Maybe there was a weak point in the ship there and they are like giant staples holding it together with a patch Great work as usual Donny
Those materials are looking beautiful! I know it's accurate, but I really don't like the random label colors. Engineering's the same, it's like they couldn't choose and ended up using whatever they had available.
Yes, I agree about the materials. The closeup almost looks like they are wrapped in leather/vinyl, which is a really cool idea, whether intentional or not. I think the real corridors have looked too vacuum-formed. I can't really not see them as a bunch of flimsy plastic. One thing I've always wanted to see was a version of these corridors with the details sort of massaged. On the wall sections, they have rows of details in 2, 4, even 8 parts. I'd like to see one where these elements were pared down to 1, 2, and 4. And I also didn't like the angular cuts on the bulkheads. The overall shape of the corridor is nice, but I'd rather see some softer angles on these parts.
Yeah, I'm not digging the multi-colored labels either. They just seem to be too random. I appreciate the brushed gold decals, but I think the red is my favorite. But, alas. Here I am. Sticking to screen accuracy. Not going for leather, but I think it's more apparent it's metal when moving around and seeing the reflections. Good idea about possibly playing with the wall sections to feature less parts. I also agree that the corridor divider's angular cuts could use some rounding, but that would break too far from canon for me to use it on the Sovereign interiors. Perhaps for experimenting for another ship of the era? Anyway, I've got the standard door knick-knacks worked out. The light sconces that flank most doors in the Enterprsie-E corridors are actually the same found item that run the length of the top of the corridor segments, with one side sliced off and a light placed behind it. Something I'd never had noticed had I not modeled both. Also, I'm adding illumination to even the smallest of display panels (like these door control panels), as I imagined they would've done on set had it been easier to illuminate the smaller panels instead of just silk-screening the graphics on. Oh! And I've covered both color options for the doors: "First Contact Burnt Orange" and "Insurrection Maroon with Baby Blue Pinstripes" It's hard to tell what the exact colors of the doors are in First Contact, since all of the corridor scenes are bathed in blue light, but I swear they're slightly more orange than the ones we see in Insurrection. Based on First Contact behind-the-scenes photos in which the set is fully lit (which all have a warm tint to them), they definitely appear more orange, but this could be due to film colorization or warmer lights being employed. We can debate this if necessary. (EDIT) Actually, after going over my references, I'm pretty sure the First Contact doors are indeed marroon, and the behind-the-scenes photos are just tinted far more orange than they actually appeared. I'll update the colors to match.
Great update! Always found those light fixtures weird, but it makes sense now if they're reuses of the ceiling pieces, great observation! I've been going back and forth myself about wether the doors (and other elements for that matter) were repainted between movies. I personally think it's just down to different lighting, just like the bridge consoles that all look different colors on each outing, but if you adjust the light intensity and warmth to match, it's arguably the same color.
It's tough figuring out all these colors! People are usually like "Der...can't you just use the eyedropper tool in Photoshop?" Well, yes. That helps. But it only gets you so far since an image's color is influenced so greatly by so many different factors. Figuring out the pure, base color is a task that requires a lot of tweaking and testing. Anyway, got one of the corridor "plugs" done on my lunch break. Still can't decide if the doors are more orange or maroon Tonight I'll start on the radial corridor system!
I always thought it was due to the different color grading used in post processing along with different cameras used.
Both of those things, but lighting takes the cake, especially in First Contact when the corridors were predominately lit with blue lighting, making it difficult to get pure colors from screen caps.
@Donny - Too bad there aren't any white or gray areas in those images to use as a white balance. Still looks great!
Just so everyone knows I wasn't making it up Also, a good example of how skewed orange these old scanned behind-the-scenes pics are. I mean, the carpet should be RED. Not orange. Luckily I have the more color-correct images beside me at my desk in my TNG Sketchbook: The Movies.
I wouldn't be surprised if the intention was that the railings themselves had lights built into them, and didn't just cover run-of-the-mill florescent tubes, but that's a judgement call about where the "real" ship stops and the set begins. Also, looking at that picture, I finally understand the bottom light-panels are flat, with a triangular cutout in the middle. Some trick of light or perspective in the renders made me think they were rectangular light panels that were rotated up and down like the directable air conditioning vents in a car.
Indirect bounce lighting like this was all the rage in “modern” production residential architecture in the late 20th century, so it’s not surprising this aesthetic carried over into second-wave Star Trek starship set design.
^At a friend's house (this would be back when I was a kid in the mid-80s), they had a finished off basement, and the staircase from the ground floor down to the basement had fluorescent underlighting built into the banisters. I thought it was pretty cool at the time, but it was probably a pain in the ass to switch those bulbs out.