A new WIP thread - and this is going to take a while. The "Motion Picture" drydock sequence is still one of my favourite VFX scenes - and I love that dock. It is amazing how much detail this thing has. So I thought I give it a try and model that beast with all that detail - maybe for future use in the Phase II series, who knows. WonA’t have that much time to model it, so progress will be most likely slow. But here is the first pic after about 2 hours...
Stay tuned...
BTW - I am still looking for accurate plans. I have a lot of HD screengrabs, but no blueprints. So if anyone has something on that heA’d like to share, IA’d appreciate it.
Posts
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=110400
i have a few odds and ends somewhere, i'll look around, you probably have most of what i got allready. Basil on here built a dock as well, he might have some.
looking forward to what maya can do on the dock!! .. and i'll have plenty of questions
Thanks!!
edit
http://ncc1701.us/18.html
http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=18643
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/tmp-dock-probert-av-presentation/
http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/frs-3.php
all i could find in a few minutes.. Hope it helps!!
in case you don't know already, there's this site called st-bilder where this guy basically puts every trek image on the internet in a gallery, you might find some refs in there
Still looking for a blueprint...
Some info on Mr. Kimble who worked with Probert http://probertdesigns.com/Folder_TECH/Probert_HOME.html
http://www.intelius.com/search-summary-out.php?ReportType=1&qf=David&qmi=&qn=Kimble&qs=TX&searchform=name&trackit=74&focusfirst=0
A bit of progress - finished the "lighting arrays", next will be the basic framework.
Of course he does, do you not recall his almost obsessive work into redoing his ST2009 Enterprise to be more accurate? :P
Looking good tobias!
Got the basic framing for the mid section and started on the detail between the frames (one of the things I wasnAât aware of )
looking excellent good sir!! and of course any wireframes or tutorials on how you did some of the things will be appreciated!! ( i'm learning!!)
On the detail level - I try to stay consistent with all my models, and donAât worry, IAâll keep my sanity No screw or bolt modelling on this one.
Tobias
That guy is a major leage a#%h&#e.
Still, nice job so far.
Matt - who are you referring to? Kurt? In that case - IAâve never had any problems, on the contrary.
Coming along very nicely. Did you manage to find any photos of the top of the thing at all?
http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=18643
ext_akiradockst.jpg UtopiaPlanitiaFleetYards.jpg
I have seen a picture of one with some structures on top, a bit like the top of the spacedock, but I can't find that now
speaking of the unfinished topside, my favorite pic of the miniature is the one whre you can see the antique radio bolted down in there controling some part of the lights i would guess! haha
i cant wait to see more, keep up the great work.
Well, I guess my 2 million estimate was a bit optimistic, but weAâll see. Next up will be the connectors for the framework...
looks bloody marvelous!!
Being a long time lurker, just couldn't help commenting on a hardware related question)) Basically, it's all about the GPU, if you're using hardware acceleration in the viewport, and more precisely, the amount of memory the GPU has. A poweful GPU would help e.g. in a case where you have two or more high-res screens (which is what real 3d artists usually use).
Now as far as memory goes, most of the high-end video cards out there have 1Gb of memory nowadays. I even have a simple GTS250 at home, and that has 1Gb of memory as well! There's even the 2Gb MSI version of some NVIDIA GPU's (not sure about ATI though), which is a dream for any 3d modeller out there, and for reasonable price, by the way.
The CPU actually helps if you don't use hardware acceleleration in the viewport, and of course for the renders. Rendering (at least in 3ds max and mental ray) benefits from the number of threads in the processor, so an i7 is the best choice for a 3d modeller. But then again, if you're thinking of building a rig, 930-class processors are essentially the best bang for your buck. Don't believe them saying that the bigger the number, the more powerful it is. Well, this is a bit off-top, and thread-hijacking, and Intel advertisement, but just so that you get the idea. It's not that difficult to build a machine that can handle what you're talking about there.
And don't forget about layers and adaptive degradation (don't remember nothing of the kind in 3ds max 8, must be some new version, but it's there, and it's very useful), and you can handle a star fleet in a snap. Layered rendering helps as well.
Of course, great work Tobias, what I admire the most is you getting that close to the refs. Nice to meet a perfectionist (I'm one as well, and that's why I'm not posting here on SFM yet )
Tobias, as you are known to follow the references to the smallest detail, could you share a bit of your knowledge? Like how do you work with 3d-references, e.g. photos or screengrabs, is it just a matter of training to get the proportions right, or do you use some tricks like doing calculations to get the right dimensions? That's the most interesting part, actually The rest is just patience and all, you know
I usually work on a standard quadcore with 8Gig - nothing too special, but should handle this easily. At home (where I work on this project atm) I just have my computer, which is pretty old by now (dualcore, 4 Gig). But with layering you can work in maya with pretty heavy models, so 2-3 million should be no big problem. It probably will get a bit laggy if you want to display them all.
As for reference - if I do not have blueprints, I usually put a picture of the object I am working on in the background and try to match the overall proportions with the 3d model. In this case, this is especially important for the framework, as they have to match up, otherwise the whole model will look odd. For the detail, I just go by eyesight...