Donny's Refit Enterprise Interiors (Version 2.0)

[Tallguy]

Ahh double dammit! You know, working in other eras of Trek all day at work really gets me saying things like "shuttlebay" and "away team" when referring to my TOS era projects when I should damn well know better

Just don't call anything a "warp core" and I think we're good.

 

[Donny]

So I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next, and realized I needed to indulge in some lower-intensity projects before starting my next environment. I was going to do some small hand-props, but then remembered my TMP/TWOK spacesuit is just sitting there unfinished. I've been a little intimidated at the thought of finishing it, since it requires me stepping outside of hard-surface modeling and actually working on a more organic shape; specifically the bodysuit portion of the spacesuit. But instead of sitting there being anxious about it, I decided to just bite the bullet and get to work, and found myself actually enjoying it and getting good results.

Here's the progress after several hours of work:

 

[ashleytinger]

I can never get that damned helmet modeled right. Nice work!

 

[Lt. Washburn]

That's a really cool seam pattern, especially on the torso. Are you speculating or is there reference without the hard-shell covering it?

 

[Donny]

That's a really cool seam pattern, especially on the torso. Are you speculating or is there reference without the hard-shell covering it?

The suit(s) have been auctioned off a few times in recent years, so fortunately there are a good bit of images of of both the shell and bodysuit floating around.

You can see in the above shot that the bodysuit was possibly not made to ever be seen without the shell, given that the two radially stitched halves don't seem to meet in the middle and that the vertically-stitched portion covering the mid-torso is so short, exposing a rather plain-looking white undergarment? I dunno. The suit looks almost unfinished. My version is an attempt to "button it up" a bit.

 

[Donny]

I can never get that damned helmet modeled right. Nice work!

Dunno if you missed them or not, but I posted shots of the finished hard-shell and helmet when I started this thread. Click the link below to go to that post:
Donny's Refit Enterprise Interiors (Version 2.0)

 

[Spaceship Jo]

Quasi-off-topic: just scanned back through a few pages of this thread, and was wondering if orthos of your TOS and TMP exteriors happened.

Quasi-related to that: what are the chances of seeing some orthographic views of your interiors?

 

[Donny]

Quasi-off-topic: just scanned back through a few pages of this thread, and was wondering if orthos of your TOS and TMP exteriors happened.

Not yet. The thing that's killing this is the fact that lighting in Unreal's orthographic view is broken. I attempted to take some orthos of the Refit and got some weird results. I should keep fiddling with it. I'd take some orthos out of 3ds Max, but something to note is that Unreal is the only place where I have all my materials compiled. Having to set up all my materials in Max would take some time but can be done. I just have to make this a priority with my time if I'm going to get it done.

Quasi-related to that: what are the chances of seeing some orthographic views of your interiors?

These would definitley have to be taken out of Unreal, and since lighting is broken in Unreal's orthographic views currently, I'd have to take them out of Max instead. And I am most certainly not spending the time to also set all these environments and materials and lighting up in Max. Keep in mind that my environments usually employ many many materials and I spend countless hours tweaking lighting so this isn't an easy job. I only use 3ds Max to model the assets needed for an environment...they are only arranged together properly and with their textures/materials once in Unreal.

I'd love to provide great othrograhpics with everything I create but there just isn't an easy solution to this right now. Not until Unreal's lighting is fixed in orthographic mode, which, judging by a quick google search, doesn't seem to be on the priority list for Epic to fix atm.

Alternatively, I could set up my ships in Marmoset Toolbag (a standalone renderer that I've used in the past for providing 3D views of smaller props....see examples on my Artstation). This would provide both orthographic views and a 3D model viewer. I've been meaning to do this for the ships, but setting up the environments would be unfeasible since it would require using sometimes near 100 materials and doing complex lighting setups, somethign that would take countless hours and I'm not even sure Marmoset could handle that.

