3D interiors in Blender

[Rekkert]

@Donny: Thanks! Those were actually my client's idea haha, but they do work very well here.

@Norsehound: Thanks! It's becoming one of my favorite to work on haha, I'm doing possible variations for it all the time in my head. Regarding the throttle thing, I would imagine the 'sphere' isn't actually a trackball but rather a 3D astrogator of some sort, to visualize heading, rather than to actually be controlling. The whole keypad and the center screen on the helm console are for that.

I've done the little turbolift indicator screen (which got reused all the way to the Enterprise-E), which was the only item I hadn't model yet. All that's left now is to finish the remaining okudagrams.

Spoiler: Image

Also, completely off topic; I've rewatched TMP on the weekend, and noticed the control tower of Epsilon IX had some very unique looking consoles. I think these would work great for a small bridge, like an Oberth or Okinawa. A shame they didn't reused them for the Grissom. A future project, perhaps...

Also, as far as I can tell, this is the first use of the chairs that would later be on Picard's ready room.

 

[Norsehound]

@Norsehound: Thanks! It's becoming one of my favorite to work on haha, I'm doing possible variations for it all the time in my head. Regarding the throttle thing, I would imagine the 'sphere' isn't actually a trackball but rather a 3D astrogator of some sort, to visualize heading, rather than to actually be controlling. The whole keypad and the center screen on the helm console are for that.

Looking forward to seeing what else you can do with this setup. Pity we don't have a lot of ships here in this area... Constellation's going to be in-step with Sulu's refitted Excelsior. Next up is Enterprise-C. Unless, I guess, someone wanted to make a proper bridge for the Sydney class?

Also, completely off topic; I've rewatched TMP on the weekend, and noticed the control tower of Epsilon IX had some very unique looking consoles. I think these would work great for a small bridge, like an Oberth or Okinawa. A shame they didn't reused them for the Grissom. A future project, perhaps...

Also, as far as I can tell, this is the first use of the chairs that would later be on Picard's ready room.

When people talk about, like, the consoles at the back of the Enterprise-C and the Hathaway... I always thought those same three consoles are the same ones here from Epsilon IX. Looking at them again the overhead panels are canted in a way these Epsilon IX ones aren't, but the Hathaway/Ent-C ones certainly aren't from the refit bridge.

 

[Donny]

Also, as far as I can tell, this is the first use of the chairs that would later be on Picard's ready room.

Those chairs also appeared as the chairs for the gunner consoles seen in the brief glimpse of the TWOK torpedo bay before it went up in flames due to a Reliant phaser blast, and were then moved to the sickbay lab set at some point (Gene Rodennberry can be seen sitting on them in “The Cage” introduction)...I’ll dig up pics tomorrow

 

[batboy853]

Blueprints for Epsilon 9 station are supposedly here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/99878876@N02/albums/72157682709550755

However they do not appear to line up with what was actually seen on screen. What was on screen was a small room, versus the set blueprint appears to be a large and tall room...

As far as the Enterprise-C rear consoles. They were constructed after the Twok / Refit bridge was was accidentally left outside during a rainstorm. They were destroyed. Which was why in S2 they created the generic room of the week with those consoles.

 

[valkyrie013]

any pop up joysticks?
Looks excellent sir! Just makes me wonder what actually would appear on the helm/navigator screens. Maybe some x,y,z, coordnates? Speed indicator? Rpm? maybe a map of the local area with a small ship on it? Just thinking

 

[Lt. Washburn]

How did it ever make sense to build a set that big to begin with? Was there more to those scenes in earlier script drafts?

 

[Rekkert]

Looking forward to seeing what else you can do with this setup. Pity we don't have a lot of ships here in this area... Constellation's going to be in-step with Sulu's refitted Excelsior. Next up is Enterprise-C. Unless, I guess, someone wanted to make a proper bridge for the Sydney class?

Canon-wise there's nothing really other than the Constellation or Excelsior. The Sydney's a shoe box with nacelles, I doubt it would share a bridge layout with ships of the line, even if the exterior is identical.

If I do a variant bridge, it'll be either another Constellation, an Ingram-Class (IDK if a bridge for that class was ever made), Ulysses-Class, Lexington-Class (Klingon Academy was my childhood), Excalibur-Class, or Terrell-Class. I tend to overthink this stuff, thus why I can't bloody choose hahaha.

