Martok's Enterprise, K't'inga, and Enterprise bridge interiors

[martok2112]

Hi, folks.

Sometime back, I may have posted some images of my Blender made, iClone rendered Star Trek ships. Since my first posting (which has since been understandably deleted ), I had gained a few new skills in my work, including booleans, unwrapping, and texturing within Blender itself, rather than just cut/paste mapping textures in iClone.

Thus far (before my computers went fzzt!) these are my best versions of the refit Enterprise, the Klingon K't'inga battlecruiser, and some interior shots of TOS Enterprise's bridge, and TMP's Enterprise bridge.

When I do get a new computer, or restore my older ones, and when I get iClone 6 PRO (currently using 5.5 PRO), I plan to improve further upon all these, as well as my Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica ships and sets. To date, I have probably done some 30 plus models of ships and sets, and I plan to improve on them when money allows.

But for now, I hope you'll enjoy these renders.

Components built and textured in Blender. Transferred in Realsion 3DExchange 5 PRO, and assembled and rendered in iClone 5.5 PRO.

Foist, the refit Enterprise circa TMP/TWOK:
Dorsal view... look close enough, and you'll see the hull plating variances on the saucer:


Fore view... perspective


Ventral view... yeah, I still had it set to single source lighting..sorry bout the darkness:


Port side view:


3/4 view:


Another 3/4 view: (since this image, I had toned down the yellow on the bridge dome)


Booty shot:



An older, and shamefully incorrect version I'd done:


Next cometh K't'inga!

 

[martok2112]

The mighty (and quite sadly underused in movies) K't'inga, circa TMP:

Components built and textured in Blender, transferred via Realusion 3DExchange 5 PRO, and assembled and rendered in Realusion iClone 5.5 PRO

Port dorsal 3/4 view... sorry about the darkness, again, used single light source in iClone


Approach view, ala TMP:


Ventral port 3/4 view, armed and ready:


A shot I am most proud of:


Distant dorsal port 3/4 view:



What is starship porn without a booty shot?


Some older versions I'd done:


Another of some older ones I'd done:


Two more shots:



Next up, my TOS bridge set... starting with the Captain's chair, which actually was added last...

 

[martok2112]

TOS Captain Kirk's chair:
I added this after my first attempt at TOS's bridge set. (And I stand correccted...this is only the last thing I added in recent work chronology. The bridge set is still incomplete, needs a LOT of rework, and it does not have the main viewer.)

Compared to Donny's stunning interior work, I am almost ashamed to post these amateurish endeavors. (slowly distancing self from own work...whistling casually...but nervously)

I will smooth this out with better understanding of Blender and iClone:




Yeah, the wooden armrests don't show up so well because I had the lighting a bit too bright:

 

[martok2112]

TOS bridge interior:

Starting with the turbolift, we will go out into the yet to be completed bridge set (which as of these images, did not have the Captain's Chair). (It's also part of my diabolical scheme to lure the Klingons into their final destruction...ala Emperor Palpatine and Death Star II. )
The spokes model I use is Athena from Battlestar Galactica. Yes, I know, why is she on the bridge of the Enterprise? Well, Primero, I did not have any Trek characters made up, y Segundo, she's just so darned cute!

Turbolift Interior One:



Turbolift Interior Two:



Getting ready to step onto the bridge:


Ahem! "Athena on the bridge!" (She always wanted to say that. )


"Hey! Is anybody home? I'd like to test drive this baby!"
OFF STAGE VOICE: "Sorry, no Captain's Chair, and no HELM! Oh, and NO MAIN VIEWER so you can see where da' hell yer' goin'!"


Next up....TMP era bridge...

 

[martok2112]

TMP era bridge:

Again, we find ourselves in the turbolift with the lovely Athena from classic Battlestar Galactica. My plans for this were to have an animated Enterprise schematic with moving turbolift position indicator just like was all too briefly seen in action in The Motion Picture.

When I get iClone 6 PRO, I am gonna redo this bridge as well. But for now, at least, it has most of its consoles and seats in place.

Turbolift Interior One:


Turbolift Interior Two:
The lovely Athena showing us onto the bridge. As you can see, this bridge actually has a main viewer, but it still needs a lot of work.


"Ahem! Athena on the bridge!"
OFFSTAGE VOICE: "We hoid ya' the foist time!"
As you can see, this is configured like the TMP era refit, with Spock's science station directly behind the Captain's Chair.


A couple more views: (The overhead of the bridge was actually a piece from Realusion's Sci-Fi props collection. With a retexturing of the hanging dome, this actually seemed to fit the TMP bridge nicely. And conveniently enough, the dome sits right over the helm/nav station, just as it should.)



