Ringship
- Thread starter RichMerk
- Start date
No new pictures tonight. I've been trying to wrestle something good out of the fresnel setting under reflectivity, but so far it's looking fairly terrible. I don't think a glass office building is a good analogy. That's composed of a thousand of separate panes, where my shape is one solid extruded object.
To be honest, I kind of like the shimmery way it looks now. I'm glad you guys talked me into trying something other that the white plastic I had been using. I'm not really sure why you guys are complaining about scale. To me the windows set that. I'll fiddle some more tomorrow, but either I have exceeded my skill level here, or else we're trying to exceed the sophistication of my tired old copy of Carrara.
To be honest, I kind of like the shimmery way it looks now. I'm glad you guys talked me into trying something other that the white plastic I had been using. I'm not really sure why you guys are complaining about scale. To me the windows set that. I'll fiddle some more tomorrow, but either I have exceeded my skill level here, or else we're trying to exceed the sophistication of my tired old copy of Carrara.
Well, he isn't trying to make it plausible for a future audience – he's trying to make it plausible to an audience now.
plausibility, making what could be appear mundane and commonplace. a guarantee that whatever you do will look dated and stodgy tomorrow. the knife in the back of science fiction.
just my 2 credits.
That ship is gorgeous. Love the sphere.
The only thing, in fact, that makes it readable/watchable by people over the age of fouteen.
Well, he isn't trying to make it plausible for a future audience – he's trying to make it plausible to an audience now.
plausibility, making what could be appear mundane and commonplace. a guarantee that whatever you do will look dated and stodgy tomorrow. the knife in the back of science fiction.
The only thing, in fact, that makes it readable/watchable by people over the age of fouteen.
Thanks, Dennis.
The ship is nearing completion. I'm trying a different supernova core. The rings haven't been textured yet except to add the metallic shine, but I thought it might be time for a test render of the ship in action. The background is something I found on teh intertubez years ago that's been sitting on my hard drive. I do not claim it as my own.
The ship is nearing completion. I'm trying a different supernova core. The rings haven't been textured yet except to add the metallic shine, but I thought it might be time for a test render of the ship in action. The background is something I found on teh intertubez years ago that's been sitting on my hard drive. I do not claim it as my own.
I love the concept of the dwarf-star/supernova core but that whole section of the ship could use some refinement on the design level. Right now there is a front and a back that look like one ship, then this middle part with all these floating rings and bits that doesn't allow everything to come together as a whole and complete design.
Apart from that one big thing I would only make a few small tweaks. The reflection is cool but could use some definite tweaking as currently all that swirling color on every surface breaks up the form badly. At this scale those big sections of featureless white on the rings and in front of the star/nova thing just look unfinished next to the rest of the ship.
Apart from that one big thing I would only make a few small tweaks. The reflection is cool but could use some definite tweaking as currently all that swirling color on every surface breaks up the form badly. At this scale those big sections of featureless white on the rings and in front of the star/nova thing just look unfinished next to the rest of the ship.
The ship was meant to be in unjoined sections like that. It's an experiment, but I'm hoping I can pull it off all the way through to completion. Otherwise, yeah, we'll have to find a way to connect the parts and still keep the coolness.
The rings are not yet completely modeled/textured. They will get more detail by the time they're finished.
The original idea behind the big cone thing in front of the nova was to make it look like one giant extruded piece. But looking at it now I'm going to agree with you. Not enough visual interest.
And everyone will be happy to know that right after rendering the above image I figured out the Fresnel thing.
The rings are not yet completely modeled/textured. They will get more detail by the time they're finished.
The original idea behind the big cone thing in front of the nova was to make it look like one giant extruded piece. But looking at it now I'm going to agree with you. Not enough visual interest.
And everyone will be happy to know that right after rendering the above image I figured out the Fresnel thing.
