Don't burn out! I've found that once i've worked on something for longer than a month I get tired of working on it, even something as basic as placing the little red set labels feels like a bigger task than what it really is at that point lol
@batboy853: You have no idea for how long I've worked at some relatively small stuff at work, you'll find out soon enough but it was insane Over the weekend I started a short project to create a transporter room for the USS Victory. While the ship is very much "Enterprise-B era", I want to approach this room as a little experiment on what the TUC art department could've created if they'd had more budget and time to redress the TNG transporter set for the Enterprise-A. As such I'm using the TNG set as a starting point and moving things from there towards the TWoK-era set, completely ignoring the Enterprise-A transporter rooms shown in TFF and TUC. To that end, I'm doing stuff like covering the vertical lights at each side of the transporter platform with metal grates; changing the trapezoidal step into the platform to a metal crescent-shaped one reminiscent of TOS; replacing the TNG back-lit panels behind the transporter to ones with a hexagonal pattern, to kinda showcase an in-between stage from TWoK to TNG; and other stuff like that. These are very WIP with only a few hours of work, everything's still subject to change. I still have to add paneling all over, a side door into a staging area (like in TMP), stickers and okudagrams, etc. I might flat out change the transporter platform itself as well, I had a few concepts but none worked as I would've liked. Also, I might get rid of the little bench, not sure if I like it yet. lol As you can see on the last two images, I tested a few different variations on the console and the structure surrounding it. I also tested an 'H' shaped floor platform, very much like the one used on the refit Enterprise, which could've been built and placed on top of the TNG set floor to better mirror the movies set. But I thought this was too much of a regression in the end. Comments and suggestions very much appreciated.
You could place plexi over the open areas in the floor H...so that it followed the early movies but made it into walkable area.
That's a very interesting idea. Realistically, would plexi have been used that way, or would that be just for show and a hazard to actually step on anyway?
The plexi would have probably been a hazard to step on; depends on what was supporting it from below, and keeping in mind that the vacuformed "machinery" panels would have been underneath. How strong were those, with or without plexi over them? Could it handle the weight of someone stepping on it, even just briefly as they cross the room to or from the pad or booth? Separately, the use of plexi on the floor could have been a source of unwanted glare from reflected stage lights.
Totally, but I'm trying to approach it from a set designer's perspective in 1991, and to me plexi there would be a risk, while the vacuformed machinery underneath would be more obviously not intended to be stepped on. Plus @cardinal biggles makes an excellent point about it being a possible source of unwanted glare. I most likely won't go the H shaped platform idea anyway, but this all gives me food for thought on the matter, I definitely want to further differentiate the layout from the TNG set.
Really nice work there. As for that H shaped bit.. hmm, you could just raise the bits inside the H, that way you have some variation in the texture of the floor, you can indeed also leave the H out.
Would metal grating, with some sort of lights built into the supporting frame underneath to illuminate the vacuform panels work?
Could they not have put in place the pipes and tech greeblies then filled the hole with a transparent resin, making it strong enough to stand on and removing the dangerous trip hazard?
@batboy853: If further developed, the H-shaped floor would be made entirely of metal grating, just as on TMP, so you could certainly see what's under it. @Bry_Sinclair: That sounds way too complex and I feel it would create even more problems production-wise, not to mention making the machinery itself inaccessible, so there's no point having it there. Not much time to work on this but some more progress on the walls, added paneling all around and the small door into the staging area. Still not sold on the idea of the 'H' floor, but I did iterate on the idea with a small rectangular cutout on the floor right in front of the control alcove, where machinery would be hidden. This is my interpretation of a middle-step between the exposed elements from TMP and the totally flat floor of TNG. Thoughts?
I come at it as, if your in a hurry, and you run off the grating into the sensitive stuff, and fall and break stuff.. Why not just put some metal grating over the whole floor? Easy to just lift up if you need to work on something, and it would protect it from clumsy ensigns. Also, the pictures to me, look realy dark For the previous corridors, look really nice! Going to miss the Carpeted look with Picard and all the metal everywhere look!
Well, plexi or glass...whatever they used for the second level of engineering; that seemed to work out for walking on.
@valkyrie013: Yeah I know it looks too dark right now, and too grey, I intend to address both those issues. @Lt. Washburn: Ah, that's a great point I totally forgot about! I'll keep doing some tests for the floor when I have the time. Bit of a sideways update today, not at all related to the Victory transporter room. Work is being a bit too much at the moment (can't wait to show you all what we've been working at the Archive), so I rather take my time with that interior. For a long while I've been meaning to reorganize my website to better showcase each starship and have all their interiors in a single place, so today I started that process. I created individual pages for the Potemkin, Victory, Yeager and Appalachia; and organized the interiors for each. Feel free to follow the links, they should look like the image below, though right now only Potemkin and Appalachia have brief descriptions on them. It's very early days of this idea, I still have to edit the description for each interior in order to avoid having so much repetition; plus add more in-universe text for each ship; etc. Like I said, it's early days, so feel free to give your feedback to how it looks, how the side menu works, etc. I want to polish this idea more if necessary. For example I still don't know if it's worthwhile doing this for all the ships I have with only one interior, or if it's better to leave those on the "other works" section. I fear having too much clutter on the side menu, but I also don't want things to be hard to find.
