodle over to show what I had thought for the warp grills. And a quick pass showing a danube still fits. I really want to have equal angles on these bays but balancing that to other things is aughhh as it ruins the profile of the ship or causes strange swells. You can kinda see one from me pulling in the edges to do that taper on the last post's image. I an going to try later to increase the inner angles of the pontoons to match the outter ones and loop some of the edges higher to return the gradual curve where it meets the horizontal hull.
Also looking at the orthos I am wondering if the (at least the bottom) deck should flare up to the superstructures. The lower hull if drawn that way has a lot of complex hull shapes the tower with the torps in it the hull curves up to meet it, etc. I ma going to play with that area nbext likely and see what trouble I can get into.
Oh, I really like your ideas for the warp grille and all the other details... deflector, nacelles, torps, etc. You know, oddly, at least if you go by the "canon" sizes, the Danube fits better into these bays than the Main Shuttlebay of the D... there's more height clearance here, on this ship's bays.
Nice update... I'm really liking how sleek it looks. I also like the very subtle rise in height from the top "saucer" rim to the bridge area... I believe that's what Atolm was implying in his drawing... some sort of subtle incline.
There appears to be a ramping up of rthe curvature as well, taking a lot of extra work to get it in there as all the angles fight it all the way. Lower end has the same deal but more unequal. Looking at how to break it up so it doe snot all become one massive subdiv object.
Spent most of the night figuring out the deflector housing and how to get it to resemble the one in the 3/4 view as I am favoring this angle over everything else. Some of what I see in the image cannot be done in reality so I am having to fudge it a bit and work flows around in odd ways. I tried to loop it around to the bottom to give it more of a fed look but decided against it as it did not look too much like the perspective drawing.
Things are a bit wobbly here and there as I have some loops that need closure and proper smoothing groups assigned. Example is how in the drawing there is a sort of cutout that resembles the things that flanked the deflectors on the connie variants. I will be getting that in and attempting to sweep it into the pylons front edges. So in turn that whole top layer will flow into the leading edge.
When I saw what you were modeling next, I nearly fell out of my chair! Oh boy, the Assidious class! If any 2D designs I know of deserves 3D treatment, well, it is about anything belonging to Atolm. Hah! It's great seeing this design in 3D. I'm really looking forward to how this comes out!
Oh, and the registry number on BolianAdmiral's image...is way too high even for the VOY era. I'd maybe keep the last three numbers (026), but the first number definitely needs to be a 7. I almost said six, but the deflector dish says "not a contemporary of the New Orleans, Challenger, etc." 69026 is believable, if not perhaps a little too early.
As low as 70026, but no higher than 74026. Built before the Dominion War, with production ending around the same time as the Vesta class. Do a quick check to make sure that they are not already used, and one of those ought to make a good range.
I meant to say that production would start before the Dominion War, with production running around the same timeframe as the Galaxy and Nebula class.
The Assiduous screams "Galaxy derivative". From what we have from canon/beta canon, that gives the Assiduous class a production run maybe as early as the 2350s, and maybe late as mid 2380 if stretched. I believe that it is safe to say that with newer designs like the Vesta class, older designs of that era would become obsolete, and would stop production. I picture it being like how most new aircraft in production were using jet engines after WW-II. Unless perhaps you have a different vision, with the Assiduous class somehow refitted with Slipstream, or production continued with Warp-only designs due to difficulty in finding the special crystals necessary to make QSD work.
It's up to you if you want to go ahead with 99026 for this design, but I would strongly suggest for the reasons above that you change the numbers around for this design, and save that exact registry for a future QSD design instead.
Choose whichever registry makes you happy. It's your ship after all, not ours. And it's not like Trek has been very consistent with numbers in the past anyways.
