3D interiors in Blender

[Rekkert]

@Macintosh: I was commissioned a bridge which was essentially a proper TNG version of the refit bridge once, a "what-if" if they could've fully converted it for production of TNG. Unfortunately the commission was never finished so it's half-way done, and at least at the moment I have no intention of finishing it.

@Orbing Master: Thanks! That's a good idea for it too, I hadn't considered it!

@Firebird: It was a matter of cost and the realities of production. They couldn't afford a brand new set given all the other stuff that needed to be built for the pilot, and they couldn't modify the refit bridge too much because it was going to be used for the next movie with the TOS cast whenever that was done. Obviously the latter didn't end up happening, but by that point it was season 2 of TNG and they could afford new set pieces for the battle bridge set and all its many redresses.

 

[Orbing Master]

Not to sidetrack the thread, but I always preferred the snug look to the first incarnation of the battle bridge, it lent it a more claustrophobic air which suited the mood of those scenes. Conversely, I wish they'd added a bit more to the Stargazer bridge, console wise, because that always felt too empty...

 

[Macintosh]

@Macintosh: I was commissioned a bridge which was essentially a proper TNG version of the refit bridge once, a "what-if" if they could've fully converted it for production of TNG. Unfortunately the commission was never finished so it's half-way done, and at least at the moment I have no intention of finishing it.

That's interesting! Reminds me a tiny bit of your Odyssey bridge concept.

 

[Macintosh]

I was always confused that Herman Zimmerman never really bothered to make the original Battle Bridge design that much distinct from the base Refit Enterprise Bridge set they redressed for "Encounter at Farpoint."

Especially given that originally saucer separation was supposed to be much more common than it ended up being... early on there'd have been an expectation that we'd see the battle bridge much more often than we did.

 

[David cgc]

^They might’ve had the expectation that they’d be able to do it up as time and budget allowed. It wouldn’t be the only set that was a bit basic and unfinished in a pilot.

 

[publiusr]

@Macintosh: a bridge which was essentially a proper TNG version of the refit bridge…

The spare design gives me a sense of unreality…akin to the “back rooms” analog horror….I could see three people going through a lot far from each other…perhaps Q standing where Worf does bending over…whispering into Picard’s ear…this a surreal distillation of the Ent-D that is more full of life.

It reminds me of the graveyard where my parents are interred…there are three huge thrones—two that face each other—one in the middle….all far from each other.

The blue medical quarters of another thread made me expect to see a face-hugger. Here, I see a mindscape.

 

[Rekkert]

While I obviously liked what I did for the Emmett Till battle bridge, part of me felt it looked too much like a small science vessel's bridge, rather than a "battle bridge". I don't know how to describe it, but it didn't feel purposeful enough, too much empty space.

Anyway, today I started brainstorming ideas for converting the set into the Ross battle bridge, and I realized what was missing. I had no standing consoles at the back or anything like that, so as a test I took some standing consoles that I was gonna use on the Ross and placed them on the Till battle bridge, and it all made sense lol. It no longer looked like a "peaceful ship-of-the-week bridge" to me, so I decided to redo all the renders with these consoles in as tactical, and turning the forward consoles back into the standard conn/ops.

This must be a record for how fast I change my mind on a design lol, here are all the renders again with those consoles in (had to adjust some of the angles), feel free to compare with the ones above without said consoles:

 

[Firebird]

I don't know why, but the Emmett Till bridge looks like a plausible design someone could use for their home theater space.

 

[Orbing Master]

While I obviously liked what I did for the Emmett Till battle bridge, part of me felt it looked too much like a small science vessel's bridge, rather than a "battle bridge". I don't know how to describe it, but it didn't feel purposeful enough, too much empty space.

Anyway, today I started brainstorming ideas for converting the set into the Ross battle bridge, and I realized what was missing. I had no standing consoles at the back or anything like that, so as a test I took some standing consoles that I was gonna use on the Ross and placed them on the Till battle bridge, and it all made sense lol. It no longer looked like a "peaceful ship-of-the-week bridge" to me, so I decided to redo all the renders with these consoles in as tactical, and turning the forward consoles back into the standard conn/ops.

This must be a record for how fast I change my mind on a design lol, here are all the renders again with those consoles in (had to adjust some of the angles), feel free to compare with the ones above without said consoles:

Yes!! Gives it a bit more oomph and a bit more cramped, tightly squeezed look...

 

[DEWLine]

Budgets. Always budgets...

 

[Macintosh]

Budgets. Always budgets...

Starfleet's actual most intractable enemy.

 

[Rekkert]

Hope you all had a nice start to 2025! Like I said last year, I was brainstorming how to convert the Emmett Till battle bridge into the Ross', and here's what I've come up with. The main shape is obviously the same, but with all the necessary material and lighting changes to fit the Ross. Like the ship's main bridge it has ramps rather than steps into the lower level, and a tactical station behind the Captain's chair, though this is now two individual consoles rather than a single one (I kinda wanted to make the layout more similar to the TNG battle bridge, with the Ross being an evolution of the Galaxy).

