3D interiors in Blender

Maybe like the situation monitor at the rear of the NX-01 bridge... that entire area is like a situation room.

 

I know I've said it before, but it's still true; when you use this style horseshoe, the undercut ends always look like a trip hazard to me. Otherwise, everything looks great.

 

Glad you're liking the new aft portion of the bridge! My client came up with lowering the MSD and making a little alcove in there, and I expanded it into a whole new aft section. On the Swiftsure itself there won't be any sort of pool table, nor is the new area intended for anything in particular except that it looks cool. I can't help but come up with future uses for it though, and those do include tables.

@The Librarian: Captain visibility of the viewscreen is fine here due to the sheer size of the screen, plus the fact that it sits quite high. The helm doesn't take any part of it, and if there's a tall pilot their head will block a bit of the view, but an insignificant amount when compared to all three examples you gave. The Defiant is a particularly egregious example, even without a pilot the screen is barely visible when using the command chair.

@FormerLurker: Haha, fair enough, but at least from what I see working with both styles, the standard Ent-D style horseshoe is more of a trip hazard, as it ends in an almost imperceptible tip while being wider and longer than this style. This one avoids this by the sudden cut and by then twisting inwards, thus giving people more easy access in and out of the command area. The new style of horseshoe was designed by one of my clients specifically because he wanted to avoid the trip hazard that was the standard design.

At least when I'm walking around virtual sets with the old style, I always have to take care not to collide with it, while on this design it's much clearer to see where it ends without lowering your view. YMMV.

Work's still rather slow due to my Internet and electricity coming and going, but as today the quarantine is being somewhat lifted (just for some workers, and for letting people go out to exercise), hopefully that will see the services somewhat returning to normal.

On the Lexington, I've added the Ent-E style aft console, plus started work on the MSD. As you can see it's a bit more compact than the usual, because there's space below it for the red alert indicators. The Sovereign graphic itself is based on the post-Nemesis MSD done by @SuricataFX, which will be reproduced here in my style with his permission. Of course once finished, the ship graphic will also be used on the Swiftsure.



Speaking of which, I've worked a bit more on the new aft area on that bridge, adding some more details to the steps. On the sides of the bridge, I've extended the platforms where the side chairs sit (making the ramps smaller) in order to add the new console on the front station. The ones added there are placeholders in order to convey the general idea, but I'll be making new consoles with a more pronounced L shape to fit into the space a bit better.

 

I'm looking forward to Lexington.

 

More progress on the MSD, I'll be moving on modifying the other LCARS screens next.

 

Shouldn't the keyboard be smaller? As for Enterprise-E.

 

How do you get the MSD to come out so smooth looking even though there's a crease there?

 

@The Primeval: If this was based on the Enterprise-E bridge, yes; but as this is a totally different bridge layout, it's up to what @Rusty0918 wants, and he wanted this style with the small inset for the alert status indicator and the larger keyboard.

Keep in mind that other than the chairs, side consoles and doors, nothing in this bridge is supposed to be identical to the Enterprise-E's, just from the same era. You'll notice for example that the light columns are thicker on this bridge than on the Ent-E's, while the overhead lights (those at the very top of the image you posted) are always in pairs on the Ent-E, while here there's only one on each segment. Those are all by design to make the Ross (and thus all the bridges based on that one) a bit more advanced-looking and streamlined than the Ent-E.

@The Librarian: I guess the angle is helping there, as when you look at the panel head on the crease isn't very noticeable. If the camera was positioned lower, it becomes very clear though.



Finishing touches on the Lexington. I've modified and added back the rest of the LCARS, while also adding in keypads for all doors. The front facing door on one of the alcoves leads into an armory, and thus that door has a more complex keypad for entry. I've also added a replicator, and swapped the top viewport for a holoprojector. Also, the light columns ended up keeping the pattern they had for the Ross.




Finally, speaking of the Ross, the incredibly talented Kaitlin Bruder was recently commissioned to draw a portrait of the command staff of Clear Skies on the bridge of the Ross. I just wanted to share this as I love the end result, and I find it surreal that a design that's completely my own (even if heavily based on a canon aesthetic) ended up being reproduced by another artist.