When people talk about, like, the consoles at the back of the Enterprise-C and the Hathaway... I always thought those same three consoles are the same ones here from Epsilon IX. Looking at them again the overhead panels are canted in a way these Epsilon IX ones aren't, but the Hathaway/Ent-C ones certainly aren't from the refit bridge.

Nah, those were created from scratch for the Hathaway, according to the blueprints. Like @batboy853 said, they needed new consoles and realized they could easily reuse those whenever needed.

@Donny: Ohh, I never noticed that! Until this weekend, I always thought the chairs were brand new for TNG.

@valkyrie013: No joysticks, I'm afraid.

@Lt. Washburn: Either that or some gross miscommunication between departments

I've finished the helm console, with some requested modifications to how it looked before:

Spoiler: Image

 

[Donny]

Love it! I’m so glad I subscribed to this thread. Keeps me motivated

 

[cardinal biggles]

How did it ever make sense to build a set that big to begin with? Was there more to those scenes in earlier script drafts?

@Lt. Washburn: Either that or some gross miscommunication between departments

That, or the kind of revisions that take place when you start out pie-in-the-sky and then realize how much it will cost; I suspect that's part of what happened with the TSFS Excelsior bridge where you go from this cool design with a wrap-around viewscreen to something that looks like it was thrown together in a weekend.

 

[Jedman67]

Love it Rekkert, keep the goodies coming.

 

[Norsehound]

Canon-wise there's nothing really other than the Constellation or Excelsior. The Sydney's a shoe box with nacelles, I doubt it would share a bridge layout with ships of the line, even if the exterior is identical.

If I do a variant bridge, it'll be either another Constellation, an Ingram-Class (IDK if a bridge for that class was ever made), Ulysses-Class, Lexington-Class (Klingon Academy was my childhood), Excalibur-Class, or Terrell-Class. I tend to overthink this stuff, thus why I can't bloody choose hahaha.

Well, I hated the Jenolan "Bridge" from Relics... talk about something poor and ill-fitting. I figured if you weren't shy making something different than the Stargazer or Hathaway bridges then it was worth suggesting. For crying out loud, it's got a connie bridge module even!

Starfleet Command was my childhood, and many of those models were inherited from Klingon Academy. Many of them are 2290s era though, I'd peg Constellation as cutting-edge 2297. FWIW, between all of your options I'd like to see the Ulysses.

 

[Donny]

Also, as far as I can tell, this is the first use of the chairs that would later be on Picard's ready room.

As promised, here are the other two appearances of those chairs in TWOK photorp bay and in the partially deconstructed sickbay office in Gene's Cage intro:




The sickbay office had been redressed as the Klingon BoP sickbay near the end of TSFS, explaining the black biobed and perhaps the red triangular design on the windows. We never get a clear shot of this redress other than the unmistakable wall panel. And I'm not quite sure when those chairs were moved to the set. They could've been there in TWOK, but this area was out of frame in the one shot we see of Doctor McCoy's office in that movie.

 

[Toph_ERR]

Hi all, I'm the nitpicky so-and-so who commissioned the Constellation bridge that Rekkert has been laboriously working on.

@Norsehound FWIW, the bridge as portrayed here was intended to depict the Constellation circa 2289-2293, around the time of her first refit. I guess you could say she's "as cutting-edge as possible" using mostly proven stock components, and makes up for any shortfall with extras of EVERYTHING... a relatively cheap way of expanding the fleet's heavy hitters

And I agree re: the Jenolen, the refit bridge module IMHO presents an opportunity to retcon the onscreen version to a more appropriate pared-down bridge of the era.

 

[Norsehound]

Hi all, I'm the nitpicky so-and-so who commissioned the Constellation bridge that Rekkert has been laboriously working on.

@Norsehound FWIW, the bridge as portrayed here was intended to depict the Constellation circa 2289-2293, around the time of her first refit. I guess you could say she's "as cutting-edge as possible" using mostly proven stock components, and makes up for any shortfall with extras of EVERYTHING... a relatively cheap way of expanding the fleet's heavy hitters

And I agree re: the Jenolen, the refit bridge module IMHO presents an opportunity to retcon the onscreen version to a more appropriate pared-down bridge of the era.

