They taper on the original what is unclear is how they "end" Some scenes show them stopping at some point then a dot, others just taper in to a point, and yet others they just taper and fade out. So far I think the taper a gap and a dot is the most common set up and likely where I will go with it. Some moddlers taper the vanes heavily, others do not. It really does not matter as there are many ways to build the vanes, or not build at all as quite a few texture them in. I think I might have to fatten mine up as they taper inward though.
1701 Enterprise TOS build
- Thread starter Madkoifish
- Start date
Great work there 
Grates and those brackety rounded over thingies. I matched the hole count height and completely ignored the length. I will leave that to some irate neckbeard.
And yeah the holes are not mapped right, I have already corrected it and not willing to re-render it all. I am considering building crap behind. Mostly because on the 11footer I think I see holes back there. I have heard they wanted light behind the grills but planning and costs did not align with time.
And yeah the holes are not mapped right, I have already corrected it and not willing to re-render it all. I am considering building crap behind. Mostly because on the 11footer I think I see holes back there. I have heard they wanted light behind the grills but planning and costs did not align with time.
I only mention it because you seem to have the two tones of grey already on there, but, just so you know, the wavy surface on the aft end of the nacelle should be the same grey color as the rest of the cowl and trim. Just the actual ball is the lighter shade.
Great progress, otherwise!
--Alex
Great progress, otherwise!
--Alex
It is for material separation atm.
Intercoolers. Or whatever the one used on the forward grouping of warp coils is. As from what I have read they are all the same bits just different heatsink arrangements. (though I have to wonder if some didn't fall off. ANYHOO I think mine to my annoyance are maybe a bit too THIN. Not finding very conclusive images all the blues vary all over some even show the things FLAT, AFAIK they are angled to the plane of the nacelle hull. Mine are square atm just for the sake of modeling ease.
I really am tiring of the research for 5 hours and model for 10min then research another 5 hours to model maybe 5 more min. Yeah my pipey bits need to be a hair larger in dai. It is strange but I still visually want those grates to be offset vs inline, definitely need to model something back there as it is clear right now it is just flat hull back there. Oh and no that dark bit on the end og that framing is not a error it is just the AO shader freaking out. However that one area is one I really hate about the nacelles right now as to get the height down the length of those frames from the nacelle you end up submerging that end bit too deeply. Really what needs to be done is to boollean that whole backside cutout, but if you do that to get that area planar, you loose that round edge. It becomes more of some screwed up elipse shape. RRRRR
Intercoolers. Or whatever the one used on the forward grouping of warp coils is. As from what I have read they are all the same bits just different heatsink arrangements. (though I have to wonder if some didn't fall off. ANYHOO I think mine to my annoyance are maybe a bit too THIN. Not finding very conclusive images all the blues vary all over some even show the things FLAT, AFAIK they are angled to the plane of the nacelle hull. Mine are square atm just for the sake of modeling ease.
I really am tiring of the research for 5 hours and model for 10min then research another 5 hours to model maybe 5 more min. Yeah my pipey bits need to be a hair larger in dai. It is strange but I still visually want those grates to be offset vs inline, definitely need to model something back there as it is clear right now it is just flat hull back there. Oh and no that dark bit on the end og that framing is not a error it is just the AO shader freaking out. However that one area is one I really hate about the nacelles right now as to get the height down the length of those frames from the nacelle you end up submerging that end bit too deeply. Really what needs to be done is to boollean that whole backside cutout, but if you do that to get that area planar, you loose that round edge. It becomes more of some screwed up elipse shape. RRRRR
Gotcha. I figured you already knew and there was a good technical reason for the color. Just trying to help out.
Some years ago, Shaw did a pretty in depth study of the area I think you are having trouble with (assuming I'm understanding you correctly). Check out this thread:
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=45261&page=55
...and start reading at post #819. It's a very thorough discussion. In fact there's a lot of very well done research therein which might save you a bit of time. Granted, it's a long thread, but I think it's a great read. Might save you some five hour research sittings....
--Alex
I quickly mocked up the intercoolers, no patterning on the infill and I am a bit ehh about the tabs. Everyone shows them level but the model they are angled, but a lot of stuff seems sanded round that might not or SHOULD not have been. These fiddly areas are the worst as old photos go all grainy here or drop to black so it is hard to tell. Eh now I have em rendered the ones on the nacelles seem to stick out too far.
