"Official" means "licensed." On Star Trek, nothing licensed has ever been considered canon. The inaccuracies of those early blueprints clearly indicate that the makers had no insider information about the shows. Therefore, nothing on them can be considered official. However, if you want to believe that thing is a tractor beam, that's your prerogative. However, it's not an established fact, as we never once saw a D7 or K't'inga use a tractor beam on the shows. Weapons were fired from the vicinity of those "bumps" on TAS, though. (Episode: "More Tribbles, More Troubles," possibly others) It's not sure if they're coming from those things specifically, though.
As for the effects teams, I'm well aware of the issues. The colors and types of phasers the Enterprise used varied from episode to episode. Though, one thing that is consistent is that that the weapons came from the vicinity of the lower sensor array. The torpedoes are certainly not coming from under the bridge, as Franz Joseph labeled them on the "official" blueprints and in the Star Fleet Technical Manual. Great example of the effects teams doing whatever they want, even on the later shows: When the Enterprise-D used its tractor beam, it came from a running light, not what Andrew Probert clearly marked as a tractor beam on his plans.
Yeah, Cygnus X-1 is a fantastic site. There are some wonderful blueprints on there. There are also some cringe worthy ones. But, they don't discriminate, they post them all.
"Official" means "licensed." On Star Trek, nothing licensed has ever been considered canon. The inaccuracies of those early blueprints clearly indicate that the makers had no insider information about the shows. Therefore, nothing on them can be considered official. However, if you want to believe that thing is a tractor beam, that's your prerogative. However, it's not an established fact, as we never once saw a D7 or K't'inga use a tractor beam on the shows. Weapons were fired from the vicinity of those "bumps" on TAS, though. (Episode: "More Tribbles, More Troubles," possibly others) It's not sure if they're coming from those things specifically, though.
As for the effects teams, I'm well aware of the issues. The colors and types of phasers the Enterprise used varied from episode to episode. Though, one thing that is consistent is that that the weapons came from the vicinity of the lower sensor array. The torpedoes are certainly not coming from under the bridge, as Franz Joseph labeled them on the "official" blueprints and in the Star Fleet Technical Manual. Great example of the effects teams doing whatever they want, even on the later shows: When the Enterprise-D used its tractor beam, it came from a running light, not what Andrew Probert clearly marked as a tractor beam on his plans.
Yeah, Cygnus X-1 is a fantastic site. There are some wonderful blueprints on there. There are also some cringe worthy ones. But, they don't discriminate, they post them all.
Yeah,and sadly they didn't stop that even in the last series, "Enterprise", where an original connie class, the defiant, was shown firing phasers from the rear done over the shuttle bay that was clearly the shuttle bay operations ares. Plus she had rear photons too.
BTW in at least one ep the phasers did fire from well away from the sensor area, lemme see if i can find that image...
it was i "arena' the first ep to name photon torpedoes and show them as firing differently than phasers.
As to photon torpedoes, they made them projectiles so they could bury spock in one. It kinda makes sense since a PT is a matter/antimatter warhead, I suppose. You have it containing anti matter in a containment unit and when the sensors indicate proximity to the target the torp slams it into the matter.
I still wonder if they can shoot down torpedoes as kirk tried to do apparently in star trek 2.
Again one problem with trek, a writer has an idea, puts it in and POOF!, it rewrites trek tech and everything.
BTW, JWWright, if you want an idea I suppose you could mount a sensor array on top of the command pod. Maybe redo it a little with a reshaped bridge module and a pair of sensor systems flanking it. That might mean changing the things on the ship's 'shoulders' that are the sensors now but it could look cool.
Speaking of changing designs, there are some changes they made to the enteprise for STTMP that I really approved of. One was making the pylons bigger. The originals always looked too small.
Another change I liked was moving the torpedoes to the rear hull. The photon torpedoes use antimatter as a warhead, combine it with matter and you get total conversion of mass to energy at 100%.Fission and fusion converts less than 1% of the total mass to energy.
