Mapping and textures are done for the cannister. Now I just need to work out a bunch of other settings. I won't bother too much with lighting until I start on the containment lab.
Thanks, guys! Here's some more. I think I'm pretty much done with this part. Also I think I'm getting the hang of VRAY render engine, and using material settings specifically for said engine.
Now to design the containment lab. The next logical part would be the...console? The forcefield containment unit, um, thing? I have no idea what it'd be called really. Right now I'm visualizing how I'd design it and make it totally different from existing art. And yet stil lrecognizable as the scene from the splash screen to Super Metroid.
Yes, please get that bug ugly thing contained. Our lives depend on it!
Seriously though, that looks absolutely outstanding. You're really got that look down.
Thanks! I still feel like there are some improvements I'd like to do. But I'm now at the point where I know I need to move on or I'll get bogged down in the details. And if I do that, I'll most likely lose interest in the entire project.
The container came out great, I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the lab.
Here's some first looks, then!
So I decided to tackle the containment lab's forcefield. But I didn't want to do a simple color gradient fade. I wanted something a bit more complex. And while playing Stellaris, I got a flash of inspiration.
That flash being when weapons fire is absored by shields in Stellaris. With that in mind, I tried my first attempt at making a shield.
Not only was that not quite what I was after. I wasn't sure about the color scheme. Also no matter how I fiddled with the settings, I couldn't quite get the right combination of luminosity and transparency that I was after. I wanted a brilliant glow, but I also didn't want it completely obscuring the object that's supposed to be the focus of the overall scene.
So I added a dark band around the middle.
It's close, but not quite there yet. Also I needed to disable the shadows on the cylinder object so the canister wouldn't be cast in darkness from exterior lights. And since I wasn't quite hooked on neon green with a glowing hex border, I decided to change tact and replicate more of what I saw in Stellaris.
I LIKE IT! Also... I FORGOT TO TURN OFF OBJECT SHADOWS! Ah well. That's what test renders are for, right? And yet the green stuck with me. So I thought, how about a holographic projector? Like say, a projection of the Metroid itself? So I made a material for that idea.
And now I have some ideas on how to make the Containment Lab scene more of my own. Instead of a pair of large 2D monitors next to the force field generator. How about a holographic projector, and adding Okudagram style interface (just without the LCARS) to the base? I'll work that but out later on. And why stop there? How about a datasphere hologram like what we saw with the JARVIS system in Tony Stark's lab in Iron Man 2?
Ooooo... So many ideas.... I'm feeling pretty good about this next bit. Lets see if I can bring out what I have in my head to the screen.
The first rule of the NDA Club is that you do not talk about the NDA Club.
Wait, let me read the fine print again to see if I can actually talk about the NDA...
Okay, I've been a bit busy lately and am gearing up for another job, so I haven't been able to work on my Metroid project or finish my mech. However I did get pics a few weeks ago showing the end result of a comission I did a few months ago!
Scrolling back through this thread, you may have seen me post this image:
And now from a very happy customer who commissioned the project (and the folks at Iron Wind Metals who did the casting) the Balgaire mini has been completed! This wee beastie stands at a mighty 40mm tall and is a compliment to the Red Hunter figure I've done earlier.
NDA aside, I also have another commission lined up from the same person that I can most likely post here sometime after GenCon. That's when I'll get some new reference images to build the Snow Fox, (or whatever name it will be by the time production is finished).
So come post-GenCon, I hope to start posting progress images for one of my upcomming jobs. As for the other? We'll just have to wait until product release.
That's really cool. I love seeing stuff 3D printed.
Me too! I hope I never get used to this little feeling of excitement and satisfaction when I see something I made in digital become real.
I've been planning on getting my own 3D printer. Partly to test out the models I create for this reason, and partly to own my own master copies. Might start with a Sparkmaker SLA resin printer since it runs about $200 or so. Though I've also been looking at a Monoprice FDM printer for around the same price. Filament is cheaper than resin, but resin has a higher quality at 6mm scale.
Yeah, congratulation on your real world model. Pretty cool.
I love that 3D printers are so cheap now. I know that were I to ever get one, it would have to live on the workbench in the garage.
Holding off for nearly a month without anything to show for it is driving me nuts! I'm gonna explode with creative juices!
Or something like that. Okay, so a few days ago I posted this image to trekki's Defiant Model Display thread. Needless to say, I've become inspired.
In that thread, I was wondering if TOS had an MSD for the original Enterprise. Turns out, they did! Sort of. It was a screen cell from one of the bridge displays in a later season (I swiped this from CBS Star Trek page)
Now I don't have an Enterprise model. For some reason, I've just resisted building one. But I DO have my own USS Miranda.
It's a bit dated, and I ended up reworking the textures to work with Vray. Or... At least a little better with Vray. I'll probably tweak them some more for a final render.
