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EAS Ships

Rekkert

Rekkert

Fleet Captain
Premium Member
I mention I was working on something else, didn't I? I literally started this project yesterday to try out some new (to me) techniques. I've decided to create a 3D model of a ship, and I chose the Lancelot-Class from Ex-Astris-Scientia. My main objectives when starting were:

- To improve my UV mapping and texturing game (particularly the use of different maps for Albedo, Metalness, etc., something I've never properly done before)
- To challenge myself to be efficient, both in time and poly count. The objective here is mid-poly, kinda like a game asset that doesn't need to be seen super up close. Windows, hull lines, and other similar details are not modeled, but added via textures.
- To be able to work on something that I can then release to the public. This is impossible for me to do with interiors because if I release those I'd be out of a job pretty quickly (if the files are out there for people to kitbash new bridges, I wouldn't have much of a waiting list).

It might sound silly to some, but as a heavy advocate for open source software and methodologies, I do struggle with this last point, because I feel like I'm not practicing what I preach. So for this project I intend to release every single file once I finish each ship. That includes the .blend for the 3D model, the .png for the textures, and the .svg for the original, fully editable texture files.

So far I'm happy with what I've got, and with my adherence to those objectives. I've modeled and UV mapped the ship in 5 working hours, and I managed to create an Albedo, Metalness, Emissive, and Bump map for each texture I'm doing. The only major textures I haven't done yet are the nacelles, though other areas like the pylons and back end of the secondary hull still need more work. Plus I've left some details such as the floodlights for last, as I need to read up on how to properly do those with emissive maps.

Like I've said before, I started this whole thing yesterday, so I'm hopeful I'll be done with this ship by tomorrow. I'll certainly be working on more ships on the future, but expect this to be a sporadic thing, I don't intend on going on a spree and doing 20 ships back to back. :)

tadeo-d-oria-c1-01.jpg

tadeo-d-oria-c2-01.jpg

tadeo-d-oria-c3-01.jpg
 
Oh! looks nice sir,
Having done most of the ships in Starship Muesium, this one has a weirdness thats nice!

Obj is the universal standard if you want to release to the masses. :)

For not releasing 3d models, there's a difference between doing something for fun, maybe for printing, and doing it for money, suddenly, the hours you put in is worth something. I've long had the mentality of not releasing 3d models becuase, I spent hours sometime 30, 40 or more in to it, and then lets say I release it for general consupmtion, Someone else takes it and then makes money off of my work by selling it as there own, quite a number of people that take 3d files off the internets and then print them and sell them on ebay or shapeways.
If I like a model, i usually get in contact with the creator, and hash out a payment, either a kit or a certain percent of sales, to pay to use said kit, most internet dwellers don't do that, they think, its on the internet, free, so I can do whatever I want with it..
If i make a ship for somebody, based off a drawing, they sometimes ask for the 3d model, and I tell them, okay, that'll be $500.. they kind of do a double take.. and ask why.. I say, I spent 20 hours on it, I charge $25 an hour.. math says $500.. I don't work for free. I usually ask them, what do they do for work.. would they do it for free? No? Then don't ask me to do it for free either. :)
 
@Bry_Sinclair: Thank you! :)

@valkyrie013: I know .obj is widely used, I use it myself for sharing models when working in a project with other people; but here I want to stick to the .blend as I want people to be able to play around with these to start learning how to do things in Blender. :)

At the same time, for this project, I precisely want to release things under a CC-BY license so that people can do whatever the hell they want with it. :) I am aware of people taking meshes and selling them, and honestly I'm not really bothered by it. It's the Internet, so long as you release something, you can guarantee someone else will take ownership of it somewhere. I don't particularly like it, but it's a reality of having an open Internet. I'd much rather have that happening than having a more restricted web.

I believe I'm done with the Lancelot. I'll clean up the files a bit and upload them later today for download. I'll also see if I can get the ship on Sketchfab.

As you can see on the renders, I've changed the textures somewhat from the original EAS schematic:
- First, I decided to change the blue accents on the hull to an almost grey shade. This is to reflect how ship hulls looked like in the TOS movies; ship models were sometimes painted blue (most notably the Excelsior, but the Enterprise also had blue accents painted on the secondary hull), but this was only noticeable on photographs of the studio model. The blue was used to better reflect the lighting used by ILM, and as you can see on the movies themselves, it came across as grey on film, that was the intention of those "blue" accents.
- Second, and for similar reasons, I've turned the nacelles plasma off. Again this is to better reflect how TMP era ships looked like. On the movies, the nacelles only lit up when the ship was at warp.

I understand some people might prefer having all the colors pop out, as on the TV shows, but IMO Trek ships usually look more believable (and more majestic) using the TMP aesthetic.

tadeo-d-oria-c1-05.jpg

tadeo-d-oria-c2-02.jpg

tadeo-d-oria-c3-04.jpg

tadeo-d-oria-c4-01.jpg
 
I love it.

I'm liking the impulse anus....


Why aren't the nacelles glowing?
 
@Finn: Indeed, it's post-TOS, but it's from the early 2300's, so it's really close to that era. All EAS ships are shown with lit warp coils on the schematics, including those from the TMP era, so I'm assuming that all of them up to the mid 2310's would keep them offline.

Yeah, the impulse engine... it's certainly a weird place for it haha

Here's a link to the interactive model (and the download) on my portfolio: https://tadeodoria.com/projects/nQ2Krr?album_id=633897
 
Nice work! I mostly agree about the more subtle coloring looking good, especially for this era. The blue is enough to add some visual difference without popping out too much. And of course I'm a sucker for a good quad nacelle design.
 
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22k tris is very impressive - especially since I can't spot any polygon segmentation on that model. I wish I had your speed in creating models too.
 
Nice work on the modeling. Not sure how much I like the design, the top part feels added on although the nacelles are pretty good.
 
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