Starfleet Museum Orbital Annexe - WIP from a modelling newbie!

[unusualsuspex]

Not a major upgrade but lower saucer surface now detailed and comms array placed on top. Lower recess greebled. Docking arms next I think.

As always, comments and ideas welcomed!

 

[The Axeman]

Very nice subtle panel detailing there, I like it. I'd like to see more of that done on the larger surfaces as well, or at least some random small panels, hatches and so forth here and there to break it up a little and add scale. What else would a large, inhabited space station need? Power, emergency equipment, manouvering thrusters, hatches, sensors, transporter arrays, defence equipment, etc, etc.

 

[unusualsuspex]

Oh Kenny! If you only knew the melt down my brain (and PC!) was having! You're right of course about the detailing but I'm wondering whether that might be easier in textures? Not sure about applying things to a curved surface yet!

Cheers mate!

 

[sojourner]

Nice design. one quibble. It doesn't seem to have very many mooring points for the display ships. I would have imagined after a 2/3 hundred years starfleet would have more than just 8 ships on display. Maybe you could duplicate your display level a couple times down the axis of the station?

 

[unusualsuspex]

I was considering double docking on the upper pylons which would give 10 slots, plus (possibly) an external 'island' facility? (Would that be an annexe to the annexe?)

I don't want to crowd lower down too much and the size of the station is kinda fixed due to its lineage as described further back, but I see what you're getting at!

 

[Eternality]

Oh man, I love museums! I'm interested to see how it looks in action!

I was considering double docking on the upper pylons which would give 10 slots, plus (possibly) an external 'island' facility? (Would that be an annexe to the annexe?)

I don't want to crowd lower down too much and the size of the station is kinda fixed due to its lineage as described further back, but I see what you're getting at!

Couldn't we assume that they have only a few permanent ships on exhibit, and rotate other exhibit ships once in a while to give folks more reasons to return?

Beyond that, I don't think it's too unreasonable for there to be other ships at other smaller museum annex sites across the Federation...

 

[sojourner]

^Oooh! There's an idea! Maybe there is a series of these stations across the federation. You could have cadet crews man the ships (under proper commanding officers) in order to regularly rotate the exhibited ships. The cadets learn about older tech and get a sense of starfleet history along with some shipboard experience and the public gets to see a broader range of ships. Sort of like how some of the modern day naval academies still teach sailing.

I could see the museum making an event out of the arrivals/departures. "Be here on stardate 23986.45 to see the arrival of the U.S.S. Hood, Excelsior class, from it's recent stay at the Vulcan branch of the Starfleet starship musem!"

Might be a good story in that.

 

[unusualsuspex]

Like it! Like it!

 

[unusualsuspex]

To everybody who has commented, thank you, I'm learning from you all!

Quick update, I've tried to subtley apply panels to both saucers which (when it's textured) shouldn't look bad I hope!

 

[Colonel Midnight]

How about making the upper dome transparent, and have some smaller craft displayed inside it?

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[unusualsuspex]

How about making the upper dome transparent, and have some smaller craft displayed inside it?

Cheers,
-CM-

At the moment its a little beyond my scope! Though to rationalize, this museum facility is housed in what was originally Earth's starbase prior to spacedock. Large areas of transparent aluminium would have been undesirable and also a real mission to retrofit.

Besides, the upper saucer is admin and living quarters!

 

[danellis]

Couldn't we assume that they have only a few permanent ships on exhibit, and rotate other exhibit ships once in a while to give folks more reasons to return?QUOTE]

I think that's what most real harbours do today for their museum complexes.

Portsmouth harbour in the UK, for example, only has 2 1/2 ships on display (HMS Victory and HMS Warrior, plus the wreck of Mary Rose).

Similarly London has two that I'm aware of (HMS Belfast and Cutty Sark - a civilian ship).

dJE

 

[Tom Hendricks]

Umm, the Cutty Sark was destroyed by fire a few years ago.

Couldn't we assume that they have only a few permanent ships on exhibit, and rotate other exhibit ships once in a while to give folks more reasons to return?QUOTE]

I think that's what most real harbours do today for their museum complexes.

