JES

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

I made new nacelle pylons to better suit my vision for this ship. The design is based on a ship I designed and built about 18 years ago, though I lacked the skill to do it justice at the time. Also, I was working in Truespace 2 at the time.









So, I watched the first episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 last night. I really enjoyed it, another strong start for the season. Though, for me at least, Season 2 started strong, kind of went "meh" in the middle, but pulled it together for a decent ending.

However, one thing bugs me about newer Star Trek, and it's the ships. It's not the designs or weird crap like square nacelles in Discovery, it's the way they're built. Nothing really flows together in complex curves with most of the newer ships, like you used to get with Star Trek. Even the JJ Abrams reboot trilogy did this, particularly with the Enterprise, but with all of the other ships as well. Star Trek has always been known for its flowing, almost organic shapes to its ships. Even the early CGI designs seen in First Contact had this, particularly the Akira class, which was a favorite of designer Alex Jaeger, as well as the producers. So, it got more love. But, even the others had flowing, complex curves. You don't get that with most the newer Starfleet designs. There are a couple exceptions to this, but mostly it looks like they just tacked on bits together to make them look complex, but realistically they're more simple to build. I think that may be the idea, as it's likely a money and time saving thing.

I really like it when you make your own designs. And I'm really liking how this one is shaping up. I'll be paying attention to how you build this. I'm going to need it as I continue working in Blender myself!

Also, I've had the same problem with the newer Star Trek designs. It seems that they do improve slightly for each season, but more often than not appear to lack much thought into their design, especially the non-Federation designs, and this is especially endemic in SNW (what the f#$k are those Gorn ships supposed to be?!)

I've had this idea in mind of doing a redesign of the Inquiry class, but based off of HunterG's redesign, and perhaps QSD components for good measure (after a lot more practice with getting used to Blender of course).

publiusr wrote: »

Great shape. Still looking forward to your Planet of the Titans type ship.

I know you still are. We'll see when/if I get back to that. So much to draw, so little time. Plus I want to start trying some architecture sketches, and need to move away from spaceships, at least for a little bit.

Anyways, week 4 is here!


This week, I began taking the design in yet another direction, centered around an ovular nacelle pylon assembly mounted via interconnecting dorsal and ventral-I hesitate to call them necks, but that is essentially what they are, with the nacelles mounted on a 45 degree angle on the corners at every 90 degree angle.

Originally, I wanted to play with the command hull having a stretched lenticular hull with a pointy tip, but I can't quite seem to get it to look right.

Then I started playing around with the general design of the CSS Archer from Renegades, since I've always thought that was a logical direction for Federation starship design anyways. And her impulse drives were too interesting not to play around with, this time in a quad arrangement.

I've probably been also taking too much time practicing with shading and lighting contrast, but I've figured out that I'm going to need it in order to make everything look right, especially the nacelles.

C&C is welcome of course! Failing that, my plan is to take the design elements from the CSS Archer, the shuttlebay placements from the concept in the far left or middle left hand corner, the wedge-shaped design motif from the design in the middle right, and combine them, while the nacelles will likely be a lot like the CSS Archer, but more narrow, and I'm going to play around with combining elements from those with the USS Stargazer's.

Okay, it's been a while since I last posed something, therefore it's time to post my latest work on my attempt to redesign King Liger, which has been challenging because, well, look at it! It was clearly not designed to be an action figure that could move like an actual lion! But it's also been fun, because there is so little in the way of detail, that there is a ton of room for interpretation and changing of the proportions.

Wow, can't believe I've gone two weeks without a bump...

Well, a relatively quick bump before folding laundry! A different take on some of the Discovery-type configurations. Rather than being retrofits, these would be brand new designs tracing their heritage to A) The Four Years War, or if conflicting existing registries, PROPOSED designs for that era, which might or might not have direct ancestors from the Cold War Era (2255-2292).




From top to bottom, left to right:
Shran-Type Config: small, fast, heavily armed Corvette. Replaces patrol vessels lost during the Borg Invasion of 2381, and a lighter equivalent to the Defiant/Avenger/Adamant classes

Gagarin class Light Cruiser Design Proposal 01

Earhart-type Config: those thick nacelle pylons and humongous nacelles can only be fit for a warship. A battlecruiser that is somewhere in size between a Defiant-type and an Achilles/Argonaut class. Or maybe in between the Achilles class and Jupiter class. Was perhaps the Enterprise-F in the alternate Millenium timeline.

Gagarin class Light Cruiser Design Proposal 02: Described as a Light Cruiser designed to fight the Jem'Hadar in the novel "Captain's Glory". Takes on a more compact appearance.

Sampson-type Config: A trailer-type cargo ship designed to transport supplies that includes Quantum Slipstream.

Finally, WIP on a Vesta Mk-II, using a bottom render from Mark Rademarker as a reference for proportions and the like. Now moving onto finalizing the shapes in Illustrator.




