3D interiors in Blender

[Rekkert]

I've done a few more displays, and also...

Spoiler: Image

Ironically, it does look good from the Captain's point of view...

Spoiler: Image

I see two options going forward with this console. If I go hardcore on the canon, the 'NAV' decal is visible on the episode, and Castillo was found below this console, so they should be always maned stations, as in the Enterprise-A. The problem with that is that you would have two crew members standing in the way of the viewscreen all the time.

However, its position right below the viewscreen makes it ideal for a 'Master Situation' and/or 'Mission Ops' console, not used all the time, but always displaying information. And when needed, crew members can approach and use it for more granular tasks, just like the aft consoles worked on the Enterprise-D. Thoughts? Any third possibility I'm missing?

 

[cardinal biggles]

I like your second idea. That would be an uncomfortable station to have to stand at all day, since the controls would be down at your waist, maybe even lower. (can you drop some figures in for scale?)

 

[TurtleGerald]

Hello everyone, I've just this minute signed up, so forgive me if I don't know all the etiquette around here just yet. I found this thread after searching for "luxury starship bridge" on Google. I'm trying to envisage a better bridge for the Nova Class. Something with the layout of Enterprise NX-01 but in a new post-Nemesis, post-Dominion war, "luxurious" and "optimistic" aesthetic - imagine a 2017 Mercedes S-Class or Emirates' new 777 1st Class cabin and you've got the rough idea!

Anyhow, just thought I'd say hello and share my idea - I love the designs in this thread and I hope you all don't mind if I join in the conversation going forward!

 

[Rekkert]

@cardinal biggles: Yeah, I'll probably go that route. Regarding the size/height of the console, it starts at 75cm, so it just a bit lower than the Ent-D tactical station.

@TurtleGerald: Hi! Thank you, I'm glad you're liking my work! That's a really cool idea for a bridge you've got there, I like the luxurious aesthetic, fitting for that era. If you're looking to have that idea realized, feel free to contact me at tadeotrek@gmail.com

 

[Rekkert]

I've made some progress on the forward station. I decided to make it an Emergency Manual Override station. That station was seen in early TNG, so it makes sense that the predecessor to the Enterprise-D has one of these. It's not used regularly unless it's a dire situation and other consoles are destroyed. And surprise, we only saw it being used during a dire situation as the helm!

I've added the Okudagrams to the bottom of the console. I decided to ignore the white stripes seen there because honestly all the different consoles would end up looking completely different if I don't draw the line somewhere, I want to make the look somewhat consistent. Also because of that, I've added some more of that TVH style Okudagram.

Spoiler: Image

 

[Rekkert]

I've started work on the front and I'm nearly done with the viewscreen, but in the meantime, I've done the details that go below the aft consoles, and I've also continued work on the overhead graphics, and modified the Captain's chair a bit to make it more accurate.

Spoiler: Image

 

[ashleytinger]

I've started work on the front and I'm nearly done with the viewscreen, but in the meantime, I've done the details that go below the aft consoles, and I've also continued work on the overhead graphics, and modified the Captain's chair a bit to make it more accurate.

Spoiler: Image

I love all the attention you're putting in to the Okudagrams here. I always just figured they recycled a lot of them from the Ent-A bridge, but obviously not.

 

[tax1234]

Looking real good!

Something I am curious about... The Ent-C bridge is a redress of the small bridge set, isn't it? Presumably, at some point, the Enterprise-C would have been the "hero ship", with a large, hero ship bridge... What if this some kind of a battle bridge / aux. control room? Maybe the ship had a "proper" main bridge, and it was destroyed in the battle?

Or has there already been a discussion about this?

 

[Rekkert]

@ashefivekay: Thanks! Yeah a lot were reused pieces (from the Enterprise and Hathaway mostly), but some were newly made.

@tax1234: Thanks! I believe it was discussed previously but a debate about this kind of stuff is always welcomed.

I adhere to the idea that this is the main bridge of the ship, for several reasons.

-First of all, that's the way it was intended and how it's treated in the episode and in the original script.

-Secondly, the original idea for TNG was that the ship was mostly automated, hence why the bridge had so few stations on the Ent-D. The aft stations were not supposed to be used except in some very specific cases. If we follow this idea, the Ent-D only had 5 permanent bridge consoles, while the Ent-C has 6, so it fits perfectly halfway between the 'fully manual' Ent-B and the 'heavily automated' Ent-D.

-Thirdly, while the bridge looks somewhat more claustrophobic, when you compare its size to that of the Ent-D, it's pretty much the same. The Ent-D bridge was longer, but also narrower.

Onto the updates, I've changed the color of almost every piece of Okudagram, now they're a lot more accurate. The second image has the same angle as some of the previous ones, so you can make a direct comparison. Also, I've finished texturing the two TNG style consoles, and added some more pieces here and there.

Spoiler: Image

 

[cardinal biggles]

@tax1234 : The truth is, we just never spent much time on Ambassador-class ships on TNG and DS9. You have the Enterprise-C, which comes through the rift a smoking wreck, and the Excalibur (part of Picard's task force in "Redemption II," and the most we see of this ship's bridge is Riker and Geordi standing next to Generic Console.

The Excalibur becomes the hero ship of Peter David's Star Trek: New Frontier series of novels, at least through the first eight, after which the Ambassador-class Excalibur is destroyed and eventually replaced with a Galaxy-class Excalibur-A. When they adapted New Frontier into a short-lived comic book, the bridge they used was pretty much a Galaxy'd-upped version of the bridge seen in "Yesterday's Enterprise." It had ramps instead of the steps and a smaller horseshoe railing containing the Tactical station, but the essence of what we saw before is in it.

