it's what the FASA Ranger should have been http://www.coldnorth.com/owen/deckplans/m20/ranger/index.htm https://www.deviantart.com/handofmanos/art/Ranger-Class-Scout-310228402 https://www.deviantart.com/robcaswell/art/Starfleet-TM-Ranger-311081002
I just looked up what the FASA Ranger looks like, and personally think it's a rather neat looking little ship . However I do think there should be more 50-150m ships out there. I think there's a niche for starships that sit between runabout/delta flyer, and fully fledged but small ships like the Oberth and the Nova. It's one of the reasons I really like Spock's Warp Sled from TMP.
I've started putting some proper textures onto the outer crescent of the saucer section. I think I'm going to start dreaming of hull paneling at this rate: The results however are much better than the generic panel textures that were on the outer crescent before: If there are any VRay gurus out there, I have technical issue that I'm having a hard time pinning down: The above image was rendered with pretty high quality settings, however the blue light that's spilling out from the cockpit and onto the hull is still pretty grainy. I'd love to know if anyone has got any ideas on what would be causing the noise in that specific spot.
First of all, nice image As for the light, it might be just a matter of increasing the samples in the light itself. But I would need more information. Which version of vray is this? Is it a vray light or material with self illumination? Are you using bucket rendering or progressive?
Ooh, that's some very nice textures, @SCE2Aux! I love the lighting and the fact that we can see inside the cockpit. Your design looks right at home in the Discovery universe of ships. I'd buy the Eaglemoss version in a heartbeat!
I'm away from my PC at the moment, so I can't say which version of vray I'm using, except that i got it around 2017ish. The light is coming from a self illuminated material, and I suspect you're right in saying it's a sample issue. If so, I take it that my best bet is to tick the Direct Illumination checkbox, and then ramp up the sample numbers? Wow that's some nicely done photoshopping, thankyou for taking the time to do it!
Yeah, that should do the trick. Actually, if you are using progressive rendering, just enabling direct illumination should help a lot. What you are getting there is reflections coming from a light that is behind a refracted material. Enabling direct ilum will make it work better. I would test that first before upping samples.
Quick update; I've managed to dedicate a bit more time for this project, and most of the textures on the upper surfaces are now in place - apart from pendants, registry numbers etc
So this is, for now, the finished product. I've learned a lot from making this one, but it took a lot longer than I had initially planned and I'm a bit burnt out from it. When I've got some motivation back again, I'll think about putting it in a scene, showing the ship in action.
She's beautiful! So different from other Star Trek starships, but still recognisable. I love the design and how you've put the shapes together.
Thanks Cyfa! Trying to come up with new and interesting takes on established designs is one of my favourite things to do.
Turns out I couldn't leave this modeling project quite yet, and I've put together this black hole scene. The black hole is a combination of 3d geometry and overlaid photoshop effects. The idea behind the scene is that the FCSS Trilobite discovers an older ship mysteriously emerging from the singularity, over a century after it had been reported lost. EDIT: I'm having a devil of a time with imgur's image compression wreaking havoc with the image. Are there any better image hosting sites out there?
I've dusted this model off for use in the background of a new cgi scene I hope to have finished in the next week. In tweaking the shaders for that new project, I thought that I may as well make a new image whilst I'm working on the ship. The planet below is actually a Mars texture map, with its colours slightly altered and a cloud layer added.