Current progress on the build.. The interior of the nacelles is under construction and nearing completion. All decks up through deck 2 are now roughed in. Once the nacelles are done, I'll be tweaking the bridge, then doing a cleanup pass to get rid of as much un-needed detail as possible before beginning the detail pass.
Biggest issue on the backburner at present is whether to handle engineering and the shuttlebay as single levels or split them across the decks. I'm leaning toward the former at this point.
Well I'm not familiar with the interiors of the TOS Enterprise but damn that looks absolutely gorgeous ! :thumb: On a side note, are you displaying the maps on schematic views in the highest resolution possible ? It would most certainly make working in viewports much easier.
Well I'm not familiar with the interiors of the TOS Enterprise but damn that looks absolutely gorgeous ! :thumb: On a side note, are you displaying the maps on schematic views in the highest resolution possible ? It would most certainly make working in viewports much easier.
Thank you. I have the settings checked for adjust to max; but, apparently it wasn't working. I unchecked it and rechecked it and it changed. So, thanks a ton for asking. It hasn't been a huge hindrance as I just did a render pass now and then to check alignments. The machine is so fast that the render time is near non-existant even with 792k polys..
Lovely!
All we need now is a 3d Rapid Prototype Printer big enough....
Yeah, that has been suggested before lol. The thread at 3dbuzz is over 35,000 hits. It's being tracked across 5 sites. And you'd be amazed at the private querries I've gotten
Quick update. As per usual, there is more posted at the 3dbuzz thread; but, this shot shows where I am now on the nacelle rough-in. The plasma cycling stations are all in place. Matter distribution runs are about 50 percent done.
I made a change from the plans on the access crawlway and made it a walkway instead. To make it large enough a space for gaming to service as a crawlway was going to entail enlarging it to the point that making it a walkway was viable and the matter distribution runs would have to be rerouted as a result. The impact is minimal and I"m building an alternate version to plan, so both will be available. Just a heads up for purists.
edit:
The first image up top shows the current progress - cutting in the lighting and air vents.
These last two images are just showing the buildup of the plasma cycling systems from perspective and plan views.
Been working on the matter intake in the fore section of the nacelle. If anyone has recommendations on this, please chime in. I have no reference images of the inner workings, so I'm essentially winging it.
.. don't know if I entirely like the result so far; but, it's a start.
Here, the distribution lines are in place. They need tied into the aft section yet; but, the lines are all in place as of now.
Finally, a detail shot aft to show the rough work on the exterior shell.
So, I changed the fore section of the nacelle. Still not totally happy with it; but, happier than before. The nacelle still needs some internal and external work done; but, for the moment, she's done for the rough-in work. Other things needing done will require that the shoring up of the shuttlebay be completed and the port pylon be attached - the which I'm not ready for as yet.
That said, it's time to get back to the Bridge deck. That needs to be completed and the skins for decks 2-4 need redone. Technically, I could leave that for the detail phase; but, we'll see. For the moment, some overall progress pics and a poly count..
What happens when you build to plans closely?
Simple, when you align to center on plan your decks line up.
And that's what I got. I was worried that more major tweaking to the Bridge would be needed; but, once imported, I set the pivot, rotated it 36 degrees then placed it on center and bing! We have a winner!!!
The turbolift needed some tweaking for alignment; but, other than that, just one minor fix to a wall that spun out of place.
What does that mean? Well, the rough translation is, finish putting the outer walls in place, create an outer skin shroud for the lift and we're pretty much good.
(happy dance)
So, as I was hoping, the rough-in of the Bridge will in all likelyhood be done Today. More to come.
The Franz Joseph blueprints have a lot of errors and inaccuracies, but they're still a lot of fun. This looks like a BEAUTIFUL project! Where did you get the cross-sections of the nacelle interiors? I don't remember those being part of the Franz Joseph blueprint sheet set I have.
This is just..wow, just breath taking work. How long does it take to render one pic? Are they high res?
The images are max for the graphics card. And I'm capturing at 1600x1200. I have a generic material applied to everything; but, just to let me fade to transparent as I need to. Nothing fancy. I've no doubt that once all the lighting and regular materials are in place, I'll be able to have a cup of coffee between renders lol.
