Been taking a break and having fun modeling the Saber class vessel from Star Trek First Contact....more fun less greebles and a bit more creative freedom since it's so tiny... Coming along faster than expected!
The Saber class is one of those designs that begs creative freedom, seeing as how the original lacks any torpedo launchers or aft phaser arrays. Pretty sure it lacked other details too.
The Saber class is one of those designs that begs creative freedom, seeing as how the original lacks any torpedo launchers or aft phaser arrays. Pretty sure it lacked other details too.
Yeah, the Saber, Steamrunner and Norway were all really simple meshes. The only one of the ships designed specifically for the Borg battle in FC that was designed to be seen up close was the Akira class. Heck, the Saber and Steamrunner were both textured by taking orthographic pictures of the Enterprise-D and Enterprise-E physical models, scanning them digitally and then cutting them up into maps that fit the hull designs.
I’ve been struggling trying to make the radiator panels for the impulse drives on my Sovereign, and you’re halfway finished with your Sabre?!!!
When I first started 3D modeling, I pictured being able to punch out a model like you have been doing! How long did it take you to get this good?!
Also, kudos to giving her one helluva phaser arc! That’s one heavily armed little ship!
On the other hand, modeling myself has given me a perspective of how much hard work and practice it takes!
Hehe thanks! It's been a bit slow at work so I've had some extra time. I've been doing 3D for over 20 years and do 3D and VFX professionaly, so I have a bit of practice. The model, if you were to see the wires, is a bit of a mess and I'm faking a number of things, like floating windows, which I will clean up later once I like the placement of things...
I'm also using a great plugin called Railclone to do my phaser strips and Tyflow to do some placement of geo and it has a modifier called TyConform, which can conform one piece of geo to another in various ways which is SUCH a time save for this type of a project to get things put together quickly.
Railclone (or RailcloneLite which is free for Max) is just using these 2 peices I made to copy along along a spline and then the points get welded together, takes about 5 seconds to make a new phaser strip!
Railclone (or RailcloneLite which is free for Max) is just using these 2 peices I made to copy along along a spline and then the points get welded together, takes about 5 seconds to make a new phaser strip!
Thanks for mentioning there's a free version of RailClone. I'd forgotten about that plugin. I have to investigate using it to make the corridors of my seaQuest interior.
I’ve been struggling trying to make the radiator panels for the impulse drives on my Sovereign, and you’re halfway finished with your Sabre?!!!
When I first started 3D modeling, I pictured being able to punch out a model like you have been doing! How long did it take you to get this good?!
Also, kudos to giving her one helluva phaser arc! That’s one heavily armed little ship!
On the other hand, modeling myself has given me a perspective of how much hard work and practice it takes!
Hehe thanks! It's been a bit slow at work so I've had some extra time. I've been doing 3D for over 20 years and do 3D and VFX professionaly, so I have a bit of practice. The model, if you were to see the wires, is a bit of a mess and I'm faking a number of things, like floating windows, which I will clean up later once I like the placement of things...
I'm also using a great plugin called Railclone to do my phaser strips and Tyflow to do some placement of geo and it has a modifier called TyConform, which can conform one piece of geo to another in various ways which is SUCH a time save for this type of a project to get things put together quickly.
Railclone (or RailcloneLite which is free for Max) is just using these 2 peices I made to copy along along a spline and then the points get welded together, takes about 5 seconds to make a new phaser strip!
No such luck for me. Even IF I could bring by laptop to work, they'd NEVER let me get away with modeling at work, no matter how slow it is! I get in trouble if I get bored, and start doodling on receipt paper (but sometimes it's the only way to keep my head!)!
I try to actually take the time to keep the subdivisions kind of loose and organized, at least until I finalize them, otherwise I find that they can get twisted up and hard to fix. Maybe that's ones of the reasons why I take so long.
Don't know if there are counterparts to Railclone, TyConform, and Tyflow for Blender, although I'd be surprised if there wasn't plugins for me to learn. I'm also taking note of how you've organized the vertice lines (or are they called splines?)
Worked on the deflector some more, trying to get the effect the D has, which has been surprisingly difficult to do. Got some good tips along the way though and seems close enough for now
Working on the saucer texture, doing it with geometry that then gets rendered to a flat texture...i couldn't get a good unwrap with my mesh and i can keep kinda adding detail easily, it's reference a main patttern and then gets warp and cut it up to fit into place with other modfiers
Working on the saucer texture, doing it with geometry that then gets rendered to a flat texture...i couldn't get a good unwrap with my mesh and i can keep kinda adding detail easily, it's reference a main patttern and then gets warp and cut it up to fit into place with other modfiers
I don't know how I missed that update a while back, but I can't tell you how many times over the years I've used that method for creating textures. It works, especially when the unwrapper isn't being your friend.
Posts
Yeah, the Saber, Steamrunner and Norway were all really simple meshes. The only one of the ships designed specifically for the Borg battle in FC that was designed to be seen up close was the Akira class. Heck, the Saber and Steamrunner were both textured by taking orthographic pictures of the Enterprise-D and Enterprise-E physical models, scanning them digitally and then cutting them up into maps that fit the hull designs.
I’ve been struggling trying to make the radiator panels for the impulse drives on my Sovereign, and you’re halfway finished with your Sabre?!!!
When I first started 3D modeling, I pictured being able to punch out a model like you have been doing! How long did it take you to get this good?!
Also, kudos to giving her one helluva phaser arc! That’s one heavily armed little ship!
On the other hand, modeling myself has given me a perspective of how much hard work and practice it takes!
I'm also using a great plugin called Railclone to do my phaser strips and Tyflow to do some placement of geo and it has a modifier called TyConform, which can conform one piece of geo to another in various ways which is SUCH a time save for this type of a project to get things put together quickly.
Railclone (or RailcloneLite which is free for Max) is just using these 2 peices I made to copy along along a spline and then the points get welded together, takes about 5 seconds to make a new phaser strip!
Thanks for mentioning there's a free version of RailClone. I'd forgotten about that plugin. I have to investigate using it to make the corridors of my seaQuest interior.
No such luck for me. Even IF I could bring by laptop to work, they'd NEVER let me get away with modeling at work, no matter how slow it is! I get in trouble if I get bored, and start doodling on receipt paper (but sometimes it's the only way to keep my head!)!
I try to actually take the time to keep the subdivisions kind of loose and organized, at least until I finalize them, otherwise I find that they can get twisted up and hard to fix. Maybe that's ones of the reasons why I take so long.
Don't know if there are counterparts to Railclone, TyConform, and Tyflow for Blender, although I'd be surprised if there wasn't plugins for me to learn. I'm also taking note of how you've organized the vertice lines (or are they called splines?)
At one point, I'm going to want a Saber model.
It's always great to see one of these be done justice.
I don't know how I missed that update a while back, but I can't tell you how many times over the years I've used that method for creating textures. It works, especially when the unwrapper isn't being your friend.