Well, some of you know that I've been working on my two main ship models for quite a while, but with breaks in between from time to time. Well, I hit a "stall point" because I was having trouble bringing my CAD program data into Maya effectively... lots of lost geometry, waaaay too much "repair work" required. It was ugly...
I finally broke down and bought a license of PolyTrans... actually, not just polytrans but the "NuGraf" renderer that comes packaged with it (which added just an additional 100 bucks to the cost... no reason NOT to, in other words!) This is reputed to be the best multi-functional translation utility out there.
Well, so far, my experience has been pretty positive. The main thing is that I've lost the materials properties I had, in many cases, and will have to redefine materials. That's NOT a problem, however, as I planned to redefine my material appearances in Maya anyway.
The following images are renders from within Maya. They're shot without any lighting defined, so this is the very basic "generic lighting" that's used when other lighting hasn't been defined. It's not "pretty" but it's good for seeing detail.
The key element is that the geometry translated very nicely in all cases but one. For some reason, the data translation for the secondary hull of the Vega class is failing... and it seems to be a geometry issue with the source model, not with the translation. I have some work ahead of me to "reverse-engineer" that and figure out what's causing the failure. That's why you're not seeing the whole ship here.
Some of you may comment that the "sets" you're seeing aren't detailed at "movie quality." Well, realize that they're not supposed to be... these are actually inside the main model, and are probably more visible through the windows right now than I really WANT them to be (ie, I need to make the glass a bit "fuzzier").
Anyway, all comments are solicited. In the meantime... enjoy!
Here are a pair of shots of the "ringship." My nice metallic hull coloration was entirely lost, but should be fairly easy to replicate within Maya. I also lost my "poserguy" figures, but again, that should be trivial to fix (the versions I had in Pro/E were sort of "hacks" anyway).
Now, the Vega's primary hull came through much more nicely, as did the nacelles and nacelle pylons... and as did the embarked Starfleet Cutter, the "Cerberus" (neither of which are shown here, as I want to get the rest of the secondary hull fixed before I reassemble all of that!).
Here's the topside of the Vega's primary hull, viewed from aft.
Here, you're looking at the edge of the primary hull, looking into the swimming pool area.
and here's the view OUT of that area. Note that my nice little "water shader" is gone, but Maya has a very nice built-in water shader, so I'll probably just substitute that in anyway!
Now, just aft of the swimming pool is the "hologym." Here are two opposing views of that gym area (with a holographic, regulation-collegiate basketball court... unfortunately with the texture lost and not quite "perfectly" placed yet)
Here's a shot from inside of Hangar Bay One. The door is one of two leading out into the two story "grand corridor."
and here is the same door viewed from the upper balcony on the other side of the grand corridor. Sadly, the "faux cobblestone" floor, the grass, and the holographic sky texture are all gone, but they can be replaced easily enough, too.
This is a shot of one of the transporter rooms... there are several of them, of course.
Now, here's the bridge module... it's a bit easier to see inside with the "generic lighting" but I plan to have an actual LIGHT SOURCE inside of each room so I can have it "self-illuminated" and shot in very dark ambient situations once I get everything set up, too... so bear that in mind.
Here's a view of the bridge, from the starboard aft, facing to the forward port. Note that there are no chairs in here, but you can easily figure out where they'd go...
and here's a reverse angle...
(As always, click the thumbnail to see the full-sized version.)
For anyone who's not familiar with my work on the Vega, here are a couple of animated GIF images so you can see what this is supposed to look like... these are old, though, and are done from within my CAD program. The deck areas are much more complete now... much of the deck area was barely carved out at this point, and I've tweaked the turboshaft system quite a bit, too. Suffice it to say that there's a complete, logically-arranged turbolift system in this ship.
I'm anxious to hear any comments, of course, but in the meantime, just sharing that there IS some progress here... but it's more a procedural thing than any actual DEVELOPMENT work...
Stay tuned.
I finally broke down and bought a license of PolyTrans... actually, not just polytrans but the "NuGraf" renderer that comes packaged with it (which added just an additional 100 bucks to the cost... no reason NOT to, in other words!) This is reputed to be the best multi-functional translation utility out there.
Well, so far, my experience has been pretty positive. The main thing is that I've lost the materials properties I had, in many cases, and will have to redefine materials. That's NOT a problem, however, as I planned to redefine my material appearances in Maya anyway.
The following images are renders from within Maya. They're shot without any lighting defined, so this is the very basic "generic lighting" that's used when other lighting hasn't been defined. It's not "pretty" but it's good for seeing detail.
The key element is that the geometry translated very nicely in all cases but one. For some reason, the data translation for the secondary hull of the Vega class is failing... and it seems to be a geometry issue with the source model, not with the translation. I have some work ahead of me to "reverse-engineer" that and figure out what's causing the failure. That's why you're not seeing the whole ship here.
Some of you may comment that the "sets" you're seeing aren't detailed at "movie quality." Well, realize that they're not supposed to be... these are actually inside the main model, and are probably more visible through the windows right now than I really WANT them to be (ie, I need to make the glass a bit "fuzzier").
Anyway, all comments are solicited. In the meantime... enjoy!
Here are a pair of shots of the "ringship." My nice metallic hull coloration was entirely lost, but should be fairly easy to replicate within Maya. I also lost my "poserguy" figures, but again, that should be trivial to fix (the versions I had in Pro/E were sort of "hacks" anyway).
Now, the Vega's primary hull came through much more nicely, as did the nacelles and nacelle pylons... and as did the embarked Starfleet Cutter, the "Cerberus" (neither of which are shown here, as I want to get the rest of the secondary hull fixed before I reassemble all of that!).
Here's the topside of the Vega's primary hull, viewed from aft.
Here, you're looking at the edge of the primary hull, looking into the swimming pool area.
and here's the view OUT of that area. Note that my nice little "water shader" is gone, but Maya has a very nice built-in water shader, so I'll probably just substitute that in anyway!
Now, just aft of the swimming pool is the "hologym." Here are two opposing views of that gym area (with a holographic, regulation-collegiate basketball court... unfortunately with the texture lost and not quite "perfectly" placed yet)
Here's a shot from inside of Hangar Bay One. The door is one of two leading out into the two story "grand corridor."
and here is the same door viewed from the upper balcony on the other side of the grand corridor. Sadly, the "faux cobblestone" floor, the grass, and the holographic sky texture are all gone, but they can be replaced easily enough, too.
This is a shot of one of the transporter rooms... there are several of them, of course.
Now, here's the bridge module... it's a bit easier to see inside with the "generic lighting" but I plan to have an actual LIGHT SOURCE inside of each room so I can have it "self-illuminated" and shot in very dark ambient situations once I get everything set up, too... so bear that in mind.
Here's a view of the bridge, from the starboard aft, facing to the forward port. Note that there are no chairs in here, but you can easily figure out where they'd go...
and here's a reverse angle...
(As always, click the thumbnail to see the full-sized version.)
For anyone who's not familiar with my work on the Vega, here are a couple of animated GIF images so you can see what this is supposed to look like... these are old, though, and are done from within my CAD program. The deck areas are much more complete now... much of the deck area was barely carved out at this point, and I've tweaked the turboshaft system quite a bit, too. Suffice it to say that there's a complete, logically-arranged turbolift system in this ship.
I'm anxious to hear any comments, of course, but in the meantime, just sharing that there IS some progress here... but it's more a procedural thing than any actual DEVELOPMENT work...
Stay tuned.
I've always liked your design as well seeing the new art of it makes me wish i had a real Model Kit of it
