I'm torn on this. Ordinarily, if we were talking about producing a highly accurate reproduction of the original original Enterprise, I would pick the opaque version without hesitation. But since I understand this endeavor is supposed to provide an alternative to the JJprise, I would pick the clearer version because it shows more "guts". Of course, if I were making an alternative to the JJprise (assuming I had the 3D skills, which I clearly do not posses), I would take a different approach to the front nacelle caps. Instead of huge fan blades in front of a brightly lighted nacelle interior, I'd have the blades themselves emitting bright, colorful lights. And I would make the effect even more interesting by separating an "outer ring" of bright blades, perhaps rotating clockwise, from a "core ring" of blades, rotating counter-clockwise. This would make for a much more interesting effect. One can dream, eh?
Über-cool and great stuff, dude! And hey, everyone "steals" or is influenced by everyone else (who's any good). Nothing new under the sun there. Heck, I admit to being influenced by you. And I may even have a go at my own "re-imagined" E at some point, and I'm sure I will steal from you, eh. I'm kinda partial to this version, a nice balance in-between. Love the glowing contour rims, eh. It's all coolness. deg
I’m familiar with the design lineage. I don’t like the concept of bussard collectors for several reasons. Bussard conceived them as part of a ramscoop drive system that really isn’t applicable to a Trek ship other than for fuel replenishment, and there are certain problems with that as well. I just don’t think they make sense other than as a one-off plot device. Arguably, the nacelles on the TOS Enterprise and the TMP refit never had bussard collectors and that innovation didn’t come into use until the TNG era, which is the explanation I prefer. So, if they’re not bussard collectors, what are they? FJ’s matter/energy sinks work just fine for me. I’m not big on the “swirling plasma” idea either. Why the hell would you have any kind of plasma inside those domes just sitting there twirling around? If they really are bussard collectors, it might be hydrogen gas concentrated and excited by the magnetic fields used to collect it, but it might just as easily be visible radiation given off by the singularity effect of the matter/energy sinks, which in turn is generated by the spinning gravitational emitters and the forcefield is used to contain the hard radiation. Or whatever. In any case, the rotating bands always struck me as definitely mechanical, which is the approach I’ve decided to take. I’m thinking of adding a coruscating “flash” effect to the glowing grills at the back of the dome, reminiscent of the flashing Christmas lights used on the original model. I will probably also add some sparkle to the forcefield dome, something subtle but slightly more dynamic. None of which should significantly effect the render time. The reflection/specularity issue is interesting—and complicated—in several ways. How would light interact with a forcefield? To be visible at all, it must emit some light of its own or distort light passing through it. Who’s to say it wouldn’t also reflect light in a way similar to a specular surface? I’ve actually tried making the domes totally non-reflective and they just look… weirdly unnatural. Realistic or not, the specular highlights sort of bring them to life. I’m not completely satisfied with everything, particularly the way the domes receive light and shadow, but I’m still working out the details. Actually, the first rendering of the forcefield dome was at 50%.
Oh yeah, the vanes were always machine-made blades to me, too. I always thought of the domes as big plasma/energy mixing-bowl sinks myself. I like your idea of the force-field, however, I myself never had a prob with the concept of a large one-piece dome, given that it's the far-flung future. And the fact the Scotty mentioned transparent aluminum in IV, so it doesn't necessarily have to be all one piece, just transparent. Why it's in fact transparent, that's just a dramatic consideration (due to no rocket-blasts to add flare and interest), to give the ship some life, lest she gets design boring. Plus, as a surface, it explains the reflection and spec, which adds more visual interest as well, IMO. deg
Well, the theory that I've come up with in recent years, and this is just my own quixotic idea, is that the swirling thingies in those front domes are "really" the first set of warp coils. Each nacelle houses several redundant "engines", each set has its own warp coil and control reactor. Also housed in the length of the nacelles would be matter/antimatter fuel tanks and maybe some of the power reactors. I thought this would be the way the TOS-era Federation would go about it because they would want warp nacelles to be reliable (reduced chance of system-wide breakdown or being disabled after direct hits in combat) and that seemed to be to explain the roughly cylindrical appearance of the nacelles. (And also the spherical ends) If I had the 3D skills and software, I would combine many traits exhibited by Vektor and deg3d in their respective projects. I like deg3d's "hollow" look to the aft-end nacelle caps, and this would fit with my idea; the rotating machinery seen in the front of the nacelle in Vektor's images would be inside the whole length of each pod, but would be obscured by deg3d's hull arrangement at the aft end.
