@Hunter G Thanks, the textures I plan to put on this mainly for weathering as everything else has been modelled.
I am going to put a bit dirt into the nocks and crannies' so that it looks like it been used.
I'll be getting back to the refit after I have finished this. Then maybe do the weapons pod for this after that along with an interior. (Never done one of those properly, so that should be interesting.)
So while I am figuring out how I am going to texture the Runabout.
I though I would finally bit the bullet and have a little play around in Blender 2.8. After all I did say that I would do my next build in it.
Okay it got a new UI which is nice, but the two things that really bug me about it. Some of the shortcuts no longer work, so what you could do in seconds you now have to go hunting for and on top of that it no longer has a short cut. The other thing that bugging me is that they have change names as well.
Before If you have duplicate verts on a object and you wanted to get rid of them you simple selected all the Verts, press W and then select "Remove Doubles". Job done.
But now you got select all the Verts, click on Meshes go down to Clean up and select "Merge by Distance".
Who the F though it would be a good idea to call it "Merge by Distance"?
I spent 45 mins looking for Remove Doubles and finally had to look it up on youtube.
Anyway here is the results of a half a days working in Blender 2.8. (could have done this in no time in 2.79 but hopeful as I get to know 2.8 things will speed up.)
The little black dot on the saucer is the six foot man seen in my pervious scale pics. gives you an idea of the size of this thing.
Nice start. When there is little people on the hulls it really puts it into perspective, and the Oberth is meant to be small!
Yeah I had the same problem when I started, I was following along with 2.79 tutorials when 2.80 just came out and the merge by distance was changed. There is a bunch of neat addons that help out. I use Machin3 Tools, its free on Gumroad and adds some pie menus and shortcuts for different things. Speeds stuff up really nicely.
Yeah, they messed up some stuff with 2.8. The merge by distance thing is stupid. They also messed up Loop Cut & Slide, and of course messing with changed keyboard shortcuts is always a pill.
I didn’t really start with blender until 2.8, so this was less of a problem for me. But I get, that it can be frustrating to have to adapt to new major releases of software you use everyday. I still remember people in my old office cursing when MS Word changed its UI from 2003 to 2007 ... I believe some still do 😅
You can press M (like „merge“) and choose „by distance“ or you can right click on the option and add it to your quick favourites. Then every time you press Q it shows up right there. I’ve done this with all the things I use quite often like “bridge edge loops”; “Face Orientation” and “Knife Project”
Yeah, relearning stuff for 2.8 certainly took a while. That's what they got for being so stubborn about changing the UI for literally a decade. Still, now that they're finally moving forward, better to do it all at once. IMO the workflow is better (after the learning period, of course).
'Merge by Distance' in Blender is a better name for what the tool was doing, you always could set up the distance between vertices you wanted merged. And merging by non-0 distance is quite a standard way to cleanly decimate models for game usage, so it's 'removing doubles' the name that was inaccurate.
Also, keep in mind, you don't have to select all vertices, in the same window that pops up where you can set the distance you can also set up the tool to use unselected vertices as well. Plus you can access the same menu by pressing ctrl+v rather than having to click on it on the screen.
Keep it up! Always good to see the Oberth.
Post edited by Rekkert on
For all my finished Trek fan art, please visit my portfolio
I had a quick play around at the beginning of the week. The new UI looks nice but the shortcut changes/removals are a pain in the arse. Took me ages to find out how to smooth an object.
Sure, it sucks, having to relearn a program, you already mastered or at least knew your way around. However when I think about someone, who has never used Blender:
Right Click > Shade Smooth would probably be the first thing, they’d try.
I still remember the first time, I tried Blender and not even managing to navigate the viewport, because for some inexplicable reason the mouse buttons are reversed when compared to basically every other 3D Software.
I don’t know, if it’s already updated for 2.8 but you can always get Andrew Price’ 7-Page PDF with all the shortcuts. Should be pretty quick, to learn all the new ones that way.
