Donny's TOS Enterprise Interiors
- Thread starter Donny
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I have seen so many excellent iterations of this model - both physical and virtual - over the course of so many years, that I am really amazed that this can impress me to the extent it does. It is at one and the same time, familiar and revelatory.
Ahh! That means so much to me @aridas sofia. Thank you!
In that rare in-between time after finishing a project, I use the time to contemplate, and in turn get really excited, about what I'll be tackling next. Here's a hint:
I know the sickbay complex is only halfway complete, but during the previous iterations of this project in 2013 and 2014, sickbay marked the point where I completely got burned out and quit working. To help keep history from repeating itself, I'll be constructing the second half (McCoy's office and lab) at a later date.
I painted the color map with the exact shade of green that the Smithsonian determined was on the original model. I will say, however, that lighting greatly affects how that hue is perceived, and also on some monitors is may appear more green or gray depending on the monitor. On my secondary monitor at my home workstation, for instance, the model appears far more green than on my primary monitor.
In that rare in-between time after finishing a project, I use the time to contemplate, and in turn get really excited, about what I'll be tackling next. Here's a hint:
Hangar Deck?
I suspected that might be the case. Also remember that the top of the saucer has a slightly greener paintjob than the rest of the ship, for whatever reason (and I'm not talking specifically about the fact that that top hasn't been repainted), so that might be affecting my perception.
Also,and this might be a rendering engine thing, but the highlights read much whiter than the model ever appeared. More "metallic" for lack of a better word.
Also,and this might be a rendering engine thing, but the highlights read much whiter than the model ever appeared. More "metallic" for lack of a better word.
I think it’s probably the lighting, and I admit I was kinda flying by the seat of my pants this morning setting up lighting while taking these images. The bulk of my lighting experience has been with lighting interiors, and when it comes to lighting outer-space scenes, with the Unreal engine at least, I have limited experience. I could probably stand to learn a thing or two.
Donny you are insanely talented I have never seen the like, and this has taken you … 2 2.5 weeks??? Amazing I was looking at the Bridge video too that has a special quality to it, did this part take you a long time as I was looking at the time you put at the end of the video?Ahh! That means so much to me @aridas sofia. Thank you!
In that rare in-between time after finishing a project, I use the time to contemplate, and in turn get really excited, about what I'll be tackling next. Here's a hint:
I know the sickbay complex is only halfway complete, but during the previous iterations of this project in 2013 and 2014, sickbay marked the point where I completely got burned out and quit working. To help keep history from repeating itself, I'll be constructing the second half (McCoy's office and lab) at a later date.
The Enterprise model took 11 days from start on Thursday, June 28 to today, Saturday, July 8. Keep in mind I worked on it at least a little almost every day since I started.
The bridge took longer because it’s considerably more detailed and I took a few breaks while constructing it. I don’t remember the exact time. Luckily I’d already made the viewing screens around the bridge a few years ago so that saved me a ton of time. However, they are due for an update.
I work fast I guess because I get so crazy obsessed when I’m on a roll. By the time I sit down every day to work I’ve already impatiently gone over and over in my head what all I want to accomplish in a given night (and how to accomplish it) so it just kinda of flows out as if the flood gates open. I put on some good tunes, TOS, or the news, have myself a glass of cold brew coffee with almond milk, and just zone out and work. It’s so much fun so it hardly ever feels like work.
Fantastic work Donny would it be possible to get straight on top front bottom back and side views of the
model ?
model ?
I’m working on that. I've got to figure out a good pipeline for taking good orthographic images in Unreal, as it's the only place where my model is fully contructed, as it's made of several pieces, some of which only show up properly in the game engine (like the decals that adorn the model). Stay tuned.
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Opinion time. Today I worked on marrying the shuttlecraft exterior with the interior. The plan has always been to make the interior screen-accurate, then scale up the accompanying screen-accurate exterior to envelope the interior. This way, a fully accurate interior could be presented (it is difficult in Unreal and many first person simulations to move around in small spaces, and this interior really couldn't have been any smaller without major problems in this regard. So scaling down the interior is out of the question). The process has mostly been a success, but the shuttlecraft ends up being a whopping 28 feet in length, 4 feet longer than the craft is stated to be in "The Galileo Seven" and some 8 feet longer than the exterior mock up. However, everything still feels good proportionally. Now, the question is how well this shuttlecraft will fit into the eventual hangar deck and flight deck without major problems.
Anyway, regarding the windows on the front end of the shuttlecraft: there's really no way to match up the exterior window cut-outs with the interior window cut-outs exactly without altering the height or dimensions of both. Except for what I have attempted below. I simply bridged the open egdes of the exterior window cutouts with the open edges of the interior window cutouts. The result is a series of portholes, which I'm actually liking more than I thought I would. Gives it almost an 60s era NASA/space program feel, and keeps in line somewhat with the port-holes we see in flight deck observation lounge in "The Conscience of the King".
