Firebird's Sketch of the Week Series

[Firebird]

Doing a little work this evening on the deckplans of the USS Nerv... as I procrastinate from working on this script outline.

I posted snapshots of these a couple years back when I was doing the initial work of placing the Evangelion-class mobile units and the Eva Cages inside a Galaxy-class starship. Tonight, I made some refinements and also laid out some of the other locations I've established aboard the ship during season 1 of EVA-Trek... as well as some things that'll come up in season 2.

Putting them behind a spoiler tag because the images are a bit big.

Spoiler

 

[Sgt_G]

Nice work. Speaking as someone who has drafted a full set of deck plans (for a much smaller ship), I can attest to the amount of work and thought that goes into creating something like that. It's part art and part science. Well done.

I do wish I could zoom in more without everything turning into blobs. Do you have any higher-res images??

 

[Firebird]

Nice work. Speaking as someone who has drafted a full set of deck plans (for a much smaller ship), I can attest to the amount of work and thought that goes into creating something like that. It's part art and part science. Well done.

I do wish I could zoom in more without everything turning into blobs. Do you have any higher-res images??

The original isn’t too much more higher quality, but I’ll put together a higher-res export later.

Ideally, I’d like to eventually create… or have someone help me create… a more finalized version of these plans that isn’t just a rough PDF markup. It would be fun to have a tie-in schematic set of the USS Nerv as a supplement to season 2.

 

[Cyfa]

Lower Decks characters as their voice actor's other roles

~ Ah, so that's what your idea was. Brilliant!

And I'm glad to see the cetaceans weren't displaced by the EVA gear

 

[Firebird]

~ Ah, so that's what your idea was. Brilliant!

And I'm glad to see the cetaceans weren't displaced by the EVA gear

I had to make sure Lieutenants Kalino and Kanoa weren't deprived of their domain!

That does remind me I just realized last night was that the Cages kinda interferes with the Cetacean escape pod egress, but that's a minor adjustment. I also need to modify the Cetacean Ops layout to include my version of the set.

 

[Firebird]

And we're back with another couple illustrations, as well as an update from the EVA-Trek writers' room over on the Studio Firebird lot!

Drawing 574 / 2024 Artwork 107: EVA-Trek, season 2 character design sketch - Lt. Commander Sa'Kat, USS Nerv's new Chief Botanist.

One of few Kelpiens in Starfleet at the time of the early 2370s, Sa'Kat joins the ship at the start of season 2. He's part of Dr. Akagi's science department aboard the USS Nerv, which saw a massive influx of scientists when the ship was reclassified as an exploratory vessel.

Sa'Kat is an expert in seemingly every type of flora from every Federation planet. His main charge aboard ship is the management of the arboretum and all hydroponics bays and he has a practical encyclopedic memory of every plant in any corner of Nerv. On that last point, something he's soon flummoxed by is the appearance of a crop of watermelons being grown in one hydroponics bay that was not on the plant manifest when Nerv left port...


Drawing 575 / 2024 Artwork 108: Momo Ayase from DanDaDan, an instant favorite of the fall 2024 anime season. I hadn't read the manga, so I went into the pilot episode blind. Highly recommended if you want something fun to watch weekly on Netflix!

This weekend saw the completion of the first draft script outlines for the first quarter of EVA-Trek season 2. I'm pretty confident these four episodes will be some of my best writing, with that two-parter being something that really challenged my skills at making something compelling and timely. Here's a preview of the title pages for the episodes:

Spoiler: EVA-Trek S2 Preview

 

[Firebird]

Revisiting a couple of posts from earlier in the year...

After doing some preliminary concept sketches last night and today on some new sets for EVA-Trek, I suddenly got the inspiration to start a thing...

I'm so damn glad I've got full access to Bluebeam Revu to help me put these stage plans together. I'll have everything to proper scale once I get them all finished. That titleblock is even an editable stamp I can quickly place and edit on new sheets.