As for gunk behind the grills I might make 2 versions of this ship one with reality additions like that to just give a touch of updated CGI and one to stick to canon. I think a white blue glow like I had used on my Thanatos would look nice. Actually I wonder how well that ship would render next to this one.
As for gunk behind the grills I might make 2 versions of this ship one with reality additions like that to just give a touch of updated CGI and one to stick to canon. I think a white blue glow like I had used on my Thanatos would look nice. Actually I wonder how well that ship would render next to this one.
It'd be fun to see you light the grilles in a way that looks like practical lighting from the 60's. That'd be a fun experiment.
Very nice
Attached is something I thought of yesterday after seeing guys attempt to mimic the domes on models. One guy built dummy bulbs to diffuse his leds into and this made me think, DURR wern't the silly bulbs in the connie likely tilted like this as well? They had to have been as when you look at the domes in the show they get that odd shape that would be a Xmas bulb pointed inward. SO, I have tilted mine to give it a go. NOW the real issue is I might have to reset all my gradients I have farked up to get the previous set up to work. I might be altering the bulb colours and layout too.
Yeah some tuning but using emissive/lum materials that is far better. Id still like to dim it some to get that backside darkening but as for the as seen on tv look it works. Clearly need to adjust or remove all together the gradients on the domes themselves as it is unneeded at this point. Only thing I am not liking is the bright white on the tips of the bulbs is reflecting all over onto the spike and creating that warm hotspot in the center. The dark towards the backside is mostly due to other CGI connies I have seen and wanting to mimic that look as I like it.
I just have pop in here and say ... wow! I've been around this ol' board for a long time (more a lurker than contributor these days) and have seen a lot of artists try to replicate this effect (often with wonderful results), but I have never seen anyone try and reproduce the actual Christmas lights and mirror fragments. Truly amazing, and the end result is about as close as I've ever seen to the original.
Thanks for sharing all your progress shots with us. I'm really enjoying watching this model take shape. But, I had to comment on this aspect in particular. Just really amazing to me that you're doing this. 
Well gotta thank some of the physical modelers out there making their own replacements for the array the 350 model comes with that gave me the epiphany.
Mess of renders and some goofing around
And one as a goof about. No real attempt to match a scene exp as lighting is all off.
ignore the materials, gotta go about putting the right ones in the right places.
Mess of renders and some goofing around
And one as a goof about. No real attempt to match a scene exp as lighting is all off.
ignore the materials, gotta go about putting the right ones in the right places.
No real update but just a sneak and info.
Here you can see me adding in windows. Clearly I eased the corners of the windows. Study aeronautical engineering for the reasons I will NEVER cut square corner windows. Anyhow I have made the easement very small, so they SHOULD retain the same feel and really at the scale of the original model well the corners would be rounded to some degree. NOW what I have decided as well is to either dim or just have lights off in the darkened windows vs just a stenciled material. So with that I am breaking with the whole model replica here. While most of you probably expected this I am sure someone out there did not. HAH.
NOW to the pause moment. Looking at some of the newer photos and looking at how the gloss picks up highlights I am starting to think the neck squares off somewhat near the top. Or just squares off period. I did it round following, well the blues again and other model renders. (when I will learn to just refer to the photos only.) So with that I am grinding to a halt again to spend time researching. The one thing that has annoyed the hell out of me with this project. Oh also ignore the backside colour I just applied the leading edge material for now. I dunno if I will map these changes or use separate materials. I think these colours only appear on the neck so mapping them in would probably be the easiest.
Also tempted to place one of the pilot patterns on the farside of the neck. Original model having just a metal plate over the hole on the other side for access.
Here you can see me adding in windows. Clearly I eased the corners of the windows. Study aeronautical engineering for the reasons I will NEVER cut square corner windows. Anyhow I have made the easement very small, so they SHOULD retain the same feel and really at the scale of the original model well the corners would be rounded to some degree. NOW what I have decided as well is to either dim or just have lights off in the darkened windows vs just a stenciled material. So with that I am breaking with the whole model replica here. While most of you probably expected this I am sure someone out there did not. HAH.