And using this handy dandy little build, I created a new set of orthos to match the 3-view Enterprise proof from the 1960s. And then did some clever editing to give them some CRT scanlines and glow.
And then I made a color version that's similar to the screen cell.
And then I built the screen itself. I'll figure out the controls later. Some dials, gumdrop bubble lights, and toggle switches. I have a few references images saved of the Navigation console as well as the Tricorder and Communicator.
Great looking MIranda. One observation. There are fonts that are closer to original series fonts and one of those might enhance the look even more.
I have a collection of fonts from... I think Memory Alpha? It's been well over a decade since I downloaded the collection pack. The one I'm using for this project is Amarillo USAF.
My original series font is called "Federation Starfleet" I don't know if it has different names at different font repositories.
The Movie ship font is called Final Frontier shipside. That's the one with a separate letter-shaped line around the letter itself.
Reg font for TOS is Airborne II There are a lot of fonts similar or based on it but you have to watch the weight and some of the serif like "hangers" as many are too large too heavy, or spaced wrong.
Much of the new trek series use the wrong fonts, as 1s 7s zs rs etc are the wrong ones.
Marking font is Oswald Regular, this is used in all test that is not related to ship markings like the length markings and registries. I think it is also used all over inside of the ship and on letterheads unless it is retro typed letters. Oswald is one I found through refs of the decals sets used on the 11foot prop and just hours hunting font sites.
Many of the sites online have the wrong fonts or claiming the wrong fonts are what were used. Or are using substitutes due to costs of the real fonts or lack of them becoming a electronic typeface.
Here is a cheat sheet, this only contains the fonts on this pc.
KIM too the newer trek productions use "wrong" fonts. This could be on purpose though. Example is Discovery, the 1s on the newer ships Shenzou and Discovery are wrong. STO often uses this wrong font too, so there might be something to that. JJtrek I think made up their own fonts as the 1s look like I or l and are heavily rounded. Cs do not match either. Anyhow it is beyond the subject of the original post intent lol.
Here is a cheat sheet, this only contains the fonts on this pc.
Awesome! Thanks! Let's see if I can find the right fonts then. Might as well replace the lettering on my ship since I'm reworking the textures anyway.
On that note, I made an embossed version of my USS Miranda insignia. I'm thinking I'll stick it on the control surface somewhere when I get to that bit. In case anyone is wondering, the design concept is Saturn and one of its moons. The silver metallic reflection is a bit wonky at the moment.
-edit- And...I just realized I messed up the moon part. It's supposed to go in front of the rings. Not behind it.
Dunno about the sites but found a few. I forget where I fetched mine as my bookmarks are a mess of nested folders labled "old crap" archive 1a2, 2b3, etc >_>
Yeah, Airborne and Airborne II by Charles Casimiro are the way to go for 22nd/23rd century Fed ships. Federation Starfleet is good too, but not quite as accurate.
Posts
Thanks, guys! Here's some more. I think I'm pretty much done with this part. Also I think I'm getting the hang of VRAY render engine, and using material settings specifically for said engine.
Now to design the containment lab. The next logical part would be the...console? The forcefield containment unit, um, thing? I have no idea what it'd be called really. Right now I'm visualizing how I'd design it and make it totally different from existing art. And yet stil lrecognizable as the scene from the splash screen to Super Metroid.
Seriously though, that looks absolutely outstanding. You're really got that look down.
Thanks! I still feel like there are some improvements I'd like to do. But I'm now at the point where I know I need to move on or I'll get bogged down in the details. And if I do that, I'll most likely lose interest in the entire project.
So onward I go!
Here's some first looks, then!
So I decided to tackle the containment lab's forcefield. But I didn't want to do a simple color gradient fade. I wanted something a bit more complex. And while playing Stellaris, I got a flash of inspiration.
That flash being when weapons fire is absored by shields in Stellaris. With that in mind, I tried my first attempt at making a shield.
Not only was that not quite what I was after. I wasn't sure about the color scheme. Also no matter how I fiddled with the settings, I couldn't quite get the right combination of luminosity and transparency that I was after. I wanted a brilliant glow, but I also didn't want it completely obscuring the object that's supposed to be the focus of the overall scene.
So I added a dark band around the middle.
It's close, but not quite there yet. Also I needed to disable the shadows on the cylinder object so the canister wouldn't be cast in darkness from exterior lights. And since I wasn't quite hooked on neon green with a glowing hex border, I decided to change tact and replicate more of what I saw in Stellaris.
I LIKE IT! Also... I FORGOT TO TURN OFF OBJECT SHADOWS! Ah well. That's what test renders are for, right? And yet the green stuck with me. So I thought, how about a holographic projector? Like say, a projection of the Metroid itself? So I made a material for that idea.
