That looks indeed like a place to get some rest, drink coffee and blast metalcore on your headphones.. really chill..
Thanks for the comments everyone, I'm glad you like the room! @Ryan Thomas Riddle: Yes! While the main inspiration was the TMP lounge, with its similar sunken area in front of the windows, that original concept from Probert has been in my mind these past few days. I didn't want to add a bar and all that to it though, this is a workhorse Excelsior-Class after all, not a fancy Galaxy-Class. @cardinal biggles: That's correct, these are the windows at the back of deck 1. I've added insets for the ceiling lights, further pushing them upwards a bit. This was suggested to me by @Donny and it matches how I had tackled the ceilings for other TNG era rooms where the original sets didn't actually had one, such as the transporter room. Other than that, I've scattered the usual red labels and props all over the room. I could've added more sconces or other props which I already have available, (not to mention paneling on the walls, like how I did on the Potemkin ready room), but I consciously wanted to leave this room clean, lowly lit, and a bit empty. This has two purposes: First, as a room for relaxation keeping it visually uncluttered makes sense as an in-universe goal for the designers; access panels and the like are kept at a minimum and hidden behind the acoustic panels rather than in plain sight, for example. Second, thinking about it as a "TNG redress", it fits in with the budget and time limits the set designers would've had to work with. I did model a new 3D chess set for the room though, which is identical to the one used in Ten Forward. Well, I should say an idealized-version of that set, instead of "identical", as it has all matching pieces and all the stands for the secondary boards in place, while the TNG used prop often had stuff missing or the pieces replaced with cheap ones painted metal grey.
Beautiful. I would suggest lighting strips on the stairs, or a reflective tape, both to break up the contrast a little and as a practical safety feature - seeing the steps while walking down. I could see adding a couple of potted plants, maybe a couple of other subtle decorations. Great job!
@Jedman67: While I briefly considered adding lights under the steps just like on Ten Forward, I ended up discarding the idea. First because given the light emitted by the coffee tables and bouncing off of the walls, its not needed; and second to be more consistent with other TNG Starfleet "sets of the week", including other lounges such as that from Starbase 173. As for other decorations, again I did have more plants at the start, but I purposely removed some and cleared the room a bit. And it's done! The interior hasn't really changed from the previous renders, but I did model the exterior a bit, again just like what we saw on the TNG lounge. Also, just because I find it funny, here's how the ship exterior looks; I removed all the bits that aren't visible to keep the file size manageable.
Two comments about the lounge. First, the lack of rails is concerning. Seems like a single hit to the ship will send everyone gazing out the window toppling over. Health and Safety will not be pleased. Second issue, which is much more minor, is that the half-circle table for the middle bench is to far away from the middle seat. The poor sap in the middle seat will never be able to reach their drink. Otherwise, I love the upper part, and I like the out-of-the-box thinking regarding the geometry of the lower level.
@Matthew Raymond: Is it OSHA compliant? No, absolutely no. Is it consistent with other similar Trek interiors, including the aforementioned Starbase 173 lounge and the TMP officer's lounge? Yes. That's always my goal here. Same thing with the 'reaching the table' thing, it's consistent with how those half-circular things were used in Ten Forward sometimes; plus on the TMP lounge the table under the windows is ever further away from the seats! You all knew this was coming, didn't you? And yes, I'll be using the correct silhouettes for the ship sculptures, as I always do with MSDs and LCARS, I like to "correct" those little things.
For those wondering, I'm targeting the early season 4 version of the lounge, before the two other keypads were added on the other side of the screens. By season 5 (after its redress for 'The Undiscovered Country') the room was drastically different, with horizontal lights added below the windows; a new carpet pattern; always-on "screens" displaying generic LCARS; a replicator added near the port door; no space paintings on the walls; and the whole inner wall with the ship sculptures replaced by a new one with rather boring looking triangular patterns. I'll be doing just this version now, but I'm sure I'll do that other version someday. I had to shorten the table a bit from what I had in the previous render, as it was clearly far too long once I placed the chairs around it. Speaking of which, I also tweaked the chairs; making the back a bit more angled and rotated backwards. I've also changed the materials of the whole room somewhat, to be more accurate. As with all TNG sets, it was very unevenly lit through the series, even in the same season, so this mostly targeting the lighting of BoBW 2. Mostly. Finally, I added a small "exterior", simulating the view outside. Which as you can see isn't very interesting, but is accurate as to how it would look like given the shape of the Galaxy-Class, no nacelles or really any features are identifiable on the outside given just how big the saucer is and how low the nacelles are placed. I'll probably sleep on it and tweak the lighting/materials a bit more tomorrow, but I think it's finished, as 90% of the work was already done when I tackled the Potemkin lounge (and the ships which I did years ago for Stage 9).
Ended up redoing the whole table. When comparing screencaps I noticed my version was a bit too straight, the curve should be more pronounced. It's a small change in focal point, but it's one of those cases where I knew it was wrong so I had to change it even if no one would've noticed hahaha. Also, as stated yesterday I tweaked the materials and textures a bit more, particularly on the wood wall panels.
Tweaked the colors a bit more, and heavily modified the potted plants to be a bit less stiff. I really don't like doing plants haha.
Great work on both lounges. I like that you can see the rest of the ship out of the Excelsior-Class lounge.