I don't know, you wait around for ages, and then three Constellation-class ships come along together.
Here we go with the start of mine, then. Tackling the saucer first of all. I have found the available plans to be fairly poor, so I pretty much discarded them. I have scaled things using photos, all relative to the TMP Enterprise saucer which is nestled in the middle.
damn, 3 artists, known for doing high-quality meshes, doing the same ship. being curious what your Constellation will look like next to the Constellations from evil_genius_180 and from Tobias Richter. if this was a contest... i didn't want to be in the jury...
What would be even more interesting would be someone trying to work out the obvious kit-bashing gnarls in the Constellation's design. I never really bought that the Constellation was from the same era as the Enterprise refit, Excelsior, Miranda, and Oberth... it looks like an aftermarket federation ship cobbled together by some rakish band of smugglers and pirates to fool rim world yokels into believing they're a Federation ship so they can scam them out of valuables.
Oops, I accidentally wrote the premise to a better Star Trek series than the last two to air.
You got to love this place. someone builds a ship and then everyone jumps on the band wagon. Remind me of the days everyone was doing the big G.
never the less looks like you are off to a great job.
I agree with Chris, with each of you doing it in a different app, it should be intresting to see how it turns out.
Now we just need someone to do it in Blender.
What would be even more interesting would be someone trying to work out the obvious kit-bashing gnarls in the Constellation's design.
If by that you mean rework the design to eliminate the glaring clunky bits, I'm in full agreement - I always felt that while greebling to the extent seen on the Reliant was acceptable, this one took it a step too far. I won't bother with a foot-long list of things I'd like to change though - this is hardly the place for it....
Martoctivus, awesome work as usual. The question is, with Tobias seemingly having gone quiet on updates, who will reach the finish line first?
Thanks all. I think I can safely say that I will finish last, and by some margin. That is because, quite dangerously, I have Plans.
About the greebliness... I actually think that this ship has fewer greebles than the Miranda, it's just that on that ship they are all contained very neatly within a couple of well-defined areas, whereas on this design they are scattered around all over the place. The large protrusions on the bottom... we could call them warts... they are a bit strange, but I like to think of them as being specialised sensor suites for use on exploration missions.
I am going to try to improve a couple of areas on this design though - the Constitution pylons glued to the top saucer I would like to make look a little less like Constitution pylons, without making any fundamental changes to that area. I am also intending to not blindly follow the greebles that are on the studio model, but instead improve them - retain the general look but make them more than just random things glued on to a model to look good. We'll see how that goes
Great start. I like the idea about improvements too. I've always disliked the overt pylon placement, and I have to admit that I wouldn't miss the autobot stowed away on the ventral hull.
Well I've done a bit since last time out... I started off by altering the panels on the lower bridge levels slightly. I found a better ref shot of the TMP Enterprise which showed them more clearly. Then I thought I might as well go ahead and add the pinstriping around that area.
The main thrust of the work over the last week though was to get the lower saucer shield grids cut. Before I could do that, I decided I needed to make up the two pairs of breasts, and the cutouts for the udders, or angular warts, or whatever. Let's call them the thingies. So here she is now...
Report's of this ship's demise are greatly exaggerated...
Having said that, I haven't done much to it lately. Someone decided to go play Mass Effect 2, didn't they?
This is the sensor probe thing hanging below the ship (not that such terms have any meaning in space). It is undetailed for now, but I shall return to it later and do a couple of detail passes to take it beyond the studio model.
Nice.
I know what you mean about gaming. I got a pic all done, just need to the compositing work to finishes it.
But instead of doing that, I have been playing Batman Arkham city.
So I have finally sat down to this for long enough to finish off the other lumps - the coffins (yes, I know I haven't quite finished the rear tits - I shall deal with those another time).
I decided these things just had to be filled with some gubbins... and then I added glowy bits. Might tweak that over time, but I shall see how it all looks from a few more angles first.
The shells look good, though I'm not a fan of the glowy bits. To me, they look like something out of '50s Sci-Fi, not from a more modern show like TNG. Also, the Constellation-class doesn't have a lot of things that glow, and none that glow for no reason (that's probably one reason I like it as well as i do.)
They're subject to alterations of course. I'm not sure I like the amount of glowyness as it is either, or the variety of colour. There will be some light in there, but I will scale it back a bit.
I like it! If Constellation were built as a hero ship, instead of a kitbash for the ready room background, I think there would have been glowy bits in the coffins!
I LOVE the little color glow choices and the gubbins look awesome! Even though they are difficult to see, they look great inside behind those screens (which look totally Trek ) If those coffins are some sort of sensor housing, it helps give some actual variation to the umbrella term "sensors."
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Here we go with the start of mine, then. Tackling the saucer first of all. I have found the available plans to be fairly poor, so I pretty much discarded them. I have scaled things using photos, all relative to the TMP Enterprise saucer which is nestled in the middle.
There will be more!
Do you work by eyeballing pictures, or do you use plans?
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Not only are 3 of us doing these, but we all use different applications. That really makes it interesting.
Looking good so far and I love the finish you give to your renders.
Oops, I accidentally wrote the premise to a better Star Trek series than the last two to air.
never the less looks like you are off to a great job.
I agree with Chris, with each of you doing it in a different app, it should be intresting to see how it turns out.
Now we just need someone to do it in Blender.
If by that you mean rework the design to eliminate the glaring clunky bits, I'm in full agreement - I always felt that while greebling to the extent seen on the Reliant was acceptable, this one took it a step too far. I won't bother with a foot-long list of things I'd like to change though - this is hardly the place for it....
Martoctivus, awesome work as usual. The question is, with Tobias seemingly having gone quiet on updates, who will reach the finish line first?
.. for me ( and no.. i'm not starting one..) I'd do like Drex's version and have a clean version.. I love Macross.. but not on my Trek ships!!
About the greebliness... I actually think that this ship has fewer greebles than the Miranda, it's just that on that ship they are all contained very neatly within a couple of well-defined areas, whereas on this design they are scattered around all over the place. The large protrusions on the bottom... we could call them warts... they are a bit strange, but I like to think of them as being specialised sensor suites for use on exploration missions.
I am going to try to improve a couple of areas on this design though - the Constitution pylons glued to the top saucer I would like to make look a little less like Constitution pylons, without making any fundamental changes to that area. I am also intending to not blindly follow the greebles that are on the studio model, but instead improve them - retain the general look but make them more than just random things glued on to a model to look good. We'll see how that goes
The main thrust of the work over the last week though was to get the lower saucer shield grids cut. Before I could do that, I decided I needed to make up the two pairs of breasts, and the cutouts for the udders, or angular warts, or whatever. Let's call them the thingies. So here she is now...
Having said that, I haven't done much to it lately. Someone decided to go play Mass Effect 2, didn't they?
This is the sensor probe thing hanging below the ship (not that such terms have any meaning in space). It is undetailed for now, but I shall return to it later and do a couple of detail passes to take it beyond the studio model.
I hear you there. I've been doing more gaming than modeling lately also.
I know what you mean about gaming. I got a pic all done, just need to the compositing work to finishes it.
But instead of doing that, I have been playing Batman Arkham city.
I decided these things just had to be filled with some gubbins... and then I added glowy bits. Might tweak that over time, but I shall see how it all looks from a few more angles first.
The glows are fine.