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Modelling and Rendering the TMP Enterprise

Wow, that is pretty dense. Thanks for the wireframe...

My new Enterprise is one of the highest poly meshes I've done, and it's around 297,300. It looks like you'll top at around a million, when you get done. :)

Looking forward to more. :)
 
MadMan1701A said:
Wow, that is pretty dense. Thanks for the wireframe...

My new Enterprise is one of the highest poly meshes I've done, and it's around 297,300. It looks like you'll top at around a million, when you get done. :)

Looking forward to more. :)
Click to expand...

It's looking that way (around a million). But I think the saucer will be the culprit because it contains the most features - bridge, impulse drive, sensor array and pylon interface. Other components will probably have a lower count.

I remodelled the docking section last night to get rid of that drift where it joins deck two. Also added the lift caps and navigation light. The small scale features are really bringing it to life. Still got to cut that curve out - probably have a go tonight.

Cheers,

S.O.
 
Things are continuing to plod along! The docking section has been reworked and gained a few features -
  1. Integrated (kind of) with the spotlight housing ring.
  2. Etched a line around the combined docking section/ spotlight housing ring.
  3. Decreased the height of the housings. The spotlights still have a clear line of sight to all parts of the saucer.
  4. Painted the polys either side of the housings - these will be replaced with grilles.
  5. Added turbolift shaft caps and navigation light.
  6. Added panels to the side of the docking section.
Still got plenty to do. Biggest problem is cleaning up the mesh around the bridge dome where the curve meets the spotlight housing ring (as can be seen in the wireframe). It's not tidy and shows up in the renders. Need to figure out a solution to that.

Cheers,

S.O.

bridgeanddeck24b.jpg
47139207.jpg

camera03b.jpg
82715689.jpg
 
YARN said:
It's great looking stuff

I am getting impatient as I now want see the rest of it
Click to expand...

So am I! I really want to make a good job of it, which takes time and I'm not having much luck finding time to spend on it.:brickwall:

I am starting to think about the pylon connecting primary and secondary hulls. I'm hoping that it will be a lot less effort!

Cheers,

S.O.
 
YARN said:
anticipation bump
Click to expand...

Recommend a cold shower!:)

I had a hack at the secondary hull the other day (minus the torpedo bay and interface to the saucer). It feels like it's going to have the same level of difficulty as shaping the bridge docking section. It mostly boils down to figuring out the order in which to apply deformations (using FFDs, shears and bevels).

This week has seen some minor tweaks to the bridge. I've finally sorted out the mesh for the curve into the spotlight housing, added bits to the bridge dome and the grilles around the spotlights. Still got to etch out the lines in the exterior spotlight housing, add internal housing or replace the glass with a texture map, vents into those curves either side of the bridge dome and sort out the airlock.

Cheers,

S.O.

domedec.jpg
grillek.jpg

54492147.jpg
 
Thanks guys,

Well now that I've put the "Design the new Enterprise" thread to one side, it's back to work. I'm now about a third of the way through the work on the airlock module behind the bridge. It's coming along nicely. Bits left to do are the door detailing and the travelpod door extraction mechanism, which will sit in the front slots.

If the image looks noisy it's because of the stochastic sampling used by the radiosity.

Does anyone know where I can find the various fonts used on the Enterprise? I need these so i can produce more detailed bitmaps than I have at the moment.

Cheers,
S.O.

airlock3.jpg
 
Microgramma Extended should do the trick for you. The actual lettering is slightly modified, I believe, but not by too much. (There are some fan-made fonts out there, but they're at various degrees of accuracy.)
 
Thanks Vance that's been a big help.

Well I've been staring at the backside of this airlock for long enough and I'm not doing any more to it!

It's been frustrating - the airlock is by far the most detailed part of the model I've done. This is obviously because we have a good look at it during the shuttlepod sequence in TMP. There is a lot more that could be added, but I don't think it adds much value given that I'm unlikely to render that close. The D shapes are fairly close to the inset refernce image, although I've got the bottom edge a little too far down. That inset was the best reference I could find. The B&W Cloudster images hint at a lot more detail suggesting that the original airlock was damaged or went missing (it was held in place with tape).

Now I want to complete those spotlight housings and move onto something different.

Cheers,
S.O.


airlock4copy.jpg
 
You may want to bring down the bulb on top to something more reasonable. :) But you've done very well on the airlock, and oft-overlooked area of the ship. Fortunately you can re-use that assembly a couple of times (secondary hull, torpedo bay) as well since they're all supposed to be the same.
 
Hi Folks,

A very belated Happy New Year to all! Decided not to do much work on the project over Christmas - to be fair time was taken up with the usual things of present shopping, tree decorating/undecorating, visting relatives and so on......

Over the last 10 days or so, I've made a start on the neck and the interface to the primary hull. The interface went smoothly, but as Wil Jaspers pointed out the neck can take a few iterations to get right. The images below use the second iteration. The biggest pain has been what I've dubbed the "Parson's Nose" - the part sticking out at the top of the neck. Took a few attempts to find an approach that would produce the right shape. A third iteration will be required because the bevels for the front of the neck are a little inconsistent and sharp. Once that is out of the way, adding windows should be fairly easy.

The one disappointment is that I can't use a mesh that follows the flow of the panels on the physical model as shaping the mesh became very tricky. This way, the mesh stays smooth and that's good for specular reflections.

Cheers,
S.O.

rearof.jpg
bottommq.jpg

36805299.jpg
3dnowire.jpg
 
Looking good S.O., whatever you do to the mesh in respect to "not exactly like the original", keep it smooth, as you said, really need it smooth to render perfectly.

BTW, was looking at the airlock, as you mention, the inset was the best reference you could find, next time give a shout, MAYBE one of us have some better references of a certain part of the ship.
 
wjaspers said:
Looking good S.O., whatever you do to the mesh in respect to "not exactly like the original", keep it smooth, as you said, really need it smooth to render perfectly.

BTW, was looking at the airlock, as you mention, the inset was the best reference you could find, next time give a shout, MAYBE one of us have some better references of a certain part of the ship.
Click to expand...

Thanks Wil,

I do have a question about the neck. As you can see from the first wireframe, my neck tapers whilst keeping the front and rear faces the same width. If I didn't taper, the base of the neck would be wider (especially towards the rear) and that looked like it was going to cause problems for the torpedo bay.

Some references suggest the neck is vertical, others suggest more of a curve, slanting in towards the base. It really depends on the angle and range the reference shots were taken from.

I'm sure the top of the neck is fairly accurate. I worked backwards by first working out the interface width based on the impulse drive and the saucer grid/aztec pattern. That dictates the curvature of the neck at the top. Just the base that worries me.

From your experience, what shape do you think the neck should be?

Thanks in advance.
S.O.

Extra (now I'm back home)...

I must have overdone the taper. Here's some dimensions to go against the images.

Rear face = 4m
Front face = 3.29m
Maximum Width of neck (top) = 8.6m
Maximum Width of neck (base) = 6.2m

Crunching the numbers again on some images suggests the base should be around 7.3m wide.
 
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