3D interiors in Blender

[cardinal biggles]

Yes, but even those sets did things with lighting, Okudagrams, set decorations, colored pipes, doors, etc. to break it up a bit. I think the sickbay ward and exam room look pretty solid, but agree with Lt. Washburn that the doctor's office needs a little something more.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Perhaps the CMO is from a species that doesn't see in a wide colour spectrum so therefore sees no issue with the duller colour scheme.

 

[Rekkert]

I really don't want to overdo the color here, as overall all the living areas were rather gray in TUC, except for the added decorative props. In the Ent-B we see the added browns buttresses, which I have on the main ward and exam room, but these aren't present on the office given the smaller space not needing buttresses. That was one of the reasons why I added the flag in the first place, it's an excuse to have a big colorful element that still fits.

Anyway, I added a couple more decorative elements to hopefully give the room a bit more color, but I don't think I'll be adding any more. Also, just as on the other rooms I made the frames of the okudagram screen brown rather than black.

The new yellow 'emergency evac procedures' wall label was also added on the main ward and on the side corridor.

 

[Rekkert]

I've added a couple more trinkets and medical tools here and there, and here are the finished renders! Given the amount of rooms, there's a ton of them, so be warned.

 

[batboy853]

Looking good!

Your next challenge should be to redress that same bridge to also be an the Engineering for the same ship! Haha

 

[Rekkert]

@batboy853: lol, I mean that big glass window would be great in front of the Warp core...

Hope you all had a good start to 2021! Took some time off the forums as I've been mostly working on some non-Trek NDA'd stuff, but there's still some progress and work to share here.

First thing, I was able to buy a new graphics card this last week, an RTX-3070, which is a huge upgrade over my old 1070. High quality renders which used to take me 45 minutes are now done in 5'. It's great to be able to finish a project and not dread spending hours rendering, now it just takes less than one to do the whole bunch.

In order to put the new card through its paces I've revisited some of my older personal projects to bring them up to date with my current workflow. In particular, the Enterprise-D 2364 bridge, the Parallels bridge and the Potemkin engineering. This now means that both all the Potemkin interiors and all the Enterprise-D bridges are up to date with my newer materials, lighting setups, etc. And to boot this all took less than a couple of hours to render and upload again, so it was fun to do, which isn't a word I used to use for the rendering process.

Other than that, work continues on several commissions, and earlier this month I finished a somewhat quick redress of the Swiftsure bridge: the bridge for the Pathfinder-Class USS Dunnottar, a big tactical command cruiser based on an STO design.

The most unique features of this bridge are both on the back area: a big glass panel with a star chart takes the place in-between the aft light columns, with the steps going down to the aft section moved to the sides. And at the aft end of the bridge, the MSD is replaced with a Jefferies access and some engineering conduits. Also, the command chairs are now raised a level in relation with the front consoles. Other than that, the bridge takes its color cues from the Lexington-B, with some Voyager and Ross mixed in for the doors and consoles.

 

[SolarisOne]

I was able to buy a new graphics card this last week, an RTX-3070

How did you manage that?!

 

[cardinal biggles]

Very nice! And it's great to see you back again. Congrats on the graphics card upgrade!

 

[batboy853]

Congrats on scoring the 3070! I was lucky enough to get a 3080 at my local Microcenter a few weeks back!

 

[Rekkert]

Well, there's a somewhat healthy stock of 3000 series GPUs here, importers who are official distributors for the various brands bring them by the handful each. A few weeks since they've arrived and now a few are indeed out of stock, but it seems to be due to real people buying them and not because of bots or scalpers. Still, due to import taxes all electronics here are hella expensive, I paid the equivalent of more than 1000USD for the card, and it was around the same price in all stores. And given the economic situation here in Argentina, prices go up every week, so it was buy now or buy later for more money. Certainly more than I should have spent given my situation, but I'm hoping I make up for it with the faster work times. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've been talking to Bernd and we updated the Evolution of the Enterprise-D bridge article on EAS to include a little addendum with the USS Yamato bridge redress, plus the cutaway from the 3D model of said bridge.

This made me realize that now I can easily do the 'Parallels v1' alternate Enterprise-D bridge. It's just made from parts I already had, and while before it would've taken me a whole day to render it, now it takes less than an hour to do so. This new card is shockingly fast, I'm glad I took the chance and bought it, even though it was very expensive for my budget. It's my first GPU upgrade in 5-ish years, and I hope it lasts me that long as well.

Anyway, enough rambling, here's the bridge. This was only seen in a 2 minutes scene during the episode, and it's clearly not as well thought out as the much more prominent 'v2 bridge' seen later in the episode.

 

[valkyrie013]

Good to see you back! Great stuff as usual!

As for Electronics, Have anybody that can buy then ship to you? or is it some weird Europe style V.A.T. Tax or something on mailed stuff? Or is the mail service not good? Just wondering?

Used to ship model kits to alot of countries, and some have some weird mail systems, and some we couldn't ship to because they have to pay a Tax on stuff they receive in the mail ( in this instance some places in Germany were real bad at the Tax thing, others were okay) We always put something like low price something on the custom forms. Then some mail systems are just utter crap, Never mailed to Italy.. or Russia, or China because didn't trust the mail systems and our products getting to the buyers.