Does anyone else have the problem of using the wrong keyboard shortcuts in the wrong program? I find myself using Lightwave keyboard shortcuts in my Paint program (Affinity Photo) and vice versa. It's a good thing they both have "undo."
Super Runnabout. Wouldn't mind front and back orthos.
@Brandenberg ... yeah, happens all the time. Usually I try to use the blender shortcuts in gimp. And sometimes blenders „redo“ shortcut in Word, where it doesn’t work 😁
I always liked the Oberth. Unfortunately it seems the champagne bottle didn't break at her christening because she always seems to run into misfortune. Great start on the model!
Does anyone else have the problem of using the wrong keyboard shortcuts in the wrong program? I find myself using Lightwave keyboard shortcuts in my Paint program (Affinity Photo) and vice versa. It's a good thing they both have "undo."
Super Runnabout. Wouldn't mind front and back orthos.
@Brandenberg, I am going to be knocking some up soon as I have done orthros sheet for each ship I finish.
But I can knock some render out now if you want?
you want them single pictures, or just one with all the angles?
Still playing around with Blender 2.8. No real modelling just figuring out where everything is.
Anyway just for fun I though I'll do a Render of all the Trek ships I have built since returning to modelling.
The picture included the unfinished Connie Refit and the newly stated Oberth Class.
While putting this picture together I notice the scale of the Obreth was wrong. I had it double it size in the last picture rendered. This has now been corrected and is in scale with everything seen in the pic.
Now to get back and finish off those other projects.
As @Hunter G said that the Runabout dose not need to be textures, as I have put in enough details. I have put that on hold.
I was only planning to weather the ship, I am going to leave it for now as I can always come back to it.
Anyway, I have given the runabout a registration number and name. As the Runabouts are all named after Earth rivers, I have kept this up, with giving it the name; Severn. This is named after the River Severn here in the UK which is also the longest in the UK.
I would have called it a day there. But the Runabout can also have a module pod attached. So I have modelled the weapons pod.
Right time to make some pictures with this and then get back to Refit Enterprise.
Very curious to see how your Oberth comes out, finding refs for the underside of the saucer is nearly impossible.
Yeah there is not much out there.
It going to be a little while until I get back to as I have been putting of the refit build for to long. I really need to get back to it.
Thankfully the movie has enough contrast (TSFS) that you can make out the depth of the greebling, but it does seem that under-saucer segment is pretty flat bar the twin tubes for the engines and the two recessed sections.
After having a little break after finishing the Runabout build, I am now back to work on the refit Connie.
Not much to show, I have resided the Reg on the nacelles and cut in the Panels, airlock and windows on the secondary hull.
I have also model the “tail” from the neck running down the secondary hull back.
All that is left to do now is add the light cut out that shine on the pylons.
Add the phaser nibbles, detail the side of the hanger bay entrance and add the reg marking on the secondary hull.
Once I have done all that I’ll check to see if I have missed anything and get on that.
I will then install all the lights so the ship can be seen in space and box model some location behind the windows. I’ll just put a light and nothing else, though I might do something different for the arboretum.
Then I can move on to correcting the material colours and get onto the textures.
Also do another set of Reg Marking so I can swap it out for the Ent-A.
Lookin' great there, lines look accurate. Viper's got amazing amounts of detail for the constitution studio model, you should tap him on the shoulder sometime for some help if you're looking for obscure reference images on some parts.
Also for the oberth, i found there is one place you can get the missing ref for the underside of the model that should fill in the blanks against all the other reference image.
So you can get a pretty good angle on the impulse units and use it in relation to the black sunk in grills from other studio models to roughly work out how those parts should look. Best i can do i'm afraid.
All modelling is now done. I have added box rooms behind the windows with lighting.
I also modelled all the decals. I should have really done this in the textures, as the only thing that would be changed would the ship name and Reg, for a different ship in the class if I ever do that. But I was on a roll.
Anyway here is where is she is now.
Next is to start texturing her and I can call her done.
