Updated 25/03/23
ORIGINAL POST
Hi all,
Been a member on here for years absorbing all the amazing work, thought it was about time I introduced some of my own. Just to give a bit of background, I work in architecture and used blender a lot during my uni years to build models and renders of course work but since I've entered the world of work I haven't really used it at all. So a couple of months back I decided it was time to fall back in love with it and what better way than modeling my own starship.
So far I'm still working on making the silhouette as strong as possible and make sure the model has good mesh topography before I move on to the detailing.
As you can see there is still holes in the mesh and I need to remodel the saucer, bridge section, nacelles and tidy up the underside of the saucer but it gives a good idea of where I'm heading.
A bit about the design, I've had the idea of a 'wishbone' secondary hull for years. In my mind each prong contains a massive hanger bay which house a standard shuttle complement as well as larger scout ships (think oversized runabouts). My thinking behind this is she's a long range transwarp explorer designed to operate deep in uncharted space for years at a time without any support from starfleet, therefore she needs to be completely self sufficient. She would act as a kind of base of operations, enter a system launch scouts and then follow up if anything of interest arises.
I also rendered a quick turntable animation which you can view here
https://vimeo.com/196351324
Be interested to here your opinions
Posts
Back Per4.jpg
Scale.jpg
Scale2.jpg
I'm deliberately going for a contemporary look all sweeping curves (but without becoming squishy and formless). Working in architecture i've been inspired by firms such as Foster and Partners, Zaha Hadid (RIP), BIG and I've become quite obsessed with the artwork of Daniel Simon who designed the vehicles for Tron Legacy, Oblivion and more recently worked with Bioware on Mass Effect Andromeda.
I'm imagining the Aurora as being constructed around 100 years post Nemesis, which gives me enough breathing room to create a new starship aesthetic.
Nacelle closeup.jpg
Nacelle.png
Anyway, last update before off to Italy for christmas, finished the nacelle shape and added a bussard placeholder.
Back Per.jpg
Side2.png
Have a good christmas everyone!
Cross section.jpg
Full disclosure I'm a big fan of the kelvin Enterprise, I know it gets a lot of hate and I agree it's not perfect but one of the things I really like the most is how the interior of the engineering hull really feels like the 'guts' of the ship compared to the pristine corridors of the saucer. So i'm using that as inspiration, with a multi level engineering section and large hanger bay while the saucer is accommodation and science stuff.
Each of the large blocks in the shuttle bay are what I'm dubbing 'Pathfinder' scouts, They're currently 2 decks and 40m long. The smaller blocks are standard shuttles stored in front on (which is why they look square).
CAD.jpg
Bridge Shutter.jpg
on a fun sidenote, i found the original doodle from 2008 that was the cataylst for this project. How time flies...
first sketch.jpg
I posted at the start of this year about finally completing something with my B5 models but Picard S3 has drawn me back to this. This project has gone through many different iterations over the year and at times have got stuck in a cycle of rumination and not being able to commit to a form due to having the luxury of time and no pressure of an impending deadline. But over the last month things have got moving again and I'm really happy with how the blocked out form has settled.
I haven't committed to a time period, instead just had fun with how I imagine the aesthetic of a time period between TNG/Picard and the 32nd Century shown in Disco would look. Think of the jump in design language between TMP and TNG.
I wanted to take design cues from ships that would hint and what is to come and what came before (e.g. the 'horseshoe' collar on the saucer rim inspired by the Saturn Class, split nacelle of the Ent-J and the cobra neck smooth transition from the saucer to the secondary hull from the Ent-D).
Next up is to work on the saucer/bridge spine and the knit the model into one piece before locking it down to detail.
Enjoy
I still miss the lower sensor dome. A saucer should smile.
Find this a really quick way to test ideas and work through geometry issues that would normally take me ages within blender. Best thing is I can upload the sketch into camera view in blender to use as a guide when modelling.