Donny's Late TNG Era Interiors
- Thread starter Donny
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*heavy breathing intensifies*Spent the weekend blocking out the bridge (except for the chairs, free-standing consoles, and viewscreen). That ceiling strut was a pain to get just right due to it being all one piece and there aren't any schematic available for that part, but I'm super happy and proud that I got it pretty close to the mark. Gonna start detailing and texturing tomorrow!
Looking at those pics again, just the shapes and no textures or detailing, it's a very organic-looking bridge — the ceiling ribs, the columns... run a cylindrical column from the floor to the ceiling dome, and you've got yourself a TARDIS control room. 
Been working on detailing the floor, ceiling, and support beams the last few days, getting textures and materials together, and experimenting with lighting. I'm planning on doing First Contact and Insurrection versions of the bridge (but not Nemesis, because that would require re-coloring all the LCARS, and I hate the look of that film anyway). I'm studying coloring/lighting very closely. The Captain's Chair Quicktime File of the Enterprise-E, which is very warmly graded compared to the films, is one of my primary references, so it's a little jarring to see the bridge with a more desaturated and cool look. Anyway, I haven't started detailing the walls and console banks at all, so excuse the lack of detailing for now.
You can see the color difference below
First Contact. Note the slightly greenish tint to the upper and support beam light panels.
Captain's Chair Quicktime File. Very warm. Cannot be trusted, but I think may people "think" the bridge looks like this because it's the best, most complete view we've ever gotten.
While we're at it, here's an example from Insurrection. Light panels are slightly bluer in tint.
And Nemesis, which looks to have a purple grading to it, or maybe they changed the carpet to purple which is causing that look?
You can see the color difference below
First Contact. Note the slightly greenish tint to the upper and support beam light panels.
Captain's Chair Quicktime File. Very warm. Cannot be trusted, but I think may people "think" the bridge looks like this because it's the best, most complete view we've ever gotten.
While we're at it, here's an example from Insurrection. Light panels are slightly bluer in tint.
And Nemesis, which looks to have a purple grading to it, or maybe they changed the carpet to purple which is causing that look?
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Great work as ever.
Interesting to look at it with fresh eyes and appreciate how flat that set was. Everyone's on one level and there's not much visual variation. I think they could have done with either boosting the command chairs up, or alternatively sinking the conn/ops stations into the floor.
Interesting to look at it with fresh eyes and appreciate how flat that set was. Everyone's on one level and there's not much visual variation. I think they could have done with either boosting the command chairs up, or alternatively sinking the conn/ops stations into the floor.
The floor's looking good! I agree that it's way too flat but that's a problem of the original design, not your modeling of course. Correct me if I'm wrong Donny, but now that I'm looking at it empty, the steps seem to be very shallow on this bridge when compared to the TMP and TUC styles, and that adds to the sense of flatness.
As for the lighting, I think you might have overshot a bit and it's too cold now, the lights need to be a bit warmer and of lower intensity IMO.
As for the lighting, I think you might have overshot a bit and it's too cold now, the lights need to be a bit warmer and of lower intensity IMO.
I think we're looking at them designing this bridge for a widescreen view and hence the flatness. The TNG bridge was built for the square frame of the television and so they elevated it so that you could frame it in 4:3 and it'd look good. They tried to add something to the sides for Generations because your framing goes way differently in film from TV. Then when we get to this bridge, they knew it was only going to be on the big screen, or I'm guessing that was the thought process, and built it to have the most mileage in a shot with a widescreen view, hence the flatter set.
Long time lurker, first-time poster. Your work looks fantastic as always, I'm surprised you have gotten so much of it done over a weekend, I am trying to build a sov bridge too but have been having issues getting it to match the set blueprints I have found, although that is probably a deficiency in skill on my part.
I'm curious if you reused any of the assets from your refit bridge and TUDC bridge you are working on? I'm asking as I have been doing research to build my own version of the bridge for a project and I have noticed that the side and back wall LCARS control panels are actually from the TFF and TUDC bridges and the turbo-lift alcoves were just the refit ones repurposed. The light fixtures on the walls just next to the turbo-lift alcoves are from the Enterprise B generations bridge.
