S.S. Valiant

[Tallguy]

Hi all. This is a project I'm working on for aridas sofia over at Federation Reference. I'd done a quick mock-up a couple of years ago ('zooks! Has it been that long?) and he's asked me to finish it.

So far I'm getting a feel for what I want the surface to look like. I'm really shooting for a NASA kind of look (that I haven't achieved yet). I want that kind of stark feel to it. Also upping the polys where needed.

aridas asked me to post at my usual haunts, so I'm posting. He had asked in particular for comments from some of the luminaries here.

I quite like this little ship. It'll be a shame to have to blow her to bits.

Here's aridas' original.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Hmm...I'd say the first thing that came to mind, especially in the front view, was "space dirigible." Looks a LOT like an airship. The back end kind of reminds me of a phone receiver.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Wow, this feels very believable for a pre-TOS ship. What kind of ship is she? Warp or sublight? I could imagine this ship drifting along at sublight with naught but her windows and internal lights (why do Trek ships burn their impulse drives 24/7, anyways?)

 

[Philo]

^ I assume it's the Valiant from "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

Looks like nice work, Tallguy. Yeah, definitely push it more NASA if you can. I'll also echo the dirigible comment. Looks cool.

Is Aridas on another one of his exiles from here, or something?

 

[Tallguy]

Hmm...I'd say the first thing that came to mind, especially in the front view, was "space dirigible." Looks a LOT like an airship. The back end kind of reminds me of a phone receiver.

Before I made the forward section segmented, giving it the "blimp" look, my wife called it the flying bowling pin. aridas did another "later" ship that had the segments and then went back and added them to this ship to try and tie them together. I quite like the look, m'self.

The back end is a little AT&T. That was my own addition. aridas originally had it as a sphere. I wanted to tie it a little more tightly to the pilot Enterprise's warp nacelles. Either I'll come up with another solution or it will just look like a phone. Some people think laser scalpels look like salt shakers.

Wow, this feels very believable for a pre-TOS ship. What kind of ship is she? Warp or sublight? I could imagine this ship drifting along at sublight with naught but her windows and internal lights (why do Trek ships burn their impulse drives 24/7, anyways?)

Yeah, aridas designs ships like Tolkien wrote languages: It ALL has to have a history and a purpose. She's one of the earliest Earth warp vessels. Go watch "Where No Man Has Gone Before" again. (Always a good idea under any circumstance.) aridas' concept is that the "magnetic space storm" was what allowed such a primitive vessel to travel from Earth to the Galactic Edge. Kind of like the warp tunnel thingy between Cardasia and Bajor (or wherever that was: my DS9 lore is lacking).

Neither aridas nor myself are fond of the "always glowing" impulse look. Heck aridas doesn't like them glowing at all. (And I thought I was a TOS purist.) And since these imps have a much more "chemical rocket" look, I doubt they'll glow much. I won't give it and external lighting scheme like the TMP Enterprise, but she'll have something so she looks cool when she's all alone in the dark.

Looks like nice work, Tallguy. Yeah, definitely push it more NASA if you can. I'll also echo the dirigible comment. Looks cool.

Is Aridas on another one of his exiles from here, or something?

By NASA I just mean the look of the materials. Not so much "looks like 1970's hardware." I'm looking at lots of pics of Skylab, Mir, and the ISS.

As far as I know, he's not on exile as much as he's doing that thing called "life". I've had some bouts with it myself the last year or so.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I just flattened my hard drive (on purpose, nothing's lost) so I might not be back to running speed for a day or two. You know you're a grown up when banking software takes priority over 3D spaceships.

 

[Tallguy]

A little more work on the textures. Everything except the main hull (the blimp) is temporary, the glows included. There will be some sort of animated effect there, probably something that looks like an intergalactic Tesla coil.

 

[Griffworks]

I really like the direction you guys have taken this. To my sense of aesthetics, it's definitely got a Pre-ENT/TOS feel to it. I also think you've captured a definite NASA lineage in the design.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Nice translation so far, Bill...

I take it you were never any more taken by the "Enclopedia" design for the Valiant than I was, huh?

Obviously, this is an Albuqu... damn, I can never spell that guy's name!... well, a "Warp Ring" design, huh?

My only quibble so far is that I can't judge scale at all. I presume you're going to have something to indicate the scale of the ship (and not just the "little blue guy")?

 

[Tallguy]

"The old impulse engines weren't strong enough."

Nope, haven't quit. Working like a mad man to get this done before the baby is born. Allegedly I have three weeks.

 

[Capt_Jason]

That's a rather spot-on interpretation you have there, Bill.

It would be nice if Mister Aridas were available for commentary on this as of late. It certainly appears to incorporate many NASA-progressive qualities, though I would like to see a bit more "rust and oil" in or around the propulsion system.

