Modelling the Protostar

[BK613]

Kind of wish you'd spread the images over more posts so I CAN GIVE YOU MORE EFFING LIKES.

 

[Markonian]

So earlier this year Nickelodeon dropped a number for the length of the Protostar from ST Prodigy. 139m.
At that scale, our good Holographic Janeway game asset would have to be 0.629m tall.
Its nice to see they're carrying on the tradition of zero spacial consistency across ships and other assets.

0.629m looks something like this, just for reference.

Wow! I had thought that the Protostar must be a tiny ship if we can have a big-window bridge. Gotta wrap my mind around the Protostar class being as large as the Intrepid.

 

[Serin117]

Wow! I had thought that the Protostar must be a tiny ship if we can have a big-window bridge. Gotta wrap my mind around the Protostar class being as large as the Intrepid.

That's the thing though - they clearly intend her to be smol. They shoot her against other stuff as a reasonably small ship.
You've just gotta handwave the fact that the characters would have to be very smol to fit in her at that size.

 

[Serin117]

Rather unhelpfully had an idea for a camera move and kinda had to have a go

 

[Serin117]

Progress,
Spent very much time fiddling with these scoopy bits.
She's starting to take shape I reckon!

 

[Belisarius]

I think the Protostar is one of the most eye-catching designs in recent memory. It really grabs one's attention. And coming from an age where ship classes always trended larger, it's nice to see some thought put into more compact spaceframes.

 

[Serin117]

I've kinda known this has been coming for a while now... And tbh I didn't want to actually do the comparison.
But yeah.
Game asset textures are maybe a higher LOD or early less detailed version of the Protostar compared to what we get in the show. Hmph. More work.

 

[Serin117]

She has a butt now.
Tail?
Nah, butt.

 

[Serin117]

ok top blocking complete.

 

[publiusr]

I think the Protostar is one of the most eye-catching designs in recent memory. It really grabs one's attention. And coming from an age where ship classes always trended larger, it's nice to see some thought put into more compact spaceframes.

Not a bad angle anywhere.

 

[Mage]

I can't watch Prodigy in the Netherlands, so these are the best shots Ive seen of this ship so far. She's a beauty!

 

[Serin117]

Distracted by characters again. Getting used to the way this thing has been rigged from the game, and then also my additional FaceIt facial rig.
I think I'll end up redoing his entire rig at some point soon, as the game rig is pretty potato.

 

[Markonian]

The characters look show-accurate in the game. It would’ve been fantastic to have them wear their Starfleet uniforms, perhaps as an unlock.

 

[Serin117]

The characters look show-accurate in the game. It would’ve been fantastic to have them wear their Starfleet uniforms, perhaps as an unlock.

They certainly look it! But they're not so much.
What the game characters are, IMO, are bake downs to lower/simpler geometry of the show assets.
So basically new meshes that match the general shape of the show asset, then you 'bake' the textures onto them.
Couple of good examples of it can be found in the comm badge, and Dal's shirts - the comm is just part of the texture of his singlet, rather than a unique mesh.
And his shirt has the textures of the singlet baked on top of it, rather than being entirely its own dark shirty goodness it is in the show.
Imagine that you beam rays from each point of the original show mesh into the game mesh - that's how you get the shirt with singlet colours on it, the rays have gone from the outer shell of the show mesh down to the game mesh as they are.

Anyway, that way-too-wordy nonsense aside, there is actually one of the Starfleet uniforms thrown over the couch in the Captains quarters asset. I could perhaps take that and clean it up and make it usable.
But I figure there'll be DLC for the game at some point that might include them rigged and ready anyway.

 

[Markonian]

I’d love if they made a DLC with costume options. The game Star Trek had that all the way back in 2013.

 

[Serin117]

The nacelles kinda terrify me.
But I've started on them. Very, very slowly.

 

[137th Gebirg]

You seem to have a good handle on them. Keep going!

 

[Serin117]

Ok, more.

 

[Serin117]

The little shoulder part on the upper inner side of the go-sticks is confusing me. It has that sharp edge and then it falls back down to match the round front.
Its just achieving that without it looking pinched and weird... Gonna have to work at that a bit.

 

[Serin117]

... And that's when she lost it, your honour.