 

Maybe one of the alterations streamlining this bridge could be to make this one straight panel. That would actually mimic how the upper panels on the original Enterprise bridge were straight over lower panels that were angled.

Personally, I never cared for these monochrome control panels. Since other door controls have color, why not add them here as well? After all, they had color when seen on other consoles.

 

@Lt. Washburn: personally I agree with both of your points, but it's not my design. My clients always gets the final word in commissioned pieces.

Okey, the Lexington-B bridge is finished! Quite a few changes were done since the previous post: the ceiling structure and other bits were recolored the same dark metallic grey as the horseshoe; Nemesis-style handrails were added to the perimeter consoles; acess panels were included to the aft alcoves; several of the LCARS were changed or rearranged; and light spots were added above the viewscreen and consoles.

 

Did some more work on the Swiftsure and Ranger bridges (another commission I've been working on but haven't shown yet), however now I'm focusing on a new commission I just got, but was small enough that I decided to do right away: the bridge for the USS Yamato, as seen in 'Contagion'.

It's always exiting to work on canon stuff, even if it's the simplest of redresses. All we've got on the Yamato is the fact that the Captain's chair had some green padding on it, green bands over the headrest, and that the tactical console was covered in a similar green fabric, with some straps around the central support. (no, I won't be counting the USS Yamato NCC-1305-E from 'Where Silence Has Lease', that whole bit of the episode was silly beyond belief, and they didn't even changed the Enterprise dedication plaque).


First order of business is actually to modify my existing TNG bridge to represent the season 2 version, which I hadn't done before. This is mostly a mix of the S1 and S3 looks, but with some unique elements to it; most notably the transparent decorative bits replacing the guest seats, the ribs added around the viewscreen, and the circuitry access panels being covered by the same fabric as the chairs. All these changes were new to this season and removed/replaced by the next. Of course the full list of episode by episode changes I compiled a while back is available over at Ex Astris Scientia, and I'll be using it as a guide to make sure the bridge is accurate to how the set was during filming of 'Contagion'.

I've added most of these in, though I still have to do the transparent things; plus change all the LCARS to their season 2 version.

Moving over to the Yamato specific changes, I've added the new green fabric material for the chairs and horseshoe. Given that in season 2 the Enterprise circuitry access panels were the same color as the chairs rather than the same grey as the alcoves, I replicated that here, with the panels the same green as the chairs. I know the color's not perfect, I'll be tweaking it once all the changes are in place.

I've decided to add the same green padding on the XO/Specialist chairs (and I'll be adding the straps around the headrest as well), and on the Conn/Ops chairs.

I want to keep the changes minimal and plausible for what could've been done for the set on the cheap, but I also want to somewhat add a bit more of a unique personality to this one (if my client approves the changes, of course). Any ideas?

 

On the other hand, I like the teal shifts that make the Yamato bridge delightfully characteristic (same with the Galaxy variants you did for another client).

The challenge I see here is making the rest of the bridge colors more harmonious. For instance, I feel that the red area rug is clashing with the teal highlights- switch it to a cooler color (Try a darker version of the teal, perhaps?). Not sure how that would be cost-wise, but I don't think it works with just the chairs and the horseshoe.

Another change that popped into my head is repainting the turbolift doors to be the same "Yamato Teal". It worked for the Reliant, might as well follow tradition

Another thought was reverting the helm/ops consoles to their reclined S1 variants?

 

I don't think so. It looks like a variation on the standard circuit designs that they used on lots of TNG props.

 

@cardinal biggles: Oh I agree with the sentiment, but I disagree on the fact that those straps weren't meant to be seen. They could've just scotched the green fabric on, or told Rasulala to not stand up and hold it in place with his back, as it was needed for a 30 seconds scene anyway. I don't see them as awkward looking (perhaps I'm in the minority here), but rather that they add to the uniqueness and character of this bridge (and it certainly needs something unique!).

@Norsehound: The red carpet is staying, it was seen behind the Captain, and my client wants it in. Ironically I think the pale green will work better than the usual TNG wood in one key area: it complements the LCARS. Early TNG had yellowish-green and blue LCARS, which worked well in season 1 but didn't work at all with the brighter orange horseshoe that season 2 brought in (perhaps that's why the LCARS were changed to yellow and beige tones for season 3?). Some of that is already seen in the renders below, though I have yet to bring in most of the LCARS.

