EDIT: Header Image
I don't know how far I'm going to get with this as I am sure this particular muse bug has to do with me binging the hell out of the show right now.
I'm not going specifically for Bablyon 5 itself at the moment, instead I'm focusing on the Omega Class Destroyer. In this case it's the EAS Talos. Taking a cue from the show, the bridge is a re-dress, and in my case it's going to be a major one, of the Babylon 5 CnC. I pulled the layout from the Babylon 5 RPG and based the doorway on the 3ft. rule from Star Trek sets. This has made the set seem a bit... bigger than it was on the show, but I'm 90% positive the RPG isn't completely accurate in size either. I more wanted the layout anyway.
So I took the base CnC layout, filled in the command and control pit with a 'walk over' area for the Captain's chair and dropped a few consoles in. This is EXTREMELY basic right now. I'm probably going to use a few design ideas from the Trek bridges for a Viewscreen, and I think a few stations on the bridge will have chairs, etc. but I'm going to try and keep with the Babylon 5 aesthetic, only pretend I have a much larger budget. :P
If anyone has any idea on scaling sizes I'd be happy to hear them and any ideas as to layout, design choices, etc, I'm happy to hear those as well. This is very uncharted but still special
territory for me.
Right now the bridge is sitting at 43 by 45 ft. The standard Trek bridge is closer to 30 ft in diameter, so shrinking that down is always an option.
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Dramatically resized the bridge down from where I had it, taking it from roughly 45 ft. in diameter (wow that was too big) down to roughly 25 ft by 30 ft. This feels much more like the set size to me, so much so that I already started detailing it.... yeah I've been on phone calls all day and they let me have access to my PC. :P
I think I'm going to have to leave the floor alone for now though and work on the four wall consoles though. I think that's going to be the parts I play around with most since I'm going for something a little more like an enclosed bridge than a full on re-dress of the CnC.
That and while I like that they tried to make the CnC look like the bridge of a ship, it was still the CnC with some walls re-done and it just didn't work so well for me. *shrugs*
Granted I did start with the base of the CnC for this but more for dimensions than anything else really.
I think what I'm going to do is build the Omega Bridge first, then carry over the parts I can to the CnC. The CnC is shaped differently for what I want to do, so I can basically keep the entryway and the pit but then the wall and console layout is pretty much completely different.
Thanks! Yeah there are basically ZERO refs out there aside from what we see in the show and they were trying to hide that it was a redress of the CnC so we never get a good look at it. I'm going for a tighter, more submarine feel at this point, that and ZERO flat walls so it has a bit more depth and looks like it had a budget behind it but hopefully still looks like Bab 5.
Took me a lot longer to get the doorway to the bridge done than I thought it would. But I remembered to leave space between the walls for the door and ended up with a blank wall for the corridor, but I'm thinking that wall doesn't quite match up with what's on screen. I'll have to look around more for that back wall for references. It definitely could be a good corridor part at least.
Yeah I'm not going by exactly what's on screen, but I'd like to at least get that feel down.
Yeah for now I'm sticking with the method I use for the paneling on my Trek corridors. Going to be a bit darker lit too, kind of like the CnC in the Pilot as opposed to what we got on the show. At least, that's how I'm going to test it anyway
Yeah, each appearance was slightly different from the last. I'm definitely NOT doing the massive panel attached to the chair. I'm thinking something like the Defiant in Trek if I go that route. But only one side panel, not two.
That's the other thing I'll have to do, model raised controls. They used a mix of flat panels like TNG and raised panel controls on theirs. Oi.
Started hashing out a ceiling and walls to make this a bit more of a bridge, I've got wall slots designed to 'mount' monitors in there. Got a few ideas from Endgame, but overall, I like having stations in front of the Captain instead of a giant free range pacing area. I split the console I had there in two and slid them off to the side though so the Captain has full view of whatever monitors I put there, just like the EAS Apollo.
There's a lot of detailing to go on the ceiling as well as light placements. They're a lot more complicated than I thought they'd be now that I've found a few references for what they did in the CnC. Now that I have the walls in place I think I'll get the consoles for the walls and the forward consoles done first before I finish up the ceiling.
Tossed the bridge as is into DAZ Studio to test the modeled lighting. Liking what I've got so far.
Front -> |- -| <- Back
Does that make sense?
Thanks! I'm hoping to have ti done this week. We shall see.
Thanks! I'm definitely not going for a complete set recreation as each of the Omega bridges were completely different from each other. Probably dependent on what parts they had available to wheel into the CnC set and how much they planned on filming on it.
That Kind of makes sense? You're talking about basically having to C-shaped parts facing each other to make up the handrail, right?
Doesn't help that what I typed as arrows with plenty of space between them and the
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the forum decided to unhelpfully concatenate...!
Oh! I see what you're saying now, the support! I could definitely try that out and see how I like it. Actually, that could help me for a few of the stands as I wanted to show the control cabling going through the stands, or at least access to the cabling, but I wanted to use the same supports.
More work on the consoles and lighting and some detailing. Started hashing out some chairs and view screens.
Your advice on the support columns really panned out well I think.
I think I'm happy with the lighting. I ended up using some ceiling light tricks I use in my Trek sets here, but with some of the design elements that they used in the lighting in the ceiling of Babylon 5, although every shot I've seen of the ceiling those lights are ... off? I also did up the chairs, or at least a rough idea of them. I may re-work them a little bit, but considering they already look better than a couple of cushions tossed on a handrail frame I think I'm already a few steps ahead. :P
I'm on to the display and console texturing at this point, the longest part of the process to be honest. And I think I need to re-position like two bulkheads and lower two consoles.
First shot is looking back from the main viewer toward the rear of the bridge with the entrance and Captain's chair. Second shot is from the port side of the bridge looking over at the CAG station and Engineering as well as Helm and Navigation.
First shot is looking more forward from the Science station on the port side with the main viewer, helm and navigation and an angled shot of Engineering. Second shot is from the starboard side of the bridge looking over at the Science/Tactical station and the ever important Weapons station.
Well it's been a long while since I touched my Babylon 5 sets at all, but I've been plugging away at Trek and Wars stuff here and there.
I built this bridge set in Truespace to import over into DAZ but I'm no longer able to use Truespace (I had an older version) on my PC and have switched over to Blender for all my set and prop building. I'd have to import it and clean it up.
I'm not sure how well the set would work in Second Life since I didn't build it with that in mind.
Well I did do this with it after I finished it.
The EAS Talos had aligned itself with Sheridan's fleet and had been bringing other ships over to his side against Clark, but the EAS Excalibur wasn't having it and turned on the Talos in the battle. It would be the last time the Omega Class Excalibur would engage anyone in combat.
Ran out of time to do what I wanted for it (mainly a fire and some smoke), but needed to get it in for a monthly challenge.
Set Built in Truespace 3.2
Rendered in DAZ Studio 4.12 with iRay
Additional Textures by Amras
Figures are Genesis from DAZ
Uniform jackets are by AuroraMoon
Pants and boots are V4 Courageous and M4 Valiant
Every civilization has them, you know.