 

[Tallguy]

The suit(s) have been auctioned off a few times in recent years, so fortunately there are a good bit of images of of both the shell and bodysuit floating around.

That's one of the most Robert Fletcher looking things ever.

 

[ashleytinger]

Dunno if you missed them or not, but I posted shots of the finished hard-shell and helmet when I started this thread. Click the link below to go to that post:
Donny's Refit Enterprise Interiors (Version 2.0)

I vaguely remember seeing them then and being just as impressed

 

[Yellow Flame Sushi]

That's one of the most Robert Fletcher looking things ever.

I faintly recall that Greg Wilzbach was credited with the final spacesuit design in that The Art of Star Trek volume from last century, although I suppose it is possible that Fletcher supervised the fabrication of the cloth sections.

 

[Donny]

I faintly recall that Greg Wilzbach was credited with the final spacesuit design in that The Art of Star Trek volume from last century, although I suppose it is possible that Fletcher supervised the fabrication of the cloth sections.

Something to note, is that Joachim has a similar radially-stiched pattern on his garb:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=72216&fullsize=1

Makes you wonder if his costume was influenced by the spacesuit bodysuits of TMP, and was maybe even meant to tell a story that he fashioned it out of an old Starfleet spacesuit that was perhaps part of the supplies given to the Botany Bay by Kirk upon their exile. Doesn't make sense given the TOS uniforms in Space Seed, but seeing that Khan also has a broken TMP/TWOK-era Starfleet delta around his neck when they meet, it's possible that it may have been the designer's thinking at the time that TMP/TWOK really were a reboot of sorts of TOS, at least aesthetically.

 

[David cgc]

Doesn't make sense given the TOS uniforms in Space Seed, but seeing that Khan also has a broken TMP/TWOK-era Starfleet delta around his neck when they meet, it's possible that it may have been the designer's thinking at the time that TMP/TWOK really were a reboot of sorts of TOS, at least aesthetically.

And, of course, they're living in upscaled versions of the TMP cargo pods.

 

[Tallguy]

Something to note, is that Joachim has a similar radially-stiched pattern on his garb:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=72216&fullsize=1

I'm gonna guess it's the same costume, repurposed. I thought that ribbing looked familiar.

 

[Maurice]

It's not the same as the spacesuits, just similar.

 

[137th Gebirg]

In-universe, it could be reasoned that they had some of the spacesuits thrown in with the TMP-era cargo containers for their exile and fashioned them into makeshift clothing, as they were probably useless as actual airtight suits otherwise.

 

[Tallguy]

It's not the same as the spacesuits, just similar.

If it was just about anyone else, I'd argue.

 

[Maurice]

If it was just about anyone else, I'd argue.

I went and looked at pix of Joachim and the vest shape looks all wrong despite the similar stitching. I could be wrong. It could also be from a prototype spacesuit costume that went unused.

 

[Donny]

Opinion time!

I'll be texturing the bodysuit this weekend, and am wondering what kind of textured look I should give it.

According to up-close photos of the bodysuit costume itself, it's obvious the bodysuit is actually just some kind of ordinary fabric.


However, I'm wondering if perhaps the bodysuit in the film was meant to be some sort of a more futuristic stretchy rubber or nylon, akin to fabrics used in real-life space suits and the 2001 space suit. From a distance the suit looks like it may have been intended to be a more durable, yet stretchy material:

Should I go the route of giving it a more furturistic look, or stick with the ordinary fabric?

Also, does anyone have any info on what kind of fabric was used to create these costumes? The engineering suit is made of a similar fabric as well. I'm not too knowledgeable about fabrics so any insight would be appreciated.

I have plans on modeling the engineering radsuit at some point as well. It just doesn't feel right to have a spacesuit or radsuit be made of ordinary, run-of-the-mill fabric you'd find on casual clothing of our century.

Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Firebird]

IIRC, Robert Fletcher used gabardine wool for the uniforms. It's entirely possible he carried that over into the spacesuits and radsuits, too.