*Edit* while uploading the pictures I notices I have missed the greebles on the side of the airlock on the B/C deck and the hanger bay door. Speaking of doors, I have also missed details those up so I be doing that as well.
*Edit* while uploading the pictures I notices I have missed the greebles on the side of the airlock on the B/C deck and the hanger bay door. Speaking of doors, I have also missed details those up so I be doing that as well.
I've had that issue before, where I thought I was done with something then realized I missed stuff. But, that should all be fairly quick to do, and the model looks great.
Lookin' great there, lines look accurate. Viper's got amazing amounts of detail for the constitution studio model, you should tap him on the shoulder sometime for some help if you're looking for obscure reference images on some parts.
Also for the oberth, i found there is one place you can get the missing ref for the underside of the model that should fill in the blanks against all the other reference image.
So you can get a pretty good angle on the impulse units and use it in relation to the black sunk in grills from other studio models to roughly work out how those parts should look. Best i can do i'm afraid.
@count23 Madkoifish gave me a bunch of photos that where taken during the Christies Auctions, when CBS decided to sell all of the Trek props that was given to them from Paramount. When CBS and Paramount was split into separate companies.
Thanks for the comments guys. @count23 Madkoifish gave me a bunch of photos that where taken during the Christies Auctions, when CBS decided to sell all of the Trek props that was given to them from Paramount. When CBS and Paramount was split into separate companies.
More than the publicly available christie's photos? I have them all from the original cap and none of them were good for the oberth's saucer underside.
I think I am close to the end on building the Refit Enterprise for the Motion Picture.
I have added textures to the ship and modelled, a few extra detail.
Over all I am pretty happy with it. The Greenish panel on the are meant to be lighter but I am happy with their look.
Reading up on the actual model, they where only an off Green colour for the Motion picture before the model was repainted for Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan, and they where turned into an off blue colour.
So to tell the difference between the Original and the USS Yorktown, which would be renamed Enterprise at the end of Star Trek IV The Voyager Home. The Original has the green panels and the Enterprise A will have the off blue.
As there is no real difference between the two ships, I have also knocked up a new set of Reg for the Enterprise A.
The only things left to do are add the lighting for the external ship. I have tired modelling shapes and have them emit while being hidden from the camera. This did not work to well and it was not producing the right lighting effect.
The other way, is to use spot light lamps. The problem with this in Cycle is that you have to put the strength of the light to stupid numbers. This mean the point it start get washed out in white light, also area where I don’t want the light to be up is effected.
An Example of this is one of the spot light to lighten up the top of the saucer. I can get the look just right, but because it so strong it also showing up on the nacelle’s.
The other thing I am not to happy with, is the defector. I am not sure how I get the effect of it light up.
At the moment it got a mix material. (the material for the hull with an emission for the blue glow.) with a spot light to give the white glow in the centre.
So if anyone know how to do these two in Blender I would be grateful
In cycles, you could just a shallow volumetric box over the spotlight and it'll enclose and cast on the hull a better effect than oversaturating everything.
for the deflector, an emission panel is the right way to go with a small point light just above the surface (tweak it's clipping distance so that it isnt getting caught by any part of the dish) and give it a short falloff, that should illuminate the immediate surroundings and not bleed light into areas missing on the model.
Posts
@Hunter G Thanks, the textures I plan to put on this mainly for weathering as everything else has been modelled.
I am going to put a bit dirt into the nocks and crannies' so that it looks like it been used.
I'll be getting back to the refit after I have finished this. Then maybe do the weapons pod for this after that along with an interior. (Never done one of those properly, so that should be interesting.)
I though I would finally bit the bullet and have a little play around in Blender 2.8. After all I did say that I would do my next build in it.
Okay it got a new UI which is nice, but the two things that really bug me about it. Some of the shortcuts no longer work, so what you could do in seconds you now have to go hunting for and on top of that it no longer has a short cut. The other thing that bugging me is that they have change names as well.
Before If you have duplicate verts on a object and you wanted to get rid of them you simple selected all the Verts, press W and then select "Remove Doubles". Job done.