Glad people seem to like the new website style! Do you think I should do the same for ships with only one interior, such as Thunderchild or Fontana Station? @Finn: lol, I know, I know, better light bulbs will be installed on Tuesday. I finished writing short descriptions for all four starships. These are all written as current in the time period where the "snapshot" of the interiors was taken. So for instance Victory was brand new on its 2293 description, but Potemkin was already 60 years old on its 2368 description. As someone who is by no means a writer, I'm quite proud of these. Some info such as Captains names are taken from novels or comics. Do let me know if there's any grammatical error or something like that, having to not only come up with something but also translate it into English is certainly different. I also took the chance to rework the dedication plaques of all these ships. The plaques aren't usually very visible on renders so I never paid super close attention to them, but now each one has the appropriate layout for its era and a unique motto, even though they're purposely low resolution as I didn't want them to dominate the page. Spoiler: USS Victory description Originally planned and built as a fast response cruiser able to intercept possible Klingon incursions into Federation space, Victory was commissioned a few months following the signing of the Khitomer Accords. Thus, it was equipped for a role no longer deemed necessary in the political climate of the time. Following an initial period of uneventful patrols of the Tholian border while Starfleet Command reviewed its sudden surplus of starships, Victory quickly proved its usefulness when a plague struck Epsilon Canaris III on stardate 13408.7. Despite not being assigned to the relief efforts, Victory's powerful warp engines allowed the ship to reach the afflicted planet faster than any other vessel, and its vast shuttlebays were quickly converted into quarantine areas for the sicken population, helping to quickly isolate the virus and develop a cure. By the time the medical ship USS Houssay reached the planet, Victory already had the situation under control, impressing both the Epsilon Canarians and Starfleet Command. Initially thought of as a ship doomed to obsolescence before even leaving drydock, thanks to the ingenuity of its crew Victory became an example of how cold-war era starships could excel at peace-time roles. Spoiler: USS Potemkin description A ship of the line when first commissioned in 2308, by the late 2360's Potemkin was an old but reliable workhorse mostly assigned missions inside Federation space, such as outpost resupply runs, VIP transport, or low-level diplomatic assignments. The ship is currently under the command of Captain Marcus Bertrand, its 11th commanding officer. Multiple computer system upgrades over the years mean the ship's power requirements exceed those the 60 year old warp core is able to deliver. Because of this, low priority subsystems are run at a lower power than standard, which results in dimmer levels of lighting when compared to most contemporaneous Federation starships. A 3-months refit scheduled to occur no later than on stardate 49327.8 at Starbase 74 aims to, among other things, replace the warp core with a newer revision to provide the needed power levels for all of Potemkin's systems. Spoiler: USS Appalachia description Appalachia was among the first Steamrunner-class heavy frigates completed on Copernicus Fleet Yards in 2373, with the starship class having been introduced only a couple years before. Its shakedown cruise on the outskirts of the Sol system coincided with the Borg incursion into Federation space, and Appalachia proved instrumental in the hours leading up to the Battle of Sector 001. With only a skeleton crew on board, the ship shadowed the cube at maximum sensor distance and took detailed readings before the rest of the fleet was in a position to attack. This tactical information proved the basis for Vice Admiral Hayes' battle plan. After finishing repairs following the battle, Appalachia was properly commissioned and placed under the command of Captain Ahmed al-Rashid. Spoiler: USS Yeager description One of the first Saber-class starships to enter service, Yeager was commissioned under the command of Captain Melissa Binde and assigned to patrol shipping routes in the Typhoon Sector, a known hotspot of Nausicaan raiders. During its first 15 months of deployment, Yeager disabled 6 Nausicaan ships before eventually driving the raiders off the area altogether. This glowing performance added to the raising reputation of the Saber class as a small yet dependable escort. While not as capable as the more compact Defiant class, its more traditional construction and larger size meant it was more popular with both crews and construction yards personnel. On stardate 50893.5, the Borg began a new incursion into Federation space. Yeager was part of an assembled response fleet, and assigned to the third combat wave alongside starships Anchorage, Hiroshima, Tannu Tuva, Galatea, and Pearson. By the time the fleet managed to engage the Borg, they had already entered Sector 001. Yeager performed admirably during the battle, but received extensive damage to its ablative armor and power systems in the engagement. Currently undergoing repairs, Yeager is scheduled to return to service by stardate 51027.4, and expected to join the Seventh Fleet ahead of Starfleet's counter-offensive against the new Dominion threat.