The viewscreen is also very different to the Emmett Till's, and two half-width doors are now included at each side of it (same doors the Enterprise-E ready room had behind Picard's desk), they lead to a small "battle ready room" and a head. I decided to keep the MSD console at the back this time, however I modified the keyboard area to be shorter and thus have fewer buttons, kinda illustrating that it isn't a full-time console (again, like the Enterprise-E MSD). I also tweaked the large ship graphic itself to remove the saucer section's detail, like some of the graphics in the TNG battle bridge did. I'm fairly happy with this new layout but I'm not married to it, the half-size doors in particular might be a bit awkward. Thoughts?

 

[Firebird]

Something about the half-width doors feel odd to me, but without them there, you'd have blank sections of walls which would be odd as well. From an operational standpoint, they should be there for head or office facilities in the case the auxiliary bridge needs to be manned for lengthy periods of time.

Maybe... could the Viewscreen be too large for the room?

 

[cardinal biggles]

^I think that's a big part of it. The viewscreen looks like it's the same size as the one on the main bridge, but both versions of the D's battle bridge had a smaller screen that looked similar in size to the one from the movie bridge.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Maybe it's just a trick of the angles and stuff, but the half-doors almost look too small. I'll admit this is just me spitballing from doing the E-D Battle Bridge walkaround on the Roddenberry Archive, but the doorway to the ready room doesn't seem like it's narrower than the doorway to the turbolift. Or if it is, it's a smaller difference than the difference between the ready room door and turbolift door on the Ross. It almost looks like you'd need to scooch in sideways to get through the doorway.

 

[Rekkert]

Thanks for the feedback on that area! The viewscreen is indeed the same size as the main bridge's, as was the case on the Emmett Till. Because of the way the structure connects at the ceiling, and the angles involved, making the viewscreen smaller wouldn't mean there'll be more room for the doors there. I tried using a smaller viewscreen and adding some very small alcoves in that extra space but it just looks weird IMO.

Regarding the half-doors @santa biggles, they're the same design and size as those on the Enterprise-E ready room for the little toilet Picard used in First Contact, they are indeed very thin. The TNG battle bridge side doors were the same size as standard doors, just with a single panel opening to one side rather than two.

Here's an iterated version on the front end. I kept the smaller viewscreen I experimented with thanks to @Firebird's suggestion, even tho the space at the sides ends up being unused I think it looks more balanced for this bridge's size. I also tweaked the doors to follow the curvature of the columns right next to them, as the angle difference was bothering me. This also makes them more usable even if they differ from the established thin Enterprise-E doors. Does this work better?

 

[Finn]

Love it.

But shouldn't the chairs at the Ops and Conn be able to slide a bit, since the consoles are a bit long?

 

[TOMFAN]

I like that a lot! I've always thought that the colours of the Ent-E bridge were great, and with your lighting here, they look stunning.

But do you think other Captains look at that and think: 'Blimey, their battle bridge is nicer than our main bridge!'

 

[David cgc]

Something that's been bothering me about the Till Battle Bridge that this new version of the Ross one addresses is the sightlines from the captain's chair. On the Till version, the divider between the forward wall consoles and the turbolifts blocks the captain's view of the aft-most console (as do the new standing-stations), so they can't shoulder-surf from their chair as effectively, but moving the chair forward on the Ross fixes that.

I like the hollowed-out saucer on the MSD. Since it's CGI, I'd be tempted to make the MSDs animate for saucer-separation, and either blank out the detached section of the ship (with an animated withdrawal similar to the way the aft consoles activated on the -D in PIC), or remove it entirely and zoom in on the remaining segment, since they are supposed to be giant screens and not the static graphics they were IRL.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Thanks for the feedback on that area! The viewscreen is indeed the same size as the main bridge's, as was the case on the Emmett Till. Because of the way the structure connects at the ceiling, and the angles involved, making the viewscreen smaller wouldn't mean there'll be more room for the doors there. I tried using a smaller viewscreen and adding some very small alcoves in that extra space but it just looks weird IMO.

Regarding the half-doors @santa biggles, they're the same design and size as those on the Enterprise-E ready room for the little toilet Picard used in First Contact, they are indeed very thin. The TNG battle bridge side doors were the same size as standard doors, just with a single panel opening to one side rather than two.

Here's an iterated version on the front end. I kept the smaller viewscreen I experimented with thanks to @Firebird's suggestion, even tho the space at the sides ends up being unused I think it looks more balanced for this bridge's size. I also tweaked the doors to follow the curvature of the columns right next to them, as the angle difference was bothering me. This also makes them more usable even if they differ from the established thin Enterprise-E doors. Does this work better?

I love the shape of the doorways – it's kind of quirky, but it works!