JR Trek

[JR TREK]

If anyone's curious what happened to me, these Trek ships got me a job at Ninja Games working on Supremacy

I've done 3 mechs for them (so far) but they haven't launched yet. If you got to the manufacturers section of the Wiki, there's a small thumbnail preview of the back of one of my mechs - Link. Wa Ka 5 is my manufacturer.

 

[StarCruiser]

https://tenor.com/view/the-simpsons-mr-burns-excellent-sly-gif-12239641

 

[JR TREK]

. . . aaaaand that's over. Back to making Star Trek fan art . . . I've unwrapped the UVs on the Akimoto Maru stardrive and applied a procedural panel texture. It's a start. I've cleaned up the mesh to make it more of a game model. Maybe I'll try importing the model into Unreal or Unity when I'm done.

 

[publiusr]

I can see that detaching from a saucer.

One concept I thought about would be something like a Franz Joseph destroyer (larger saucer) with the warp nacelle sunken into a huge, armored secondary hull.

The idea is that an M-5 unit would bepart of this sublight secondary hull monitor...And the saucer with its nacelle could detach and and make the jump. The nacelle would be impervious to weapons fire.

Assured Warp Escape (AWE.)

 

[JR TREK]

I haven't detailed the bottom of the stardrive yet, but the modelling to support separation has begun -

Should the stardrive be able to land? It's not an explorer type of ship. Maybe the bridge module pops off and serves as an escape pod in emergencies. It could double as a shuttle if it absolutely had to, but normally there would be shuttles carried in the cargo hull. i can't think of a good reason to land the whole stardrive. It would need a big clearing, and if you're crashing you might want to do it without a warp core and antimatter fuel tanks attached.

 

[publiusr]

Not the whole stardrive…but maybe the forward compartment.

One PLANET OF THE TITANS concept had the bridge along the front of the saucer and seemed to suggest that capability.

 

[JR TREK]

UV unwrapping is done and the mesh is optimized. I'm glad that's done.

 

[publiusr]

very good!

 

[JR TREK]

I'm trying to decide how to approach the texturing process. My equipment is very inadequate for this job. Some of you are out there with 8K monitors, and I'm still on a couple 1K monitors. Textures that seem hirez to me may be very lorez for everyone else.

Coming of off Supremacy though, there was definitely a limit to the size and number of textures. If I wanted to put this in Unreal or Unity, i'd have to limit the texture data to a size that wouldn't always be adequate for a big render. Same with the poly count. I've got a spot or two that need more polys, especially for close ups.

Of course, for mid or distant shots, the extra polys and texture size becomes a burden.

Another consideration is that almost everyone who interacts with this ship will be looking at renders. But, I worked recently in games and I doubt I'll work in film again. But, i also think 999 out of a 1000 game hires go to friends and not guys like me applying for jobs over the internet. I've been applying for jobs for a month and a half and get the same rejection letter back nearly every time. It's not because I can't do the job I was just doing, it's because this isn't how hiring is done. I'm not complaining about the way things work, it's better to hire someone who is a known quantity than a random person from the internet. Putting the effort into making a game ready model may not be a good use of resources though.

 

[ashleytinger]

I'm trying to decide how to approach the texturing process. My equipment is very inadequate for this job. Some of you are out there with 8K monitors, and I'm still on a couple 1K monitors. Textures that seem hirez to me may be very lorez for everyone else.

Coming of off Supremacy though, there was definitely a limit to the size and number of textures. If I wanted to put this in Unreal or Unity, i'd have to limit the texture data to a size that wouldn't always be adequate for a big render. Same with the poly count. I've got a spot or two that need more polys, especially for close ups.

Of course, for mid or distant shots, the extra polys and texture size becomes a burden.

Another consideration is that almost everyone who interacts with this ship will be looking at renders. But, I worked recently in games and I doubt I'll work in film again. But, i also think 999 out of a 1000 game hires go to friends and not guys like me applying for jobs over the internet. I've been applying for jobs for a month and a half and get the same rejection letter back nearly every time. It's not because I can't do the job I was just doing, it's because this isn't how hiring is done. I'm not complaining about the way things work, it's better to hire someone who is a known quantity than a random person from the internet. Putting the effort into making a game ready model may not be a good use of resources though.

