3DFANGs Star Trek Interiors

FANGs

After years of inactivity, I think it's time to come out of hiding again. I'm working on some special Trek interiours. Basic theme is "slightly changed TOS with more budget". Scenes I'm working on right now (well, from time to time ^^) are Pike-Era bridge, Transport room and engineering. Programs at hand are 3dsmax (right now I'm trying corona render with it, after referring iray over mentalray). (Photoshop is lurking in the Background, but i've yet to try and learn to work with textures). Okay lets start with the first version of my Enterprise bridge.

pike bridg screentest1.jpg pike bridg screentest2 normal cruise2 800lm.jpg
As you see the first element I included is the TMP tactical station mixed with a Kelvin-concept style centre console and modified wall stations. (please excuse the grainy renders - i didn't have the patience to wait for the clean results of Iray). Also the bridge is a little bit more spacey. (just changed proportions of consoles)
Since then I' ve wondered how it would look if I include the TOS consoles
First steps are already visible (rendered in corona)
pike bridg corona4.jpg pike bridge screen original walls.jpg

evil_genius_180

Interesting take on the old set. I like how you've modified it but not gone too far, like they did with the JJ Abrams films. It's a nice blend of what was, what is and what could have been.

FANGs

And my take on the Transport room:
Corona Transport 1.jpg and the other view transportroom pike corona2.jpg

(like the pike-bridge, it will be simple and utilitarian. I will change the some details for the kirk-era bridge, as in my Tos version, the enterprise changes with it's new captain after Pike from a workhorse to the representative flagship. So for example nice carpets instead of plastic floor! And some Wooden decor parts.

BlueNeumann

Like the Transporter Room... especially the railing around the landing pad.

Aresius

Intriguing.... Especially the transporter room reminds me of a blend between Ent-tech and TOS-tech..... Nicely done.

FANGs

Thanks to both of you!
Regarding the transporter room I'm still fiddling with the back-emitting surfaces on the transporter platforms.
My current method involves 3 Layers (light emitting layer, honeycomb layer and semytransparent front Layer.)
Ideally the light emitting layer should create a blurry look on the front layer (shining through the honeycob structure), but i'm not entirely satisfied with the look

evil_genius_180

I really like the transporter room too. It's a great blend of Enterprise and TOS.

Vortex5972

I second what has been said about the transporter room. I also think that the bridge is a nice logical progression from the NX era bridge. Follows on much better than the TOS set would. That's what I would like to see in a TOS TV reboot.

The only thing that bugs me is a problem from the TOS bridge. Only the one access to and from it.

FANGs

HA! Agreed on the access to the bridge! And because of that you will eventually see a nice floor hatch like the one in Star Trek first Contact! Turbolift is just fine, but if there's no lift left the crew is screwed.
My girl is not barely into scifi, but even she told me to put the chairs on tracks to the floor ( like ent helm chair and tactical station chair) and to add seatbelts for red alert situations. You won't see flying crewmembers in my version - even the redshirt/guard at the door will get his "brace for impact handle"

Okay, enough talking of my intentions as i have some questions for you:
Should i integrate the tactical station into the helm and let Sulu fire some phasers? Or should i "invent" a tactical station at the same spot as in TMP, but merged into the TOS architecture?

For manual steering - Joystick as in Insurrection and on the Vengeance Bridge of Into Dorkness? <- ;-) , or trackball like in the TMP movies?
Or maybe Chekov as part navigator and tactical officer? Then i could move Sulu's scope over to Chekovs side of the console.

Small bits: Phasers in a small storage on the bridge? medical Kit visible? Extra intercom access next to the Lift (not sure if it makes sense when you have the communications main officer around)
Lighting: TMP glow bubble as in TMP or kelvin-like directional ring?

trekki

Very nice, a little TOS , a little JJ Abrams.
Love it!

evil_genius_180

Having a separate tactical station makes sense so that Sulu and Chekov aren't trying to fly the ship through some intricate evasive maneuvers while simultaneously trying to lock and fire weapons. Really, it never made sense to have them fire weapons, other than not having to pay more actors to speak and also keeping the camera focused on the center of the set. (and on main characters)

Joysticks never seemed right to me for Trek, they're so 20th century. It literally looked in Insurrection like they bought a gaming joystick and built it into a column on the set. (probably exactly what they did) Though, on the other hand, a joystick may be the best way to maneuver in three dimensions, even 200 years from now. I can't think of anything better for manually flying the ship. They had something like a D-pad on the LCARs panels.

Vortex5972

I'd go with joystick, but maybe it could be a recessed thing that pops up for a more manual control. They had a good set up on the NX-01. I'm also on-board with having a separate tactical station.

