Really we only see the chairs for a few seconds and the chairs do seem a lot more grey/white than lilac... like in the screencap below. I assume it has to do with lighting? Does anyone have any behind the scenes photo's of the Pasteur's bridge?
I would be open to toning down the lilac, maybe Rekkert can do a couple of renders.
I'm with you, BolianAdmiral, in preferring the leather chairs, and if this was a non-canon bridge I would make the chairs leather. Unfortunately, Starfleet didn't spring for the leather package for the Odyssey.
I've finished some loose ends of the bridge, mainly the LCARS screens on the conn/ops consoles (that have a unique design on the Prometheus which I've replicated here); and the white labels on the aft side walls.
Also we've talked about it with JMP11 and removed the grey strip atop the side walls, as it isn't sure it's there.
Regarding the use of leather vs fabric, almost all Trek interiors use fabric, simply for cost effectiveness. Leather was only used on certain 'big budget' bridges, such as the season 1 Ent-D main and battle bridges, and the Ent-E bridge. Even on TNG when they replaced the bridge chairs, the new ones were half fabric and half leather, with the later being mostly decoration on the sides or back of the chairs.
Only the reuse of the battle bridge chairs for stuff such as the Enterprise-C and Saratoga made leather seem more prevalent than it was. Other ships with newer sets, such as the Defiant and Prometheus-Class Prometheus all used fabric chairs. In the end even the battle bridge chairs were turned into fabric as well, probably as the leather was showing its age after being stored for so long, hence why we ended up with the lilac Pasteur/Odyssey chairs.
Going into the chairs, indeed they're the same lilac on the Pasteur, the whole reason why they used it that way was because the Pasteur scenes were filmed a few weeks prior and they couldn't change the colors. I'm going back and forth on it. Depending on the specific shot, the chairs seem to be the exact same shade of lilac, or mostly grey. it's not helped by the fact that DS9 wasn't converted to HD, and that the lighting on both sets is extremely inconsistent between shots, as they were both open sets. I theorize that they're grey, but seem lilac due to a combination of the red incandescent lights, and the blue ceiling lights on the Pasteur, seen here:
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
I wonder if it’s the same fabric was used on the Defiant’s bridge as on the Pasteur and Odyssey, would they have been planning Defiant’s bridge at about the same time? Those screenshots Rekkert shared show that same sorta washed out lilac color. Or am I seeing things
@Rekkert good decision on the grey strip; it did look a little out of place there.
I love that shot of the ops/conn stations from above and behind, with the contrasting pseudo-oval lines it creates. it's quite aesthetically pleasing
Re: color splashes, yes the later ones seemed to me to be more about primary colors, where utilised, as opposed to those awkward pastel tones in TNG. The Pasteur walls also seemed to be in blue when not influenced by the ambient lighting.
I personally think all the fabric here could stand a touch more lilac (or maybe just be slightly lighter?) if only to make them "pop" a little more compared to the carpet.
I actually think it's the reverse, with the gray fabric reminding me more of TNG than the lilac, which to ME, fits much more with the DS9 color palette. Again, that's just me. If it were me, I would switch the lilac of the bottom of the walls to match the alcoves, for the sake of uniformity. I'm honestly not sure what I'd do with the chairs here, since I'm not really a fan of fabric chairs. The vast majority of chairs we've seen on Trek ships, and certainly TNG-era ships, have been leather. I think the Pasteur had fabric, and IIRC, those chairs were white.
TNG had a focus on Tans, Creams, Orange (with a complimentary teal for carpeting) alongside Greys. There was also Reds for quarters carpets, brown/salmon for Picard's Ready Room - so all based around the Tan colours.
So far I think Rekkert has tried to remove the Tan colouring, and has de-saturated across the board. So by moving from the Lilac and blue tones, to grey, there will be a lack of anchor colour to tie them all together IMO.
@JMP11: Yeah I think you're right, it's the same fabric that's used on the Defiant chairs...
In the end, after a lot of tests, we decided to keep the full lilac color on the chairs and walls as it was before. Only the alcoves remained a bit more muted, but still not fully grey.
I've reworked the front side wall to look more in line with the aft section of the bridge, only a few minor tweaks remain to be made.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
I've added in the final details: the little MSD opposite the replicator, and the dedication plaque, which mimics the style of the Prometheus, as it's probably the way it was done.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
@Rekkert I think you've definitely reached the best possible color mix on those fabrics now; the changes to the forward panelled areas are another nice element of "set cohesion" too.
ETA: I meant to ask this the other day, but what's the width of your Ent-B/Odyssey rear consoles compared to the Enterprise-C and Galaxy-class consoles? (Asking for "Reasons" )
@Starscream: "Reasons"... The Galaxy consoles are surprisingly similar in size. Shorter in height of course but on length almost exactly the same, just a biiit smaller (which makes sense when you consider that the keyboard area is the same, just with a few rows of added buttons). As for the Enterprise-C style... one of the Ent-C consoles takes up more space than the two side by side consoles on the Odyssey...