But now you got select all the Verts, click on Meshes go down to Clean up and select "Merge by Distance".
Who the F though it would be a good idea to call it "Merge by Distance"?
I spent 45 mins looking for Remove Doubles and finally had to look it up on youtube.
Anyway here is the results of a half a days working in Blender 2.8. (could have done this in no time in 2.79 but hopeful as I get to know 2.8 things will speed up.)
The little black dot on the saucer is the six foot man seen in my pervious scale pics. gives you an idea of the size of this thing.
Yeah I had the same problem when I started, I was following along with 2.79 tutorials when 2.80 just came out and the merge by distance was changed. There is a bunch of neat addons that help out. I use Machin3 Tools, its free on Gumroad and adds some pie menus and shortcuts for different things. Speeds stuff up really nicely.
Yeah, they messed up some stuff with 2.8. The merge by distance thing is stupid. They also messed up Loop Cut & Slide, and of course messing with changed keyboard shortcuts is always a pill.
You can press M (like „merge“) and choose „by distance“ or you can right click on the option and add it to your quick favourites. Then every time you press Q it shows up right there. I’ve done this with all the things I use quite often like “bridge edge loops”; “Face Orientation” and “Knife Project”
Yeah, relearning stuff for 2.8 certainly took a while. That's what they got for being so stubborn about changing the UI for literally a decade. Still, now that they're finally moving forward, better to do it all at once. IMO the workflow is better (after the learning period, of course).
'Merge by Distance' in Blender is a better name for what the tool was doing, you always could set up the distance between vertices you wanted merged. And merging by non-0 distance is quite a standard way to cleanly decimate models for game usage, so it's 'removing doubles' the name that was inaccurate.
Also, keep in mind, you don't have to select all vertices, in the same window that pops up where you can set the distance you can also set up the tool to use unselected vertices as well. Plus you can access the same menu by pressing ctrl+v rather than having to click on it on the screen.
Keep it up! Always good to see the Oberth.
I had a quick play around at the beginning of the week. The new UI looks nice but the shortcut changes/removals are a pain in the arse. Took me ages to find out how to smooth an object.
The Oberth is looking good so far.
Sure, it sucks, having to relearn a program, you already mastered or at least knew your way around. However when I think about someone, who has never used Blender:
Right Click > Shade Smooth would probably be the first thing, they’d try.
I still remember the first time, I tried Blender and not even managing to navigate the viewport, because for some inexplicable reason the mouse buttons are reversed when compared to basically every other 3D Software.
I don’t know, if it’s already updated for 2.8 but you can always get Andrew Price’ 7-Page PDF with all the shortcuts. Should be pretty quick, to learn all the new ones that way.
Super Runnabout. Wouldn't mind front and back orthos.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqRhLEHgwgTKxsalM5YznYQ
Formerly furswift
All the time, mainly in photoshop.
@Brandenberg, I am going to be knocking some up soon as I have done orthros sheet for each ship I finish.
But I can knock some render out now if you want?
you want them single pictures, or just one with all the angles?
Anyway just for fun I though I'll do a Render of all the Trek ships I have built since returning to modelling.
The picture included the unfinished Connie Refit and the newly stated Oberth Class.
While putting this picture together I notice the scale of the Obreth was wrong. I had it double it size in the last picture rendered. This has now been corrected and is in scale with everything seen in the pic.
Now to get back and finish off those other projects.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class
I was only planning to weather the ship, I am going to leave it for now as I can always come back to it.
Anyway, I have given the runabout a registration number and name. As the Runabouts are all named after Earth rivers, I have kept this up, with giving it the name; Severn. This is named after the River Severn here in the UK which is also the longest in the UK.
I would have called it a day there. But the Runabout can also have a module pod attached. So I have modelled the weapons pod.
Right time to make some pictures with this and then get back to Refit Enterprise.
Yeah there is not much out there.
It going to be a little while until I get back to as I have been putting of the refit build for to long. I really need to get back to it.