The idea is that window covers on the inside and outside drop when a button is clicked on the center console. It's nice too because light pours in from outside when this happens, to good atmospheric effect. I tinted the exterior sunlight yellow for this demonstration.
The problem, of course, is that this breaks from canon. But I really don't see any way around the issue, unless I do what @Warped9 has suggested with his schematics and infer that the interior "windows" are actually viewing screens, and the exterior "windows" are therefore sensor placements, and not windows or screens at all.
Also, I successfully married the exterior hatch and interior hatch, and there are a resulting two sets of hatch doors. The inner lower hatch rotates forward and nestles nicely into a cutout on the exterior lower rotating hatch., providing a ingress/egress ramp.
These are the times I don't mind breaking from canon, in an ultimate attempt to build a believable world in which the shuttlecraft interior fits neatly inside the exterior. I don't know how else to do it without sacrificing breaking proportions and angles of the sets, which I'd rather not do. The solutions I've come up with also help sell the idea that the walls of the shuttlecraft have some thickness to them, giving room for a good bit of inner machinery that we've always suspected was there but will never see
Thoughts?
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It's maybe not a perfect solution but it's the best possible solution. The interior was never truly built to fit within the exterior, but if it was, this is how it would have to be. It may become necessary to scale up the hangar deck though, which will lead to a larger Enterprise. Would it be an acceptable break from canon if the Enterprise was a few hundred feet longer than its commonly accepted length?
I'd rather not, as I prefer a smaller Enterprise myself. I'm going to endeavor to see if I can make the hangar deck/flight deck work without considerably scaling them up (and therefore the exterior of the Enterprise). However I'm willing to fudge things here and there as long as it doesn't break immersion. At the end of the day, I'm more concerned with creating the illusion you're taking a casual tour of the ship, rather than creating a pullet-proof technical document of the Enterprise that would stand up under physical scrutiny.
I think the windshield arrangement is a neat idea. I don't recall ever seeing the interior of the shuttle from the outside windows so you really just need to account for the interior looking out views which to me looks good. 
Canon-wise, a 28' shuttle, IMHO, is too large for the original fx without scaling up the hangar deck but it'll be interesting to see where you land with the scaling challenges since the larger shuttle works better with the game engine.
Canon-wise, a 28' shuttle, IMHO, is too large for the original fx without scaling up the hangar deck but it'll be interesting to see where you land with the scaling challenges since the larger shuttle works better with the game engine.
I really like your solutions. You can get away with it on TV because you're cutting between separate elements, but like you, I like to image what it'd be like to build it for real and you have no choice but to reconcile the differences somehow, while not drifting too far from canon.
My only suggestion would be to perhaps paint the window sills black. It would show less contrast to the black of space and has precedent in anti-glare paint on some planes and spacecraft. Also, the spacecraft in 2001 had it in places.
My only suggestion would be to perhaps paint the window sills black. It would show less contrast to the black of space and has precedent in anti-glare paint on some planes and spacecraft. Also, the spacecraft in 2001 had it in places.
I second this. Window sills black, and perhaps tinting the windows, at least from the outside perspective. (Though the Sensors on the Outside / Screens on the Inside approach would work just fine as well.)
Without pulling out a ruler and going over this in detail there is no way to know exactly what you’ve done beyond your explanation and a summary inspection. But damn... if you managed to get the set to line up with the exterior that well, and only increase the size to 28 feet, you have accomplished something I can’t recall Phil Broad, Warped9, or any of the other similarly shuttle-focused artists do. And I’ll repeat that if you go by “Omega Glory” and not TAS, you have four shuttlecraft, not six. If two are below in the hangar proper, two can easily fit in the hangar the way Jefferies drew it on his Phase II plan. And four shuttlecraft is plenty particularly if there are other support craft down below.
Hmmm. As I think some have suggested, I'd do what I could to keep the interiors and the exteriors "separate". I'm not sure how this is done, but I gather Unreal can do it. If the sets are like a TARDIS then build them like a TARDIS.
You would certainly know better than I at this point, but I don't see any way to build a screen accurate shuttle deck and fit it inside the ship. But if you could allow the hangar doorway to offer a "view" of the deck that doesn't physically sit inside the ship then that could be the ideal solution. Game-wise I would think that would be a limited number of circumstances and a limited number of views.
I do like your shuttle windows. If you're not really scrutinizing them (as most people won't) then they don't look too crazy. (Caveat: I've always hated the on-screen interior of the shuttle.)
You would certainly know better than I at this point, but I don't see any way to build a screen accurate shuttle deck and fit it inside the ship. But if you could allow the hangar doorway to offer a "view" of the deck that doesn't physically sit inside the ship then that could be the ideal solution. Game-wise I would think that would be a limited number of circumstances and a limited number of views.
I do like your shuttle windows. If you're not really scrutinizing them (as most people won't) then they don't look too crazy. (Caveat: I've always hated the on-screen interior of the shuttle.)
