Lewisniven: On the Escape pods. Yeah looking closely at the Enterprise D they are just colored paper stuck on the model. Flush indeed.
Yeah, they were that way on all the TNG models. You can even see them coming up on pics of some ships, like the Ambassador class.
Yeah it was only the decal that gave any relief on the surface, the Ent-E ones are the same, completely flush, the Voyager ones sit quite proud though, far more humped. I wanted mine to look a bit more like 'pods' inset to the hull so gave a small ridge, just makes them hold up a bit better at close range to my eye;
Nice Pods. One thing that bothers me about the ship I am doing right now, is that John didn't put escape pods on it. I suppose one could imagine they were all on the underside.
Nice Pods. One thing that bothers me about the ship I am doing right now, is that John didn't put escape pods on it. I suppose one could imagine they were all on the underside.
Well you're working for a rough concept sketch, if it were me I'd just try and work them in, there must be space for them somewhere. Depends how rigidly you're trying to adhere to the drawing I guess.
I sometimes go back and forth on whether I should take liberties or not, but you are right. It's a sketch, not a model that appeared in a series. It did occur to me that that dark indented band around the top of the saucer with the greebles in it would be better utilized for a band of escape pods.
Well you've got to invent the entire underside so however you slice it at least 50% of the ship is your design, so it's not like you're breaking from canon.
@McC clued me in on how to do instanced escape pods whilst maintaing the position and orientation of my existing ones which opens the door for more detail, so here's an early attempt at that, I'll refine it a bit more though.
The thrusters and sensors look great. I've never liked the "blocky" RCS thrusters on this ship, but you took that shape, customized it and turned it into something that looks phenomenal.
Another way to make panels is to add a plane, delete three verts, with face snap on move the vert where you want and start extruding verts into your panel shape, make a face from the loop, use solidify and bevel modifiers. It creates panels that are easily adjustable, such as repositioning or adding verts and edges to get the contour right for proper shading. You can turn on the underlying mesh's wireframe for a visual guide for vertex placement, and use a plain axis empty for a radial guide.
I got the idea from cgi masters' hard surface modeling course, and used it on a Star Wars ship I was working on after viewing the course. It's a great way to make non-permanent panels you tweak until you are ready to make them permanent, while avoiding some of issues of shrinkwrap.
Another way to make panels is to add a plane, delete three verts, with face snap on move the vert where you want and start extruding verts into your panel shape, make a face from the loop, use solidify and bevel modifiers. It creates panels that are easily adjustable, such as repositioning or adding verts and edges to get the contour right for proper shading. You can turn on the underlying mesh's wireframe for a visual guide for vertex placement, and use a plain axis empty for a radial guide.
I got the idea from cgi masters' hard surface modeling course, and used it on a Star Wars ship I was working on after viewing the course. It's a great way to make non-permanent panels you tweak until you are ready to make them permanent, while avoiding some of issues of shrinkwrap.
I'll look in to that, seems like it'll be a good way of hendling panels!
More detailing today, mainly the underside of the torpedo pod, and some tweaks to the escape pods.
More detail, mainly impulse engines, some bits around escape pods and some touch ups around the weapons pod. I seem to be just flitting around the ship doing little bits now.
Posts
Lewisniven: On the Escape pods. Yeah looking closely at the Enterprise D they are just colored paper stuck on the model. Flush indeed.
Yeah, they were that way on all the TNG models. You can even see them coming up on pics of some ships, like the Ambassador class.
Yeah it was only the decal that gave any relief on the surface, the Ent-E ones are the same, completely flush, the Voyager ones sit quite proud though, far more humped. I wanted mine to look a bit more like 'pods' inset to the hull so gave a small ridge, just makes them hold up a bit better at close range to my eye;
Just need to add a little details to them.
This is what I did to mine.
You could do what was on the Ent-E
Or you could do your own thing.
I like doing pods as more than flat things too.
Yeah there could well be room for some detail geometry, I'll do a texture for them first and then see how they look.
Well you're working for a rough concept sketch, if it were me I'd just try and work them in, there must be space for them somewhere. Depends how rigidly you're trying to adhere to the drawing I guess.
Your render has almost a clean comic book look to it.
I know V-Ray has a 'toon' renderer in it, would be interesting to see it with that look.
The RCS thrusters we're in desperate need of re-doing, the previous ones were very quick and lazy, so old next to new:
[Edit]
Small update, sensor palette detailing added;
I got the idea from cgi masters' hard surface modeling course, and used it on a Star Wars ship I was working on after viewing the course. It's a great way to make non-permanent panels you tweak until you are ready to make them permanent, while avoiding some of issues of shrinkwrap.
I'll look in to that, seems like it'll be a good way of hendling panels!
More detailing today, mainly the underside of the torpedo pod, and some tweaks to the escape pods.
Thanks man, glad to see you're still around!
More detail, mainly impulse engines, some bits around escape pods and some touch ups around the weapons pod. I seem to be just flitting around the ship doing little bits now.
Speaking of looking, those windows on the inside of the catamarans must have a wonderful view.