So I decided to get rid of the temporary placeholders for the shuttle bays and finally build the actual bays. I will start adding detail to them tomorrow. Much better than the holes in the hull for the first version of the carrier.
Just about finished laying down the basic shape of the new flight deck though it is hard to see since I haven't added any detail to it yet. No more trench full of windows through the center of the flight deck like on the first battle carrier. Still messing around with the shape at the back. Thinking I'm going to have to do a little redesign on the engine area and main landing bay.
Thanks guys!
I have a lot more detail to add to the bottom section yet and then on to the textures.
I don't seem to have the patience for working on this today.
I started to add detail to the new flight deck - cutting in panel lines and adding the beginnings of a cargo bay / shuttle pod bay.
Just a little bit of work and I've had enough.
Maybe because I'm getting close to going on vacation next week?
So yesterday I was working away cloning the RCS thrusters everywhere around the flight deck when I noticed that MAX was reacting verrrrrrrry slowly. I saved the file and noticed the file size had suddenly shot up to almost 300 MB where it was only 170 MB before. So today after wasting a bunch of time experimenting with collapsing geometry (which surprisingly almost always makes the file size bigger - exactly the opposite of what it is supposed to do) I ended up removing some of the detail from the RCS thrusters and lowering the quality of the pieces. The file size is now back down to 175 MB and I can work again. What a pain in the @ss.
Finished the small cargo / shuttle pod bays and placed the RCS thrusters around the flight deck.
a design consideration if your going for realism - placing the RCS thrusters evenly spaced along the hull is inefficient - they are better concentrated at the bow and stern to maximise their ability to pitch/yaw the vessel quickly and would still work just as well for lateral movements - the closer the thruster is to the center of mass the less effective it would be in turning the ship so your really just wasting fuel
otherwise looking great though the panel gaps look quite big for a vessel of this size - or is there a sci fi reason for it? i tend try and avoid gaps as they look like weak points in the armour but somehow i cant make the ships look real without doing it
edit:
on thinking about it you could have some at the ships widest point to help with roll speed
I've been in the USA on holidays for the last three weeks so haven't been doing any work on this thing. I spent the first week packing up my wife's house in St. Louis. We got married in January and she is finally moving up to be with me in Edmonton after 7 years of a long distance relationship. We then flew to LA and have been visiting her family in Malibu for close to 2 weeks. We're flying home to Edmonton on Wednesday so I'll get back to work on this thing on Thursday.
My theory with the RCS thrusters is that it's a really big ship so it needs more thrusters for precise movements for docking etc. As for the panel gaps there is going to be some tech in them - shield emitters and such - you'll see soon. And yes you're right about making the gaps bigger otherwise you can't see the lines at all when you render a pic showing the whole ship.
Thanks evil_genius_180! Yeah she is pretty incredible in every way and we are both so happy that we are FINALLY together. I have 2 daughters from my first marriage and they just love her to death. Hell my whole family loves her. :thumb:
Okay so I'm determined to get this thing done and get my book cover updated this month. I started adding a bunch of detail this morning including the first shield emitter ribbon near the top of the hull near the bow. Kind of a PITA to line that piece up in the slots properly that's for sure. Worth it though, I think it looks pretty cool. Should really stand out when I get the other one done lower down on the hull. I also added a series of AA gun turrets in the small pockets on the side of the hull.
You might consider toning down the shield emitter when you consider that (at least it looks like) they'll be all over the ship. It has the potential to be too much unless you're going for the Tron look.
Schimpfy - when finished there will only be one more shield emitter ribbon on the hull which will follow the main horizontal line a third of the way up from the bottom so I'm hoping it won't be too much. There will be another one that runs around the outside of the flight deck as well. I still have to design the final material for the emitters and I might thin it down a bit. I used a spline and set the render thickness so it's really easy to change.
Just finished the shield emitter ribbons on the hull. As I stated I will be adjusting the size a bit and the colour / texture once the modeling is finished.
Thanks dude! Yes it's going to stay white and blue, but I am going to do my best to make it look more real by adding some grime and subtle panels with textures. I'm not the best at texturing so we'll see how it goes.
Don't you hate it when you spend a few hours building something then when you're finished you render it and don't really like it? I changed my where the landing bays are located and I like the design other than the landing platforms. Now that the landing bays are part of the flight deck (as will the launch bays be soon) I have more room for the engines and the engine detail.
Okay so another idea I had was to make a larger version of the cargo bays for the landing bays and maybe even the launch bays. I added one to my second last model file to see how it would look. I like it better than the bays in my previous post so I might go with these. Only thing is for the outboard bays the fighters may have to land at an angle instead of coming in straight from behind the carrier.
Okay so another idea I had was to make a larger version of the cargo bays for the landing bays and maybe even the launch bays. I added one to my second last model file to see how it would look. I like it better than the bays in my previous post so I might go with these. Only thing is for the outboard bays the fighters may have to land at an angle instead of coming in straight from behind the carrier.
Posts
New Hull 24.jpg
New Hull 25.jpg
New Hull 26.jpg
It reminds me a little bit at the old scifi-series Robotech. I really like this ship.
I have a lot more detail to add to the bottom section yet and then on to the textures.
I don't seem to have the patience for working on this today.
I started to add detail to the new flight deck - cutting in panel lines and adding the beginnings of a cargo bay / shuttle pod bay.
Just a little bit of work and I've had enough.
Maybe because I'm getting close to going on vacation next week?
New Hull 28.jpg
So yesterday I was working away cloning the RCS thrusters everywhere around the flight deck when I noticed that MAX was reacting verrrrrrrry slowly. I saved the file and noticed the file size had suddenly shot up to almost 300 MB where it was only 170 MB before. So today after wasting a bunch of time experimenting with collapsing geometry (which surprisingly almost always makes the file size bigger - exactly the opposite of what it is supposed to do) I ended up removing some of the detail from the RCS thrusters and lowering the quality of the pieces. The file size is now back down to 175 MB and I can work again. What a pain in the @ss.
Finished the small cargo / shuttle pod bays and placed the RCS thrusters around the flight deck.
New Hull 30.jpg
Just for fun I dropped the original superstructure on the new hull to see what it would look like.
New Hull 31.jpg
New Hull 32.jpg
New Hull 33.jpg
otherwise looking great though the panel gaps look quite big for a vessel of this size - or is there a sci fi reason for it? i tend try and avoid gaps as they look like weak points in the armour but somehow i cant make the ships look real without doing it
edit:
on thinking about it you could have some at the ships widest point to help with roll speed
My theory with the RCS thrusters is that it's a really big ship so it needs more thrusters for precise movements for docking etc. As for the panel gaps there is going to be some tech in them - shield emitters and such - you'll see soon. And yes you're right about making the gaps bigger otherwise you can't see the lines at all when you render a pic showing the whole ship.
New Hull 36.jpg
New Hull 37.jpg
Schimpfy - when finished there will only be one more shield emitter ribbon on the hull which will follow the main horizontal line a third of the way up from the bottom so I'm hoping it won't be too much. There will be another one that runs around the outside of the flight deck as well. I still have to design the final material for the emitters and I might thin it down a bit. I used a spline and set the render thickness so it's really easy to change.
New Hull 38.jpg
New Hull 40.jpg
New Hull 41.jpg
New Hull 42.jpg
New Hull 43.jpg
Yes, that always sucks.
I like this idea better.
New Hull 44.jpg
Yes why?