Dac has just done what I was going to suggest that everyone with a candidate design do for themselves, even if they don't have a 3D CAD program: Create or sketch your ship in perspective, not just orthographic. Sometimes folks try to achieve a certain profile or silhouette with their designs without going to the extra step of exploring how the thing looks as an object in space. Compare your design with existing (predecessor) designs. Remember that at one level you're designing a machine intended to do work (even if that work is fictional) but on a secondary level you're designing a character in a show, almost like you're building a person. When you place John Eaves' Enterprise-E next to Vektor's Enterprise-F, the stark differences in their character are striking. Your mind will start isolating the subtleties that you never noticed before, almost like you're casting two characters for a play -- how they work off of one another gives emphasis and nuance to their unique points. (For example, damn if Ent-E's deflector dish isn't too small!) Officially Chris Madden's Dedication class was my favorite design entry in this contest. When I first saw it, it was like a portrait that an artist would paint of my daughter as though she were a grown-up -- she's everything a father would want her to be: sleek, tall, proud, accomplished, undeterred. That was my emotional response and I went with it. One of the first things I did was, I poked up a picture of Ent-E on the other screen and I considered how the two concepts played off of one another. And I saw that Madden's "F" was not an expansion of Eaves' "E" at all -- they're absolutely the same lineage, but there are subtleties throughout Madden's "F" that clearly distinguish it as a unique character. With many, many other designs, there were certain roadblocks that triggered my intellectual nature -- gee, there's something really wrong, and I wonder what it is. If I have to think about the design intellectually, I never get the opportunity to appreciate it emotionally. If you're the designer yourself, you think very intellectually about your work. What you need in order to trigger your emotional sense is to stick it next to something that already exists, and let your intuition draw its own comparisons. This is how the great automobile designers work, this is how bridge builders work, this is how TV set designers work, this is how makeup artists work. . . Whenever I've had the pleasure of doing an oil painting, I can get caught up in what I think is outstanding beauty incarnate. And then I pop open a book of Monet or Manet or Rembrandt or Dali, and. . . I get emotional the other direction. I see how far I have to go. That's a journey I'd advise a lot of folks here to consider taking. DF "Respect Your Elders, Because One Day They'll Be You" Scott
IMAGE SPAM INCOMING... Right. Now it seems everyone has gone back and modified their original submission. I on the other hand havent touched the gal since handing her in But, seeing as were on the eve (+/- a few days) of the announcement, and were showing off the size of our Nacelles I figured I'd render a few comparison shots. So, let's begin! Damn. That's a big ship. Too big? Yup, she looks pretty darn huge next to the Sovereign alright. Caution: Wide Load. But wait... ...When you throw the E-D into the mix, suddenly the E looks out of place I think. My design has been criticized as being a more logical step between the D and E (by Doug Drexler himself no less! ) and here I think it shows. But, thinking about the universe of Star Trek Online, and even the universe of the films, I think its entirely plausible. STO takes place, what, 30 years after Nemesis? That's 30 years Starfleet have known the Romulans have the capability to make a Scimitar. Sure, it was a Reman ship, but clearly the Romulans could make it too. And In game, the scimitar is a class, not just a one off I think. So I say it makes sense to have if not equally large ships, just larger ships that can maybe stand toe to toe with one, or even a Borg cube or Negh' Var (The federation is at war with the Klingons big time in STO). Looking here, I think I may have shrunk my windows a bit too small on my E-F, and made it oversized, but what the hell, it's just a rough proof of concept mesh that was deliberately kept loose in case I wanted to make some changes. Personally, I really like my design. I've played fast and loose with the rules though, and even if I did win, i'll have to keep my mouth shut or risk forfeiting But what the hell, it's going to be my only chance to design an Enterprise that sort of counts, so if I have to cheat the Kobayashi Maru in order to win it, I'm going to cheat (I Just wish I got to sleep with a green chick in order to cheat).
Yes, I've used them, with mixed results. The background I've been using is just a generic rendered clouds effect with some touch-ups. How about something like this instead?
^ I like that. A gas giant. With accompanying moon :-) Btw, I honestly can't say who's design I like the most. I like a few of them. My biggest beef with so many of the submissions was that they looked too similar to the Ent-E... But, then again, many of them didn't strike me as an "Enterprise" at all. Idk. I guess it's a difficult balance to strike. Again, "good work!" to all of you who submitted!
It's good but I need to see at least a bit of the horizon line, say in the corner, or my mind doesn't want to accept it as a planet and tries to turn it into a nebula. You might also angle it so the cloud strata isn't straight up and down. Might be a bit more dynamic.
And why not? After all, the Sovereign class is one of the best looking ships, at least IMO. If it isn't broken, don't fix it, but improve it. That is sort of the direction I headed towards with my design.
Actually, I thought the cloud strata running straight up and down was rather dramatic. It also matches the straight-down angle of light I've used on the ship. I might change it out for something else entirely before I call this illustration finished, so I'm really not too worried about it at this point.
Dac, the only real criticism I would have for your design would be the appearance of two saucers overlapping. If the smaller oval shape had some cutouts or somesuch additional complexity it wouldn't bother me so much, but as it is I can't help but see two different ships one on top of the other.
I like the Ent-E, too. But, I was just thinking about how, with the obvious exception of the Ent-A, every new Enterprise has been pretty different from the one preceding it.
Fair enough. I mean, there are a couple of cutouts along the rim which I think blend the two "saucers" with steps quite nicely, but I can see how jarring it may be. I was trying to get a different saucer shape than usual, and wanted to get a shape that was both streamlined and "majestic" and I thought the easiest way to do that was literally cross over the E-D and E-E saucers. I guess I could change it around and make the transition more blended, but honestly I quite like it. It gives the ships silhouette that little edge that literally stands out.
Dac, I really like your design -- it's really nice. The only thing that bothers me, and others may disagree, is how the nacelle pylons attach to the secondary hull. I feel like it's attached with a few bolts on the bottom of the hull, especially when viewed from above the centerline and from the back. Perhaps that's deliberate -- a number of engines can be strapped onto this design for testing. But to my eye, it looks fragile and incongruent with the robust saucer/secondary hull connection, and its seems like a complex path for the conduits between the warp core and the nacelles. I'd like to see the pylon assembly embedded more in the secondary hull, I think.
Well, admittedly that's a case of aesthetics over design. I wanted it to share a front profile with the Galaxy class, with the nacelles being below the saucer. That is what ultimately led to the low down position of the pylons, that, and originally I wanted the pylons to be an uninterrupted U or V shape that wrapped around the bottom of the secondary hull. Eventually they found themselves embedded a few decks up though, and I "placed" (in my mind at least) the deuterium/antimatter storage tanks in the area below the pylons. Also, in my mind, those Pylons are at a minimum 1 deck thick, which I think is more than can be said for the E-D and E-E? Also, due to the size of them I figured they could also store emergency supplies in vast cargo bays. Here's a very dirty and not so quick MSD i've knocked up. (It's my first MSD. Be kind. )
Yeah, shes pretty huge inside, but in terms of length the habitable portion is about on the same scale as the Galaxy Class. Also, I think I screwed up the decks on that MSD. It was just a quick and dirty thing to convey How I see the plasma transfer conduits.
Well, the first submission was the only submission. The stuff I've done since is just for my own edification. The latest update has been posted on my blog, by the way. I really wish we knew whether those notifications have been sent out yet or not. Win or lose, I'd just like to know.