Also, a potential (brand new, state of the art) Enterprise-G. Just roughs to fill the blank space though.

Update!


The first week was trying to reconcile the incongruities of the Nemesis orthos, which turned into practice trying to redo the saucer. Got bored of that, and went back to finishing the saucer that I was working on using Admiral Horton's orthos. No word from @IRML, but then, I've gotten this far with (mostly) no help, so I figured that was the best decision I could make, rather than fighting with a set of inconsistent orthos.

Also been working on knocking out the approximate shape of the nacelles and wings.


I've been using this wireframe from NightFever as a reference on how to wire mine, but the underside isn't quite right. That's going to bother me, and I'm likely going to have to rewire that to make the shape of the slope+sides smoother later.


I've been trying to close up the shapes, because otherwise, they have deformities and such. All that is left is the separation cavity for the saucer, and the battle bridge for the engineering hull, then the detailing and refinements can take place.



Except now I'm starting to understand that aside from one or two mid-detailed game models, nobody has modeled the battle bridge: there are no good references to work on, aside from the concept art by John Eaves!




I liked the second idea better, with the smoother battle bridge section, and so that is what I decided to try to base it on. And then I found myself scratching my head, wondering how the battle bridge can fit inside the primary hull, AND separate, WITHOUT altering the exterior of either sections, AND without making it so that the auxiliary thruster hits the primary impulse drive while sliding out!!!

I thought that I had an epiphany while at work, thinking that the auxiliary impulse drives for the engineering hull must have a grove that fits into the saucer section while docked, like a glove, and slides out while separating. In fact, the whole leading edge of the battle bridge section can fit in this way. It would basically exist on a deck above the escape pods in front on the impulse deck, and as it just so happens, there should even be room! Unfortunately, the groove would have to lead all the way out of the primary impulse drive, which does not exist in the design, so if the aux impulse drive sticks out far enough to clear the separation lining, it blocks primary impulse drive, and both hulls can't separate! So much for that idea!

As of right now, I have two choices, which is to assume that the impulse drives don't need clear line of sight towards the aft, because they just generate a subspace field, and the red parts are just radiators, or alter the design. In order to side out, they just can't stick out any further than the width of where the hulls slide apart.

Now, as for the second choice: Now that I've thought about it further, I assume that when John Eaves was drafting the SOTL calendar art above, he pictured the impulse drives as closer to the secondary hull (even hugging the sides), as opposed to how it has appeared in the films, and that when the saucer section lifts off the secondary hull, it reveals the secondary impulse drives. You can even see how the First Contact model has the thrusters a little bit close like this, but not to the same degree as the in the above artwork in my opinion.


In Nemesis, the separation between the secondary hull and impulse drives doesn't quite have the same shape. But it explains the gap between the impulse drive and the edge of the separation lining perfectly.

This is my first attempt at making the secondary impulse drive, and my first quick and dirty attempt to create details in the form of very quick and dirty impulse panels. No measuring or shit like that means it took about half an hour or so to finish, but I figure that copying and pasting details is something I'll need to master if I'm to finish projects faster.


Playing around with different shapes for the business end. I could also copy and alter the geometry of the hulls to conform better to Eaves's design for the separation (basically make two different version, and might or might not go with both. Probably should split the two into two different files, to avoid a huge tri count). Of course, altering the geometry AND having it come out looking like it was designed to look that way in the first place will be a time consuming endeavour!

Either way, I have a lot of work to do before this model even reaches its first stage!

Practicing colors and shading on an aircraft design from earlier.





Also working on rebooting the Sparrow class (now the Swallowtail class), at least at night (the day is reserved for non-fan design work). The final design will likely be either 2380s Concept B or D. Also a way to work on creating thumbnail design sketches.

Finally got it to the point that I can call this done!



I admit that as far as perspective on Leondegrance go, it doesn't quite look right, but I've decided that if I take the time to get it perfect, I might as well spend my entire lifetime on this, and it's best to just move on, and use this a way to learn. I might try using Blender to build at least a simple 3D model for a template, but I'll just have to see what my laptop will tolerate (I doubt it will allow me to make them as complex as Madkoifish or Evil_Genius_180 above).

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

I love the ship names too. Someone is clearly a fan of Arthurian legend. Also, Leondegrance happens to be the character that Sir Patrick Stewart played in the movie Excalibur, so nice callback to a movie with a Trek actor in it.

Thanks for the kind words, and I am honestly a fan of ANY legends. I don't think that they get enough love, especially in Star Trek lore. If I revisit this design, it will likely in a Mk-II (phaser strips, color scheme similar to the Ambassador class, etc.), with a USS Beowulf, to keep the naming scheme of mythical warriors and potentially ancient leaders as well. But the name choice is because this is supposed to be the same ship that is mentioned in Picard, captained by Uhura, and Jean Luc Picard's first assignment posting.

