3D interiors in Blender

[Matthew Raymond]

It seems to me that the "beds" in Discovery aren't really practical. People's legs tangle off the end, and I'm not sure their arms are any better supported. They're more like discount dentist chairs. They also have massive support armatures that make it look like the patients are made out of Dwarf Star Alloy. (I know, wrong continuity.) I do like the fact that the beds can slide into the medical scanners, but the concept art that Rekkert showed seems more practical. If you need a special, highly detailed scanner, just have one, and make the beds more general purpose.

Overall, I don't hate the design of the Discovery sickbay, but it's too busy to be all that memorable, and the bed space seems rather sparse. The ceiling particularly is insanely complicated and seems to sacrifice practical lighting for visual interest. I do like the privacy screens, but those are just tracks on the floor and ceiling.

You know what, you could probably just do privacy screens using holographic emitters and noise cancellation. Modern day court room use white noise generators for privacy all the time, so I'd expect that in the distant future, they'd be able to generate sounds that cancel sounds coming from a specific origin while being basically inaudible everywhere else in the room.

Or you could go low-tech and just have sound absorbing curtains...

 

[Rekkert]

@Mage: I plan to experiment with different ideas, including a door; but as @cardinal biggles pointed out, we never saw doors on doctor's offices in Trek. Given how prevalent active noise canceling is becoming in the real world, it's not a stretch to imagine it being a lot more powerful and easy to install in rooms by the 23rd century.

@valkyrie013: I'm with @Matthew Raymond in my overall dislike for the Disco sickbay, the only element from it that I'll be trying to add into this set are the colored lines on the floor to separate some of the areas and bring some more visual interest to the floor.

Decided to do some more work on the sickbay today. I wanted to avoid reusing the same biobeds for the millionth time, so once again inspired by concept art I modeled the biobeds designed for the Enterprise-B. I find the Ent-B sickbay set fasinating, it was built and shot for Generations but being so full of people it was barely visible (even when reused as the inside of the drydock), however it has a ton of props that were later repurposed for the Defiant sickbay, such as the biobed monitors and the big screen for the surgical area. I'm not sure if the beds were actually ever created though, I've never seen a clear picture of the set or even a blueprint.

Here are the new beds plus the start of the USS Victory logo (for now with no text), there's also more work on the ceiling as you can see, and a bigger monitor for each bed placed on the wall. I do plan to add some more details to the beds, some text on the walls, and probably some white tape on the floor to signal each area. Still unsure if I'll leave just one door entering to the examination room, or if I'll add another one to the other side, with a little corridor going to the labs.

 

[Matthew Raymond]

@Rekkert, so is the idea of this a way to reuse the bridge set as a sickbay by changing the props and furniture?

 

[Mage]

@Mage: I plan to experiment with different ideas, including a door; but as @cardinal biggles pointed out, we never saw doors on doctor's offices in Trek. Given how prevalent active noise canceling is becoming in the real world, it's not a stretch to imagine it being a lot more powerful and easy to install in rooms by the 23rd century.

Yeah, as was mentioned before, it's actually a pretty good point. I stand corrected.

Though I still think my joke was kinda funny.

 

[valkyrie013]

Interesting!
I'm not a fan of the design of the disco one but just seems a bit more user friendly I guess.
Looking forward to what you come up with!

 

[Rekkert]

@Matthew Raymond: pretty much, that way I avoid all the sickbays having the exact same walls and angles as they did on the shows and movies from TMP all the way to Voyager.

Well, I found some behind the scenes pictures of the Ent-B sickbay that convinced me that the Enterprise-B biobeds were then reused on Voyager's sickbay. As built, they're rather different from the concept art, and their shape is much closer to the Voyager beds. Makes sense that they would be reused that way after their minuscule appearance on the movie.

I'm a bit torn on what to do with the biobeds now, I know they were constructed differently and are the same basic shape as on Voyager (though still with vastly different details and stands). Should I modify these to match the canon version from the Ent-B, or remain faithful to the concept piece? These are the kind of choices that keep me up at night (no joke). Thoughts?

I'm experimenting a bit with labels for the main ward, adding some lines on the floors and markings for the beds, plus a caduceus symbol on the nurse station, facing directly at the main entrance. Also, here's a revised plan for the room, I've added a little corridor connecting the ward to the exam room, and expanded on the office idea a bit.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I would say leave the biobeds close to the original Ent-B design as you have them. I think it still works within the timeframe while giving that class a unique looking feature.

 

[cardinal biggles]

I agree with Ryan, stick to what you've got. But also keep the bed in the operating room in line with that TMP concept rather than trying to do what they'd proposed for the Ent-B.

 

[valkyrie013]

Yes, use the B concept.

Only thing, and it's just a personal opinion is that the hard part at the feet makes it hard for tall people to fit.. As im quite tall it is a bug, but do as you want to

 

[Lt. Washburn]

So my view is, I like what you're doing for an original set, so just carry that forward without hewing too close to either the Ent-B or Voyager style. You can always do those sets later and then you'll have reason to be more accurate.

By the way, someone has the Voyager bio-bed foot LCARS posted at yourprops.com if you wanted good reference of that for whatever you decide to do.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Yes, use the B concept.

Only thing, and it's just a personal opinion is that the hard part at the feet makes it hard for tall people to fit.. As im quite tall it is a bug, but do as you want to

I'd assume there are either other beds elsewhere in the sickbay complex which are longer/larger to accommodate aliens with different sized bodies, or the beds have some as yet unseen ability to expand when needed.

 

[valkyrie013]

https://forgottentrek.com/the-galaxy-class-medical-deck-that-could-have-been/

Ran across this, may give you idea, probably seen it, I like the "partition" that is on the ceiling to the wall part!

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I like the inclusion of a separate exam room connected to the ward, very much in the spirit of TOS. It would be handy to have a place a doctor can see a patient in private, instead of just in the middle of sickbay for all others to see.

 

[Rekkert]

@cardinal biggles: Oh, the TMP era exam bed is certainly staying!

@valkyrie013: Yup, those Probert concept sketches for STO are great, there are a ton more on TrekCore's STO page.

I did end up modifying the biobeds, given the different stands and details they are very distinct from their final 24th century style appearance anyway, and I know that if I had kept these different from how I now know they looked like, it would've drove me mad.

I might add some more details to the sides of the beds but these would be original stuff to fit in with the era, rather than any of the Voyager style greebles. I also took another stab at the stands, which I wasn't entirely happy with before. I kept the same silhouette but made it a thick central stand rather than the two flimsy ones I used before, I think this helps in making the beds look more functional.

Other than that, you can see I'm starting to render out the images as I've added more lights to the room, though it's still rather early in their geometry.

Also, despite adding the lines and text on the floor, I'm still rather unhappy with how empty and uninteresting it looks at the center of the room, but I don't want to add any steps or carpeting. Any ideas?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I wanna get sick just so I can get treated in that sickbay!

 

[cardinal biggles]

What if you made the areas behind the lines a different color of floor material? Keep it the same texture, but just make it tan or similar to the shade of green you're using on the doors?

 

[Lt. Washburn]

Rolling carts with equipment?

 

[Matthew Raymond]

Rolling carts with equipment?

Automated rolling beds that take you back and forth from surgery.

 

[valkyrie013]

For beds..
Watching discovery, they switched it to a hard shell bed with Cushan, but it bends in the middle so can sit up.

 

[cardinal biggles]

You need to add something that's got some color and some light. Maybe something like the frosted supply cabinets in the TMP version of the exam room (link) or the infamous TNG "glowing red and blue jars"