3D interiors in Blender

[Rekkert]

I'm happy leaving the two side consoles next to the Captain be standing ones, similar to the ones on the USS Bozeman or the Constellation bridge I previously did.

Yeah, I'll do the Captain's chair as well. I'm tweaking and improving my workflow for that kind of modeling so, always good to get more practice.

I've further tweaked the shape of the console chairs, refining it a bit. I think I'm calling them done for now.

I've also finished placing the okudagrams. I decided to label the two standing stations right next to the viewscreen, though they're not intended to be permanently manned; just provide readouts that the occasional Ensign has to approach and check.

Spoiler: Images

 

[Rekkert]

I've been working on the Captain's chair. The seat itself is mostly done and I'm happy with the shape; but the armrests are, well... boring... Just two boxes at each side of the seat.

As far as I can read it, this is the shape on the drawing, and it's a bit underwhelming in my eyes. I might take some artistic license to make it a bit more interesting.

Spoiler: Images

 

[Lt. Washburn]

I like it as is, but will probably like your alterations too.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Well, to be fair, the arms on most captain's chairs aren't that exciting.

 

[Jedman67]

Nice little bridge there. I get the feeling that the design is somewhat sparse. I don't know if that's my imagination or not; but I feel like most bridges should look "busy."
Lovely progress!

 

[Donny]

I think the chair looks fine as is as well!

 

[Rekkert]

@Jedman67: Mmm, funny you say that, it's got a lot of stations cramped in a pretty small space around the Captain. The area around the viewscreen is rather sparse, but then again it's exactly the same way in most bridges of the era (TMP/TWoK bridge or TUC bridge).

I ended up keeping the design for the armrests, but tweaked them quite a bit further.

I believe this means this bridge is now done, unless I can think of anything else to add or tweak in there. I might also play around with the lighting some more, but honestly I'm quite happy with how that's looking.

Spoiler: Images

 

[valkyrie013]

The Tos chair just seemed to work, but the rest that have appeared just hasn't quite worked.. hard to say why.

Always thought the captain should have a "Station" Thinking like Babylon 5, the comander sits in his little alcove/part of the command center, his own interface consoule, screens etc. Guess its something like the Ready Room.
There's a recomendation.. how about a ready room for this bridge? guess it'd be quite small
Looks great!

 

[Blip]

Always thought the captain should have a "Station" Thinking like Babylon 5, the comander sits in his little alcove/part of the command center, his own interface consoule, screens etc. Guess its something like the Ready Room.
There's a recomendation.. how about a ready room for this bridge? guess it'd be quite small
Looks great!

I like the idea of a captain's alcove, ever since watching VOY "Relativity" (IIRC Braxton had a kind of desk area), but not for this timeframe. I imagine more it'd be a late 24th // early 25th century introduction; maybe an evolution of the Defiant's command chair consoles.

Or, maybe, it could be a feature of SF starbase and stations' ops centres; seems fitting since it's a B5 idea! lol

 

[Rekkert]

I decided to call the Merced bridge done, here are the high quality renders:

 

[ashleytinger]

That came out great. Cute little bridge.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I love the Merced bridge. Taking the familiar and flipping it to make something different.

 

[Rekkert]

After pondering about it and trying (and failing) to get back to them, I have taken the decision to stop working on the two remaining commissions I had (the USS Avenger bridge, and the USS Stormcrow ship exterior).

I've been able to take more work afterwards, but I simply wasn't able to return to those two I was doing when I burned out. So rather than keep them in limbo, I decided to offer a refund and move forward, as hard as that was.

I'm expanding a bit outside of Trek and my comfort zone though, taking in commissions for 3D-printing-ready props for a cosplay prop maker (which I'd rather wait to have the prop ready before showing). I will continue to take on commissions for Trek interiors, but things might be slower on less frequent on this front.

Having said all that... I did start work on my next interior commission, which was already planned for a long while: the first concept bridge for TNG. This one will be hard, as the only two references (the perspective drawing, and the top-view plan drawing) are nothing alike, so I'll probably have to mix the two somewhat.

Very early stages so far, and I've already had issues with the turbolift "columns", as they are quite a lot thinner on the perspective drawing when compared to the top view, so it's very likely I'll tweak them going forward.

I know they were other drawings of elements of this concept (the Captain's chair, and the forward "table" in front of it), but I can't seem to find them. If anyone has them on hand, I'd appreciate very much if you share them here.

The end product of this commission will also be different than the norm, as my client will receive a copy of it and be doing renders himself. Depending on how unique this ends up looking, I might go all in and release it freely under a CC-BY license.

Spoiler: Images

 

[137th Gebirg]

You’ve got a good start! But I must say, I’m really glad they didn’t go with this bridge design in production. What they wound up with looks enough like a hotel lobby. This would have been beyond feasibility.

 

[Donny]

Sounds like quite a few of us artists have been hitting burn-out lately.

Excited to see your progress on this!

 

[cardinal biggles]

You’ve got a good start! But I must say, I’m really glad they didn’t go with this bridge design in production. What they wound up with looks enough like a hotel lobby. This would have been beyond feasibility.

I think there were some neat ideas they were kicking around early in TNG's development that fell by the wayside as story, character, and budgets were worked out. Had they stuck to the original premise, that the Enterprise was going to be exploring the outer reaches of the Federation for the next 20 years, I think a bridge like that early Probert concept would have made more sense. I've enjoyed seeing the design pop up in Star Trek: The Webcomic, and look forward to how Rekkert is going to work with it.

 

[Rekkert]

Yeah, I certainly agree in that it's fortunate they didn't pursue this concept (or even the later concepts that retained the conference table at the center), it would've been too much of a departure IMO. Still, the design itself is cool if taken in a vacuum, it would make for a great starbase OPS center, or maybe even a civilian generational ship bridge.

This iteration simply assumes it's the Ent-D bridge though, so the LCARS and details will retain the Galaxy-Class graphics.

I'm still working on the basic shapes for the time being. I've made the turbolift shaft smaller to better fit in with the drawing. This means the turbolift themselves would be smaller than in TNG, but still usable.

The upper level will probably have an open office for the captain near the back. Some sort of ready room for when one-on-one conversations are needed, though still retaining the overall openness of the lower level.

Spoiler: Images

 

[Michael]

Having said all that... I did start work on my next interior commission, which was already planned for a long while: the first concept bridge for TNG. This one will be hard, as the only two references (the perspective drawing, and the top-view plan drawing) are nothing alike, so I'll probably have to mix the two somewhat.

Very early stages so far, and I've already had issues with the turbolift "columns", as they are quite a lot thinner on the perspective drawing when compared to the top view, so it's very likely I'll tweak them going forward.

I know they were other drawings of elements of this concept (the Captain's chair, and the forward "table" in front of it), but I can't seem to find them. If anyone has them on hand, I'd appreciate very much if you share them here.

The end product of this commission will also be different than the norm, as my client will receive a copy of it and be doing renders himself. Depending on how unique this ends up looking, I might go all in and release it freely under a CC-BY license.

Spoiler: Images

Finally! I was looking forward to you doing this. For some reason I was always fascinated by that early bridge concept. The Probert concept art is just gorgeous. I‘m looking forward to see if your work can make it into something that actually looks like they could have realistically done on the show in the 80s.

 

[valkyrie013]

Sweeet! Like the idea, and looking forward to your attempt!

On the 3d printing side, I've been doing that for 5 years now, so if you have any question or need any help, just ask

 

[publiusr]

Something that may inspire those of you working on bridges:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a27631180/star-trek-frigate/
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3736/1