Okay, the last remaining details and updates are finished. I'm calling this baby DONE. Note that the model is still essentially untextured. Everything you see here is just material effects, procedural textures and a couple of maps for things like the sail grids. I just wanted it to look a little more realistic for these final renders, even though none of it will translate over to the Lightwave version. I'll post some more renders tomorrow at a more decent hour. I will also send the COMPLETED model over to Dennis along with the few texture maps that may be useful.
Vektor, truly stellar work. You've done a wonderful job of bringing the original concept sketches to life. Also, props to Aridas Sofia. Between the two of you, I think you've created a potentially iconic design.
My nickname for her is the "AngelFish". I suspect someone has already made that comparison. (I tend to be "late for the party" in these matters.) Sincerely, Bill
Just for fun, I thought I'd do a Polaris design variant without the advanced drive system (the "sails") and with a horizontal rather than vertical default orientation, more along the lines of the original concept by Aridas Sofia. Obviously, I also changed the color scheme and tweaked a few other things here and there. I probably won't go much further with this, but it was a fun little exercise.
That's pretty cool, though somehow it looks like a much smaller ship - windows to the contrary - and a bit like a one or two person fighter. It may just be that the main docking dome looks suspiciously like the head of a Star Wars astrodroid this way.
It does read as more compact somehow, possibly because of the orientation. Gotta say, though, I tried the red/black color scheme on a whim and I REALLY like it. Not suggesting we should change Polaris from orange/blue, but red/black is really nice.
I'm just chiming in to say I love this design and work. Absolutely great. Maybe they could make 3d prints of these. Merchandising, merchandising, merchandising!
Quite possibly. I'm trying to decide, though, if we should see any ships that closely resemble Polaris in that sequence. I think of it as kind of a custom job rather than a military design. But then, background is background. I spent the day yesterday on the conversion. I think the basic process will take about a week. The mesh itself is awesome - really beautifully designed and optimized.
Somehow, with the color and orientation change, that Aridas Alternative version looks to me like something I'd see while watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars, while the official "upright" version doesn't so much. I'm not sure why. But it's pretty cool in any case. --Alex
Dennis, any problems with the smoothing groups or surface normals? I'm not sure what was happening when I tried re-importing the OBJ file but there was a little bit of weirdness there on certain objects. The smoothing groups are particularly important because they are the key to nearly all of the soft edges and panel lines. By the way, I tend to agree with the notion that Polaris should remain unique in this production. The sail-less variant is kinda cool but I think it would stand out a little too much for its similarity unless it is really far in the background.
I don't know that Lightwave has an equivalent for smoothing groups. This is going to be something of a challenge, but so far the mesh looks good in renders. If there turn out to be problems on some edges I'll probably just have to chamfer them. I think a lot can be accomplished with Lightwave surfaces, though. The OBJ file imports with only one surface - the LW "default" - and dozens of what Lightwave calls "Parts" which I suspect are the MAX objects (such as "fuselage," "DockingSphere" and so on). I'm able to use the Parts as the basis for assigning surfaces, but most of them do need to be broken down further into subsets of polygons for surface assignment. As far as the surface normals, I've had to "flip" a few polygons but nothing major.
Smoothing groups, I think, are pretty ubiquitous in 3D modeling packages. I'd be really surprised if Lightwave doesn't support them. Chamfering edges should be a last resort; almost every edge on this model is smooth shaded and chamfering would MASSIVELY multiply the polycount, not to mention being a huge amount of work.