Well, I lost my tutorial USS Enterprise in a mirrored RAID hard drive crash. Go figure. So, I've started a new model, and I believe that this is more accurate to the 11 foot model. I've only just started.
I am both flabbergasted and genuinely pleased that you are taking this on again. It's a confusing emotion.
That made me laugh! Thanks Bill! For my money, I think that three of the best renders I ever made were done with my Tutorial Enterprise. The loss of that made me upset. So, I had always wanted to try to do a REALLY accurate USS Enterprise, as close as I can get, so that's what this project is all about. I would really love to get it right, this time.
I have been on call this week, and with long work hours, I didn't have much time to devote to modeling. I need to get going this morning, too. But, I didn't leave it completely alone. I was able to put in some temporary objects so that I felt like I was still making progress.
Oddly, even though I've been thinking throughout the week about how much I wanted to work on the model, when the weekend got here (I've been on call all week) I was too tired! But, I changed the angulation and placement of the pylons and changed the positioning of the temporary warp engines. I did a couple of quick test renders to see how they compared with screen captures, even though I have no idea about the camera type nor the lenses used in the original series. Anyway, I figure they're close enough to warrant continuing. But, I'm open to opinions.
I'm a little surprised at this point that you haven't worked out the original lenses. (And shared them with me! ) Seriously, I would assume that you had a library of cameras and screen shots that you just use for this sort of thing. (And now I'm thinking I should too.)
I do have (or did before my hard drive crash) a listing of what they shot the live-action stage with, but I presume the effects houses had different cameras. I have a picture (everyone does, no doubt) of an effects camera with someone riding it, but I haven't identified the camera yet. Of course, I have my own library of thousands of screen captures for comparison, but you're the one who created the exemplary list of effects shots of the Enterprise! (I love that reference, by the way!)
Actually no, I can still see them. Odd. I'll repost directly from my server tonight! Maybe with a small update included. Thanks for letting me know!
I did promise to upload right from my server. Here goes! Compare the last two. I'm going to make the pilot episode ship as well as the production version.
Man, I know how traumatic it is to lose huge numbers of files! This past year, I just updated my iMac to a 1TB Samsung SSD drive, and that, coupled with my 2 tb external drive using Time Machine for backup, has already twice been a lifesaver! I recommend it to everyone.
Trauma like that (which I have also endured) is why I invested in several Samsung portable SSDs that I use for regular backups. I alternate the SSDs used for each backup and keep the backups off-site (i.e., not in my condo--what good is a backup if it also gets stolen or burned up in a fire?!)
I keep some if not all of my work scatter around a few computers, I have a backup drive, and I keep stuff in a cloud file (I get a lot of Microsoft space with my MS Office subscription). But I'll certainly look at what I'm leaving un-backed right now!