See my video, and you'll see that I have the screen walls dropping down into D deck, revealing the VIP lounge. Also, after doing some detective work by dropping in the model of the B/C deck superstructure from my Refit model over my roughed-out lounge geo, there isn't really room for two ten feet high decks in the structure at all: You'll see that the roughed-out geometry for the VIP lounge sits in the correct location in relation to its windows, but unless I drop the rooms forward of it down several feet, there isn't room for a B deck much at all. And then again, dropping those areas down would therefore not allow a full D and E deck below it before hitting the top of what would be F deck at the saucer rim's top. Therefore, I'm back around to the same conclusion and directive I've always maintained: don't worry about making it fit, just worry about maintaining screen-accuracy and, in the case of unseen areas of the ship, make what looks good aesthetically. I've seen other artists create Refit interiors and attempt to make them fit within the hull superstructure, and it always ends up looking smaller, more cramped, and with different proportions than what we saw on screen. And that's just fine for them, if that's their directive. I, on the other hand, just want a beautifully realized interior that, from the view inside the ship, you could believe it fits. Make sense? @Christopher, I'm curious. How did you depict the lounge in your novels? I've got Ex Machina, I'd love to read the bit on this area if it's in there. I'm in LOVE with the wood paneling/tan scheme I've got going on. Last time around, I paired the reddish/brown wood with white, instead of the tan I'm doing now. I like the tan much better. I watched the first 15 minutes or so of TWOK last night while falling asleep, and I realized I pretty much am using the color scheme of the Regula I corridors, albeit slightly different hue/saturation values.
In ExM, I only depicted the private area seen in TMP. Based on the Mr. Scott's Guide rendering, I depicted the "windows" as holographic viewports that could display images from any hull camera. I'm pretty sure I didn't describe them as retractable. I didn't find any references suggesting such a thing until I wrote The Higher Frontier last year, and that's how I came across your work. I think I saw some of your renderings of the lounge before I became aware of your name through your TWOK renderings, which I found when researching the Reliant bridge.
@Donny I'd put your TWOK officer's lounge as one of the top ten sci fi locations I'd want to hang out in.
Neat! I'll have to read The Higher Frontier soon. I don't think I've come across that one yet, or if I did, I didn't realize it was written in the Refit era. I have to be honest and clear to everyone regarding the retractable screen: it's not an original idea of mine. The first time I saw this employed was through the work of Ryutaro Yamada, who has done some fantastic renderings of various interior areas of the ship. That's kind of why I chose to work on this area right now: it's a virtual place I'd like to hang out in for hours at a time. AND, it was what I was originally going to move on to after completing engineering anyway, as I've wanted to revisit it and flesh out the rest of C deck. I like the idea of having a TMP/TWOK version of the galley we see in TUC in the center of the deck, with a dining area surrounding it (very much inspired by MSGTTE), those few portholes on the deck providing some nice, albeit limited views of the space and hull beyond.
Glad to hear it. You may recognize some details in my descriptions of the Reliant bridge and transporter room. And be sure to check the Acknowledgments page at the end. Wow, those are amazing. I wish I'd found these in my research. I did a whole action sequence in the cargo/hangar bay that I based entirely on Probert's concept and matte paintings on his old site. It's so cool to get to see it from other angles, and it might've been useful to me.
*Looks accusingly at large non-fiction book from the library I decided I'd finish before I start The Higher Frontier.*
These look great, Donny! Seeing your two versions of the room with both the TMP and TWOK aesthetics has really influenced how I think of the Enterprise during the movie years. The plainer, more sparse look that Robert Wise favored in TMP was because the ship wasn't entirely finished and went off to intercept V'Ger with the bare minimum of equipment. The warmer, blinkier look that Nicholas Meyer brought to the Enterprise in TWOK was after the ship had been fully finished, brought up to spec, and lived in for a few years. The differences between your two versions of the engine room really demonstrate this. Any chance we might someday see you do the airlock room from TMP in TOS, TMP, and TWOK aesthetics? I think that would be really neat to see. http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=64203&fullsize=1
Also, do you plan on keeping the floor the same color in the TWOK version of the Officer's Lounge? I think some bright blue carpeting might work really well with the warmer colors of the walls, and make the place look even more inviting. I seem to recall that you had blue trimmed chairs and tables replacing the ultra-1970s orange furniture from TMP.
I definitely want to keep the light blue chairs for my TWOK version of the room, as opposed to the TMP's orange. However, changing the carpet to be also blue would probably be a bit too much, but I will experiment when I get the chairs in place. Also, the cool thing about working from home is that I can get some work done on my personal projects on my lunch break. Today I got the planter installed, just waiting for the plants to grow This is probably a little-noticed detail of this scene, so here's reference:
I don't think I ever realized that that was a planter! Neat! Yeah, I can see that. Maybe a darker grey or blue carpet, then. I'd have to see the furniture placed in the room to visualize it better.
Sorry, missed this post above. I definitley have plans to do the TMP airlock room sooner than later, and want to do a TWOK aesthetic version alongside it. I don't know what differences I would make, since the room already looks as if it would fit into TWOK without changing much. Maybe a few more blinky lights. I also will most likely not be modeling the early-production TMP space-suit that's in the lockers and using the late-production TMP/TWOK space suit instead, since I've already modeled it and don't really feel like modeling another space suit, especially one that wasn't seen worn by actors except in deleted scenes. IIIRC, in these lockers is the only time we see these space suits in any scene that wasn't deleted, correct?
You could definitely add an extra console behind where the brown suited guy is standing, and maybe a small wall control in the doorway where Spock is standing. And I wouldn't mind seeing the place with brighter lighting, as it looks like Spock stole the thruster suit in the middle of the night shift. I think that would definitely make the place feel different. I don't blame you, since the orange and white spacesuits are pretty boring looking. The ones we saw in the finished film are much better. It might be interesting to see those suits in some other division colors, though. Like a green version for medical and a greyish purple one for ship's services. I think so, but I'm not positive. They pop up in the TV version in that shot were Kirk is exiting the Enterprise and we can see the studio scaffolding. He's wearing the all white suit there. I'm sure that someone else will chime in if they can be seen elsewhere.
Donny, are you going with the decks as per MSG or what we actually see in the CONDITION RED diagram? Because in the latter there is one less saucer deck than in the former.
@Donny, scrolling through your flickr photos, you've never modeled the Enterprise's botanical gardens, have you? That would be fun to see, and would certainly look bright and cheery to all of our quarantined asses right now. I've no idea what kind of plant assets you have access to, but...
Yes. That's the only place. That planter sure looks suspiciously like a turbolift tube. Turbo terrarium?
For me at least, this is the only place I've ever seen that shade of orange, so I chalk it up as another unique element to the TMP aesthetic. It's certainly different, which is one thing I appreciated about TMP next to the rest of the movie lineup.