 

[Tallguy]

That's a rather spot-on interpretation you have there, Bill.

It would be nice if Mister aridas were available for commentary on this as of late. It certainly appears to incorporate many NASA-progressive qualities, though I would like to see a bit more "rust and oil" in or around the propulsion system.

Thanks, Jason. Actually, it's the paint job that's the biggest hold up. If it was just modeling this would have been done months ago. My modeling is fairly speedy, but I'd rather do taxes than texture. I will add some more wear and tear in the appropriate places as I finish up.

I haven't heard from aridas since his nation-wide tour this summer. I've been waiting to contact him until I had more work done. I've been trying to only add detail that wouldn't have been seen in his drawings either because of angle or level of detail.

 

[Tallguy]

Nice translation so far, Bill...

I take it you were never any more taken by the "Enclopedia" design for the Valiant than I was, huh?

Obviously, this is an Albuqu... damn, I can never spell that guy's name!... well, a "Warp Ring" design, huh?

My only quibble so far is that I can't judge scale at all. I presume you're going to have something to indicate the scale of the ship (and not just the "little blue guy")?

Hi Cary. I just realized I never answered this. Yes, warp rings. Two sets of them. According to aridas' timeline, I think she's one of the first to have her own sustainable warp field (as opposed to having it generated by the launching facility).

As for scale, this is from aridas: "by my reckoning that makes this ship about 442.2 feet long, nose of the main ship to the end of the impulse rocket's nozzle."

There are windows, about half-way between the glowing ports up front and the inner warp ring. I just haven't added them yet.

 

[Tallguy]

A little more work. Finally added the windows. I gather there's an "observation deck" about halfway down the main hull. (The decks run perpendicular to the direction of travel. So if you stood her on her impulse engines you'd be standing upright on the decks.)

Also added the final stage of the warp assembly, e.g. "blue glowy things".

This weekend I'll start on the markings.

 

[sojourner]

Nice work, but to me it looks neither NASA nor Star Trek. That is pure Chesley Bonestell.

 

[MadMan1701A]

A little more work. Finally added the windows. I gather there's an "observation deck" about halfway down the main hull. (The decks run perpendicular to the direction of travel. So if you stood her on her impulse engines you'd be standing upright on the decks.)

Also added the final stage of the warp assembly, e.g. "blue glowy things".

This weekend I'll start on the markings.

This looks great, but I have a tech question for you. How do you make the glowing areas glow? I haven't been able to achieve that look....

-=MadMan=-

 

[Tallguy]

Nice work, but to me it looks neither NASA nor Star Trek. That is pure Chesley Bonestell.

Awesome. I think aridas would be ok with that. I know I am.

This looks great, but I have a tech question for you. How do you make the glowing areas glow? I haven't been able to achieve that look....

-=MadMan=-

Using Blender's render nodes. There's a new node called Glare. http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-246/compositing-nodes/ I set up a separate render layer that just has the lights, apply glare to it, then composite it back together.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Nice work, but to me it looks neither NASA nor Star Trek. That is pure Chesley Bonestell.

Awesome. I think aridas would be ok with that. I know I am.

This looks great, but I have a tech question for you. How do you make the glowing areas glow? I haven't been able to achieve that look....

-=MadMan=-

Using Blender's render nodes. There's a new node called Glare. http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-246/compositing-nodes/ I set up a separate render layer that just has the lights, apply glare to it, then composite it back together.

Other software does the same thing in different ways. For instance, Maya allows you to set up a "glow" parameter for any material (ie, appliable appearance) you create, with a variety of parameters (color, luminosity, pure fall-off, normal-based fall-off, etc) you can create.

The thing about that form of glow is that it's a post-render effect... meaning it won't actually provide illumination to other parts of the scene, it only "fakes" the glow. So if you do that, you need to create an invisible "ambient light source" to fake out the illumination coming from that region.

That's also a "node" effect, by the way, so I'm presuming that what you mention works much the same way?

 

[Tallguy]

The thing about that form of glow is that it's a post-render effect... meaning it won't actually provide illumination to other parts of the scene, it only "fakes" the glow. So if you do that, you need to create an invisible "ambient light source" to fake out the illumination coming from that region.

That's also a "node" effect, by the way, so I'm presuming that what you mention works much the same way?

Pretty much. This is all done in post. In this case (and with such an extreme glow) the setup involves making sure that EVERYTHING doesn't glow, just the bits I want.

 

[Tallguy]

Started on markings and final texturing.

 

[Herbert1]

Sorry for the ignorant question, is this meant to be the same S.S. Valiant that was mentioned in "Where No Man Has Gone Before"?