AndyP's Trek building thread

[batboy853]

This week I started working on a shuttle interior to match the shuttle I made a few years back. I have found it to be an interesting challenge, I am building off of the blueprints in @Redgeneral 's archive, some are decent size copies of the set blueprints, others are super low res with folds in them. so far I think I've done a decent job eyeballing it.

I also found that finding good camera angles for renders was a challenge, it was not enough just to set the camera clipping, I also need to segment certain sections of the set (such as the windows) and then hide them from camera views so that they still impact things such as shadows and indirect lighting. I also made this set 7-8 years ago, but I am starting from scratch, because.... yeah......

One thing that will be different on my set compared to onscreen, I will be making the front consoles symmetrical. I feel that this set is small enough already, so why not get rid of some junk so there is more space.

 

[Santaman]

Cool.

 

[batboy853]

I started working on the shuttle chair today. I'm happy with how the chair turned out, but I need to completely redo the headrest. I modeled it based off of some photos of the original set piece, but it would appear that the camera lens they used warped certain perspectives.

 

[Santaman]

Nice start, looks quite comfy already, guess the seatbelts will be installed on Tuesday? (and yes I know that it IS Tuesday )

 

[batboy853]

@Santaman definitely Tuesday, just not this Tuesday, or maybe not even next. haha

Further progress, I remodeled the headrests. In on of the renders you can see that I've modeled the upper panels of the aft section of the shuttle.

 

[batboy853]

Hey guys, long time no talk. Just wanted to let you all know that I am still here, I just haven't had anything worth posting.

Star Trek Mission Chicago is this weekend. Should anyone be there let me know! Would be fun to meet some of you in person! I'll be there for sure on Saturday, in heels.

As far as where I am with everything I've posted here... Towards the end of January I wrote a second short that I've already generated the dialogue for, the voice quality is much better. In some cases I've been able to have emotions with some of AI generated voices.

Other things of note: I am almost to the point where I can record mocap with my VR gear, which I hope to start doing as early as next week!

Small updates but stay tuned for more!

 

[Santaman]

Nice to see you around.

 

[batboy853]

Mission Chicago was a lot of fun, however I missed the sign up for the Cosplay show case. I was kind of bummed about that, but the Cosplay over 30 group posted a picture of me on their Facebook page.

I have not yet gotten around to playing with mocap yet. But I did start working on another ship interior. This time I am working on a set based off of the TNG bridge of the week, the front walls will be as it appeared on the S1 battle bridge, the rear stations will appear to how the set was configured s3 onwards. This will be a generic Starfleet bridge.

The Captains chairs, along with the helm / ops consoles are based off of the measurement studies of the Star Trek experience versions. I might go back and remodel the consoles as they feel off still. The emissive materials I have currently are temporary.

 

[Santaman]

Nice, I like the floor/console front lights.

 

[Redgeneral]

Very nice bridge model

For Mocap you might want to check out the FreeMoCap project. It uses a single camera and a panel with markers in the background.
Website: https://freemocap.org/
Github: https://github.com/freemocap/freemocap
Twitter updates: https://twitter.com/freemocap

 

[batboy853]

@Santaman Thanks!

@Redgeneral I have looked into that previously, last time I checked it wasn't to the point that it could export the data, things might have changed? Right now I am looking into mocap trackers via the Quest 2, and Mocap Fusion. I just got my Haritorax trackers in the mail last week!

 

[batboy853]

Hey Guys! Another month break between posts. I moved into a new apartment, so had a week where I was focused on packing, then moving, I am still trying to get the new place settled. My new room is bigger so I will have plenty of space to record mocap, when I get the time. I also went on a vacation to Austin, which was a lot of fun.

I've worked on the generic Starfleet bridge here and there, I added some more details to the rear stations, including overhead lighting, LCARS, and rails. Note: I still have not updated the emissive materials yet. I have also gone back and corrected a few things, I rebuilt the helm / ops consoles, and corrected the platform / stairs.