Messing with the lower superstructures. One area I am not sure on is the lower sensor dome on the forward blister. Is it oval or round? Going with a oval atm as it is more ellipsed than other features around it. Stuck a dirt shader on diffuse so detail or corners pop more so the hard and soft edges stand out more. While I was at it I tossed on a more eggshell blue onto the hull vs the med gray I had prior as a basic modeling surface.
There are also some problematic areas dealing with aft features and the hull further down as of the moment I have it tapering those curvatures out to a flat hull. So that things like those inset ( I assume are cargo doors) sections of hull remain flat but reflect the curved nature of further back details.
Very nice! Love the image with the Jigoku. 😊 the cargo doors, or cargo bays, I guess, are those two areas directly underneath the two shuttlebays, so I wasn’t sure if that was the area you were referring to or not.
Referring to the area that flanks the lower superstructure. The central details There are 6 panels of slatted areas be they shield emitters plating or opening panels for machine swapping etc. They appear to be inset in the drawing.
Posts
Might be some windows not lit right and I think I lost all the tint light objects that added those "off" color rooms. I do need to tune the lit "panels" and the lower marker lights. I have a bright object in there but I think originally I had a gradient from light emission to a fall off transparency.
Once I get the bussards done the fun will be finding any errant Mental Ray materials that might exist in the scene but not applied to the mesh or as phantom multi mats. Not really found a good way to destroy old materials in multi mats.
Also some lighting issues (sensor palettes)
Right now I am attempting to get the ship to best match the 2d drawing and deciding how I want things to flow on the hull. The pontoons or sidewalls are the hardest part to retain the perspective drawings look and feel. Sadly things like the aft shuttle bays wont line up or behave without strange visual wonk. Compromises! heh.
The one thing not apparent in the renders right now is the inner hull is not Flat. It sorta ramps up to that central bulkhead. I still do not have that part formed right, or to my satisfaction.
I have it scaled to about 380m. This is mostly to fit a Danube class in the aft bays. Other details make me think it is a 250m ship. The VOY style lounge windows below the bridge etc. ATM the bridge structure is quite large. you can just see the 5'8ish figure on top.
If you have not figured it out it is a Atolm design. I have been a bit excited to get started on this just needed to get back my mojo to model.
oops just noticed the dummy nacelles are out of center again. I am still figuring out what is going on underneath so it is just one large object right now. In the image the lower super is broken up more.
I am going to detail her like a ship some time around Voyager, maybe just before so the nacelles will have more of a Galaxy and Nebula feel. I do plan to be as faithful as possible to the drawing colors patterns etc.
He always came up with un-usual designs, Though I don't remember this one, but he did so many.
Gotta love Atolm's distinctive art style.
The Dec 8, 2020 issue of Titan Publishing’s STAR TREK magazine (#78?) has some work by Kerr and Cushman you might like to see
Been following the article by Kerr on culttvman and a few other sites.
Changes made not related to replicating work from the conversion:
*Removing the copper trim around the deflector bezels(still a bit meh on this but seen enough photos from film stock that does show it appearing as airbrush or dry brushed grime)
*removing the gray on the accordion behind the bussards.
*Adjusting tonal ranges on small parts of the nacelles. Some bits were the wrong gray or were hull color vs one of the the plain grays.
Still a lot of small things to change and some I want to correct from the original work. Mostly to be done in clip studio vs anything on the mesh. Also want to clean up or redo some of the maps.
I will stick to my viewmaster film clips thank you.
Add in the current project is mostly lots of tests and work that just really does not show or is something I cannot figure out a good way to show it in images without a huge string of text. Needless to say it is mostly about getting shapes to work out.
Hopefully it is evident how I changed the rim flow on the opening of the "hoop" Instead of it flowing to a flattened area I rotated it to the front lip. I have a lot of work to do redoing all the loops up there as I have not decided how to interpret the forward lip. The illustration says to me it is like the refit saucer lip where it leans forward a bit so that is what I have just the curvature is all a bit off as I kept re-flowing the loops. Also retaining the smoothing groups for now as I do not want to round loop things yet as I am moving stuff around and those loops need to lay on flat geo.