@Lt. Washburn: Yeah, those isolinear circuits are certainly from TNG. The hinges could very well be the same ones though, with some Okuda branded black tape.

I've added the strips to the headrests and started work on the LCARS, plus I've done those weird translucent arcs next to the XO/Specialist consoles.

User JMP11 over at SFM noticed something I never did regarding the Yamato bridge: the Captain's chair is raised from its usual position. I imagine they used 'apple boxes' to place the command chairs higher, something that was done quite a lot on the Enterprise-D bridge in order to have more dramatic shots.

As you can see, to accommodate this new finding, I've created a small platform for the command area. This isn't necessary per-se, and definitely wasn't on the set. As mentioned raised chairs were frequently used on all sets for TNG and the rest of the 90's series. But on the case of Yamato, that one shot is all we've got, so I'm choosing to take it as accurate of the ship's bridge, as it offers an excuse to make it more unique to the Enterprise.

Rather than a boring square platform like what was used on 'Parallels' or even the redressed battle bridge, I decided to go the Probert route, and do a curved platform with a ramp on it. The Yamato was lost in early TNG, so what the hell it might as well scream early TNG.

 

I love that set-up.

 

Going back to the base, unmodified TNG bridge after so long really highlighted to me the problems the mesh has. It's understandable, I guess, as it was the very first canon bridge reproduction I did, originally as the USS Quasar bridge; and I had only been using Blender for half a year at that point.

Some areas are very much under-segmented (the viewscreen most notably), while some others are insanely overdone with a ton of vertices that aren't even visible. The season 7 Ent-D bridge .blend file is almost 150MB in size. For comparison, newer models I do with better techniques like the Ross, Cerberus and Constellation (NX-1974) bridges are all around 10MB, as are their myriad redresses.

So for the Yamato bridge I was very tempted to solve some of these issues, cleaning up the topology and simplifying the meshes when they were overdone. But being obsessive as I am, I knew I couldn't just do it to this new bridge and leave the previous canon bridges alone, no, I had to go in and change those as well. It was all or nothing.

Compounding to that, ever since the Stage 9 days @Nays (fellow S9 dev who did wonders with the Unreal Engine lighting, and who probably did more research into the TNG sets than the rest of us combined, seriously he could've easily walked the sets blindfolded), highlighted to me that the door frames on the bridge should be further recessed by about 10cm.

A small issue for some, but he made sure I remembered it every time I worked on a Galaxy-class bridge, it's been something of a running joke between us, as I've been resistant to change it due to... well being OCD and then having to modify all my existing bridges. Still, given that I was already tempted to rework the canon bridges this time... I decided to finally do it.

So, I've taken today to work on my Enterprise-D bridges again. One thing lead to another, and I ended up not only correcting these issues, but also completely redoing the lighting, and doing some further accuracy work.

All the light emitting materials were replaced with gradients to better achieve the look of the neons used on the set. The rest of the materials were likewise revised in some way or another to bring them up to par with the ones I use today. I've also moved the conn/ops consoles slightly forward in both versions. Besides that, there were some changes specific to each version:

On the season 1 bridge, the Captain's chair was replaced by a newer model I did last year, as were the conn/ops chairs. I've also added the replicator cutouts below the dedication plaque and the ship graphic opposite it (something else that @Nays pointed out to me, I had no idea those were there!)

Old s1 bridge:

New s1 bridge (more renders here):


On the season 7 bridge, I shut down the Engineering station at the back of the bridge, to replicate the look it had on the bridge most of the time. I've also tweaked the color management options on the renderer, to better mimic that oversaturated look that late TNG sometimes had.

Old s7 bridge:

New s7 bridge (more renders here):


In the end the new versions of the bridge are less than 70MB in size, which I'm quite happy with given the originally insane sizes. I'll do the same treatment to the Parallels bridge during the week, but first I'm gonna go ahead and finish the Yamato commission.

 

Absolutely loving the new accuracy details. I'm flattered by your nice words. I'll gladly keep being a pain in the butt about those set details. Keep up the awesome work!