Vektor proves yet again that there is absolutely nothing wrong with Matt Jefferies' original design and that it still works despite all the naysayers' claims to the contrary. Abrams should be bloody ashaned of himself.
My main 3D modeling rig at home has been pretty much out of commission for a while now due to a nasty virus/malware infection. Got rid of the infection but the OS is pretty well hosed, so I need to re-install the whole rig before I can get back to any serious 3D modeling. When I do, this project is high on the list.
Seems to be a common theme these days... My system is "almost running" now, by the way .... almost meaning "not quite."
This has been the weirdest thing. That system first got infected with something about seven or eight months ago, which I managed to remove, or so I thought. Every few weeks since then it comes down with something new, and each time I've gone in and cleaned it out until every virus and/or malware scanner I can get my hands on says it's clean. The latest infection was actually a rootkit, or perhaps it was the original infection, I don't know. Again, the system appears to be clean, but the OS is unstable as hell and I've been advised that I should probably wipe it and re-install. What's so bizarre is that I have three systems running here at home, all with pretty much identical protection software, and that's the only one that has ever had any problems. If anything, that system should be the least vulnerable of the three as I use it for almost nothing besides 3D modeling. It has only the OS and basic software installed and I rarely even use it for Web browsing. Oh well, it was due for a 100,000 mile overhaul anyway.
I like the idea of the registry being edge-lit. But I think it would be better if the glow were more uniform around the characters, as if there were LED-like lights embedded along all sides. It's definitely an interesting idea to explore, instead of the usual spotlights.
Yeah, that's pretty much how it seems to go all around... it's become a biannual ritual to reinstall Windows. Usually, at a time and under conditions of my choosing... and usually during a "major system upgrade" anyway. This time around, I was really, really trying not to have to do it again, since it's only been about eight months since my last "OS rebuild." Unfortunately, the whole "digital rights management" thing meant that half of my system refused to run (apparently thinking the new hardware inferred piracy???) and my only option was to clean-install. The main drawback to this, other than lost time, is that some software has a limited number of "activations" permitted. There are ways around that, of course, and they're perfectly legal (assuming you own a legal license for the software in the first place... in which case it's illegal for them to deny you the right to run the software in accordance with THEIR obligations under the user license agreement and all standard requirements which they may "pretend to forget" but are still subject to). But it should never be necessary to bypass illegal activity of a software manufacturer's "copy protection" in the first place... (sigh)
I appreciate good digital work and this is outstanding work! Well done! Do you have anything else you can share with us?
Just to let you all know, I'm still working on this project and making some pretty good progress. I'm not actually going to show anything right now because... well, because I'm just perverse that way. I do have a question I want to throw out to the group, though. I have removed all the windows because it's easier to make changes to the surrounding hull areas without having to work around them. I'm toying with the idea of taking this opportunity to scale the whole ship up a little bit, not as much as they did in the new movie, but some. Anybody think this is a good idea, and if so, how much should I scale it up? As far as I know, there is no canonical (on-screen) reference to the ship's overall length or any other specific dimensions. Of course, we have the 947' measurement from Matt Jeffries and other documentary sources, but even that is subject to some debate. Regardless, this is a conjectural version of what the ship might have looked like and therefore is not bound by other references, canonical or otherwise. Again, I'm not talking about doubling it in size or anything like that, but some extra scale would help in certain areas like the hangar deck, the concavity around the edge of the underside of the primary hull, and the infamous bridge turbolift disparity. I'm just interested to hear if anyone has some specific dimensions they'd like to throw out there and what their justifications are for them. One thing I want to emphasize right now, though, is that I don't want to see this thread devolve into fanatical arguments over whether or not the bridge was rotated or who can cite more authoritative sources for one set of blueprints vs. another or whatever. I just don't care. I'm only interested in what will contribute to the quality of this design. If you have something to offer in that regard, please sound off.
Don't do it, dude. She doesn't need any size compensation, for any reason, IMO. And actually, on-screen canon scale has been establish, if you take a look a G7, extrapolate that to a human, and extrapolate that to the shuttle-bay and the hanger doors. 'sides that, I can't see Matt not having the call. And besides that again, the port size. Her size is a no-brainer, IMO, and doesn't need to be augmented, demented, repented, etc., meh. As to the turbo-lift, who cares? Fine where she is, IMO. deg Ps. Don't do it. Resist buying a Hummer, too. Her size is fine as is.
I don't see anything wrong with scaling it up slightly to account for on-screen items that don't work or fit within the 947' scale. This is your version of TOS Enterprise, right? Do what you need to do to reach your vision of it. No need to go all JJ Abrams on the ship and turn it into a giant monster, though.
I'm with deg on this. But... ... given that, it is your vision of the ship. I can't imagine what more I could say on the subject than I've already shared (extensively), but if you aren't bound by anything then none of it matters anyways. It is art, go with what feels best to you... forget the rest of us.
I have to disagree with deg in that, the original E never made sense in terms of scale. For instance the imagined layout of the interiors was based on aircraft carriers of the time. To fit the supposed decks in there you'd never have as high a ceiling as the interior sets did, and even then you're looking at nothing more than a plate of steel between each deck. I'm not sure what others imagine under the floor of a starship, but I imagine artificial gravity generators and all manner of conduits and access tubes to exist between each deck, and that takes up a lot of space that no one accounts for. As for the shuttle set, it wasn't even full size. It was a 20' mock up of a 30' shuttle. Scaled to the accepted dimensions the Shuttle-bay is nothing more than a Shuttle-garage. Single car. Vector, to figure out your scale I think should be easy. Figure out the basic size of an interior deck and everything accompanying it, and how many decks you want it to have (the same as the original I would imagine) and then scale the outside up to fit that in.
Either the 947' or the other 1080' scale work for me. I forget who it was, but I saw someone who was scaling blueprints for NCC-1701 based on the 1080' scale, and it looked pretty good.
Again, I have no intention of scaling the ship up to a degree that would be immediately obvious, I'd just like to create a little extra room in certain areas like the hangar deck. This isn't just an intellectual exercise; I plan to use this model for my own version of The Doomsday Machine, which obviously involves some shots of the hangar deck interior, and it's going to be used by someone else for another upcoming project as well. If I'm going to do this at all, I will probably go with the 1080' measurement as there is at least some justification for that and it should be enough for my purposes.