You must be getting close to done with this one. Have to say, I like the helm console instrumentation, even if it is repetitive to some extent. I'd like to see how you do with the Excelsior.
It probably will never not be amazing to me that you’re getting Mike’s input on your work now, Donny. Truly living the dream!
I’m gonna admit it’s a little stressful! Having to answer to someone with first hand knowledge. But yes. I still can’t believe I’m building a working relationship with the man.
Hey Donny, how is the lighting done in Unreal, is it an accurate physical simulation or can you mess around with the physics of light falloff? The reason I ask is, looking at your images compared to screencaps, yours seems to have more smooth falloffs from bright to dark areas. Like the spot reflections on the floor. Overall the screencaps just have a darker and harsher contrast of light levels, and yours is more even. Maybe it's just a factor of the ambient light being brighter compared to the highlights?
I haven’t done a final lighting pass yet. But I’m using a combination of emissive materials that inject light into the scene and hand-placed spotlights that have falloff. Between the many lights above the consoles, the canned lights along the perimeter of the ceiling structure, the braces, the light strips below the consoles, and anything else, this scene has a ton of lights in it. It’s hard to tweak each individual element in real time, since until Unreal 5 is officially out of early access, I have to rely on lengthy lighting builds to see what any changes I make to lighting have. But like I said, I haven’t done the final pass yet and once all the remaining elements are in I will endeavor to get as close to reference as I can.
Fantastic seeing the helm console and all the detail that was included on it. Aside from the infamous sound-mixer controls I never knew how much diversity there was!
Now that I have the drum machine controls modeled, it's easy to populate them elsewhere. Here they are on the Science and Communication stations' console extensions: The graphics on these extensions were not backlit, but were screen-printed onto the panels themselves, a look I've maintained here.
Seeing all these detail shots has me curious to see a version of the TUC bridge in the color scheme from TFF. I’ve always thought adding the tactile control surfaces and additional greebles throughout the brighter colored set would make a perfect combination.
I do plan on experimenting with that at some point in the near future. I will probably do what you suggest as a non-canonical bridge of some sort.
I always thought the back end of the new astrogator looks like it would get in the Captain's way, or be a trip hazard! (Unless Kirk had in put in so he could stretch his legs out, and put his feet up on it)
I really want to applaude you on your lighting rig! Modeling is already difficult enough, but I've seen many people (including myself back in ye olden days) mess up renders of amazing models with shite lighting. This is just absolutely perfect.
Nah. I’m gonna do a canon TUC Excelsior bridge as soon as I finish the A, but after that I’ll be exploring non-canon stuff like an era-appropriate Miranda bridges, one or two more Connie bridges, and an Akyazi bridge design I’ve been toying around with in my brain.
Tying up all the loose ends before I can call the TUC Ent-A bridge finished. Knocked out the little black intercom speakers and fire extinguishers that were seen in the turbolift alcoves (and throughout the rest of the ship) I've got the dedication plaque and about 5 or so animated monitor screens left to generate, which will probably take a few more days.
Love it as always. The depth of field blurring makes it look like the "photographer" is really liking that extinguisher ! ;-)
Interestingly, all my TNG-era bridge requests I've requested to Rekkert have fire extinguishers. My reasoning is that you need something to go to if your main fire suppression system goes bad, and it has in one too many TNG, DS9, and Voyager episodes!
Plus didn't we see actual fire extinguishers in use in the VOY pilot episode? In the burning Sickbay scene where Harry has the oven mitts EDIT: Yep! https://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=2&page=15 https://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/1x01a/caretaker_0354.jpg