@BolianAdmiral: Those support struts are becoming something of a staple for the Potemkin interiors.
@evil_genius_180: Thanks! I thought I was gonna have to do a normal map, but it looks strangely good for being just a bump, I guess the limited light from only one direction helps.
@Brandenberg: Haha, what I'd give to be able to walk on these in VR...
@Nevets: Ohh, I never thought about the torpedo room, but you might be right...
@Viper: Interesting. I haven't changed anything per-se about my techniques or post processing. I guess it's just down to how much more interesting the lighting is on engineering, than on the usually plainly lit bridges.
Took a little while longer than expected to render the finished room, as the warp core produced an insane amount of fireflies that needed to be removed. It's not perfect now, but until I can get the time to find and properly install an AI based denoiser, it'll probably be the best I can do.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
Thanks for the comments everyone, I'm very happy with how that came together myself.
@I14R10: I literally cut up the room, removing the ceiling and walls, usually via Boolean operations. I keep the light sources on the ceiling, but make them invisible for the camera. Finally, I have an invisible light emitting cube surrounding the room.
I've been working on the Astraeus captain's quarters. There's been several changes as we decide on layout and go back and forth or which furniture to use.
Given the limited space on the "office" room, we've removed the wall separating it from the main living room, it's now one very big living area, with the desk at one side. Said desk now contains a small model of the Norway-Class USS Montreal, the captain's previous command.
On the central part of the room, there's now a Voyager-style couch beneath the windows, with the rest of the furniture so far being directly taken from the Nemesis quarters.
Lighting remains an issue, the Ent-D quarters were very dimly lit, but the cream color wasn't as light absorbent as the darker, metallic tones of this room. I might add some sort of nebulae on space, to provide some further illumination, but I'd like to avoid that, so maybe I'll just add more light sources by the windows.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
Indeed, they used a lot of floor-level illumination in Insurrection, as can be more clearly seen in the ready room:
However, the quarters here have the bigger Galaxy-style windows, which occupy a far bigger area than the relatively small Intrepid-style (which were reused as the Ent-E windows in both Insurrection and Nemesis). As can be seen in both the pics you provided and here below in Nemesis, the windows were always a very dark area of these rooms (top left of the image).
I have already come up with some solutions (like the Challenger style sconce between the windows), however it's not really up to me so I'm waiting for approval before adding more light in.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
Lighting is usually faked in movies and TV shows. I was watching an early episode of TNG yesterday where Picard was casting a strong shadow on the corridor wall. Yet, when we actually see both walls of the corridor, there's no light source to account for that. Obviously, they were just shining lights in his direction so he'd show up better on camera.
@evil_genius_180: Indeed, and early TNG was particularly bad in that regard. However late TNG saw a big shift to a lot darker interiors, the Ent-E as seen in Nemesis is perhaps the biggest example. Picard's quarters as seen in that movie had huge areas of total darkness near windows (as already mentioned in my last post), as did the observation lounge, directly behind Picard here:
The angled slopes on the Galaxy style quarters only increase the issue, though to mitigate it I've added in a light below the windows, directly influenced by the similar lights on the Ent-E observation lounge. I've run this through my client but they still haven't replied, so I may yet have to discard this.
Returning to the concept TNG bridge, I've started laying out the basic shapes for the viewscreen and the big conn/ops consoles/couches. Still a lot work to be done on both of these items though.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
You know, if they had gone with this bridge, Picard's comment about getting kicked in their complacency would have been even MORE spot on. This is definitely not the bridge of a ship that see's combat regularly.
@Rekkert your interiors are amazing! I've got a bridge I was working on for the Rigel Class for Star Trek Bridge Commander, I may need to ask your help on creating the LCARS panels for the different stations!
Thanks for the comments, I'm glad it's an interesting project to follow. It certainly is an interesting one to work on.
@ashleytinger: Oh certainly, even as relaxed as the TNG bridge ended up looking, a lot of early TNG seems more suited to this kind of design in the way the crew goes about their business.
@ChiefBrex: Thanks! Feel free to ask, I'll gladly give you a hand where I can.