And some non textured TMP era builds. Again, a lot of this is before I got my understanding of advanced skills like booleans, textures, and unwraps:

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Neat stuff.

Not too bothered by the lack of light in some of the ship pictures; would be a lot what it'd look like in space for real, yes?

 

[martok2112]

Thanks, BeatleJWOL.
That's what I was going for, actually, was the harsh lighting of space, as if lit from a single source, like a sun. (Ala Alien and 2010). But for static display, I probably could've stood to up the light a bit.

I am glad you liked them.

 

[137th Gebirg]

So the Colonies finally made it to Earth by the 23rd century, eh?

Nicely done - your second Enterprise attempt was definitely a step up. Texture mapping looks really good, especially the main hull maps and surface aztecking. A couple of suggestions:

- Tone down the harshness in contrast the three outer rings on the edge of the primary hull. I've seen close-ups of this area and it seems to me that the darker shade isn't painted but merely the shadow of the etched lines that compose the greater surface detail. Starship Modeler has a good example here. I would have preferred to get pics from the Cloudster archive, but it looks like it died a while ago, sadly. There are other photos out there from the Christie's auction that show similar angles. If there is any paint in those lines, it's so subtle as to merely accentuate the physical grooves.

- The lights of the portholes appear to glow on the surface, but without actual lightsources. The result is kind of fuzzy-looking.

Same things for the K'T'inga. Work with more subtle color palettes and less stark and contrasty surface textures and I think you'll really move into more photorealistic renderings of these models.

 

[HIjol]

Friend martok!

While the Post in its entirety was wonderful and much appreciated, your "Enterprise" work was top notch. She is a true Lady, and you captured her grace and beauty. Thank you!

You also are most correct in describing the "K't'inga as sadly underused. Another fine series of rendering, and I agreed with the comment Beatle made regarding lighting and how a ship would look in space!

Nicely done, and nicely Posted!

 

[martok2112]

Thanks for stopping by, HIjol and 137th. I'm glad you liked what you saw.

Oh, believe me, when I get iClone 6 PRO, a lot of things are going to change and improve on my Enterprise and K't'inga. They've made improvements with how they handle "glow maps", and also, they've greatly upgraded their light sourcing system.

Before, iClone could only handle up to four light sources...so those were strictly world lighting, not set/prop lighting. Apparently now, iClone 6 has improved to where you can actually place individual light sources on your sets/props. I am anxious to see if I can get my models to light up more naturally.

And I am going to try to improve on the subtleties of the texturing for both ships.

Thank you for your kind words and your constructive criticism.

If there's one thing I'm proud of on the Enterprise model is that some of the textures were hand drawn in places....although I will admit, they don't always hold up to scrutiny on very close inspection.

Yes, I was really hoping to see the K't'inga a lot more often in Trek movies. At first, I thought the Bird of Prey was really cool, but then I felt it started wearing out its welcome, especially in all the latter TOS movie era/TNG era productions.

I jumped for joy when the K't'inga was really brought back into action in "The Way of the Warrior" (DS9). But then, it once more got relegated to the background. I really wanted to see her kicking some ass in latter eps where the big, epic fleet battles took place. Once again, the Bird of Prey hogged most of the glory.

So that was why I made my "Captain's Logs Declassified" story revolve around a slugfest between the refit Enterprise and a K't'inga. I am now working on a script to allow for character scenes so that the scenario comes across more as an episode or mini-move, as opposed to just voiced over starship porn. When I get a better computer, and iClone 6 PRO, I am going to commit to bringing the fleshed out version to fruition.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Cool! Looking forward to your next-gen renders, then.

 

[martok2112]

Just playing the waiting game....well...that and the "I need to save up some money" game.

Mayhap....kickstarter? (naaaahhhh.....I'd never go there.) I'll do it the old fashioned way... I'll earn it. (Good Lord, remember that old commerical with John Houseman...I believe that's who that was...the professor from The Paper Chase?)

 

[137th Gebirg]

Oh, yes. "America's Favorite Old Fart"!

Said honorable title was later bestowed upon Wilford Brimley following Houseman's death with his "Diabeetus", Quaker Oats and Liberty Medical Supply commercials. When I think of pre-lubricated catheters, I think of Wilford Brimley!

 

[martok2112]

Oh, yes. "America's Favorite Old Fart"!

Said honorable title was later bestowed upon Wilford Brimley following Houseman's death with his "Diabeetus", Quaker Oats and Liberty Medical Supply commercials. When I think of pre-lubricated catheters, I think of Wilford Brimley!

And on that note....