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It looks good! I love the steep angled pylon. Is there a way to dim/blur the reflection a little? Right now its very smooth very reflective. Perhaps you can put that on 50% or even better: use "fresnel/fall off" to get a more realistic reflection that is depending on camera angle? And dont be afraid to use a slight brownish color. (but that is just me)
I'm looking forward to your next update!
I'm looking forward to your next update!
Thanks, guys.
All the chrome parts have 50% Fresnel effect now.
I added some minor physical connectivity to the floating structures in the middle. It probably still needs a little tweeking. Also, the forward shield cone got some detail and lighting effects.
I started adding detail to the large rings. I'm not sure if I like that dotted line look though.
All the chrome parts have 50% Fresnel effect now.
I added some minor physical connectivity to the floating structures in the middle. It probably still needs a little tweeking. Also, the forward shield cone got some detail and lighting effects.
I started adding detail to the large rings. I'm not sure if I like that dotted line look though.
Okay, I'm fascinated by this design at this point... really, I am. I'm a bit "off-put" by the concept of this being a "supernova core" (or whatever the term was) however... though I can accept that as a "slang" term for some form of unconstrained fusion reactor (ala "Spiderman 2") in pure fantasy terms. My engineering/technical side sort of recoils as the idea of something like this being exposed, and clearly it's not a real sun, much less a real supernova...
Actually, the reaction I have to this is more along the "Galaxy Quest" line... with this being a very hot Beryllium sphere.
It's a gorgeous piece of work, in any case. I did notice the "scale" image of the Enterprise next to it a few posts up, though, and you actually had that as a "JJPrise" sized Enterprise, not as a TOS-sized Enterprise (ie, the saucer was easily more than twice as many decks thick). The Enterprise in that comparison really should have been just under 1/2 of the size you showed it... remember, your sphere is about 22-24 decks thick, while the Enterprise's primary hull is less than half that many decks thick (debatably, 8 decks or 11 decks, depending if you go by the "writers' bible" text, claiming 11 decks, or by Matt Jefferies' diagrams, which show eight).
Basically, we're talking about 20x longer than the Enterprise. HUGE... but, in context as you define it, there's nothing wrong with being huge.
Actually, the reaction I have to this is more along the "Galaxy Quest" line... with this being a very hot Beryllium sphere.
It's a gorgeous piece of work, in any case. I did notice the "scale" image of the Enterprise next to it a few posts up, though, and you actually had that as a "JJPrise" sized Enterprise, not as a TOS-sized Enterprise (ie, the saucer was easily more than twice as many decks thick). The Enterprise in that comparison really should have been just under 1/2 of the size you showed it... remember, your sphere is about 22-24 decks thick, while the Enterprise's primary hull is less than half that many decks thick (debatably, 8 decks or 11 decks, depending if you go by the "writers' bible" text, claiming 11 decks, or by Matt Jefferies' diagrams, which show eight).
Basically, we're talking about 20x longer than the Enterprise. HUGE... but, in context as you define it, there's nothing wrong with being huge.
I'll take that comparison.
You're absolutely right. I never imagined it to be a real supernova fragment (whatever that means), but rather a "miniature artificial supernova" -- some sort of sustained nuclear kaboomy thing that just happens to look like an exploding star, hence the nickname. I wasn't thinking of Spiderman when coming up with the idea because I've never seen the one with Doc Ock. But I *was* thinking beryllium sphere.
I think I need to work on the windows a bit. The scale of the sphere windows is a lot smaller than the scale of the windows on the central pod.
Well, we have heard for years that it would take the power of a star to warp space. Perhaps the sphere could be a type of degenerate stellar matter that is between a black hole and a neutron star--a so-called quark star, modified into a Q-ball
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ball
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_star
The Q-balls own field holds the ship together. Should it weaken to the point of explosion, the ship comes apart on its own--no explosive bolts, no physical parts to snag.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ball
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_star
The Q-balls own field holds the ship together. Should it weaken to the point of explosion, the ship comes apart on its own--no explosive bolts, no physical parts to snag.
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