Portsmouth harbour in the UK, for example, only has 2 1/2 ships on display (HMS Victory and HMS Warrior, plus the wreck of Mary Rose).

Similarly London has two that I'm aware of (HMS Belfast and Cutty Sark - a civilian ship).

dJE

 

[MadMan1701A]

Looks good to me.

 

[unusualsuspex]

I'm just thoroughly enjoying learning as I work and proceeding in areas I feel comfortable with which at my ahe is a bonus!

Small update with a texture test. Put together some (incomplete) upper and lower saucer textures just to see where I was at (and YES the lighting rig is yet to be sorted! Click here to enlarge)

Quite pleased with it so far. Obviously need signage and textures for the rest of the sections but I'm loving it!

 

[The Axeman]

The texture is a nice fit in many ways, but it looks like it's a little too soft. You will probably have to make it a much higher resolution than it currently is to make it work. I am well impressed with how well you appear to have picked this up, remarkable work if this is indeed a first model.

 

[unusualsuspex]

Thanks Kenny! Yea I thouht it was on the soft side which was a disappointment but now I have the confidence, then making the textures isn;t quite the 'mare I imagined!!

Two questions:

1. What's the best way of making windows in textures? Is there a simple method?

2. I attempted doing Starfleet signage for the surfaces and tried the Photoshop method (attaching text to a curve but it didn't come out very clear. Is that the need for me to increase resolution again?

Thanks for the helps!

 

[Belisarius]

Here's a thought...make the upper structure almost entirely hollow, in the same vein as Spacedock, only with more visibility from the outside. Configure evenly spaced docking bays where the larger, higher attraction-value starships could be moored. In other words...leave the overall shape the same, but bring the hull down almost as struts. As if the dome were more inspired by the construction cradle from TMP (only cleaner lines, of course...this isn't an industrial zone).


~Belisarius
---------------------------
"All life is struggle, from first breath to last."
- Anonymous

 

[The Axeman]

I dont know the ins and outs of the software you are using to create this, so I cant tell you exactly how to go about stuff. The higher the res, the better your textures will look and the longer it will take to render them. For signage and so forth, particularly on something this big, it can be a good idea to cut in a small rectangle where you want the sign to go, and just give it a different name. You then copy over the properties of the main texture, but then paste on top of that the signage itself.

As for windows with textures, your software needs to accept bump and luminosity maps. All you do is create a texture of white window shapes on a black background. You stick this in the luminosity section of your surface so that the white bits glow and the rest of the surface doesn't. You invert the black & white so you have wite background and black windows, and paste that in the bump map area of the surface. That then gives you sunk in windows in the bump map. Together you get lit, indented windows. Of course I could be wrong, but that's one way to do it in Lightwave.

Results with textures can vary greatly on how they are applied and how good the textures are in the first place. I model as much as i can be bothered to without getting bored stupid, since modeled always looks better. With something like a spacedock with zillions of windows, textures are a better idea as you're usually so far away you wont notice they're painted on.

 

[danellis]

She was heavily damaged, not destroyed:

The ship was originally due to re-open in 2009 but Cutty Sark suffered a major fire on 21 May 2007 which resulted in a 14-month delay on the project and significantly increased costs. Thankfully, due to heroic fire-fighting there was amazingly little damage to the ship’s original material and the Conservation Project can continue as planned. With additional significant financial contributions from The Heritage Lottery Fund and Sammy Ofer, The Cutty Sark Conservation Project is back on course, due to re-open in 2011.

dJE

Umm, the Cutty Sark was destroyed by fire a few years ago.

Couldn't we assume that they have only a few permanent ships on exhibit, and rotate other exhibit ships once in a while to give folks more reasons to return?QUOTE]

I think that's what most real harbours do today for their museum complexes.

Portsmouth harbour in the UK, for example, only has 2 1/2 ships on display (HMS Victory and HMS Warrior, plus the wreck of Mary Rose).

Similarly London has two that I'm aware of (HMS Belfast and Cutty Sark - a civilian ship).

dJE