Polaris updates (Frontier Guard)

[areakt]

Frontier Guard, the original science-fiction web-series is now in Pre-Production!

Since the first trailers were release, Polaris has been detailed and more models created.

Here are a couple of updates:

Polaris hull plating:

Polaris Beauty shot (if you can call it that. Polaris is a bucket of bolts that dates back to before the last Aquarii War!)

A shot of the Academy and a transport.

An Achilles drop ship.

And a test render of a production shot:

(AVI File - DIVX required)

Note the shiny hull, cleaner lines and more advanced engines on the transport and the ship in the animation compared to the significantly older Polaris.

SAG and WGA paperwork is in, and casting has begun! Pre-Production continues every day with some fantastic Hollywood veterans working on props and costumes. More to come!

Cheers,

Rob

 

[USS Intrepid]

Looking good, Rob!

 

[areakt]

People here seem to be fairly interested in ships and sci-fi hardware so I started a Frontier Guard Shipyards thread that will chronicle the building of several ships from the show in Lightwave.

It's a lot to repost, but here is the link to the beginning of the topic where you can see my progress on our first subject, the Hercules Class Deep Space Salvage vessel. Feel free to comment here or on the FG thread.

Shipyard Thread

Best,

Rob

 

[Arkady]

 

[Pindar]

Interesting, what is the giant band that seems to encompass the planet in that shot?

 

[areakt]

Interesting, what is the giant band that seems to encompass the planet in that shot?

The "band" is an immense torsion ring around the moon, similar to the rings on the ship in the shot that are spinning.

The ring is partially buried by debris by this point in time. Lots of plot goodness that'll be revealed in the show.

Rob

 

[Kelso]

The ship looks fabulous. I am officially psyched about this series.

 

[areakt]

The Hercules Class ship is now mostly done. A test animation is available for download.

At some point I'll do some cargo pods for it to carry. In the mean time I've started a new thread for another build.

Rob

 

[Pindar]

The Hercules Class ship is now mostly done. A test animation is available for download.

At some point I'll do some cargo pods for it to carry. In the mean time I've started a new thread for another build.

Rob

Nice. It reminds me of the Earthforce ships from B5

 

[Kelso]

Wow, it looks even better in motion.

Well done.

 

[areakt]

Animation of the USS Trident, a newer ship of the line is up at:

http://www.hiddenfrontier.com/ROB/TridentTest.movTrident Test.

Already identified a few niggles that need to be worked out, but it's mostly there.

Rob

 

[areakt]

Whoops, forgot to post a screencap...

 

[Pindar]

Again nice, I like these ships.

I like the little fighter going alongside too.

Are fighters the main armament for your ships?

 

[areakt]

Again nice, I like these ships.

I like the little fighter going alongside too.

Are fighters the main armament for your ships?

The pictured fighter is actually a drop ship. More of an armed shuttle than anything. I haven't modeled a fighter yet, though we have some sketches of a few ready to go. Large Cap ships definitely have fighters, but I wouldn't say this is a fighter-based universe. For one this ship isn't really equipped to quickly launch or land large numbers of auxiliary craft. The ships primary armament would be the guns mounted ventral and side of the conning section. They would be fired in sequence with the rings.

Presumably you'd need a dedicated carrier if you wanted to engage in a fighter-based frag-fest. That would probably mean something bigger we haven't seen yet.

I think there are probably pro's and con's of each. (carrier vs. battleship warfare) less maneuverability of the larger cap ships would push us towards fighters, but range of weapons and firing arc would make a battleship less of an encumbrance.

Thoughts?

Rob

 

[FredH]

Sounds like good reasons to have both. Except: something SFTV generally ignores is that fighters should have difficulty catching up to fast-moving enemy capital ships. In an atmosphere, fighters are faster because they have less air drag. In space, with no air holding them back, the bigger and more powerful engines of a large ship should make it outrun smaller craft.* So launching fighters might not make sense unless your target's already disabled and not accelerating.

*OTOH, because of their lesser mass, fighters could probably accelerate from a stationary start more quickly than a larger ship could--so they can probably catch a cap ship briefly, but will lose it once it ramps up its own acceleration.

Leaving all that aside, I'd hate to be a fighter pilot trying to come in for a landing on a Frontier Guard-style mothership. Having to time and duck through those spinning rings would be a b*tch!

 

[Hudson_uk]

SNIP
Leaving all that aside, I'd hate to be a fighter pilot trying to come in for a landing on a Frontier Guard-style mothership. Having to time and duck through those spinning rings would be a b*tch!

Tee hee

Although I believe the rings are only active for FTL travel so it should only be a problem when spinning up or down the drives. I think..

 

[areakt]

SNIP
Leaving all that aside, I'd hate to be a fighter pilot trying to come in for a landing on a Frontier Guard-style mothership. Having to time and duck through those spinning rings would be a b*tch!

Tee hee

Although I believe the rings are only active for FTL travel so it should only be a problem when spinning up or down the drives. I think..

That is correct, though you might figure in combat the ship would keep its rings spinning in case it needs to high-tail it out of there. They can't go rings free in an eyeblink. Would definitely make for some interesting engagements.

Rob

 

[Hudson_uk]

That is correct, though you might figure in combat the ship would keep its rings spinning in case it needs to high-tail it out of there. They can't go rings free in an eyeblink. Would definitely make for some interesting engagements.

Rob

"Rings free", I like that.