3D interiors in Blender

[ashleytinger]

I don't know about the safety rail behind the flight console. It seems a bit excessive maybe?

Just realized they did have one behind Tom on the Voayger bridge. Curse my faulty memory. :P

Maybe stylize it more like the railing behind the Captain? Not sure if that would hamper going in and out of the flight pit though.

 

[Rekkert]

I've finished the front of the bridge and further modified the auxiliary station behind the captain, which is supposed to be similar in function to Voyager's small station at the same location. I'm UV mapping everything now, and will begin texturing next. I still have to add some labels on the front area of the bridge, but as it's a rather small detail I'll do it after finishing UV mapping, which is the part I hate the most of modeling.

Spoiler: Image

EDIT: A Foundation member asked for a wireframe, so here's my first attempt at doing one:

Spoiler: Image

 

[batboy853]

Are you purposefully going for a rectangular viewscreen? Keep in mind, voyager's is not:

It does look pretty epic though.

 

[137th Gebirg]

It's Denis!

 

[Rekkert]

@batboy853: Yes, it's purposefully rectangular as to not be *too* similar to Voyager, still having some details more in line with the early TNG era.

I've started texturing the LCARS and other features such as doors/labels. This is a first pass so colors and details can change.

One particular detail of this bridge is that I've incorporated some metallic elements into the LCARS display, as such elements were present in all ships after the Defiant, like Voyager and later the Ent-E. You can see the Tactical console here has some metallic grey panels that, while being part of the texture, are not light emitting but rather a glossy material.

Spoiler: Image

 

[137th Gebirg]

These are very cool images, but I have to ask, why are putting them in spoiler code?

 

[Sibyl]

These are very cool images, but I have to ask, why are putting them in spoiler code?

Because someone with ancient internet was complaining about the number of images per page.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Because someone with ancient internet was complaining about the number of images per page.

I think that maybe this person doesn't realize that the image is still being loaded but simply not being displayed in a hidden DIV layer until the spoiler button is clicked, which is why it comes up right away instead of loading after the fact.

 

[Matthew Raymond]

I think that maybe this person doesn't realize that the image is still being loaded but simply not being displayed in a hidden DIV layer until the spoiler button is clicked, which is why it comes up right away instead of loading after the fact.

Actually, there may be some browsers that don't load images while they're hidden. It depends on what browser you're using and how the images are hidden.

 

[137th Gebirg]

An inspection of the hidden code looks like this:

<div class="SpoilerTarget bbCodeSpoilerText" style="display: none; opacity: 0;">
<img class="bbCodeImage LbImage" alt="{IMG}" src="https://whereever.domain.com/image.png" data-url="https://whereever.domain.com/image.png">
...
</div>

As I suspected, clicking on the spoiler button simply changes the div layer style designations to this:

<div class="SpoilerTarget bbCodeSpoilerText" style="display: block; opacity: 1;">
<img class="bbCodeImage LbImage" alt="{IMG}" src="https://whereever.domain.com/image.png" data-url="https://whereever.domain.com/image.png">
...
</div>

No special pre-loading scripts or anything else outside of the smooth fade-and-slide of the spoiler window on the "ToggleTrigger" function invoked by the button click event. The images are still being loaded, just not displayed out the gate, and I know of no modern browser rendering engines with special loading conditions based on div layer visibility designations. Can't speak to Chrome or Opera specifically, but certainly not Firefox, IE, or the various Safari flavors on mobile devices. So, no bandwidth savings, there, sorry.

 

[Matthew Raymond]

Wasn't trying to make the argument that it's a general practical technique of saving bandwidth. I was just saying that there may be some edge case where it does save bandwidth.

 

[Rekkert]

It has nothing to do with saving bandwidth, but rather with making the viewing experience smoother.

It's not much of a problem for me here but on other forums, due to the hosting, even with my pretty fast connection images take a looong time to load and through all that time you can't read the posts because they are moving as new images load, so the overall viewing experience is awful. If I can help someone have a less awful experience by just using the spoiler tags, I'll do it with no problem.

 

[Rekkert]

After UV mapping everything, I've noticed that the helm is waaay to large for just one operator, so I did some modifications to it to make the actual usable area smaller, while also giving the console some more volume (though it can be argue that the original elegance of the minimalist design is lost).

I've changed the door labels to read 'port egress' and 'stbd egress' as in the Defiant, to better reflect the fact that they don't lead to a turbolift.

I've also added some very subtle texture to all dark surfaces to better replicate the look of the show. It's quite noticeable on the helm render as the camera is pretty close.

Spoiler: Image

 

[137th Gebirg]

It has nothing to do with saving bandwidth, but rather with making the viewing experience smoother.

Oh! My mistake. I totally misunderstood why you were doing that. Apologies for the confusion. Still, awesome renders!

 

[Matthew Raymond]

That one console in the back left corner wall near the chair says "keep out of the reach of children".

 

[Rekkert]

@137th Gebirg: No problem! Haha, thanks!

@Matthew Raymond: Yeah, I might lower that one a bit. I'm 1.53m (5') tall myself, so I couldn't use that console.

I've continued work on the LCARS and started with the MSD. The top view of the ship is still in progress but I wanted to get it out and see what you thought of it.

Spoiler: Image

 

[ashleytinger]

Love how quickly and cleanly you work. The LCARS work looks great. Definitely like the MSD. Are you going to do cutaway with it or keep it whole?

 

[Matthew Raymond]

The LCARS looks great. What ship class is that? Is that an original design of yours, or are you just creating a bridge for it?

@Matthew Raymond: Yeah, I might lower that one a bit. I'm 1.53m (5') tall myself, so I couldn't use that console.

Don't worry, they have a fix for that in the future. Ever seen Gattaca?

 

[cardinal biggles]

The top view of the ship reminds me of one of the conjectural designs for a future Enterprise from the back of the TNG Tech Manual.

 

[Rekkert]

@ashefivekay: Thank you! I should be working faster actually, but given that I'm busy with other stuff and that I have to wait for some emails before going forward, things aren't as smooth as they could be. Regarding the MSD, it'll include a cutaway section inside the side view of the ship.

@Matthew Raymond: Thanks! It's a Bradbury Class, it was mentioned but never seen in TNG, and I'm basing the design on this old image of it.

@cardinal biggles: Huh, I never thought about it, but yeah you're right there is some resemblance.

Some more work has been done on the LCARS, I redid some of the stuff as my client requested specific displays for each console, with different colors for the 'animated' sections similar to those used on the real CRT monitors on the sets. The design of the ship is also finished now, here it is compared to the Intrepid:

Spoiler: Image