As far as the space behind the captain's chair, instead of having those flat plant-ons, I'm thinking you need to at least partially "greeble it up" and give it the Nick Meyer/TWOK treatment.
@Lt. Washburn: Interesting observation, I always though it looked rather fitting with the TOS/TMP aesthetic more than TNG. I do plan to swap it out though, and model the standard Enterprise-A station chair for the helm. On the Galaxy battle bridge, I'm nearly done with the LCARS, I only have to add in the MSD for the aft alcove. All that's left after that is finding some place to add in the weapon lockers and replicator, plus some tweaks on the ceiling. Spoiler: Images As for the Merced, I've swapped a bunch of stuff around. First of all I returned the Captain's platform to its original location, more central to the layout, and added in two more wall facing stations behind it. The consoles are floating for now, I plan on adding support struts connecting them to the wall (similar to the console we see in Kirk's quarters on board the refit). On the front wall, I've created new buttresses with a wall facing light, and a completely new viewscreen. Both new elements are still in progress. I've also moved or removed most of the white decals from the walls. Finally, I've also tweaked the shape of the Captain's chair. This was the very first chair design I did for a commission, and it's showing its age, so I sculpted the fabric bits somewhat to have a somewhat more realistic shape. Still nowhere near perfect though. Spoiler: Images
More work on the Galaxy: I've added a holoprojector to the ceiling in front of the Captain's chair. The idea there is that the Captain and tactical officer would see real time 3D movements during a battle. I've also added the weapon lockers on the back wall (really, the only wall with any space left), and the MSD at the back. I know, it's dark. Spoiler: Images
I'm really digging this; I think I prefer it as an upgraded Battle Bridge than as a Main Bridge (like on the Odyssey). And from a Dominion War perspective it makes sense -- if you're going to send Galaxy-class ships into that kind of combat, at least let them run the ship from somewhere better protected than right smack on top of the saucer.
This is for the Galaxy's post-Dominion War refit in 2376 (to Battle Group Omega Edition), which among other things has some serious upgraded tactical systems, such as the Prometheus-class's regenerative shielding, ablative armor, plus a few surprises of her own: Type XII-HEF (high energy focused phaser arrays). And on the dorsal section of the stardrive section there are four Class II rapid fire phaser pulse cannons, a more powerful variant of the ones on Defiant-class ships, making the drive section basically a "Defiant on Steroids"
I've been thinking about this, and please keep in mind I'm directing this constructive criticism towards myself too, as I struggle with feeling my interiors might be a little too dark as well . I think that an area being dark and with low-lighting is fine; great even. I think what you're darker bridges might be lacking is some contrast, though. The lighting is dark, but it's also a little too even. Maybe toy with having some pockets of contrasting highlight. For instance, a higher intensity spotlight over the captain's chair to make it pop a bit more, and then maybe balance that out with some spotlights spilling some higher-intensity light onto other areas to draw your eye across the bridge. I'm sure you've toyed with this, but maybe upping the intensity a bit more in places. Just my two cents. Otherwise, love what you're doing and this is definitely making me want to do some more variants of TMP/TWOK era bridges!
@Donny: That's a great observation and something that I struggle with given my tendency to use only emmissive surfaces instead of spotlights or other sort of light sources. I always try to base my lighting setups on canon though, and as I mostly work from TNG or DS9 era bridges, that "plain TV lighting" tends to creep into my interiors. Particularly as I try to be physically accurate to the light sources; a lot of time when we saw contrasting highlights it was in a completely unrealistic way (like the spotlight on top of the Captain's chair in the alternate 'Yesterday's Enterprise' bridge, which comes from nowhere). I'll try to experiment with that a bit for the Merced, to see if I can make it more... interesting and distinct, lighting wise. As for you doing more variants of your bridges, that would be awesome to see! Ironically, when I first toyed around with the idea of turning the set 180° as on the Lantree, I wanted to make it a TWoK era ship. But after seeing your incredible work I realized the bar was set very high, and I wouldn't be willing to do the era justice with the limited time I could invest in a personal project like this. Going back to the Galaxy, after some further tweaks discussed with Rusty, I ended up making the aft ceiling lights bigger, and replacing one of the circuitry access panels with a replicator. And that meant the battle bridge was now complete!
Well, I started experimenting with lights a bit, adding a soft highlight to the Captain's chair, as it sits right below the main light on the bridge. It's not too much, just enough to cast some shadows around it. I'll continue tweaking it once I have all the okudagrams in place, as they all logically add to the lighting as well. As you can see, I've also worked on the aft consoles, bringing over some okudagrams, and adding the dedication plaque, among other details. Spoiler: Images
I've been playing with the lights some more, and adding black stripes on the light fixtures at floor and ceiling level, to mirror the style of the Enterprise-B light fixtures. I also added more Okudagrams, finished the doors, added labels for all the stations, and played around with adding details on the ceiling a bit. I'm still undecided on what I'll do with the chairs. I wanted to add in the standard Starfleet chair we saw on the Enterprise-A as a new helm chair, but I realized that I couldn't add the same style for the Environment/Comms stations as they'd need to be higher. I might end up doing the Excelsior style chair, or just an original design that fits in. Ideas, as ever as welcome, about which path to choose. Spoiler: Images
I think the Enterprise-B chairs are pretty terrible, so maybe take the chairs from the Excelsior, but make them higher with a footrest, like you've done for the tactical chair on some of your TNG movie-era bridges.
So the captain is the only one to get a high back chair? Poor crew.. Love the chairs from Tmp, Khan.. so comfortable So the Helm can do a Highback, but the side consules.. How about bolting them to the wall some way? maybe atleast a mid back chair.. there sitting there for Hours.. please make them comfortable.. Maybe like some offices have that big Yoga ball to bounce on?
Why would you need anti-gravity on a ship that generates a gravitational field? Just turn it off in that space.
@Lt. Washburn: I like those as well, but I've used them SO MUCH, I started to feel like I cheap out when I use those. @valkyrie013: Dammit, now all I can think about is a bridge full of yoga balls. The replicators probably only give out decaf as well... Looking for chairspiration, I stumbled upon the original concept art for the Ent-B chairs. These alternate chairs, drawn up by Clark Schaffer for Generations, were probably discarded when they realized how expensive it would be to create brand new chairs for a set that would only appear for 10 minutes. Still, they're a nice "what-if", they certainly look more comfortable than the boat seats used instead... Anyway, I went for it, and modeled the console chair, taking inspiration from the Excelsior chair on how to do the back (with the plastic strut coming out of the back to connect into the base). It's still not entirely done, but the main shape is there. The resulting chair is a bit taller than the Kelvin style chair I was using, so I raised the helm console a bit as well. Thoughts about this chair design? I might be tempted on doing the Captain's chair as well... Spoiler: Images
https://getbackinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/getbackinc-swing-out-bar-seat-inside-counter-1.jpg Was thinking something like this for the side consoles? something like a pull out seat if in use? just a thought https://www.allmodern.com/furniture/pdp/ranae-adjustable-height-swivel-bar-stool-a000549362.html Maybe something like this for the chair part? looks comfortable And.. go for it