What's that stuff on the back wall, behind Kirk's head behind the screen? Looks like a collection of knickknacks pinned to the wall. There are details in here that haven't even made a blip to me in 40+ years. Fantastic work AND fantastic research.
That’s wishful thinking pinned to the wall there. You’re just seeing the leaves of one of the fake plants in Kirk’s cabin. http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x13hd/theconscienceofthekinghd340.jpg
Finished up the toilet today! I know some of you were hoping for something more revolutionary than just a basic toilet, but after a few weeks of debating the design in my head, this is what I was most comfortable with and how I wanted the toilet to look. It's wall-mounted and in the same acryclic teal that the shower and sink are in, and features some built in controls. From back to front, we have a large push button to flush the toilet, a metallic switch for activating the sonic bidet (with orange indicator light), and a 3-setting dial for controlling the strength of the dibet (high, medium, and low). There’s a removable panel on the wall immediately behind the toilet, so that the innards can be accessed in case of unfortunate plumbing failure. @aridas sofia had suggested that the water not be filled with standing water in case of gravity failure, which was a great idea, so the toilet only fills with water when the seat lid is lifted up. I've actually incorporated this and some other light interactive actions for the toilet, sink, and shower (although no shower demonstration yet...you can just open and close the door). Yes, I know. I'm crazy. Check it out in the video below!
Are those drawers new? Regardless, a very practical addition to the otherwise spartan storage in the crew cabin set
Yes, part of some work I did last week. I posted a shot of this closet area, but you may have missed it: Also, Mytran, I forgot to post actual photos of the toilet in the above post, but that's now been fixed
I don't know. For budgetary and time constraint production issues, unless they had something in store at CBS that looked like that, I think we'd have just gotten plain square/rectangle/oval in the wall.
Sure, but for my project, I’m trying to honor what we see on screen, but for some of the unseen areas imagine what they’d have done with a bigger budget. My aim is to also make this feel like you’re on board a believable, lived-in starship while adhering to the TOS aesthetic.
Who’s to say that IRL the set decorator wouldn’t reuse the Fesarius/M-11 Starbase Club cutout by putting it over a mirror bought at K-Mart?
Tonight's work: getting one more of the TOS computer props completed. This time, what @feek61 has, in his exhaustive research, dubbed the "Type 3". Here it is in all 3 of it's configurations: Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, from left to right. Reference:
Brilliant work Donny. Big question, and please forgive me if someone has asked this before but... when your finished are you going to compile a walk round for us to download?? Fingers Crossed
I've been following your work since you started posting here and to my surprise I've never commented! This is simply outstanding work. I'm very impressed with the work you did on the bathroom. It looks like it's always existed as a TOS set. When you are done this would be amazing to take walk through in VR.
Wow. How "practical" are those lights? Are they a light element behind something translucent (like an actual prop) or are they textures that simulate the same effect? (Does the question make sense?)