The Franz Joseph blueprints have a lot of errors and inaccuracies, but they're still a lot of fun. This looks like a BEAUTIFUL project! Where did you get the cross-sections of the nacelle interiors? I don't remember those being part of the Franz Joseph blueprint sheet set I have.
I think the cross sections came from cygnus. It's been a long while since I was over there; but, I'm pretty sure on that.
Didn't get a chance to post last night before passing out; so, here are last night's final updates:
.. ok, this is showing the final placement of the outer support struts and beginning fixup of the inner wall. You'll note the shroud for the turbolift in progress aft.
Here, the inner walls are all in place.
.. and now the outer walls and shroud are completed
.. better view on the lift shroud.
.. and a profile shot sitting atop decks 2, 3 and 4.
The shroud is not yet capped. There is some work that will be done later in detailing that I'd prefer it uncapped for. So, for now, that's it. I'm working now on the hull skins for decks 2-4.
.. don't look bad just for image snapping; but, they're off now with the updates to the upper decks.
the red areas are of particular interest and show that there's definitely some shoring up to do. I'm doing some scaling work now to see if simple scaling of the edges on y will fix most of it. Going well so far; but, we'll see.
profile and top down on the altered skins. I don't like them.
Moreover, I'm liking Franz Joseph less and less. lol.
The alteration attempts on the skins have essentially failed.
Denting is apparent in the aft section in multiple places. And the angles of the curves along the back are so restrictive as to make scaling and minor alterations impractical. It took me weeks early on to get the skins ironed out, clean and dent free. So, I don't know how long this is going to take. When I did it the first time, I there was a lot that I didn't know about max. So, cross your fingers.
These turned out better than the original skins I made by far. I made them in less than an hour; so, guess my skills have drastically improved the deck four outer walls now need to be trimmed to meet up to the new outer skins; but, otherwise, homestretch.
The skins for decks 2-4 are trimmed to deck 4 now and in place. The dorsal skins have likewise been trimmed to both hulls and are in place. The poly count now is so high that I can't do an overview shot for the moment; so, I've begun phase 2. I'm cleaning her up starting with deck 7 - which happens to be the most bloated on polycount of all the decks. And it is sheer tedium! I'm making lots of headway; but, there are likely not to be any pics for a bit while I do this.
Along with this, I'm chopping main engineering and the shuttlebay from the several decks they're attached to and making them their own seperate mesh. I couldn't find a way to make that work otherwise for the purposes of the game engines; so, the decision there is pretty much made. It will be a differentiation between the base model and the game version.
Continued good luck on this daunting project, Havoc. Franz Joseph's designs look good on paper, and they are much-loved by many Trek fans; but in my opinion they don't make much sense "realistically." I'm no architect, but I don't think his blueprints would pass muster in the "real world."
The cleanup is tedious; but, ongoing. I divided cleanup into three phases: High poly, low poly and final. The final phase is where I will break engineering and the shuttlebay away. There is no real reason to do this on the high poly model; so, it will only be addressed on the low poly model. That said, the nacelles are now being trimmed for export and that will finish the high poly cleanup phase. After that, all the decks will be exported and then they will be trimmed again for the low poly. For now, the high poly model will retain the built in floors. The low poly will not. They will be blown out where geographically possible. Deck 7 has
rises in the outer rings that must be part of the structure on export as it would present a real problem to duplicate in bsp. It will make for a fat mesh; but, I don't see a way around it.
Now, I should also throw out there the fact that I've trimmed a few small decks in between doing decks 6, 7 and 8. I took on doing 8 because, though already exportable, it was nearly as poly fat as deck 6 and shouldn't have been. I cut it in half in two days. Deck 6 took two days as well. Deck 7 required a week to trim down. If I could find more to trim I'd still be on it. But as of now, any more trimming there would start affecting geometry in ways I don't want to.
The nacelles are likely to take a while as well. The poly count there is 59, 775 - 6k less than deck 7 was when I started it and, unfortunately, it will likely prove far more difficult to trim down; so, I may have to break up the internals into exportable modules (yech). We'll see. I started work on that today.