 

[Rekkert]

Yeah it's pretty much all of that. If you're importing something you have to write an official and legally binding affidavit what you're receiving to the government, and pay taxes which are usually almost as high as the original price of the product. Plus unless you know the right people it's super common for things to "get lost" in customs, AFTER you paid. It's an absolutely insane system built on top of corruption and incompetence to "protect national industries" even for stuff that is not and will never be produced locally.

As an example, last year I found out that FanSets was using one of my designs for a pin they were selling. After pointing it out they publicly apologized and pulled it from sale; and they sent me a gift package as an apology. That gift package was stuck in customs for almost 6 months, and I had to pay taxes for it, even after stating they were a gift and explaining the situation. For a couple of pins!

 

[DEWLine]

As for that window into the Victory operating room...you could also rig that for patient-privacy mode, and just as easily as a data display for interested staff/patients/visitors at need. Possibly all of that simultaneously?

 

[mr.peany]

Are there any plans to do canon versions of the Generations Enterprise D bridge? Enterprise E or Voyager?

 

[Rekkert]

@DEWLine: Yup, absolutely, those two sound like they'd be easy to toggle from either the inside or the nurse station if needed.

@mr.peany: Of my own choice? Not at the moment, no. I don't like either the Ent-E or Voy bridges enough to just do them, and the Generations bridge, while I do like, is still something of a big project given all the changes. As with most large scale canon designs, someone would have to commission them for me to do them.

Continues to be a slow month as several of the 2020 commissions are still stopped or on hold for one reason or another, and those that are progressing are slow as emails get "lost" or aren't replied for a while, taking any momentum I had out of me while waiting for replies. Honestly I'm at a point where I'm considering stopping commission work for a while (and refunding if needed). It's not ideal as I'm currently maintaining both myself and my partner, but the non-Trek 3D work I have would be enough for some time. I'm getting super tired and stressed out with all these issues, and I know it's not fair for me to complain about how hard 2020 was given how much worse it was for other people, but I'm at a point where something has to change.

So after a while I decided to go back to doing fun stuff for the sake of it, and started another personal project: the small engineering for the Saber-Class USS Yeager. Obviously based on the Enterprise-E engineering set but in a far smaller size. The work alcoves are obvious reuses from the Swiftsure bridge (with the LCARS still showing the Sovereign shape and the wrong colors), while the warp core is a mix of some unused Voyager concept art and the Enterprise-E core.

Given that the Saber-Class has the nacelles connected at the front of the saucer, the room is actually flipped 180º from the standard Starfleet engine room, with the door looking at the back of the ship and the warp plasma conduits going forward from the warp core. I intend to have some Jefferies tube access panels behind the core, and maybe some smaller doors at the sides. I considered having a pool table but it just wouldn't fit, and I wanted to keep the claustrophobic look given how tiny the Saber is. The light levels will increase though, I have yet to add the main ceiling lights.

I don't know if I'll tackle it immediately after this one, but I plan on reusing the central part of the warp core for the USS Appalachia engineering, which I plan to heavily base on this Voyager concept piece. I also have some more rooms for the Victory and Potemkin at various stages of development. For the time being, these four starships will be my main personal project "fleet", showcasing 4 distinct styles and eras of Trek interior design.

 

[valkyrie013]

Nice!, Do hope you do that corridor/work area like the concept did, quite nice!

 

[Rekkert]

@valkyrie013: Thanks! For the Appalachia engine room yes, I do plan on recreating pretty much that whole concept piece.

More work on the Yeager engineering. I think I finished the warp core with the added labeling, greebles, and details around the warp plasma conduits. Behind the core I added five cylindrical "things" (pipes? storage tanks?) based on the similar looking ones from the Enterprise-E engineering, these are the same circumference but obviously a lot shorter in height given the smaller room. There's also two new small doors at each side of the room, I imagine these go to small equipment storage rooms with Jefferies tubes access.

The railing around the core is also further developed, with a cylindrical handrail now in place that connects to the walls perpendicularly to the plasma conduits, preventing people from accessing the back end of the room (similar to how the handrails were placed around the Enterprise-D warp core). Finally for now, I made a cutout on the ceiling in order to open up the room somewhat and provide further illumination. A lot more lights still to come though.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I'm getting super tired and stressed out with all these issues, and I know it's not fair for me to complain about how hard 2020 was given how much worse it was for other people, but I'm at a point where something has to change.

I'd say cut yourself some slack and do what is in the best interests of your own mental wellbeing, if you can remove issues that are adding even more stress then I'd say do so, until you're in a place to better deal with them. This is definitely a time to be good to yourself and do things that you enjoy. 2020 will forever be the year that all of our resilience and tolerance were pushed beyond their limits.

 

[PilotSteam12932]

Gorgeous work!

 

[Rekkert]

@Bry_Sinclair: Yeah, you're right there, thanks for the sentiment. I'm looking at some alternatives on how to change stuff regarding how I work (people on other forums suggested going the crowdfunding way). I'm still far from deciding anything, but stuff will have to change one way or another.

@PilotSteam12932: Thanks!

I've added a small LCARS panel next to the warp core. The display itself is lifted from the station behind the Captain's chair on the Thunderchild bridge, but I curved it to follow the shape of the handrail, and the enclosure is brand new and based on the Engineering consoles from First Contact.

I've also added more lights and details around the warp core, and changed the design of the core itself slightly.

I still have to change all the LCARS to the proper colors and displays; add more details (pipes, isolinear panels, etc.) to the walls around where the warp plasma conduits are connected; and add more lights. But other than those items (and more small details, of course) I think it's mostly there. Any suggestions or stuff I'm missing?