In the meta-production universe of EVA-Trek, season 2 will add Stage 18 at Paramount for four additional sets - redesigned and expanded sets for the classroom and Ritsuko's lab (formerly on Stage 9), an A.R. Wall, and some new sections of corridors to connect them all. Right now, I'm using the footprint of the version used on Strange New Worlds as a starting point in order to help me figure out how much room I can give to the other new sets.

I've got a good concept for the classroom set I'm finally happy with that I need to translate into digital. It'll be located on the saucer rim on deck 9 of the Galaxy-class USS Nerv and will take some inspiration from the Ten-Forward set.

All this because I'm procrastinating from breaking the stories for season 2...

Felt like sharing a couple other concept sketches I've been working on lately. Not counting these as part of my numbered drawing series.

These are my first couple passes at some of the new sets for EVA-Trek's second season I mentioned in my post from last Monday. Still a lot of work to do, but at this point, I'm happy with the layout of the new classroom. Next is gonna be Ritsuko's lab.

INT. NEW CLASSROOM - Version 1. This first version envisioned the set on deck 8 of the USS Nerv. Ultimately, I hated the flow of the room.

INT. NEW CLASSROOM - Version 2. This brought the set down to deck 9, taking structural inspiration from Ten-Forward. It finally got the right flow I was looking for. Also included are rough sketches for the new version of Ritsuko's Lab and my rough attempt at figuring out the layout of the new sets on Stage 18.

I got a wild hair last night to finally work on finalizing the new sets for EVA-Trek season 2. By the time the clock hit... three in the morning, I had a stage plan that I was 100% happy with! Here is the director's key plan for EVA-Trek's new sets on Stage 18 at Firebird Pictures!

Stage 18 contains the following:

INT. CLASSROOM - newly redesigned and larger from the swing set on Stage 9 in season 1. It's supposed to be located on deck 9 of the USS Nerv, so its exterior windows mirror Ten-Forward's. I've given the room a step-up dais with a large main viewer, which makes it easy for the new teacher to make their presentations to the class.

INT. RITSUKO'S LAB - we're making the old specialty lab set that frequently doubled for the Battle Bridge and other misc rooms into a permanent standing set. Ritsuko now has her own purpose-made domain.

INT. NEW CORRIDOR - adds some convenient connective tissue between the sets for any walk-and-talk scenes.

A.R. WALL STAGE - we're mirroring the setup at CBS Studio's stage up in Canada that has been used for Discovery and Strange New Worlds. The "AR Wall" allows filming to make realtime shots of the various worlds visited by Nerv without having to lay on digital effects later on during post-production.

 

[Firebird]

Drawing 576 / 2024 Artwork 109: Getting in my Halloween-themed illustration for the year with this piece of Anna Yanami from Too Many Losing Heroines, cosplaying as a ghost.

 

[Firebird]

Made some more tweaks to the EVA-Trek stage plans the last couple days, and now I'm happy with these final versions for stages 8, 9, and 18. Had an excuse to put some of my mechanical engineering skills from working with blueprints to use in all the little touches to the sheet presentation.

And here are some higher-res versions of the USS Nerv deckplans that @Sgt_G requested a couple weeks ago:

Spoiler: USS Nerv

 

[Sgt_G]

Nice, but I'm no sure about the placement of the Captain's quarters being so very far away from the bridge as it would take him forever to get to the command chair in an emergency.

 

[Firebird]

Nice, but I'm no sure about the placement of the Captain's quarters being so very far away from the bridge as it would take him forever to get to the command chair in an emergency.

Captain Ikari’s quarters were in the same spot as Picard’s on deck 8, which has convenient access to a turbo lift. Misato’s aren’t that much further by the looks of it - in the same spot as Riker’s.

 

[Cyfa]

Wow! Your stage plans look amazing - I really want to wander around them now

 

[Firebird]

Wow! Your stage plans look amazing - I really want to wander around them now

Just wait til you see the plans I’m posting tomorrow. I finally know where everything is inside the USS Nerv.

 

[Firebird]

Busy week over at Studio Firebird, which is why there's just a single illustration for this installment. Been working on finishing the final script outline for EVA-Trek episode 216, which will "air" as the second season's third episode and should have that done today. The majority of the time was spent on the season 2 set plans and also finalizing the deckplans of the USS Nerv!

