- Me too! I just think it's such an adorable (for want of a better word) little ship. It also helps that the Grissom's intro-theme music from ST III is a nice, bright fanfare for it. The Helin bridge is looking great, @Rekkert!
When you think about it, the Oberth-class ships have a pretty dismal track record, at least when it comes to major appearances (i.e. not just seen in an establishing shot dropping a character off at the Enterprise): USS Grissom: blown up by Klingons SS Tsiolkovsky: crew died due to idiotic behavior caused by polywater intoxication, ship destroyed by chunk of exploding star SS Vico: torn apart by gravitational wave fronts USS Pegasus: testbed for experimental phasing cloak, phased in the middle of an asteroid Damn things are like intergalactic Ford Pintos. Where's Future Ralph Nader when you need him?
For all we know the USS Oberth itself could be the most successful science ship of all time. Just to let you all known, I've finally moved out this week. My partner and I are now living together and the apartment is slowly taking shape, so that's why there's been no updates lately, hopefully these next few days I'll be able to get back on track with things.
Congrats! Can't wait to see your version of the Cerritos bridge, it'll be an interesting experiment compared to the photorealism you usually go for.
Starfleet wouldn't keep putting them in such dangerous missions if the class hadn't proven to be capable in the first place
Glad you like the start on the Helin bridge, though as I mentioned on that post I won't be finishing it soon, as I have to get back on track with commissions. So, back to the USS Lafayette bridge commission! The command area was moved forward in order to better balance out the bridge, and make it seem shorter than the Enterprise-D's. Because of this, the steps at the sides are now rotated somewhat, which I think looks better than having them straight as they were before. As you can see there are also handrails now added at the sides, and the circuitry access panels were modified to have the Future Imperfect style top section. Also, here's a little test of something I did using Blender's Freestyle tool. A long way to go to make it look properly cel shaded, but you know I'll be doing it sooner or later.
The little alcoves beside the steps would be a good place to put a water cooler or replicator where bridge officers could gather for a gossip.
@Csalem: lol, little guest seats as well, maybe. Finished the steps area (and properly UV mapped the carpet) and added details on the walls. The classic TNG red alert indicators were placed right next to the aft consoles, while the wider wall was occupied with some isolinear panels.
I know you're joking but honestly those spots wouldn't be the worst place for some kind of benches, or if you wanted to go full Probert small couches. Out of the way but still with a clear view of all the stations, perfect for some Ambassador or old science dude of the week doing a ride along.
@The Librarian: Indeed, that could be a good idea for a diplomatic or medical ship, now that I think about it. Doing some more tests to try and get the Lower Decks looks using Freestyle and flatter lighting/materials. Not perfect but I'm quite happy with how easy and quick it is to do these. Whenever I do tackle the Cerritos I'll have to pay more attention to the details, of course.
Interesting experiment! It feels a little too flat, especially the displays, but for quick conversions it's pretty cool how well it went.
I agree with The Librarian, it does seem a bit flat; the colors need to pop more. And what you've got doesn't look cartoony enough. Though a real-world interpretation of the Cerritos interiors would be a nice project to tackle, especially as the season progresses and hopefully we get a better look at some of the different spaces on the ship.
While I agree with @The Librarian and @cardinal biggles in that these latest renders seem a bit too flat as they are (except the Enterprise-D bridge which looks great!), I think they'd be perfect with cartoon/animated figures populating them. After all, the characters should be brighter and more colourful as they should draw the focus. And when a close-up shot is required with the character interacting with a console or something, then that particular object can be brightened/given a bit more colour. IMHO, anyway
What was your render times like between the cycles and the toon shader version? As far as the flatness, you could potentially use the compositor to blend the toon version and the cycles version, to give some depth. Or use a world map to light an eevee scene to then composite the flat version over the eevee render.
Yeah, I 100% agree with that flatness, it's literally down to the fact that there are no lights on those scenes, just a default background brightness level. The Ent-D is the exception as it has custom light source. I was mostly testing out the freestyle settings, if I were to produce "finished" versions of these I would certainly add some highlight lighting, plus making the actual materials both flatter and brighter, to add to the cartoon effect. @batboy853: The render times for the Cycles version with 1500 samples which I use for my HD renders is around 25 minutes. These with Eevee took... one.
The thing about objects in real life, is that they don't have outlines that contribute to the animated flatness of the image. If those were turned off (and the fore-mentioned lighting amped up to make some things pop with light and shadow), the renders would be back to their excellent selves.