Hello all, I work as a volunteer at a start up aerospace R&D organization called IRIS-AsteronX in Mexico and the guy who runs AsteronX is tutoring me on Blender and since I want to design parts for real life aerospace craft and space ships for AsteronX in the future, he encouraged me to learn to 3D model fictional star ships to help me develop the skills I will need to achieve my goals since I can't afford college. After doing the 16 lesson Donut tutorial and a "how to create a CGI earth" tutorial by Blender Guru, I discovered a really cool 46 lesson tutorial on youtube on how to make the 1701 Enterprise and I'm learning SOOO much as a result. This is the perfect "3D modeling exercise" for me. The fact that it uses a much earlier version of blender than what I'm using now just makes it that much more educational. Trying to translate the "layers" aspect of the instructions into how to do it in modern Blender helped me learn/explore the "collections system" in blender for example. Of course it helps I got a friend tutoring me in RL as I go along who is experienced with Blender.
Anyway, here's some pics of my earth model I learned how to create from the blender guru channel and where I'm currently at with the 1701 Enterprise tutorial. I'd show off my donut too but that's not very scifi lol. Here also is a link to the last lesson I completed in the Enterprise tutorial so you all know which tutorial series that I've been referring to in this thread. I was originally showing off my work on facebook, when someone in a blender group introduced me to this forum and encouraged me to share my stuff here.
New thumbnail for this thread:
Tutorial that I'm using:
Earth:
https://ibb.co/w08j3r0
https://ibb.co/7Q7zB9X
My enterprise project so far:
EDIT: I am now FINISHED with this 3D modeling exercise! My model is complete! To check out my gallery of pics and eventual animations I will be creating using this 3D model, visit my profile on artstation:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lR03oJ
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When you finish, @Warp Propulsion Laboratory has a Sovereign class modelling course on his youtube channel as well.
Can't wait to see it finished, welcome to the site.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class
Edit: I'm adding a third image that I just rendered. Due to learning how to not just create lights but learning how to 'light them up' by learning about emission materials, I was inspired on how to light up the two triple lights on the bottom of the saucer and how to create a basic 'special effect' for the impulse engine exhaust until I come up with a cooler special effect down the road. This is what I came up with. I created "points of light" inside the saucer main hull in order to have light shine through the windows.
Do yourself a favour, follow this quick tutorial to set up a HDRI for your scene: , it's a simple lighting set up that's quick and easy to deploy.
A lot of modellers around here swear by the "small hangar" HDRI for demo renders of their work, found here: https://polyhaven.com/a/small_hangar_01
It'll make your tutorial results look a lot nicer.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class
Got the first couple engineering section lessons knocked out today and ready for lesson 15 tomorrow.
15 ... Ah, the engineering cowl and the deflector dish. Good luck! I hope you enjoy.
Yay! finally learned how to do the deflector section today. I also completely rebuilt the engineering section before moving onto lesson 15 today because there were some things I didn't like about the previous version. Also played around with the shader aspect of blender a bit to see what I can come up with. The deflector will look different when I'm done with this project.
I certainly agree with that!
Holy moley! Thank you! That is very kind of you!
Yep. At least 4 or 5 times. It gets interesting as time goes on.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class
Just finished reading the story about that. Thanks for telling me! I didn't know they made a model just for that episode.
I had to completely rebuild everything below the neck from scratch as I made a lot of mistakes along the way. Haven't gotten around to rebuilding the BC deck yet but I'm now finished with lesson 17 and ready to move onto 18. Learned a whole lot about how to use Blender just working on the shuttle bay section.
That model for Trials and Tribble-Ations is a great looking one, but Greg Jein definitely put his own spin on it. There are a number of things that don't line up with the original 11-foot model. But then again, that was less accessible than it is in the internet days, and he likely built the Enterprise, K-7 and Klingon Battlecruiser from watching old episodes and maybe using some old blueprints from the 70s or 80s.
I noticed I got some wrinkles in the engineering hull. That's been there since I made the engineering hull. I'm not sure how I created that. I welcome any info/advice on how to deal with that since I obviously have a lot to learn there as well.
Day 36: Added the shuttle bay lights. Next is the Pylons! WOOT
I'm blown away on how far I've come, skill-wise considering that June or July this year(2022) was when I started learning how to use blender and I had ZERO experience with blender or anything like it before hand.