I tend to do lower rez textures. You don't have to do big textures for film quality. One of the meshes I just grabbed off DAZ uses 1 to 2k for the textures all over the model but combined looks stellar because they're all parts of the mesh instead of the whole thing

 

[Professor Moriarty]

I’d imagine judicious lighting also covers a host of sins, but that prolly wouldn’t cut it in a game model where the lighting and camera angles aren’t under your control…

 

[JR TREK]

I believe I'm going to finish the modelling on the Crossfield reimagining. I've been working on the warp delta, developing the look of it as a ship in its own right. I see it as a post-Enterprise era design, perhaps something Malcolm Reid had an influence on. Originally serving as small combat vessels, by the time of Discovery they are either patrolling the safer parts of the Federation or in mothballs. In my take on Discovery, the Crossfield is not a massive new ship but a small ship cobbled together from spare parts. The warp delta was used because it is a self-contained vessel on its own, with adapters on the front of the sponsoons (originally intended for various weapons) that the spore drive module could plug into. The warp delta has been refit and rearmed for the Discovery era, because the experimental drive could randomly place them anywhere. It might be necessary to separate, destroy the spore drive, and fight their way back home.

Here's how she compares to the JR-Prise -

And here's what got me thinking about Trek ships - not many comments on my Art Station posts, but one of them was a zinger!

I’d imagine judicious lighting also covers a host of sins, but that prolly wouldn’t cut it in a game model where the lighting and camera angles aren’t under your control…

Yes, even the various versions of the JJ-Prise manage to pass in most movie shots.

 

[publiusr]

What I love about your designs is that you keep the eye moving.

The JR prise needs a kit!

 

[JR TREK]

Maybe it could show up as a mod in Bridge Commander. I'd need a new computer to play it though.

 

[JR TREK]

I made a simple model of the Ganges class warp delta to get an idea of how the Crossfield's delta compares. The little squares are the ships' crew compliment -

As luck would have it, they are nearly identical in size, but the extra depth of the Crossfield delta gives it a couple more decks.

The Ganges has a crew of 20-30. I doubled that for the Crossfield as a starting point, making 60.

I'm considering the name "Evington class" for the warp delta, after the academy Malcolm Reed attended. But I also have the idea that maybe the warp deltas after Enterprise are only MACO ships, and Reed teamed up with the MACOS to design a ship specifically for their needs. That would mean the MACOs weren't disbanded after the Federation formed, but would anyone have a problem with the MACOs continuing as a secret special ops force?

In JR-TREK lore the spore drive research may have been done by the MACOs instead of regular Starfleet, partly to give them an advantage on the battlefield and partly because, as a secret force, they can keep a secret.

If the Crossfield delta is a MACO ship, then it should be the "Major J. Hayes" class.

I like that idea, but now I'm wondering if the delta is aggressive looking enough to be a MACO ship.

 

[blssdwlf]

Looks very sleek and combat-ready. Just an fyi, at first glance the nose features and overall shape suggest that it is a small single-seat fighter.

 

[JR TREK]

Yeah, I think that would be fixed by adding windows and the bridge dome, but the bridge and upper fuselage are the areas I'm least happy with, if it's going to be a MACO ship. The warp engines also look too high without the saucer to balance them, but I believe I can solve that problem. I came up with a version where the nacelles drop down and the pylons rotate out to be wingtips. I'd post pics, but imgbb.com is having trouble ATM. I'm surprised to see the pics in this thread are loading.

About the story, would it be reasonable for Lieutenant Reed to make Captain in the Romulan War? It's possible to climb the ranks quickly in wartime, what if Reed, being more military oriented, not only caught up to Archer but passed him? What if the MACOs helped Reed get free from Section 31? After the war, the Federation wants to get rid of the MACOs but Reed, as an admiral, makes the MACOs his own private army and uses them against Section 31.

My version of "Discovery" is not much like "Discovery" anymore. There's no Michael Burnham, and instead of scientists vs Klingorcs it's MACOs vs Section 31. It's not true to Roddenberry's vision of Star Trek, but with five shows going maybe they don't all have to be. I can at least say that I wouldn't gouge Icheb's eye out.

 

[blssdwlf]

Looking forward to seeing the updates. Yep, it's your thread so you can create your own history to go along with your ship design

 

[JR TREK]

 

[caveat_imperator]

I'm not able to see any of the images on this page.