As promised, here are som WIPs for additional models that are related to the Enterprise J.
First of the Shuttlecraft:
This is the executive shuttle primarily used for diplomatic or non-combat/scientific situations. Think of it like a flying limo. The front portion is designed to seperate and act as a life boat if the rest of the ship is in danger.
Now for the bridge:
Still alot to be done here. Holographics are utilized on this bridge for both tactical, communications, and assistance with navigation. There is also an additional crew member and that is a temporal officer who sits to the station far right of the captain.
jbridge2tm0.jpg
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At active stations, there are fifteen people on the bridge. You have the Captain, First Commander, Conn officer, Opps officer, Temporal Officer, Tactical officer, Engineering Officer, Communications officer, Science Officer, Hazard Control, Sensor Officer, and three security guards. When the ship is in down-time, only seven officers will be on the bridge.
The only reason about why I haven't gone the way of a holodeck/bridge environment is the problem with reliability. Starfleet may be on it's way, but the technology is still in it's early years for complete interface usage.
Anyways, I still have alot to go on the design.
i like it, though.
As far as the symetricalaty of the design goes, I still have two more stations to install on the other side of the bridge and widen the doorway leading to the observation lounge. Hopefully that will improve the flow of the design.
One of the Enterprise J's missions is Diplomacy with non-federation species, and representing starfleet. Numerous guests may be on the bridge so I want an appealing look to it. I know you all on the forums can help me guide it that way.
Some of us do with 3d models what others would do with hundreds of sheet of paper. We will change and change a design until we get it right.
One thing that really helps me is I have a model of a plain figure that I put into every interior scene I start putting together. (I forget where I got it at the moment, but I'm sure you can find an open source mesh somewhere on the web) I use this to get the relative heights of cielings, doors, chairs, consoles, everything. For me, the key to making an interior look as real as possible is the scale of the objects.
For example: When modeling a chair, I stand up and see where my own desk chair seat lines up with my leg. Then, when modeling the chair in Max, I line up the top of the seat to the same area on the leg of the figure in the scene. Once you have that translated, the rest is rather simple.
Lastly, I would echo some of the other comments by many of the others here. One major crit I recieved for my first interiors was making sure to keep corners and edges just a little rounded. It adds to the realism!
Also, IMHO, the chairs at the left side of the bridge are FAR to close together for anyone to sit at and be able to have some elbow room to work. When designing the different stations keep in mind that normally a bridge has the following: Tactical, Helm, Operations, Science, Environmental, Engineering, and Mission Ops. It looks like you have a chair for each of those folks but some are too close together! I'd really spread things out a bit.
That may be where some are getting with the symmetry issue, making sure each area has ample room even though they may not be in the direct view of your camera..
Smoothed out the pillars and added another set. Balanced out the workstations as well. I may redo the conn and ops station.
Question: Do you think that in the 26th century, starship bridges will still remain in the "symmetrical style" or start going into the way of the relativities bridge? That bridge had no symmetry what so ever.
Also, what do you all think about a two story bridge?
I think starship bridges will remain symmetrical even beyond.
What do you mean with a 'two story bridge'?
and the bridge:
And what I mean about a two story bridge is something where the space is utilized for a command center in both the horizontal and vertical axis. The first floor could be where conn, ops, tatical and command stations are located. While on the second floor could be science, engineering, sensors access to bridge escape pods, and various other aspects. Something that I have been toying around with for a while.
I have no clue if that made sense; the cld meds are kicking in.
would be good for wep and other critical crew in there at a time of battle where they can see in real time what the enermy are doing status of the shields weps and this would be faster to targeting and eeliminating the enermy
Keep up the good work. I am sure that wherever your vision takes this project, it will end up looking great!