And now I have some ideas on how to make the Containment Lab scene more of my own. Instead of a pair of large 2D monitors next to the force field generator. How about a holographic projector, and adding Okudagram style interface (just without the LCARS) to the base? I'll work that but out later on. And why stop there? How about a datasphere hologram like what we saw with the JARVIS system in Tony Stark's lab in Iron Man 2?
Ooooo... So many ideas.... I'm feeling pretty good about this next bit. Lets see if I can bring out what I have in my head to the screen.
Wait, let me read the fine print again to see if I can actually talk about the NDA...
Okay, I've been a bit busy lately and am gearing up for another job, so I haven't been able to work on my Metroid project or finish my mech. However I did get pics a few weeks ago showing the end result of a comission I did a few months ago!
Scrolling back through this thread, you may have seen me post this image:
And now from a very happy customer who commissioned the project (and the folks at Iron Wind Metals who did the casting) the Balgaire mini has been completed! This wee beastie stands at a mighty 40mm tall and is a compliment to the Red Hunter figure I've done earlier.
NDA aside, I also have another commission lined up from the same person that I can most likely post here sometime after GenCon. That's when I'll get some new reference images to build the Snow Fox, (or whatever name it will be by the time production is finished).
So come post-GenCon, I hope to start posting progress images for one of my upcomming jobs. As for the other? We'll just have to wait until product release.
Me too! I hope I never get used to this little feeling of excitement and satisfaction when I see something I made in digital become real.
I've been planning on getting my own 3D printer. Partly to test out the models I create for this reason, and partly to own my own master copies. Might start with a Sparkmaker SLA resin printer since it runs about $200 or so. Though I've also been looking at a Monoprice FDM printer for around the same price. Filament is cheaper than resin, but resin has a higher quality at 6mm scale.
I love that 3D printers are so cheap now. I know that were I to ever get one, it would have to live on the workbench in the garage.
Or something like that. Okay, so a few days ago I posted this image to trekki's Defiant Model Display thread. Needless to say, I've become inspired.
In that thread, I was wondering if TOS had an MSD for the original Enterprise. Turns out, they did! Sort of. It was a screen cell from one of the bridge displays in a later season (I swiped this from CBS Star Trek page)
Now I don't have an Enterprise model. For some reason, I've just resisted building one. But I DO have my own USS Miranda.
It's a bit dated, and I ended up reworking the textures to work with Vray. Or... At least a little better with Vray. I'll probably tweak them some more for a final render.
And using this handy dandy little build, I created a new set of orthos to match the 3-view Enterprise proof from the 1960s. And then did some clever editing to give them some CRT scanlines and glow.
And then I made a color version that's similar to the screen cell.
And then I built the screen itself. I'll figure out the controls later. Some dials, gumdrop bubble lights, and toggle switches. I have a few references images saved of the Navigation console as well as the Tricorder and Communicator.
Thanks! Not done with it just yet though.
I have a collection of fonts from... I think Memory Alpha? It's been well over a decade since I downloaded the collection pack. The one I'm using for this project is Amarillo USAF.
The Movie ship font is called Final Frontier shipside. That's the one with a separate letter-shaped line around the letter itself.
Much of the new trek series use the wrong fonts, as 1s 7s zs rs etc are the wrong ones.
Marking font is Oswald Regular, this is used in all test that is not related to ship markings like the length markings and registries. I think it is also used all over inside of the ship and on letterheads unless it is retro typed letters. Oswald is one I found through refs of the decals sets used on the 11foot prop and just hours hunting font sites.
Many of the sites online have the wrong fonts or claiming the wrong fonts are what were used. Or are using substitutes due to costs of the real fonts or lack of them becoming a electronic typeface.
Here is a cheat sheet, this only contains the fonts on this pc.
KIM too the newer trek productions use "wrong" fonts. This could be on purpose though. Example is Discovery, the 1s on the newer ships Shenzou and Discovery are wrong. STO often uses this wrong font too, so there might be something to that. JJtrek I think made up their own fonts as the 1s look like I or l and are heavily rounded. Cs do not match either. Anyhow it is beyond the subject of the original post intent lol.
Awesome! Thanks! Let's see if I can find the right fonts then. Might as well replace the lettering on my ship since I'm reworking the textures anyway.
On that note, I made an embossed version of my USS Miranda insignia. I'm thinking I'll stick it on the control surface somewhere when I get to that bit. In case anyone is wondering, the design concept is Saturn and one of its moons. The silver metallic reflection is a bit wonky at the moment.
-edit- And...I just realized I messed up the moon part. It's supposed to go in front of the rings. Not behind it.
-edit 2- Fixed it!
https://fonts2u.com/airborne-ii.font
https://fonts2u.com/oswald-regular.font
If you have issues finding them I can zip them up as I do not think there are use restrictions on them.
Yeah, Airborne and Airborne II by Charles Casimiro are the way to go for 22nd/23rd century Fed ships. Federation Starfleet is good too, but not quite as accurate.