I can't say this is going to go quickly. Though, I can say it should go much more quickly after tha nacelles are finished as all the decks from here on out will be much smaller. Back to work..
The fascinating thing about the Franz Joseph design is that he wasn't actually a Star Trek fan at the time he created the plans... his daughter was, and he felt that she and her friends were being "taken" by merchandisers at conventions. So he set out to create something better for her. He got all kinds of still photos, and used those and his experience as an aircraft draftsman to create the plans we all know and love. The Technical Manual followed later.
But I've sometimes looked at his plans, and wondered why you wouldn't, for instance, put sickbay and the transporter room right next to each other. If you beam up injured crew, you want a fast trip to trauma!
Posts
Thank you. I'm trying to post at least one update to the
3dbuzz thread per day.
Current progress on the build.. The interior of the nacelles is under construction and nearing completion. All decks up through deck 2 are now roughed in. Once the nacelles are done, I'll be tweaking the bridge, then doing a cleanup pass to get rid of as much un-needed detail as possible before beginning the detail pass.
Here are current work images on the nacelles:
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/havoc211/progress_010510_3.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/havoc211/progress_010610_1.jpg
Biggest issue on the backburner at present is whether to handle engineering and the shuttlebay as single levels or split them across the decks. I'm leaning toward the former at this point.
Ok, how many thought I'd have given up by now?
Thank you. I have the settings checked for adjust to max; but, apparently it wasn't working. I unchecked it and rechecked it and it changed. So, thanks a ton for asking. It hasn't been a huge hindrance as I just did a render pass now and then to check alignments. The machine is so fast that the render time is near non-existant even with 792k polys..
All we need now is a 3d Rapid Prototype Printer big enough....
Yeah, that has been suggested before lol. The thread at 3dbuzz is over 35,000 hits. It's being tracked across 5 sites. And you'd be amazed at the private querries I've gotten
Thank you, sir!
Quick update. As per usual, there is more posted at the 3dbuzz thread; but, this shot shows where I am now on the nacelle rough-in. The plasma cycling stations are all in place. Matter distribution runs are about 50 percent done.
I made a change from the plans on the access crawlway and made it a walkway instead. To make it large enough a space for gaming to service as a crawlway was going to entail enlarging it to the point that making it a walkway was viable and the matter distribution runs would have to be rerouted as a result. The impact is minimal and I"m building an alternate version to plan, so both will be available. Just a heads up for purists.
edit:
The first image up top shows the current progress - cutting in the lighting and air vents.
These last two images are just showing the buildup of the plasma cycling systems from perspective and plan views.
.. don't know if I entirely like the result so far; but, it's a start.
Here, the distribution lines are in place. They need tied into the aft section yet; but, the lines are all in place as of now.
Finally, a detail shot aft to show the rough work on the exterior shell.
Thank you
So, I changed the fore section of the nacelle. Still not totally happy with it; but, happier than before. The nacelle still needs some internal and external work done; but, for the moment, she's done for the rough-in work. Other things needing done will require that the shoring up of the shuttlebay be completed and the port pylon be attached - the which I'm not ready for as yet.
That said, it's time to get back to the Bridge deck. That needs to be completed and the skins for decks 2-4 need redone. Technically, I could leave that for the detail phase; but, we'll see. For the moment, some overall progress pics and a poly count..
1,013,575
What happens when you build to plans closely?
Simple, when you align to center on plan your decks line up.
And that's what I got. I was worried that more major tweaking to the Bridge would be needed; but, once imported, I set the pivot, rotated it 36 degrees then placed it on center and bing! We have a winner!!!
The turbolift needed some tweaking for alignment; but, other than that, just one minor fix to a wall that spun out of place.
What does that mean? Well, the rough translation is, finish putting the outer walls in place, create an outer skin shroud for the lift and we're pretty much good.
(happy dance)
So, as I was hoping, the rough-in of the Bridge will in all likelyhood be done Today. More to come.