Still arguing with that bridge deck, so ignore it. What I read is something similar to my old OLD linerunner mesh from like 2006. not that that helps any in description. lol.
eugh hah. Can really tell I was not really looking at scale and machine space.
Again ignore the lower superstructure it is still a rough blob, same goes for the nacelles.
Oh also the deflector thing with the ridge is just to suggest that shape in panels. Likely the growth will be smooth across that area. I am wanting to keep things a bit simple up there right now as I try to figure out what is going on in the unseen areas. I also feel I might need to raise up the belly of the deflector housing some to better match the drawing.
OK well wall of text anyhow. . . . . . .
This is a ship that Atolm designed/made for me while I was in the hospital, and presented it to me just before I got my transplant. It was a complete surprise from him to me. Anyway, because of its meaning to me, I had asked MKF if he'd consider making it as a commission, and here we are. So, below is Atolm's original drawings of the ship, which he sent me.
Still got somethings off that need reworking such as the deflector inner and orange bit angles do not match up now. The whole thing might go away and get redone later as the ortho drawing has it more hung under the hoop than part of it. EG the brace retains thickness across the top of it. vs what I have now where it eats into the thickness. The "tilt" seems steeper in the drawing so I will have to fix that too.
I also reverting the twist on the rim as it just did not read well when I went in to clean it up.
Sample of tapered hull to eliminate that hard turn in the hull for the shuttle bays.
Also looking at the orthos I am wondering if the (at least the bottom) deck should flare up to the superstructures. The lower hull if drawn that way has a lot of complex hull shapes the tower with the torps in it the hull curves up to meet it, etc. I ma going to play with that area nbext likely and see what trouble I can get into.
Spent most of the night figuring out the deflector housing and how to get it to resemble the one in the 3/4 view as I am favoring this angle over everything else. Some of what I see in the image cannot be done in reality so I am having to fudge it a bit and work flows around in odd ways. I tried to loop it around to the bottom to give it more of a fed look but decided against it as it did not look too much like the perspective drawing.
Things are a bit wobbly here and there as I have some loops that need closure and proper smoothing groups assigned. Example is how in the drawing there is a sort of cutout that resembles the things that flanked the deflectors on the connie variants. I will be getting that in and attempting to sweep it into the pylons front edges. So in turn that whole top layer will flow into the leading edge.
Oh, and the registry number on BolianAdmiral's image...is way too high even for the VOY era. I'd maybe keep the last three numbers (026), but the first number definitely needs to be a 7. I almost said six, but the deflector dish says "not a contemporary of the New Orleans, Challenger, etc." 69026 is believable, if not perhaps a little too early.
As low as 70026, but no higher than 74026. Built before the Dominion War, with production ending around the same time as the Vesta class. Do a quick check to make sure that they are not already used, and one of those ought to make a good range.
I meant to say that production would start before the Dominion War, with production running around the same timeframe as the Galaxy and Nebula class.
The Assiduous screams "Galaxy derivative". From what we have from canon/beta canon, that gives the Assiduous class a production run maybe as early as the 2350s, and maybe late as mid 2380 if stretched. I believe that it is safe to say that with newer designs like the Vesta class, older designs of that era would become obsolete, and would stop production. I picture it being like how most new aircraft in production were using jet engines after WW-II. Unless perhaps you have a different vision, with the Assiduous class somehow refitted with Slipstream, or production continued with Warp-only designs due to difficulty in finding the special crystals necessary to make QSD work.
It's up to you if you want to go ahead with 99026 for this design, but I would strongly suggest for the reasons above that you change the numbers around for this design, and save that exact registry for a future QSD design instead.
There are also some problematic areas dealing with aft features and the hull further down as of the moment I have it tapering those curvatures out to a flat hull. So that things like those inset ( I assume are cargo doors) sections of hull remain flat but reflect the curved nature of further back details.