I've kept working on the shape of those forward couches, they're a bit smaller now. I've also extended the viewscreen outward some more, and added in a temporary captain's chair just to get a sense of the space.
I've also swapped the floor for a polished wood one. This was my client's idea, as it's actually a better match for the way the floor looks on the concept, given the marker strokes. Might be further tweaked or replaced later down the line.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
Just one thing I'd like to add: Are you going to move part of the console inwards, that part where the knees would be when you sit down? It would be pretty hard working on the console with no space for your knees.
Ooooo, wood flooring on a starship. I think there's only been 1 space in all of Star Trek history that did this - the forward observation lounge on the Enterprise-A (see STV: FF). That looks really cool.
@Brandenberg did you give an explanation to this bridge design earlier in your thread? I'd really like to get a background about why this design.
Thanks for the comments, I'm glad it's an interesting project to follow. It certainly is an interesting one to work on.
@ashleytinger: Oh certainly, even as relaxed as the TNG bridge ended up looking, a lot of early TNG seems more suited to this kind of design in the way the crew goes about their business.
@ChiefBrex: Thanks! Feel free to ask, I'll gladly give you a hand where I can.
I've kept working on the shape of those forward couches, they're a bit smaller now. I've also extended the viewscreen outward some more, and added in a temporary captain's chair just to get a sense of the space.
I've also swapped the floor for a polished wood one. This was my client's idea, as it's actually a better match for the way the floor looks on the concept, given the marker strokes. Might be further tweaked or replaced later down the line.
This bridge almost seems fitting for the Enterprise J...such a massive bridge, almost hearkening the style of Andrew Probert prototype designs!
@I14R10: Oh certainly, it's just a basic shape being extruded for now, I'll cut that space up once I'm happy with the overall shape.
@ChiefBrex: I imagine you tried to @ me and not Brandenberg. As for what's the design, it's one of Andrew Probert's early concepts for the TNG bridge, which I've been commissioned to recreate:
@shaved_ape: That's because it's exactly a Probert prototype design!
I had the memory of several more sketches from Probert's concept bridges than the ones that are on the Art of Star Trek book, and I've been trying to find them ever since I took this commission. Today I finally did, thanks to a blog by Eric Wilkerson.
First off, those images show just how bizarre the very first bridge concepts were, they look more like something out of a Star Destroyer to me. But more importantly, there's a lot of further detail about the forward consoles and about the "table" that sits between them.
Now, it appears as if on the version of the bridge I'm recreating, it was just a table between the couches. In the latter versions however, it was also a pod where the Captain's chair could be stored when it wasn't needed. I'll probably go with the table interpretation, as it seems it's just that on the original concept.
As ever, if someone has any further images or info about all of this, it would be greatly appreciated.
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
@Rekkert I have always loved that concept image, I tried to push for that room to be made in Stage 9, but used as the basis for Cetacean Ops.
Will you be putting any effort into making this large bridge area fit into the bridge model exterior? If it took over the conference room, you could have those back windows on the back of the upper level on your concept bridge interior.
I know the diagram shows a Transporter room, but this is an exercise in exploring ideas after all. Large windows at the back looking down could be cool.
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@evil_genius_180: Thanks! I thought I was gonna have to do a normal map, but it looks strangely good for being just a bump, I guess the limited light from only one direction helps.
@Brandenberg: Haha, what I'd give to be able to walk on these in VR...
@Nevets: Ohh, I never thought about the torpedo room, but you might be right...
@Freak: It'll get worse eventually.
@Viper: Interesting. I haven't changed anything per-se about my techniques or post processing. I guess it's just down to how much more interesting the lighting is on engineering, than on the usually plainly lit bridges.
Took a little while longer than expected to render the finished room, as the warp core produced an insane amount of fireflies that needed to be removed. It's not perfect now, but until I can get the time to find and properly install an AI based denoiser, it'll probably be the best I can do.
@I14R10: I literally cut up the room, removing the ceiling and walls, usually via Boolean operations. I keep the light sources on the ceiling, but make them invisible for the camera. Finally, I have an invisible light emitting cube surrounding the room.