So it makes sense to put the systems that use antimatter in the engineering hull where the antimatter is stored. you have a shorted route to send antimatter from storage to the torpedoes, and less chance of something going wrong. Also if the ship has to saucer sep the torpedo tubes would be a waste of space in the saucer since it doesn't have antimatter.
I like the Phase II redesign. In a way, it actually did make it on screen, as the TMP refit is just a further refinement of what Matt Jefferies started. It's definitely a beautiful design. I love those long camera passes in TMP. It's a shame the effects sequences got shorter and shorter as the movies went on. These days, effects artists can't seem to be bothered to have an effects pass last longer than a few seconds.
Ironically the phase 2 design did make it into thge mo9vie, sort of. It was used in the very first promotional posters for STTMP. Have a good look at this:
For what my opinion's worth i am liking the look of your battlecruiser's forward section. It may just be me but the front of the pod makes me think of a caricature of a snarling mongol face for some reason. I just kind of see an angry face in it for some reason, I guess the narrow windows giving the impression of narrow eyes makes me think mongol.
Also this is OK as the original klingons were kind of supposed to reflect the idea of Genghis Khan's mongol horde in the star travel age. Just like the romulans were supposed to be a version of the roman empire with warp drive.
On a more superficial level the klingons were supposed to represent the russians and the romulans were supposed to represent the chines in the 60's, I know, but they were both meant to represent ancient earth cultures with star travel.
Since you want feeedback I'd say you need to get on the nacelles next, do up those front ends. Personally I'd kieep the disruptors mounted on the ends of the nacells for a couple reasons. Remember when deckard told kirk that the enterprise redisgn channeled phasers thru the warp engines for increased mpower? Yeah, maybe the klingons were doing that wioth their disruptors in TOS which is why they were moiunted on the nacelles. SoI'd stick with it as it does kinda tie in with STTMP.
Also i might add some "armor plating| to the rear hull reminiscent of the plating on the K'Tinga class in STTMPto reflect this cruiser being a "budget/'attrition/cheap" unit that uses crude and cheap armor plating to supplement it's defenses in place of more expensive improved shielding.
Thanks guys, I think what bugged me most about the Phase II 1701 were the nacelles... the TMP refit nacelles were very sleek and futuristic.
This Klingon ship does have kind of a face, I thought the armor plating should kind of look like warpaint, aggressive and intimidating. Cut in some windows to help give it a sense of scale - check it out:
Love your work, really. Of course I hate your guts for being so much better at 3d than me but hey, that's just natural, nothing personal.
You really have the right idea about a klingon ship, esp0ecially the original ones. They were supposed to be the embodiment of aggression and violence. I mean, we all know what the klingon trefoil symbol looks like, am i right? And we all know what a d7/k'tinga looks like a big metal version of, right? The embodiment of aggression and violence.
Also a klingon ship should look angry. In addition to what it obviously looks like a klingon ship's boom and command pod also resemble a clenched fist at the end of an extended arm.
I caught the warpaint vibe too.
I might make the sensor dishes coppery or bronze folored to suggest a similar role to the enterprise's sensor deflector dish.
the onlthing that bugs me is the crease in the top of the command deck, as a modeler it just looks like a flaw that is screaming to be fixed. Are you using something like the mirror command in blender that could be causing that?
I don't know about 'better'... remember, those fine details I'm using are from free greeble packs found here: Greeble Packs.
The only way to get better is to keep modelling and be sure to challenge yourself with modelling things outside of your comfort zone, I find that modelling contemporary furniture is excellent exercise, see my TurboSquid site. When I am done, I post them there, and for some reason, people buy them. I have no idea what they use them for.
I am using a mirror/ symmetry function, I start with basic blocky shapes then refine them as I go, I'm not worried about any seams, I haven't begun work on the top decks, patience is key.