Drawing 577 / 2024 Artwork 110: Ruri Hoshino from Martian Successor Nadesico.

And below is a sampling of all the sheets I've integrated major interior changes to the Sternbach Galaxy-class plans to reflect Nerv's interior arrangement.

Spoiler: All Aboard the USS Nerv!

The aim with this final set was to make my changes as seamless with the original plans as possible. All the sets from seasons 1 and 2 of EVA-Trek are covered here - Ritsuko's lab, the Eva training holodeck, the Eva Cages, my version of Cetacean Ops (the "interface lab"), the new classroom, and every cabin assignment for all the major and supporting characters!

There's also a fun little thing I snuck into deck 37 - that's right, the lower decks residential corridor! It isn't just the Cerritos that has them.

 

[Santaman]

"Baka bakka." well done.

 

[Firebird]

Well... what a year we had this week, Lemon. The US election went sideways real quick and suddenly it's very hard to find hope in the world. So, a bit of art therapy was in order...

Drawing 578 / 2024 Artwork 111: "This is gonna be Klingon as hell!" Lt. J.G. Brad Boimler of the USS Cerritos (and his mustache) nerds out on Klingon culture from the most recent Lower Decks episode.

Drawing 579 / 2024 Artwork 112: Nemu Nemui, Rentarou's 31st girlfriend from 100 Kanojo, a narcoleptic cobbler.

Drawing 580 / 2024 Artwork 113: EVA-Trek season 2 cast photo - Captain Misato Katsuragi, commanding officer, USS Nerv.

Elsewhere on the Studio Firebird lot, progression on EVA-Trek has stalled somewhat. Yours truly is having a bit of a struggle trying to write hopeful sci-fi/adventure television episodes with (gestures wildly) everything going on in the world...

On the bright side, I'm about halfway through writing the script outline for episode six of season 2. The aim is still to have season 2 premiere in 2025... it's just a question of when in 2025. I'm just trying to take things at a healthy pace and not try to overwhelm myself - I don't think I could ever handle production on 13 episodes simultaneously like I did during the back half of season 1 last year.

 

[Santaman]

Nice work, as for this year.. yeah.. not a good ending this time..

 

[cardinal biggles]

Drawing 580 / 2024 Artwork 113: EVA-Trek season 2 cast photo - Captain Misato Katsuragi, commanding officer, USS Nerv.

I really like this if for no other reason than I wish we'd seen the captain's vest more often. Or seen other crew members wearing it. First Contact, a cut scene from Insurrection, and Sisko wore it a few times (most famously in "In the Pale Moonlight" as he dictates his log entry). More uniform variants!

 

[Firebird]

I really like this if for no other reason than I wish we'd seen the captain's vest more often. Or seen other crew members wearing it. First Contact, a cut scene from Insurrection, and Sisko wore it a few times (most famously in "In the Pale Moonlight" as he dictates his log entry). More uniform variants!

I've got in mind to do a First Contact-era version of the "Picardigan" jacket. That feels like a variant Starfleet should have carried beyond TNG. I think it would actually fit in the design lineage with the later leather jacket uniform tops we see in season 3 of Picard. The Dominion War grey and black would look snazzy as hell in leather.

I did a concept of what the DS9/Voyager purple turtleneck would look like with the jacket a while back, and I think it works really well!

Drawing 359 / 2023 Artwork 32: A possible future for USS Nerv's Captain Misato Katsuragi in the days before the Dominion War. I've always wanted to see how the DS9-era turtleneck undershirt would look paired with the Picardigan suede jacket.

 

[Cyfa]

Drawing 578 / 2024 Artwork 111: "This is gonna be Klingon as hell!" Lt. J.G. Brad Boimler of the USS Cerritos (and his mustache) nerds out on Klingon culture from the most recent Lower Decks episode.

~ I do rather like a moustache - Even Boimler's little affair (he still manages to look adorable!) . I can't wait to see S5!!
Another awesome set of drawings, Firebird