I haven't totally settled on the idea that the dome is purely an energy field. I'm thinking it might be a physical construct made out of transparent aluminum or whatever and the glow effect is like a luminous static charge that builds up from the spinning blades. This would rationalize the specular reflections and highlights on its surface. I also think it looks better when the engines are powered down and less like somebody left the hood off the engine. So what about all that stuff I said about a giant glass dome detracting from the ship's sense of scale? Well, I do think the more visible internal components help to offset that effect, and I had another idea I borrowed from my USS Grandeur model that might work: Nothing like a little jumbo-sized chicken wire to reinforce your transparent aluminum singularity containment sphere! Here's what it looks like lit up: I like this overall, but it does prevent the finer details behind the dome from ever been seen with clarity, and the hex pattern really isn't visible from much further away than what's shown in these renderings. Still, I think it's an option worth considering.
One last quickie for tonight. Enterprise at sublight with warp engines idling: Try to picture this with the blades rotating but just barely. As the ship prepares to go to warp, the internal glow intensifies and the blades begin to spin more rapidly. At full power, the domes luminesce from the contained energy and then BOOM! She's gone. I have a pretty good idea of exactly what I want that effect to look like. Just have to find the time to actually create it.
Very cool! And while I generally like the "chicken wire" effect I think in this case the domes look better without it. Just my two cents.
Excellent, dude. I likey! Funny, I had built a 3rd interior myself that I never posted once I went with a more traditional look. Silver/chrome blades kinda/sorta the same shape, along with other interior mech. It is a defined space to work in, so it does not surprise me. I do like the spike, esp now, it adds a lot to the overall mech for reality's sake. The thing I find when trying to go for/hold a realistic sense, is not to bend over backwards to make all the detail built seen and sure to be featured so much. Let it lie where it lies. Being there, it contributes to the overall reality, even if you can't make out every nut-and-bolt poly sweated over (which is a tendacy of many artists, to sacrfice photo-realism for the sake of showing off their detail work. I suppose it depends on what one wants to do with their art. Myself, I always strive for the photo-real aspect as much as I am able. If the means my detail work takes a back-seat, so be it. That's real life. Your girl here, she's bad-ass, and a galaxy of coolness, dude. Love the chicken-wire, eh. deg
now i really like the way that reinforcement mesh looks, it just looks as if it "belonged there all along"
Oh, I agree that not every detail needs to be visible at a distance, otherwise they would all be "features," not "details." The chicken wire will probably stay, though I may tone it down a little further yet, or possibly enlarge the pattern slightly, or both. And despite the "chicken wire" comparison, I wasn't really thinking of it as a reinforcing mesh, but more as the bonded seams between hexagonal tiles of transparent aluminum assembled into a half-sphere. Perhaps the bonding process alters the molecular properties in such a way that it is no longer transparent at the joint, something like that. I, too, strive for visual realism in my work, and that's the major reason why I'm taking another pass at this design for the Enterprise, to take the level of realism up another notch on the scale. I don't think the last iteration was half bad, but it was done as a rather hurried modification of an earlier model. I mentioned in a post not too long ago that I plan to use this model for my own updating of The Doomsday Machine, and it's going to be used by someone else for another project as well, which makes it even more important for the modeling and texturing to be brought up to high-def specs. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to set this project aside for a bit because I absolutely have to get back to finishing the next round of updates on the Grandeur. So many projects, so little time.
I was wondering if anyone would notice that. It's where one of the RCS thrusters used to be. I'm in the process of re-doing those in a different way and the polygons are just missing at the moment. There are a couple other recent changes visible in these latest renderings (other than the obvious ones at the fronts of the nacelles) that I'm surprised no one has mentioned. Any guesses?