The images are max for the graphics card. And I'm capturing at 1600x1200. I have a generic material applied to everything; but, just to let me fade to transparent as I need to. Nothing fancy. I've no doubt that once all the lighting and regular materials are in place, I'll be able to have a cup of coffee between renders lol.
I think the cross sections came from cygnus. It's been a long while since I was over there; but, I'm pretty sure on that.
A thousand thank yous.
.. ok, this is showing the final placement of the outer support struts and beginning fixup of the inner wall. You'll note the shroud for the turbolift in progress aft.
Here, the inner walls are all in place.
.. and now the outer walls and shroud are completed
.. better view on the lift shroud.
.. and a profile shot sitting atop decks 2, 3 and 4.
The shroud is not yet capped. There is some work that will be done later in detailing that I'd prefer it uncapped for. So, for now, that's it. I'm working now on the hull skins for decks 2-4.
.. don't look bad just for image snapping; but, they're off now with the updates to the upper decks.
the red areas are of particular interest and show that there's definitely some shoring up to do. I'm doing some scaling work now to see if simple scaling of the edges on y will fix most of it. Going well so far; but, we'll see.
profile and top down on the altered skins. I don't like them.
Moreover, I'm liking Franz Joseph less and less. lol.
The alteration attempts on the skins have essentially failed.
Denting is apparent in the aft section in multiple places. And the angles of the curves along the back are so restrictive as to make scaling and minor alterations impractical. It took me weeks early on to get the skins ironed out, clean and dent free. So, I don't know how long this is going to take. When I did it the first time, I there was a lot that I didn't know about max. So, cross your fingers.
These turned out better than the original skins I made by far. I made them in less than an hour; so, guess my skills have drastically improved
The skins for decks 2-4 are trimmed to deck 4 now and in place. The dorsal skins have likewise been trimmed to both hulls and are in place. The poly count now is so high that I can't do an overview shot for the moment; so, I've begun phase 2. I'm cleaning her up starting with deck 7 - which happens to be the most bloated on polycount of all the decks. And it is sheer tedium! I'm making lots of headway; but, there are likely not to be any pics for a bit while I do this.
Along with this, I'm chopping main engineering and the shuttlebay from the several decks they're attached to and making them their own seperate mesh. I couldn't find a way to make that work otherwise for the purposes of the game engines; so, the decision there is pretty much made. It will be a differentiation between the base model and the game version.
The cleanup is tedious; but, ongoing. I divided cleanup into three phases: High poly, low poly and final. The final phase is where I will break engineering and the shuttlebay away. There is no real reason to do this on the high poly model; so, it will only be addressed on the low poly model. That said, the nacelles are now being trimmed for export and that will finish the high poly cleanup phase. After that, all the decks will be exported and then they will be trimmed again for the low poly. For now, the high poly model will retain the built in floors. The low poly will not. They will be blown out where geographically possible. Deck 7 has
rises in the outer rings that must be part of the structure on export as it would present a real problem to duplicate in bsp. It will make for a fat mesh; but, I don't see a way around it.
Now, I should also throw out there the fact that I've trimmed a few small decks in between doing decks 6, 7 and 8. I took on doing 8 because, though already exportable, it was nearly as poly fat as deck 6 and shouldn't have been. I cut it in half in two days. Deck 6 took two days as well. Deck 7 required a week to trim down. If I could find more to trim I'd still be on it. But as of now, any more trimming there would start affecting geometry in ways I don't want to.
The nacelles are likely to take a while as well. The poly count there is 59, 775 - 6k less than deck 7 was when I started it and, unfortunately, it will likely prove far more difficult to trim down; so, I may have to break up the internals into exportable modules (yech). We'll see. I started work on that today.
I can't say this is going to go quickly. Though, I can say it should go much more quickly after tha nacelles are finished as all the decks from here on out will be much smaller. Back to work..
And when you're finished maybe you could start on the Enerterprise D?
I think a defiant interior would be cool when you done. lol
keep it up
But I've sometimes looked at his plans, and wondered why you wouldn't, for instance, put sickbay and the transporter room right next to each other. If you beam up injured crew, you want a fast trip to trauma!