I've made some last second adjustments as requested by JMP11, most notably raised the doors that lead to the aft alcoves a bit, and removed the extruded panels at the side of said doors to give the bridge a bit more of cohesion.
Here are some finished renders:
And here's the cutaway graphic, which gave me some troubles displaying the whole thing. In the end, I had to remove the aft alcoves, it was simply not possible to display them without having to sacrifice the aft consoles, and those were more important in displaying the bridge.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
That shot from the viewscreen looking aft looks photo-real...
Re: the consoles, I'd figured as much for the Galaxy ones, but the Ent-C style being wider honestly comes as a surprise! Will have to rejig my blueprints at some point...
Excellent work Rekkert, it really came out nice! Seeing it like this is a far cry from when I was a kid trying to picture it in my head after re-watching the episode over and over on a VHS tape recorded off of antenna TV!
Bridge modules are supposed to be replaceable and interchangeable to some extent. I guess the Odyssey could have used an alternative one, maybe one designed after the Borg attacks. Less pleasure cruise ship, and more tactical/science focused.
it's been postulated before (something I personally advocate) that the bridge set seen onscreen wasn't the Main Bridge but the more deeply located, protected Battle Bridge. Kinda makes sense, IMO. Nevertheless, Rekkert has done his usual stunning job recreating it.
Really, I can see it as a main bridge or battle bridge and I think it's open to interpretation, as there was no dialog stating it was or wasn't the main bridge, but rather just assumptions. I personally had Rekkert design it as the main bridge because we never saw the Enterprise-D go into a combat situation with the senior staff controlling the ship from the battle bridge. It only seemed to be used during saucer separation. Plus the Enterprise-D had a much smaller battle bridge than what Rekkert created here.
Could this be an upgraded "true" battle bridge allowing for the senior staff to operate the ship from a more center and protected area? Absolutely! It is more cramped than the Enterprise-D's main bridge after all.
Plus it can be assumed Starfleet would make improvements/changes to the design as each Galaxy class left the Utopia Planitia Shipyards. I imagine there would be longer lag times between each Galaxy class launch. Since a Galaxy class couldn't be constructed as quickly as other smaller and less advance starships, therefore a less uniform design among the different ships of the class could develop.
Thank you all for the kind comments, this bridge was a challenge but I enjoyed working on it very much.
IMO this is the main bridge of the ship, not only I have no doubt that that was the intention on the show, but it's also a design we saw on a Nebula-Class, hence we know it fits inside the saucer's bridge module.
Besides, while it's more compact, it's not really that much smaller than the Enterprise bridge.
I'm already working on my next commission, I'll post about it soon.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
That's interesting to see the two plans side by side; I think to have it as the main bridge, personally I'd have moved the Odyssey bridge forward so that the screen matches the usual position relative to the rest of the ship, and then had the forward turbolift/Ready Room alcoves match the standard Galaxy ones -- requires less mental fudging to fit inside the standard module that way. That remains my biggest bugbear about the Nebulas: The exterior was always depicted with the standard bridge module, with its easily identifiable room/turbolift locations. They'd have been better off with something a bit less specific Regardless, the finished product looks awesome as ever - I expect JMP11 is mighty pleased with it
Well, yeah, I just put them together on the same image, their location relative to one another was not intended to represent the space they occupy on deck 1.
Besides, one thing to keep in mind is that the exterior and interior of the bridge superstructure doesn't fit at all. AT ALL.
First there's the ready room window that doesn't exist in any model, in any shape or form. And second, the observation lounge, which the show seems to show as being on the same level as the bridge, is actually located half a deck below, in "deck 1 lower", as there's no room for it to be behind the bridge. Even the official deck plans show it that way, but on the show it's treated as if it's directly behind the bridge. This caused us a lot of frustration on Stage 9 and in the end we added a stairway between the bridge and observation lounge, it was the only way for it to fit inside the exterior mesh of the ship.
Aaaanyway, I've already started work on my next couple of commissions, as I've taken two back-to-back jobs by Rusty0918. I've accepted the two together only as one of them is a redress of an existing set, which is almost ready. it's the bridge of the USS Dobrovolsky (which I've dubbed Dobby due to my initial inability to remember how to write the name), a Springfield-Class ship active during the 2360s. The bridge is based off of my USS Chekov design, and thus required very little redressing so far.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
Posts
I would be open to toning down the lilac, maybe Rekkert can do a couple of renders.
I'm with you, BolianAdmiral, in preferring the leather chairs, and if this was a non-canon bridge I would make the chairs leather. Unfortunately, Starfleet didn't spring for the leather package for the Odyssey.
jemhadar_240 Chair.jpg
Also we've talked about it with JMP11 and removed the grey strip atop the side walls, as it isn't sure it's there.
Regarding the use of leather vs fabric, almost all Trek interiors use fabric, simply for cost effectiveness. Leather was only used on certain 'big budget' bridges, such as the season 1 Ent-D main and battle bridges, and the Ent-E bridge. Even on TNG when they replaced the bridge chairs, the new ones were half fabric and half leather, with the later being mostly decoration on the sides or back of the chairs.