NOW to the pause moment. Looking at some of the newer photos and looking at how the gloss picks up highlights I am starting to think the neck squares off somewhat near the top. Or just squares off period. I did it round following, well the blues again and other model renders. (when I will learn to just refer to the photos only.) So with that I am grinding to a halt again to spend time researching. The one thing that has annoyed the hell out of me with this project. Oh also ignore the backside colour I just applied the leading edge material for now. I dunno if I will map these changes or use separate materials. I think these colours only appear on the neck so mapping them in would probably be the easiest.
Also tempted to place one of the pilot patterns on the farside of the neck. Original model having just a metal plate over the hole on the other side for access.
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As an aerospace engineer:
Windows glass and rooms are in. I still dunno what I will do about the dimmed rooms the original had mesh glued onto the glass, I guess that it was intended to act as a dimly lit room. There is that one orange or red room too and that sorta needs work as I am being lazy and using bussard orange material vs just making a orange light. I have to go and find some untouched footage of that room to see how orange and what tonality etc. ATM the glass isn't frosted up too much. Likely I will be ramping that up to match the look of the original windows. I ended up merging up those aftward room as well they really would be less than closets otherwise. Heck most of these rooms are just that EXP with the dimmed rooms set where they are.
I also have to look into why there is so much blue spill going on in the rooms that have no light. I am wondering if there isn't something that got borked when I adopted LINEAR workflow. I have noticed stuff like the glare lens stuff is all jacked up like it is super out of scale with the scene. SO as the issues add up or I notice things it is looking more and more like I will return to the default gamma and system set up instead of this style work flow as it so far is screwing up lighting and consistency with other meshes and overall expectations of things like textures and what not.
Additions
Dorking around with that sensor dome thing. Real issue IS I dunno what the third light was on that green PCB that was under it. Not to mention orientation and what else was there. Most shots all the light just blew out to white or a greenish hue. Clearly I have some more work to do on it. I also need to sink it into the hull as well.
More windows too
I also have to look into why there is so much blue spill going on in the rooms that have no light. I am wondering if there isn't something that got borked when I adopted LINEAR workflow. I have noticed stuff like the glare lens stuff is all jacked up like it is super out of scale with the scene. SO as the issues add up or I notice things it is looking more and more like I will return to the default gamma and system set up instead of this style work flow as it so far is screwing up lighting and consistency with other meshes and overall expectations of things like textures and what not.
Additions
Dorking around with that sensor dome thing. Real issue IS I dunno what the third light was on that green PCB that was under it. Not to mention orientation and what else was there. Most shots all the light just blew out to white or a greenish hue. Clearly I have some more work to do on it. I also need to sink it into the hull as well.
More windows too
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Well here we go decided to screw about with the rear sensor first. Lit the thing from the bottom and made the disc a translucent green thing and adjusted the little rods to emit light.
Some screen caps:
Some screen caps:
Little by little I am getting there I think. Adjusted the transparency of the green bit and added in the bezel to the dome as well. Likely will weld it into the hull unlike the studio model where it is obviously just glued on seams and all.
I put in a plea to see of Steve Neil has any info on orientation of the elements inside as I have no real reference to how the 3 elements on the disc are orientated on the model. Screen shots I have are at angles that I cannot reference to get a proper orientation as this part of the ship is always to close to distortave elements in camera or film. I know he has some info on it as his replica model shows this element as something other than a clone of the bridge dome. Maybe he is just running a tinted light there, it has been so long since I watched his WIP videos and due to silly youtube BS those are no longer viewable.
Adding to the post instead of bumping it with another post.
YEAH another post, updated neck backside.
Now my issue I think it is too narrow up top, meaning I really want to widen it but that will change a lot of topography. Meaning re-cutting all those windows. yuck. ANYHOW more things for me to mull over.
I put in a plea to see of Steve Neil has any info on orientation of the elements inside as I have no real reference to how the 3 elements on the disc are orientated on the model. Screen shots I have are at angles that I cannot reference to get a proper orientation as this part of the ship is always to close to distortave elements in camera or film. I know he has some info on it as his replica model shows this element as something other than a clone of the bridge dome. Maybe he is just running a tinted light there, it has been so long since I watched his WIP videos and due to silly youtube BS those are no longer viewable.
Adding to the post instead of bumping it with another post.
YEAH another post, updated neck backside.
Now my issue I think it is too narrow up top, meaning I really want to widen it but that will change a lot of topography. Meaning re-cutting all those windows. yuck. ANYHOW more things for me to mull over.
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