Spoiler: re-creation of what was shown in the comics

 

[Rekkert]

@cardinal biggles: I looove Double Time (Well, I love all of New Frontier), and what they did for the Excalibur bridge was amazing. That recreation is not entirely accurate, there are some further differences, particularly on the aft section. I hope to be able to work on the Excalibur bridge one day. I have more than enough projects for now.

I had sketched out and started doing a 3D model for an original Ambassador bridge some time ago, keeping it in line with what was seen, but with a larger floor plan more similar to the Excelsior. I eventually deleted the 3D model because it was awful, it was one of the first bridges I started, and the scale was completely off. Here's a vector sketch of it. The four wall consoles would be exactly the same as what they used for the Excalibur in 'Redemption':

Spoiler: Image

I've finished with the viewscreen area, I'm almost done with the modeling.

Spoiler: Image

 

[cardinal biggles]

@cardinal biggles: I looove Double Time (Well, I love all of New Frontier), and what they did for the Excalibur bridge was amazing. That recreation is not entirely accurate, there are some further differences, particularly on the aft section.

I tried, but couldn't find, the drawing of the bridge that was included with Double Time. And the one or two pages that were available online were action-y kinds of stuff that didn't really give a sense of how the bridge was laid out.

 

[Jedman67]

The Enterprise C bridge was a redress of the Battle Bridge set, which in turn was a redress of the Enterprise-A bridge from STII-VI (I don't remember if it was the same as the TMP bridge. IIRC, after TOS ended the bridge was struck and rebuilt completely for TMP).
I think the bridge appears smaller because the producers wanted the Battle Bridge to be smaller, the set itself is the same size as any other random bridge.
Due to budgetary constraints, extra set decorations were always recycled as props or consoles whenever possible, this is why small props are constantly seen with different functions in the background of nearly every series. Many sets were also recycled just by moving some walls and repainting - the faux voyager from "Live Fast and Prosper" was a heavily redressed Defiant bridge, for example. (sorry for the thread hijack)

@Rekkert good work!

 

[batboy853]

Ask and Ye shall receive. Did some googling, found this also checked a version of the comic that I found somewhere, in the actual comic pages, bridge looked more like a circular version of the galaxy bridge, but with Captain / XO chair from the intrepid class. Ceiling looked like it was styled after the Ent-B. The View screen changed each time it was shown in the comic, one time it was the size of the Galaxy class, the next it was half the size, with the console right in front of it.

 

[Rekkert]

@LottsaGelt: Thanks! Indeed, this set was a lot of different rooms with recycled elements. The set was build for Phase II, and latter adapted when the show was replaced with TMP. It was used as the main Enterprise bridge until STIV, then part of the set got damaged and hence a new Ent-A bridge was made for STV, and this set was kept as a generic TNG set.

@cardinal biggles and @batboy853: Indeed, on the comic the aft section is completely different and the design is not entirely consistent (as is the case with most comic interiors), but I do love the style and colors they went for.

I've added all the raised panels and consoles on the front of the bridge.

Spoiler: Image

 

[Jedman67]

It was also the courtroom set in Measure of A Man

 

[batboy853]

^It also appeared as, but not limited to: Data's lab (Pre-BOBW) geological lab (Pen Pals) Subspace relay control room (Aquiel), bridge of raider (gambit), federation station (Decent), Courtroom in The defector, The Drumbhead, Replicator room in Data's Day, Drafting room whatever in Booby trap, Bozeman Bridge in Cause and Effect.... Plus many, many more.

 

[JJohnson]

@Tapper: Don't worry, there's plenty of room on the side stations, each being more than a meter wide. I did go with 4 of them in the end though, even with plenty of space, it looked way too crowded with 5 chairs.

@batboy853: I'm still messing around with that area I'll probably do something similar to those panels, as I want to be able to put an MSD there.

@Burning Hearts of Qo'nOs: Hahaha, indeed a small accents of wood can look very cool on SciFi!

Well, I've added more details and separated all the side consoles, but I'm really unhappy with how they look. Maybe they'll look better once it has more details, but I might end up scraping them completely...

Thank you very much Librarian! Yeah, I really don't like that in TNG, the captain can't see a thing behind him.

Here are the finalized renders!

I like this bridge a lot, I have to say. I would second the opinion to add a free standing tactical station on the rail behind the captain, and extend the steps so he doesn't have to step down to step back up. The rail I would add either more to the two side ones towards the viewer, or add one directly front of the captain's chair. Aft of the captain, maybe a sitting station on either side of the MSD.

 

[Rekkert]

Yeah, I wasn't gonna go into all the history of the set, we all know it, and I've been looking into the other appearances to fill in some blanks on the Ent-C set.

@JJohnson: Thanks! That design is already finished but I'll go back to the Buenos Aires style bridges sooner or latter, and I'll incorporate some of the suggestions when I do.

I've added more details on the front part of the bridge. All the red labels are in place, as well as most of the wall Okudagrams. I've added some more removable panels of the same design that's already used on the bridge in the empty forward walls, to make it look like a more primitive circuitry access panel. Their inclusion there is completely original as that set wall was never shown in 'Yesterday's Enterprise', any thoughts about their addition?

Spoiler: Image

 

[Sibyl]

Love it!

There's a detail that I would love to see you incorporate someday...the vacu-formed cassette tape holders as seen on the TWOK bridge but later seen elsewhere in TNG (sorry, I don't remember the episode...it was just something I noticed).