Unfortunately, it's not very clear what's there, other than the registry, a dome, some vents, the impulse engine and some hard to make out greebles.
https://startrekships.tumblr.com/post/66576446856/oberth-class-uss-grissom-studio-model
Thankfully the movie has enough contrast (TSFS) that you can make out the depth of the greebling, but it does seem that under-saucer segment is pretty flat bar the twin tubes for the engines and the two recessed sections.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class
Not much to show, I have resided the Reg on the nacelles and cut in the Panels, airlock and windows on the secondary hull.
I have also model the “tail” from the neck running down the secondary hull back.
All that is left to do now is add the light cut out that shine on the pylons.
Add the phaser nibbles, detail the side of the hanger bay entrance and add the reg marking on the secondary hull.
Once I have done all that I’ll check to see if I have missed anything and get on that.
I will then install all the lights so the ship can be seen in space and box model some location behind the windows. I’ll just put a light and nothing else, though I might do something different for the arboretum.
Then I can move on to correcting the material colours and get onto the textures.
Also do another set of Reg Marking so I can swap it out for the Ent-A.
Also for the oberth, i found there is one place you can get the missing ref for the underside of the model that should fill in the blanks against all the other reference image.
http://ds9.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/1x01/emissary147.jpg
So you can get a pretty good angle on the impulse units and use it in relation to the black sunk in grills from other studio models to roughly work out how those parts should look. Best i can do i'm afraid.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class
I also modelled all the decals. I should have really done this in the textures, as the only thing that would be changed would the ship name and Reg, for a different ship in the class if I ever do that. But I was on a roll.
Anyway here is where is she is now.
Next is to start texturing her and I can call her done.
*Edit* while uploading the pictures I notices I have missed the greebles on the side of the airlock on the B/C deck and the hanger bay door. Speaking of doors, I have also missed details those up so I be doing that as well.
I've had that issue before, where I thought I was done with something then realized I missed stuff. But, that should all be fairly quick to do, and the model looks great.
@count23 Madkoifish gave me a bunch of photos that where taken during the Christies Auctions, when CBS decided to sell all of the Trek props that was given to them from Paramount. When CBS and Paramount was split into separate companies.
More than the publicly available christie's photos? I have them all from the original cap and none of them were good for the oberth's saucer underside.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class
I don't know what other photos he has from that Auction.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class
I have added textures to the ship and modelled, a few extra detail.
Over all I am pretty happy with it. The Greenish panel on the are meant to be lighter but I am happy with their look.
Reading up on the actual model, they where only an off Green colour for the Motion picture before the model was repainted for Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan, and they where turned into an off blue colour.
So to tell the difference between the Original and the USS Yorktown, which would be renamed Enterprise at the end of Star Trek IV The Voyager Home. The Original has the green panels and the Enterprise A will have the off blue.
As there is no real difference between the two ships, I have also knocked up a new set of Reg for the Enterprise A.
The only things left to do are add the lighting for the external ship. I have tired modelling shapes and have them emit while being hidden from the camera. This did not work to well and it was not producing the right lighting effect.
The other way, is to use spot light lamps. The problem with this in Cycle is that you have to put the strength of the light to stupid numbers. This mean the point it start get washed out in white light, also area where I don’t want the light to be up is effected.
An Example of this is one of the spot light to lighten up the top of the saucer. I can get the look just right, but because it so strong it also showing up on the nacelle’s.
The other thing I am not to happy with, is the defector. I am not sure how I get the effect of it light up.
At the moment it got a mix material. (the material for the hull with an emission for the blue glow.) with a spot light to give the white glow in the centre.
So if anyone know how to do these two in Blender I would be grateful
Original Refit Enterprise
USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A
for the deflector, an emission panel is the right way to go with a small point light just above the surface (tweak it's clipping distance so that it isnt getting caught by any part of the dish) and give it a short falloff, that should illuminate the immediate surroundings and not bleed light into areas missing on the model.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class