Only the reuse of the battle bridge chairs for stuff such as the Enterprise-C and Saratoga made leather seem more prevalent than it was. Other ships with newer sets, such as the Defiant and Prometheus-Class Prometheus all used fabric chairs. In the end even the battle bridge chairs were turned into fabric as well, probably as the leather was showing its age after being stored for so long, hence why we ended up with the lilac Pasteur/Odyssey chairs.
Regarding the color accents, both TNG and DS9 used strong color accents, there really isn't much of a divide there. We do see stronger colors in bridges in late TNG and DS9 though, such as the red on the Prometheus, dark blueish purple walls on the Pasteur, blue on the Defiant bridge (which looks really washed out there, but was actually a lot darker), and purple on the Sao Paulo/Defiant bridge.
Going into the chairs, indeed they're the same lilac on the Pasteur, the whole reason why they used it that way was because the Pasteur scenes were filmed a few weeks prior and they couldn't change the colors. I'm going back and forth on it. Depending on the specific shot, the chairs seem to be the exact same shade of lilac, or mostly grey. it's not helped by the fact that DS9 wasn't converted to HD, and that the lighting on both sets is extremely inconsistent between shots, as they were both open sets. I theorize that they're grey, but seem lilac due to a combination of the red incandescent lights, and the blue ceiling lights on the Pasteur, seen here:
I love that shot of the ops/conn stations from above and behind, with the contrasting pseudo-oval lines it creates. it's quite aesthetically pleasing
Re: color splashes, yes the later ones seemed to me to be more about primary colors, where utilised, as opposed to those awkward pastel tones in TNG.
I personally think all the fabric here could stand a touch more lilac (or maybe just be slightly lighter?) if only to make them "pop" a little more compared to the carpet.
So far I think Rekkert has tried to remove the Tan colouring, and has de-saturated across the board. So by moving from the Lilac and blue tones, to grey, there will be a lack of anchor colour to tie them all together IMO.
In the end, after a lot of tests, we decided to keep the full lilac color on the chairs and walls as it was before. Only the alcoves remained a bit more muted, but still not fully grey.
I've reworked the front side wall to look more in line with the aft section of the bridge, only a few minor tweaks remain to be made.
I've added in the final details: the little MSD opposite the replicator, and the dedication plaque, which mimics the style of the Prometheus, as it's probably the way it was done.
ETA: I meant to ask this the other day, but what's the width of your Ent-B/Odyssey rear consoles compared to the Enterprise-C and Galaxy-class consoles? (Asking for "Reasons"
I've made some last second adjustments as requested by JMP11, most notably raised the doors that lead to the aft alcoves a bit, and removed the extruded panels at the side of said doors to give the bridge a bit more of cohesion.
Here are some finished renders:
And here's the cutaway graphic, which gave me some troubles displaying the whole thing. In the end, I had to remove the aft alcoves, it was simply not possible to display them without having to sacrifice the aft consoles, and those were more important in displaying the bridge.
Re: the consoles, I'd figured as much for the Galaxy ones, but the Ent-C style being wider honestly comes as a surprise! Will have to rejig my blueprints at some point...
I look forward to exploring more of the Odyssey
it's the bridge of a lesser known ship, seen in the DS9 episode "The Jem'Hadar," as one of the first Starfleet casualties against the Dominion.
Could this be an upgraded "true" battle bridge allowing for the senior staff to operate the ship from a more center and protected area? Absolutely! It is more cramped than the Enterprise-D's main bridge after all.
Plus it can be assumed Starfleet would make improvements/changes to the design as each Galaxy class left the Utopia Planitia Shipyards. I imagine there would be longer lag times between each Galaxy class launch. Since a Galaxy class couldn't be constructed as quickly as other smaller and less advance starships, therefore a less uniform design among the different ships of the class could develop.
IMO this is the main bridge of the ship, not only I have no doubt that that was the intention on the show, but it's also a design we saw on a Nebula-Class, hence we know it fits inside the saucer's bridge module.
Besides, while it's more compact, it's not really that much smaller than the Enterprise bridge.
I'm already working on my next commission, I'll post about it soon.
Can't wait to see what you come up with next!
Besides, one thing to keep in mind is that the exterior and interior of the bridge superstructure doesn't fit at all. AT ALL.
First there's the ready room window that doesn't exist in any model, in any shape or form. And second, the observation lounge, which the show seems to show as being on the same level as the bridge, is actually located half a deck below, in "deck 1 lower", as there's no room for it to be behind the bridge. Even the official deck plans show it that way, but on the show it's treated as if it's directly behind the bridge. This caused us a lot of frustration on Stage 9 and in the end we added a stairway between the bridge and observation lounge, it was the only way for it to fit inside the exterior mesh of the ship.
Aaaanyway, I've already started work on my next couple of commissions, as I've taken two back-to-back jobs by Rusty0918. I've accepted the two together only as one of them is a redress of an existing set, which is almost ready. it's the bridge of the USS Dobrovolsky (which I've dubbed Dobby due to my initial inability to remember how to write the name), a Springfield-Class ship active during the 2360s. The bridge is based off of my USS Chekov design, and thus required very little redressing so far.