Modelling the J...

[Serin117]

...For fun and profit!

Anyway,
This ship felt a bit weird to me when I first saw her. Some angles absolutely worked, others left me feeling it was a bit too wide boi.
But I think she's grown on me as I gained an understanding of how it's shapes fit together.

I've been using a bunch of ref from the 31st/32nd Century Ships Revealed thread, along with an absolute whackload of screenshots from STO.
Those bloody nacelles... Wrapping the old noodle around them was interesting. And I'm still pretty sure I've got something significant wrong about their base shape.

Still more or less just sorting out the base mesh at this stage

 

[PixelMagic]

Beautiful, clean modeling so far. Nice start.

 

[Cyfa]

I quite like Voyager-J, so it's wonderful to see your interpretation of it from all these different angles - You've obviously put in a lot of research hours to get all the different shapes just so.
I like to think that because of its size and more conventional layout/design, J is a much older ship that someone was let loose on with the programmable matter (like what happened with Discovery).

 

[Serin117]

I quite like Voyager-J, so it's wonderful to see your interpretation of it from all these different angles - You've obviously put in a lot of research hours to get all the different shapes just so.
I like to think that because of its size and more conventional layout/design, J is a much older ship that someone was let loose on with the programmable matter (like what happened with Discovery).

Thanks, Cyfa!
Yeah, its been an interesting process. Pretty satisfying every time I manage to understand how a particular shape fits together.
Much like the flappers - nacelles, in the old language.

Oh, and that's an interesting thought. Would be fascinating to know whether that's the case or not. I suspect you may be right. That or our conception of 'some even have organic hulls' is woefully inadequate.

I think I'm closer now to their overall base shape. Just have to tweak that outer edge curve so its a bit more uniform.

 

[Serin117]

Ok.
I think I'm pretty close to done with the flapper base shape.
Might be a bit more to it in the outer corner as the outer hull meets the bussard collector in the z axis than the original, but I don't think I actually mind that too much.

Also... I am so very sorry.

 

[Hawku]

lol That is hilarious. I'm ordering one on Amazon as soon as you're done.

 

[shapeshifter]

Starting to look similar to this thing at 1:51...

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[Serin117]

Noticed I'd gotten the bussard collectory bit quite wrong.
But only after I'd started fiddling about with the armour layer details.

So started again on the nacelle base shape details. I think maybe the original is a little less in the Z axis, but we're well past the stage of being able to casually fix that. So I'ma leave it as is and proceed.

 

[Serin117]

There is something terminally wrong with me.

 

[publiusr]

Me too. I have a gift where my very existence causes annoyance…my apologies

 

[Serin117]

Me too. I have a gift where my very existence causes annoyance…my apologies

In good company, then.

 

[Serin117]

 

[shapeshifter]

Loving how the lighting makes up for lack of physical details!

 

[Cyfa]

V-J is coming along really well, Serin117!

And I agree with @shapeshifter about the lighting. In fact I really like the lighting set-up you used for the basic shapes up thread as it makes the edges of the model's thinner parts look almost translucent.

 

[Serin117]

V-J is coming along really well, Serin117!

And I agree with @shapeshifter about the lighting. In fact I really like the lighting set-up you used for the basic shapes up thread as it makes the edges of the model's thinner parts look almost translucent.

Thanks, mate!
Its all subsurface scattering, that particular effect. Same thing you do when you go to make photorealistic skin.
That effect you get when shining a light through skin, basically. Light goes in, bounces around a bit and comes out shed of some of its wavelengths and intensity.
I've been on a bone-white kick since the Laconian ships in The Expanse were first described in the books - and SSS is a fantastic way to get that look without effort.

 

[Serin117]

Skipped ahead several steps and just *cough* pulled the STO asset.
After staring at her in awe for several days, I set about cleaning her up for subdiv and redoing the UVs for texturing in substance. Oh my fricken gods I hated laying out those UVs for consistent hull panel flow!
At this point I'm just fine tuning the UVs and modelling in details in the reference material lost in the game version.

 

[Serin117]

Oh and uh...

 

[Serin117]

More work.

Still can't stop looking at this face.

Defs not necessary, but the RCS thrusty bits are also 8k textures. Because why the hell not.
Added in some more detail there like the fins and panel lines.

 

[TrekMD]

Very nice!

 

[CuttingEdge100]

You know, this design has an interesting concept to it. The idea of using fairly simple basic geometric shapes as a starting point. While I lack much skill with 3D I can draw a little and I was thinking of a basic idea on this.

I'll see what I can whip up later.