I haven't even thought about texturing at all, I'm nowhere near that bridge to cross yet. When I model using this method, the piece takes on a life of it's own, it kind of tells me how it wants to appear, I'm not working from any art direction.
Ok. Now your close to working on the upper deck. In TOS there were big windows on the sides of the upper deck, supposedly for a 'rec area' for officers. Don't know if you want to do that or not.
The top of the pod had a couple things on it. One was a dome topped tower,which had what looked like a giant kidney bean with eyes around the forward base. Uh, yeah, if you could avoid the kidney bean with eyes look that'd probably be great.
I might recommend a dome, possibly geodesic in this case, with a tower rising from it a bit, topped off with a smooth dome.
as an homage to the original design, maybe you could put those little greebles that the original D7 had behind the section with the kidney bean and dome on it.
I'd lose the pipes under th under the torp tube. They look like an upside down wispy mustache to be honest. I think it'd look better sans those.If you want then coming out from under the tube, you could bring them down and back to that ring the others connect to.that would work.
About the windows. I don['t think klingons hips went around with red internal lighting all the time, I think that was a "battle" thing. in non combat conditions the ships seemed to have more normal lighting.
A possibly cool idea it to have the lights be maybe whitish yellow normally, but go to red during a battle station situation. As an aside, you could kinda tell what they ship's status was by the window lights.
Posts
"Official" means "licensed." On Star Trek, nothing licensed has ever been considered canon. The inaccuracies of those early blueprints clearly indicate that the makers had no insider information about the shows. Therefore, nothing on them can be considered official. However, if you want to believe that thing is a tractor beam, that's your prerogative. However, it's not an established fact, as we never once saw a D7 or K't'inga use a tractor beam on the shows. Weapons were fired from the vicinity of those "bumps" on TAS, though. (Episode: "More Tribbles, More Troubles," possibly others) It's not sure if they're coming from those things specifically, though.
As for the effects teams, I'm well aware of the issues. The colors and types of phasers the Enterprise used varied from episode to episode. Though, one thing that is consistent is that that the weapons came from the vicinity of the lower sensor array. The torpedoes are certainly not coming from under the bridge, as Franz Joseph labeled them on the "official" blueprints and in the Star Fleet Technical Manual. Great example of the effects teams doing whatever they want, even on the later shows: When the Enterprise-D used its tractor beam, it came from a running light, not what Andrew Probert clearly marked as a tractor beam on his plans.
Yeah, Cygnus X-1 is a fantastic site. There are some wonderful blueprints on there. There are also some cringe worthy ones. But, they don't discriminate, they post them all.
Yeah,and sadly they didn't stop that even in the last series, "Enterprise", where an original connie class, the defiant, was shown firing phasers from the rear done over the shuttle bay that was clearly the shuttle bay operations ares. Plus she had rear photons too.
BTW in at least one ep the phasers did fire from well away from the sensor area, lemme see if i can find that image...
it was i "arena' the first ep to name photon torpedoes and show them as firing differently than phasers.
enterprise-red-phasers.jpg
Maybe they moved the phasers to try and make it look like they were a seperate system from the torps.
I still wonder if they can shoot down torpedoes as kirk tried to do apparently in star trek 2.
Again one problem with trek, a writer has an idea, puts it in and POOF!, it rewrites trek tech and everything.
Another change I liked was moving the torpedoes to the rear hull. The photon torpedoes use antimatter as a warhead, combine it with matter and you get total conversion of mass to energy at 100%.Fission and fusion converts less than 1% of the total mass to energy.
So it makes sense to put the systems that use antimatter in the engineering hull where the antimatter is stored. you have a shorted route to send antimatter from storage to the torpedoes, and less chance of something going wrong. Also if the ship has to saucer sep the torpedo tubes would be a waste of space in the saucer since it doesn't have antimatter.
