Hi everyone,
This probably sounds like an incredibly basic question - I'm fairly new to 3D modelling - but I'm doing my first TNG era ship (I started with TOS ones, which, as you know, are mostly primitives with a bit of fun tweaking) and I cannot get the Engineering Hull of Galaxy Class down.
I've tried splines, I've tried cylinders, planes... the topology just messes up. What's everyone's methods for doing a hull like that?
I'm using Blender but any general help would be hugely appreciated. Thanks a lot!
It's a simple question, but the shape is anything but basic. Subd is probably the way to go. I know @lewisniven was messing with the Galaxy class a while ago. There's a couple of pics here.
The engineering hull of the galaxy class has to be one of the hardest shapes to model in terms of star trek ships, so you're really going in at the deep end. My advice it to just start with a plane, as opposed to a primitive that you then divide. Some pics of mine below;
Additional note, decide right from the off if you're using the 6ft of the 4ft model as you're guide (most people consider the 6ft to be the 'proper' one but it's up to you) and then make sure you stick to reference for that model. There are no canon accurate schematics of the 6ft out there so you'll have to work by eye. You can use a schematic from the 4ft to get the basic shape and proprtion in, then ditch it and work from the 6ft. The christies auction photos are your best best for good reference. There are some fairly major differences between the models so you want to be consistent, the neck and deflector area are a major difference between the two.
As you asked about topology, I figured some wireframes might be helpful, so you can see below the wire both with and without the subd modifier applied. There's probably a million ways to do this so my topology is by no means 'correct' but it's working for me so far.
Thank you so much! That's incredibly helpful and your work is stunning. Yeah, I didn't realise quite how complicated it was because on the surface it looks fairly simple, but as soon as the curves start going off in different directions it just becomes ridiculous.
Did you start from the neck and work down?
I actually started at the back with the pylons and worked forwards, doing the top first and finishing with the underside. I took several stabs at it though, it's important to work with as little geometry as you can get away with so as to let the subdiv do the hard work. You can see there's a couple of poles on the back of the neck and it took a while to work those out. The defector is also a pain, I'm still tweaking it tbh. I don't think anyone will ever get it 100% accurate so it's just a case of getting it to a point that you're personally happy with.
Thank you! It's a huge task, I keep stopping and starting. May have to work on my mastery of sub-d surfaces before I attempt any more. I really appreciate all the advice!
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Did you start from the neck and work down?