I've been working on the Astraeus captain's quarters. There's been several changes as we decide on layout and go back and forth or which furniture to use.
Given the limited space on the "office" room, we've removed the wall separating it from the main living room, it's now one very big living area, with the desk at one side. Said desk now contains a small model of the Norway-Class USS Montreal, the captain's previous command.
On the central part of the room, there's now a Voyager-style couch beneath the windows, with the rest of the furniture so far being directly taken from the Nemesis quarters.
Lighting remains an issue, the Ent-D quarters were very dimly lit, but the cream color wasn't as light absorbent as the darker, metallic tones of this room. I might add some sort of nebulae on space, to provide some further illumination, but I'd like to avoid that, so maybe I'll just add more light sources by the windows.
However, the quarters here have the bigger Galaxy-style windows, which occupy a far bigger area than the relatively small Intrepid-style (which were reused as the Ent-E windows in both Insurrection and Nemesis). As can be seen in both the pics you provided and here below in Nemesis, the windows were always a very dark area of these rooms (top left of the image).
I have already come up with some solutions (like the Challenger style sconce between the windows), however it's not really up to me so I'm waiting for approval before adding more light in.
Lighting is usually faked in movies and TV shows. I was watching an early episode of TNG yesterday where Picard was casting a strong shadow on the corridor wall. Yet, when we actually see both walls of the corridor, there's no light source to account for that. Obviously, they were just shining lights in his direction so he'd show up better on camera.
The angled slopes on the Galaxy style quarters only increase the issue, though to mitigate it I've added in a light below the windows, directly influenced by the similar lights on the Ent-E observation lounge. I've run this through my client but they still haven't replied, so I may yet have to discard this.
Returning to the concept TNG bridge, I've started laying out the basic shapes for the viewscreen and the big conn/ops consoles/couches. Still a lot work to be done on both of these items though.
You know, if they had gone with this bridge, Picard's comment about getting kicked in their complacency would have been even MORE spot on. This is definitely not the bridge of a ship that see's combat regularly.
@ashleytinger: Oh certainly, even as relaxed as the TNG bridge ended up looking, a lot of early TNG seems more suited to this kind of design in the way the crew goes about their business.
@ChiefBrex: Thanks! Feel free to ask, I'll gladly give you a hand where I can.
I've kept working on the shape of those forward couches, they're a bit smaller now. I've also extended the viewscreen outward some more, and added in a temporary captain's chair just to get a sense of the space.
I've also swapped the floor for a polished wood one. This was my client's idea, as it's actually a better match for the way the floor looks on the concept, given the marker strokes. Might be further tweaked or replaced later down the line.
@Brandenberg did you give an explanation to this bridge design earlier in your thread? I'd really like to get a background about why this design.
This bridge almost seems fitting for the Enterprise J...such a massive bridge, almost hearkening the style of Andrew Probert prototype designs!
@ChiefBrex: I imagine you tried to @ me and not Brandenberg. As for what's the design, it's one of Andrew Probert's early concepts for the TNG bridge, which I've been commissioned to recreate:
@shaved_ape: That's because it's exactly a Probert prototype design!
I had the memory of several more sketches from Probert's concept bridges than the ones that are on the Art of Star Trek book, and I've been trying to find them ever since I took this commission. Today I finally did, thanks to a blog by Eric Wilkerson.
First off, those images show just how bizarre the very first bridge concepts were, they look more like something out of a Star Destroyer to me. But more importantly, there's a lot of further detail about the forward consoles and about the "table" that sits between them.
Now, it appears as if on the version of the bridge I'm recreating, it was just a table between the couches. In the latter versions however, it was also a pod where the Captain's chair could be stored when it wasn't needed. I'll probably go with the table interpretation, as it seems it's just that on the original concept.
As ever, if someone has any further images or info about all of this, it would be greatly appreciated.
Will you be putting any effort into making this large bridge area fit into the bridge model exterior? If it took over the conference room, you could have those back windows on the back of the upper level on your concept bridge interior.
I know the diagram shows a Transporter room, but this is an exercise in exploring ideas after all. Large windows at the back looking down could be cool.