One of the goals of this project is for me to reuse as many of the graphics I have created previously to avoid having to create more for a generic bridge. For the rear stations I used the same graphics as I used on the helm / ops stations only I sliced and diced the mesh so that I could use UV mapping to make the LCARS fill up the space. It works, but there are times that I look at it and think that the consoles have way too much going on. The middle displays are graphics that are still framed, that are actually on one image, I utilized channel packing so that I could have 3 displays on one single image texture.

The overhead displays I utilized the bilobed graphic I previously created, and then put in an animated LCARS, I sliced and diced it so that I could put the title of the graphic at the top of the screen.

 

[Santaman]

Looks great with the added infotainment on the screens.

 

[batboy853]

So I had wanted to post this update last week, but then I was sick on Friday and spent the weekend out of commission. (covid tests were negative)

Last week I made some updates to the viewscreen, added a few details to the side walls, modeled the doors. Additionally I modeled the arm-rests on the captain's chair (based off of the experience measurement study.) I am not sure they are that accurate to either the show or the experience measurement study, but I feel they are close enough for now.

I moved the overhead central lighting more towards the captains chair so that it would add more light, however in looking over at some of @Rekkert 's set's I am wondering if I am not reading the blueprints from the archive correctly as I have the overhead octagon modeled at 13' in diameter, partially because I cannot tell if it is 13', 15' or 18' from the blueprint.

What's left on this set, I need to make some graphics for above and below the viewscreen, as well as add things to the blank spaces around the door (keypads, lights? fire extinguisher? generic ships plaque?).

 

[Rekkert]

Love what you're doing here!

My version of that octagon is far larger than it truly was, I didn't like it that small for bridges. You can see its size clearly when it was used on the cybernetics lab, which is conveniently a redress of that same set.

 

[batboy853]

@Rekkert ya know, I knew about the redress, but completely forgot to check that episode for references. That's a good screenshot.

 

[Santaman]

From cybernetics lab to a bridge, looks really nice in any case.

 

[batboy853]

Yeah this particular set, was basically the set they redressed every week on TNG. Similar to how they redressed the Saratoga bridge every week for the first few seasons of DS9.

This set started from the TNG s1 Battle Bridge, which was a redress of the TMP-TVH bridges. Then the original aft section was lost, damaged, destroyed, burned in a fire, left outside to rot depending on what story you read. Then in S2 it appeared multiple times and was constantly redressed
"The Measure of a Man" - the starbase court room
"Pen Pals" - it was a lab on the enterprise
"Samaritan Snare" - it was a medical room
"The Emissary" - it appeared as a general purpose room
"Peak Performance" - The bridge of the Hathaway

In S3 - it first appeared as the sheliak bridge, and as far as I know this is the last time we see the forward section of the bridge before it gets the doors moved and elongated as we see in Yesterday's enterprise. Also in season 3 this set starts to be used as an interrogation room, the ships brig...

I could go on but you guys get the point, I'm surprised there isn't an article about this set on https://ex-astris-scientia.org/

 

[Santaman]

Hmm.. guess you could mail Bernd, he probably would write an article.

 

[batboy853]

Trying something out for under the view screen. I've decided to take some inspiration from DS9 where they had white lines around blank graphics. I might try a few different variations before settling on a final design, but wanted to post and get some feedback.

I've also decided that the easiest way to fill in some of the blank space on the bridge, is to add standing consoles next to the doors. The standing console was actually really easy to make, as I made the stand for the console, when I built the Envoy Transporter room. I also added a ships plaque. This ship is called the U.S.S. Genus because when I translated generic to latin, it came up with the word Genus.

If I use this bridge in an animation, it will likely be used similar to how this set was used on TNG, as the generic doomed ship of the week. For this reason I don't mind having large amounts of isolinear displays on the bridge, because it will allow an away team to beam onto the bridge, or walk in, say they searched the ship and then conduct repairs without ever leaving this single set.

Oh, I also added 1/4" aluminum carpet trim around the edges of the raised platforms around the bridge. I'm not sure why, but I felt it would make the bridge look "cheap". It also helped to make the edges more apparent.

Let me know what you all think! next steps will be to start slapping set labels around the bridge.