I'd love to release this project, whether complete or incomplete, some day. However, there are a number of reasons I choose not to talk about a release very often. 1) Legal issues - With all the hooplah over the fan production battles a couple of years ago, I tend to stay quiet about things with regards to a release. It's best to portray this is a "fan art project" and keep a low profile. I also work as an environment artist on Star Trek: Online as my day job, and am therefore working under contract on an officially licensed Star Trek product. So, again, without going into too much detail, it's best I just keep treating this as a fan art project and not try to push it as an actual product, even though I have no intentions of monetizing on this project at all. All that being said, I'd love to release this, someday, in some form, even if just as a private release to all the people in this thread that have supported my projects over the years. 2) Depression is real! This is going to dive into my personal life a little, so be warned. Ha. I've touched on it here and there in this thread and my blog, but I suffer from episodes of depression and issues regarding addiction and alcoholism (I've been alcohol free for 6 years now!). The first iteration of the TOS project, which is featured at the beginning of this thread, was completely derailed by a huge bout of depression that I experienced back in 2013 about a year into my sobriety. Therefore, because I'm one person and I work on this project in my free time, it's hard to commit to an actual release, because I never know when or if that nasty asshole called depression is going to completely stop my progress again. I'm very candid about my depression elsewhere (outside of this thread) so I don't mind being honest about it here as well, so I'm willing to share with you people that I am actually currently experiencing a round of depression-related issues, but I'm now armed with better medication, a therapist, a psychiatrist, mindfulness and meditation practices, and other tools in my toolbox for dealing with it when it comes around. 3) A release date would turn this into a job - This is a passion project, and one that I receive great creative satisfaction and entertainment from. This hobby of mine is what kept me sober during my early sobriety, as it gave me an alternative to going out and partying all the time (and, needless to say, working on it requires my brain to be in a sober state). Also, pouring all my time into this hobby eventually is what got me noticed by the Star Trek: Online team and therefore put me into my chosen career field without a degree. And although I enjoy my job on STO, I get a different kind of satisfaction from having this passion project to work on in my off time, and is very dear to me because of that. So, making this project a "job" or responsibility of sorts by committing myself to a release date would increase the chances of doing this to not be fun anymore. It would feel like work. There's a fine line between doing something because you're passionate and because you feel like you have to, so I try very much to stay away from ever feeling like working on this project is a drag. 4) There's so much more left to do! - I'm sure many of you saw the list of areas I'd like to get complete for this project a few pages back, but other than just making those rooms, creating the corridor network to connect them all is a task in of itself. And I'd also like to have some non-player characters walking around, doing stuff, etc, which is another task to be competed as well. There's a ton of work to do, and because of all the factors I've listed here, it's just really hard to speculate about an eventual release. Anyway, sorry for the long explanation. Ha. I'm sure that was more than you'd asked for. Fortunately, you can scale the graphics of unreal engine that even modest rigs will be able to handle it. It won't look as good, but you'd still be able to run it. Thanks for the compliment! I've recently been considering buying a VR rig and seeing how all that would work. I just have very limited knowledge about what it would take to turn this into VR at the moment, which I why I've never really talked about it. Like I said, so much to do in terms of modeling and texturing before I even get that far. Taking a break to investigate VR potentials would take time away from getting all that modeling done Glad you asked! I actually started by trying to use "practical" blinking light objects behind a translucent object instead of an animating texture, but unfortunately the effect looked weird for a variety of reasons (mostly related to limits of Unreal Engine's translucent materials). So I then opted to make an opaque animated texture in photoshop instead and the results are much better.
Hi Donny Thank you for that really meticulous and detailed response, which I should have expected coming from you. I'm sorry that you suffer from depression, and believe me I know what its like I've been on medication and counselling since the age of 16 I'm 56 now. I have found that working on, and learning 3ds MAX really helps me take my mind of it's self destructive tendencies, although I do get obsessed with it. I started learning 3ds MAX when I saw your work on the TOS Bridge and realised there was no download to explore it. So I set about trying to make my own. 10 months later I have learned a lot but I have realised the more I understand the less I know. Whether its a good idea or not my approach has been, learn how to make each asset as I go along, so a sort of learn as I build idea. I was wondering if you had any advice for my work on the engine room here https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/more-tos-engine-room-pics.294191/#post-12465576 I'm really struggling with the "Street lamp" or whatever it is that over hangs to the top left of the warp core. Again Donny thanks for sharing your work and showing what can be done it's real eye candy for everyone. Ian
I'll hop on over to your thread and give some feedback there. But if it makes you feel any better, I've been doing this for 19 years and still learn something new almost every day, which is why this thread features three different iterations of my TOS project. I'd learn something new that would enhance the previous iterations and it just made sense to do a complete update rather than try and retro-fit all the models with the better techniques (like when my texturing was taken to another level with the addition of Substance Painter in my workflow). All that being said, I'm planning on this build of my TOS project to BE THE FINAL iteration. I want to see this one to completion instead of getting sidetracked with another project (like my TWOK of Ent-A projects) or feeling like I need to start over. So I'm giving it my all and trying to make each asset the highest possible quality so I don't ever see a reason to want to go back and do it all again