Hey Toph! Welcome!

The way you describe the Constellation matches my own take on the ship, and explains why she has a more conventional 2280s bridge over the crazy Excelsior Proto bridge when both of them are supposed to be fresh, new experiments in that era. I can't un-see this being the Constellation class' proper bridge now

 

[Toph_ERR]

Thanks man! Glad you approve of this version (I love the Constellation model you posted )!

The exterior is likewise altered in my (let's call it a subtle retcon...) version, in that the dorsal and ventral interconnect are based on the Enterprise refit's, most of the greeblies from the TNG appearances are removed, and the lateral nacelle pylons connect to the sides of the Torpedo Bays rather than in a T-junction above/below. Oh, and I've swapped out the forward shuttlebay to add in a recessed, slimline oblong Main Deflector.

The end result is that she's slimmer and more streamlined from the sides, and looks a little less dainty from in front due to the Nacelles being closer to the hull and spaced wider apart. Eventually I'm hoping to commission Rekkert to create Main Engineering.

 

[Rekkert]

@Donny: Glad to be of help man! Thanks for those screencaps, I had no idea the chair was there! (nor that the whole sickbay set was redressed for the BoP, I always thought it was just a wall).

These past few days I've been toying around with several possible 'redresses' for this bridge, and while @Toph_ERR and I are ironing out the last details on the Constellation, I took some time today to work on one of these.

- My first idea was the aforementioned Ingram-Class interior: similar layout to the Constellation, but even more functional (with hand bars and things like that), and a unique helm station I came up with which blends the Excelsior style with the Enterprise-A.

- The second idea was the opposite, making the bridge a bit warmer and nearer in style to the Final Frontier bridge. While researching for possible ships to pair this bridge with, I came across with the fact that on the original script for 'The Omega Glory', the USS Exeter was called USS Argentina by Gene Roddenberry. While I don't like the idea of starships named after present day political entities, I couldn't help but be drawn to this fact, so I'll almost certainly create a bridge for the Argentina further down the line as well.

- However the third idea ended up winning: a carrier starship's bridge, with a completely circular lower level, and a 'pool table' in the middle of the bridge. After looking at possible classes I realized like an idiot that the Constellation-class has a bazillion shuttlebays, so it was a perfect fit. I imagined this particular ship as one specifically developed for shuttle operations (combat situations, evacuations, relief efforts, etc), so that it would make sense for it to have such a unique bridge.

Considering the idea, the USS Valkyrie NCC-2590 was a perfect fit, as the name 'Valkyrie' was used for a type of attack fighter in Star Trek Invasion, plus the fan-made carrier Valkyrie-Class.

So, after toying at it for some 10 hours today, here's how the bridge of the Valkyrie is looking. It's not done yet, but the idea's in place. The fighter craft displayed on the consoles is the same class that would be used for training on TNG, as we saw the interior in 'The First Duty' and it had 23th Century graphics. We could assume it was in active duty back then.

Spoiler: Image

 

[Toph_ERR]

Love it! The only thing I'd question is whether there's enough room in front of and behind the Captain's chair? I'd be worried about going butt over bonce down the steps if it gets a bit dicey!

Your deckwell consoles look similar to what I'd once imagined on an Ingram bridge :thumb:

 

[valkyrie013]

ooh!
Maybe, with the captains chair, put it on a raised platform of sort? just 1 step up?? Just seems its .. oh hey.. captain needs a seat.. woops..

 

[batboy853]

ooh!
Maybe, with the captains chair, put it on a raised platform of sort? just 1 step up?? Just seems its .. oh hey.. captain needs a seat.. woops..

To play devil's advocate. On a recent vacation to NYC I toured the USS intrepid. When I got to the bridge of the ship was amazed to discover that the captain's chair was not on the actual bridge but was off on its own in a cramped observation room. It was kind of like, "Captain's sick of all these people he's going to go sit and look off into the sea now..."

 

[Jedman67]

To play devil's advocate. On a recent vacation to NYC I toured the USS intrepid. When I got to the bridge of the ship was amazed to discover that the captain's chair was not on the actual bridge but was off on its own in a cramped observation room. It was kind of like, "Captain's sick of all these people he's going to go sit and look off into the sea now..."

I so badly want to go there. One of these days.