Roughs of what I think the final design of the suit will look like. Combining the "Muscular" form with the "Quadped" and arm-mounted wing. Have yet to figure out how to mount the main cannons, but have some roughs. Need to further develop.

Also, earlier rough sketches. Of the suit.



And from of air/spacecraft (of which there are many).

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

I like the drop/attack ship. I can definitely see the Alien influences.

I've been getting into anime more myself these past few years. I find streaming has helped me in that regard, as I find stuff more accessible. When Enterprise was airing, I was in the Army and I often didn't have time for watching TV. In fact, I mostly caught Enterprise in syndication years later. However, since you've let me know Outlaw Star is a thing, I did a search and easily found it on both Funimation and Crunchyroll, so I'll have to give it a look. That's how I got into Dragon Ball last year, I started watching both the original anime and DBZ on Funimation, then I wound up buying both series.

As for your work, I love what you're doing. Mixing stuff from different Sci-Fi franchises is really cool when done right, and you're definitely doing it right. Since you posted the link to the Outlaw Star, I can totally see the influences both from that and various Trek designs. I agree that humans would have tried different configurations for warp drives before settling on the familiar Starfleet designs, so mixing traditional nacelles and ring engines to see what works best makes sense to me.

Dragonball Z was no small part of my childhood, and Outlaw Star aired on the Toonami block way back in the day. I just loved the world-building and characters, and I've been hooked on anime ever since. Like I said, a lot of designs in Japanese anime are often unique and aesthetically pleasing.

I had no idea that you were a recent fan of the series. From your profile icon, I would have thought you also grew up with the series! If you haven't watched Outlaw Star, I would totally recommend it. It's only one season long, but I find that the characters are fun and likable much like in Dragonball, the world-building is well done for only one season, and I feel that the animation holds up nice even to this day, and like most Japanese science fiction series, has some nice ship designs, and no shortage of background ships too.

I would imagine that serving in the military doesn't leave much time for TV. Thank you for your service!

And thanks for the complement! I often find that the Japanese designers will take different design elements, and I will admit that when I am feeling in need of inspiration, that's one of the first places I'll go. They even make what should be oddball design choices, like Space Battleship Yamato, feel like they wouldn't be completely dysfunctional, while also just looking aesthetically pleasing, while Outlaw Star draws influence from the American Space Age design aesthetic such as Flash Gordan, but in a way that is also modern and refreshing.

Now, onto ship of the day #004: What Happens When I Turn the Starfleet Insignia Into a Shuttlepod. Something's gotta replace the Type 16, 17, or whatever Shuttlepod. Also took the opportunity to practice a bit of shading, lighting, and color.






And I haven't stopped working on my mech suit. I might end up making the legs longer, but that is what the rough process is for.




The arms and sword was influenced by the Geno Breaker's X-Breaker (from Zoids), and the Exia Gundam's huge honking sword (from Gundam 00). A shield is just such a great way to mount weapons of various kinds.

BolianAdmiral wrote: »

I admire your desire to learn this program… I once spent two hours trying to make a cylinder and ended up making something that, fortunately, died a quick death. Nice ship to start with, too. I’ve always loved the Paladin.

Thank you, but the only reason I've gotten this far is on tutorials and lots of searches. And copious amounts of cursing. I would recommend giving it another go. You should be able to find a tutorial for something you'd like to build.

Keep it up. The only way to learn is to keep plugging away at it.

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

Keep it up. The only way to learn is to keep plugging away at it.

As for subdivision, you have two numbers in the interface:



The top number is how much the Sub-D will be visible in the 3D viewport, whereas the bottom number is how much it will be visible in the render. If you have either number at 1, you won't see any Sub-D. So, whatever you set the bottom number to is how much Sub-D you'll get in the render.

I have to say, this is pretty unique to Blender, as far a different levels for viewport and render, at least among the 3 different programs I've used in the past 20+ years.

I've learned that for some strange reason, the subdivision mod disappears in the Paladin file unless I click apply. Probably a stupid glitch. Hopefully, it will remain unique to that file only.

backstept wrote: »

Also for subdivision, you can either add support loops, adjust edge creases, or use bevels to keep your shapes from getting too rounded and blobby.

I would also add that loop and vertex slide is one of my best friends. Initially, I thought I just had to keep adding loop cuts until I got the loop where I wanted it (and then had to go back and delete the extras I didn't!)

Ever since I've discovered the slide tools, I swear that my work efficiency has doubled! I am still cautious about adding them too soon though. I find the less vertices there are to work with, the easier to triangulate the proportions.

Pheylan wrote: »

Interesting ship. I saw images of it before but didn't realize how small it was until I looked closer at the blueprint and noticed that it had landing gear. As for messing up, just make incremental saves. That way if you need to you can always back track to an earlier stage.

This is great advice for users. Of any skill level. Can't count the number of times I wished I saved earlier before starting a new step.



Doing this is probably above my skill levels, but I was obsessing over it too much. I have special plans for this!