FANGs

Some progress on the bridge: pike bridge 6.jpg

homerpalooza67

It might just be my monitor, but i can hardly see the pictures they look too dark.
It does look good though.

evil_genius_180

The bridge is looking good so far. It's nice to see a less noisy render of it.

FANGs

And a little update to the ceiling with elements from Enterprise, TMP and the Kelvin:
pike bridge light revision.jpg

FANGs

a little testrender for condition red:
pike bridg corona.jpg

FANGs

a small test of the engineering, and mixing around some TOS and TMP elements.
Enterprise Engineering.jpgengineering - up.jpg

BlueNeumann

Yeah! Makes sense. Feels like something that could exist in Phase II or some such.

Aresius

looks interesting

FANGs

pike bridg screentest2.jpg
I found some minutes to redo the Mainscreen. This time I tried to combinate some ST ENT feeling with the Pike Era viewscreen.
Maybe someone has an Idea how to light it?
I'll aim for this lighting:
NX_class_viewscreen.jpg (NX Viewscreen)

First method I thought of, was just using the Mainscreen itself for lighting (illumination texture layer), but I'm afraid the lighting wouldn't be enough to create the desired effect.
Alternatively i could just use a rectangular spotlight towards the screen, but then i would have to ask myself:"where does this light come from? what element on the bridge is creating it?"

So I'm open for any other ideas!

count23

On the soundstage the viewer would be blank and they'd have a flood light behind the wall hole projecting into the room, that's why it looks like that. Why not put a light behind the screen and render the viewer image itself separately and composite after the fact.

evil_genius_180

Looking really good. I like the engine room and the new viewscreen looks good.

FANGs

Compositing would be like opening a brandnew door - never did this before :-))
Tonight i will set a screen-sized Spotlight directly on the screen and compare the lighting with the "empty-Screen" method.

btw which screen-design would you like to see on the Kirk-era-bridge? sharp rectangle like TOS, Pike era as in my actual model, or slightly modified like in Doomsday machine's Constellation? (as i am modelling this bridge i am already wondering what to change for the refits between pike, kirk, tmp and maybe even Pre-maiden-voyage-Robert T April-era)

oh btw @ homerpalooza: today is the day the bridge will be receive more light ;-) !! I compared it to my old IRay version and eventually found it too dark.

count23

Compositing is not that hard, quite easy to do if you set do one render pass with your entire shi and use an alpha map to show where your viewscreen hole is. Then render out whatever scene you want on that screen and use the alpha map to cut it into the right position.

I was only thinking on your last post that a Constellation style would suit, but give it a bit more blinky stuff. the TOS bridges got blinkier as the series progressed, it makes sense to go from no blinkies in Enterprise to maximum blinkie overdrive by the end of tos, that yours should be somewhere in the middle.

Maybe a small bank on the bottom like the Constellation, and Enterprise-style panels on the sides.

evil_genius_180

You don't even really need to composite, since the whole thing is CGI. Just set the screen to not cast a shadow, which will allow the light from the spot to shine through onto the bridge. That should create the desired effect without the need to composite.

count23

@180: i was referring to compositing a screen image itself, not the light source

FANGs

Sounds inspiring! While my current progress is still rendering, here's some new lighting
at condition red alert:pike bridg corona7 red.jpg

And cruise modepike bridg corona7 normal.jpg

For now i decided to light the viewscreen just a little bit with extra spotlight. About the light strip in the "trench" - should i remove it until Kirk or Tmp era? I guess i have to testrender that, too.
Currently in rendering is some front greebling: Rright of the viewscreen (behind that blue lighted window) are some auxiliary memory banks - maybe logbook access. Left of the viewscreen will be some auxiliary powercores.

Edit: The new elements beside the screen
pike bridg viewscreen rev.jpg

evil_genius_180

Looking really good, FANGs.

Nadesico wrote: »

@180: i was referring to compositing a screen image itself, not the light source

I know. I was just throwing out an idea to have the light coming from behind the screen and also render the screen as a regular textured object, as opposed to compositing the screen image later. (alternate methods, and whatnot)

FANGs

pike bridg corona.jpg
At last i've been in the mood to activate the mainscreen. I'm impressed at the effect it has on the Bridge. (the Screen-image itself emit its own light, instead of a separate light - First tests with the Abramsverse-Vulcan-Orbit have been an eye-opener).
Next step will be rough "sketch - textures" for the upper screens. instead of just psychedelic Space views i will try to insert something like fitting TOS-Okudagrams. Doing an TOS MSD will be Time consuming....

TomG

I love watching this one progress, especially as it is one of my favourite series of shows (currently rewatching TOS start to finish!)