More work on the fwd hull:
I like the Phase II redesign. In a way, it actually did make it on screen, as the TMP refit is just a further refinement of what Matt Jefferies started. It's definitely a beautiful design. I love those long camera passes in TMP. It's a shame the effects sequences got shorter and shorter as the movies went on. These days, effects artists can't seem to be bothered to have an effects pass last longer than a few seconds.
Star Trek the Motion Picture (1979) 0.jpg
Also this is OK as the original klingons were kind of supposed to reflect the idea of Genghis Khan's mongol horde in the star travel age. Just like the romulans were supposed to be a version of the roman empire with warp drive.
On a more superficial level the klingons were supposed to represent the russians and the romulans were supposed to represent the chines in the 60's, I know, but they were both meant to represent ancient earth cultures with star travel.
Since you want feeedback I'd say you need to get on the nacelles next, do up those front ends. Personally I'd kieep the disruptors mounted on the ends of the nacells for a couple reasons. Remember when deckard told kirk that the enterprise redisgn channeled phasers thru the warp engines for increased mpower? Yeah, maybe the klingons were doing that wioth their disruptors in TOS which is why they were moiunted on the nacelles. SoI'd stick with it as it does kinda tie in with STTMP.
Also i might add some "armor plating| to the rear hull reminiscent of the plating on the K'Tinga class in STTMPto reflect this cruiser being a "budget/'attrition/cheap" unit that uses crude and cheap armor plating to supplement it's defenses in place of more expensive improved shielding.
This Klingon ship does have kind of a face, I thought the armor plating should kind of look like warpaint, aggressive and intimidating. Cut in some windows to help give it a sense of scale - check it out:
More bits and pieces...
You really have the right idea about a klingon ship, esp0ecially the original ones. They were supposed to be the embodiment of aggression and violence. I mean, we all know what the klingon trefoil symbol looks like, am i right? And we all know what a d7/k'tinga looks like a big metal version of, right? The embodiment of aggression and violence.
Also a klingon ship should look angry. In addition to what it obviously looks like a klingon ship's boom and command pod also resemble a clenched fist at the end of an extended arm.
I caught the warpaint vibe too.
I might make the sensor dishes coppery or bronze folored to suggest a similar role to the enterprise's sensor deflector dish.
the onlthing that bugs me is the crease in the top of the command deck, as a modeler it just looks like a flaw that is screaming to be fixed. Are you using something like the mirror command in blender that could be causing that?
I don't know about 'better'... remember, those fine details I'm using are from free greeble packs found here: Greeble Packs.
The only way to get better is to keep modelling and be sure to challenge yourself with modelling things outside of your comfort zone, I find that modelling contemporary furniture is excellent exercise, see my TurboSquid site. When I am done, I post them there, and for some reason, people buy them. I have no idea what they use them for.
I am using a mirror/ symmetry function, I start with basic blocky shapes then refine them as I go, I'm not worried about any seams, I haven't begun work on the top decks, patience is key.
I haven't even thought about texturing at all, I'm nowhere near that bridge to cross yet. When I model using this method, the piece takes on a life of it's own, it kind of tells me how it wants to appear, I'm not working from any art direction.
More updates to come, stay tuned!
The top of the pod had a couple things on it. One was a dome topped tower,which had what looked like a giant kidney bean with eyes around the forward base. Uh, yeah, if you could avoid the kidney bean with eyes look that'd probably be great.
I might recommend a dome, possibly geodesic in this case, with a tower rising from it a bit, topped off with a smooth dome.
as an homage to the original design, maybe you could put those little greebles that the original D7 had behind the section with the kidney bean and dome on it.
here, it's called the life support section in this image.book-of-klingon-plans-sheet-2.jpg
The command decks will definitely taker inspiration from the original, I can't wait to see what appears there.
:argh:
A possibly cool idea it to have the lights be maybe whitish yellow normally, but go to red during a battle station situation. As an aside, you could kinda tell what they ship's status was by the window lights.