I'm curious if you reused any of the assets from your refit bridge and TUDC bridge you are working on? I'm asking as I have been doing research to build my own version of the bridge for a project and I have noticed that the side and back wall LCARS control panels are actually from the TFF and TUDC bridges and the turbo-lift alcoves were just the refit ones repurposed. The light fixtures on the walls just next to the turbo-lift alcoves are from the Enterprise B generations bridge.
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Hat to hold a contrarian view (lmao) but I was just thinking what a wonderful space it looks, and the removal of furniture and detritus really emphasises that, so nothing whatsoever to excuse from me at least, Donny - great work as ever!
dJE
dJE
Been working on detailing the floor, ceiling, and support beams the last few days, getting textures and materials together, and experimenting with lighting.
....
Anyway, I haven't started detailing the walls and console banks at all, so excuse the lack of detailing for now.
Yes, this is clearly the reason for the design and it looks good enough on screen, as long as it's framed quite carefully. You can seen in that Insurrection screenshot that the vacant Riker/Troi chairs are partially obscured, which is why I thought it would provide more variation to drop the conn/ops stations down.
The TMP/TUC sets are still the gold standard for me - lots of vertical and horizontal scope.
I love late-23rd century bridge design aesthetics, second-to-none, IMO.
I think the fact that there are four tiers (upper, mid, lower, and viewscreen level) to the bridge levels make it appear more level due to the gradualness of the drop in level. There is actually a foot and a half difference between the highest tier and the lowest. In comparison, the TMP/TUC bridge command pit has three tiers (upper, middle, and pit) but there's a two foot difference between the highest and lowest. So yes, it's a bit more flat appearing than the bridges of the late 23rd century, but only actually 6 inches in difference.
Thanks for the feedback! I actually boosted the lighting in post to make things a little more clear, so that's probably accounting for some of the higher intensity. Tonight I'm going to work on adding in the spotlights that were in the ceiling of the various alcoves which I think will really help punch up some of the darker areas without raising the intensity overall.
Of course. It's a well known fact that a few elements of the Enterprise-E bridge were borrowed/repurposed from the TUC bridge, such as the aforementioned wall console banks and turbolift alcove, the latter of which was repurposed itself from the TMP bridge. However, for this project, I'm doing my usual "rebuild with higher fidelity" on any of the assets I used from my TUC bridge, and just using those earlier meshes as reference for my new, higher quality meshes. Good luck on your build!I'm curious if you reused any of the assets from your refit bridge and TUDC bridge you are working on? I'm asking as I have been doing research to build my own version of the bridge for a project and I have noticed that the side and back wall LCARS control panels are actually from the TFF and TUDC bridges and the turbo-lift alcoves were just the refit ones repurposed. The light fixtures on the walls just next to the turbo-lift alcoves are from the Enterprise B generations bridge.
I think it's a pretty neat space as well. It's not my favorite bridge, but its a different feel from all the work I've done before and I'm having a ton of fun exploring it's more complex curves and structures and materials (although the TMP/TWOK bridge required some advanced curvy modeling skill as well).
Spent some time this morning tweaking lighting, added temporary warm spotlights to the alcoves to punch those areas up a bit, and tweaked the reflection environment as well. Hopefully a little bit closer to the mark. Still probably a little too bright.
Here's the before image for a quick comparison:
Here's the before image for a quick comparison:
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Man, it just makes you want to walk into the screen. Then I hurt my nose. 
One of the changes that didn't really do much for me — and so I will shed exactly zero tears over Donny not doing the Nemesis bridge — was their addition of LCD displays to the freestanding consoles (conn, ops, the two tactical stations, and those two stations on the front corners of the upper tier). Yeah, it's cool that they can pump animations in live and get some interactivity out of the buttons, rather than having to do it in post like they did on TNG, but the drawback is that you end up with a lot of static metallic gold on the parts where it's beyond the LCD display but too close to put in a lightbox, and it kind of messes with the overall look.
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Yeah. Unlike my unfinished TUC Enterprise-A bridge, I will not be doing what I did there, meaning I will not be modeling CRTs (or the aforementioned LCD displays) into the geometry. I'm going to make it all look as intended...as unified displays WITH THE EXCEPTION of having the static metallic gold bits be offset slightly higher than the backlit graphics (as I did here). I'm not sure why, but I want to keep at least that level of "set realism".
