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Starfleet Museum Orbital Annexe - WIP from a modelling newbie!

Re: My God! It's full of stars!

unusualsuspex said:
Be gentle! I got my first set of windows on! Woohoo!

Yes, there's too many (some will be turned off!), yes they're still too bright (under review!) and yes they highlight where I;ve made those extrusions on the saucer too prominent (will be fixed!) but I'm getting happier by the minute! :bolian:



Click to expand...

Personally I'd model all these windows (I know, lots and lots of polys); it usually looks better and avoids this blurring-away you get at certain angles.

As an example - this is part of an (unfinished) Starbase-mesh of mine (built over 7 years ago):

SpacedockWIP09.jpg
 
Ok....I'm giving up! :D Mighty nice work there mate but a little beyond my capabilities at the mo!

Problem:

My main saucer texture has just reversed itself so that the writing is back to front???

Any idea why it should do that or how to remedy it please?
 
Ok I know that the general scene lighting is dark (on purpose) as this was a test render to see that the station lights were working!

Feeling much better about my abilities now, meagre as they are! :D

 
unusualsuspex said:
Be gentle! I got my first set of windows on! Woohoo!

Yes, there's too many (some will be turned off!), yes they're still too bright (under review!) and yes they highlight where I;ve made those extrusions on the saucer too prominent (will be fixed!) but I'm getting happier by the minute! :bolian:

Click to expand...

Looking good :) Only thing I'd suggest is to break the cadence of windows over the big depressions (I assume they're doors?) possibly two or three much larger windows on the "mid-level" between the other two rows.

unusualsuspex said:
Ok I know that the general scene lighting is dark (on purpose) as this was a test render to see that the station lights were working!

Feeling much better about my abilities now, meagre as they are! :D
Click to expand...

Can I suggest you don't worry too much about how "meagre" or otherwise your abilities are: You're already lightyears beyond my abilities, and I suspect those of most of the others reading this thread.

Just keep working away. Take the things people say in this thread in the spirit they're said in (which you seem to be pretty good at) and you'll find yourself improving almost without noticing it :)

dJE
 
Looking better all the time, for a first model its pretty kick ass.

The sheer amount of windows blows your mind and makes you think about just what scale these things would be built to if real. It's mind bogglingly big. Anytime I make something this big I have to sit back for a bit after working out the deck height and so forth, and just marvel at the magnitude of it.

Anyway, more window tips. As you've found out, you don't want them superbright, and it is often a good idea to vary the brightness to add life. When doing modelled windows I make a third of them dark, and with the rest I apply a fractal smoke pattern to make the rest all slightly different brightness and give the impression of detail inside. On something this size I doubt the scale will allow that, but the varied brightness is still a good idea.
 
Looking good. :)

The windows do actually add a nice sense of scale... if you can get a good off/on pattern going, it'll look fantastic. :)
 
@Kenny

Thanks mate, the varied brightnes wasn't something that had occurred to me so I'll give it a bash, thanku! :bolian:

@ MadMan1701A

Thanks MM, you can't actually see it in that test render, but I've already started saving electricity on the top dome, though I need to take out a few more. Then I'll start on the saucer edges before tackling the docking arms and galleries! :bolian:

My computer is seriously underpowered and as I said earlier, I'm getting to the strain point on memory (only 1Gb cos I've never needed more :alienblush:) still Christmas is coming!
 
Well, progress after a short hospital stay, a chest infection and computer problems!

Upper and lower comms arrays removed for rebuild.

Escape pods provided for everybody! (Larger than standard with higher capacity.)

Windows progressing but work still to be done on both colours and textures. (That large dome section will indeed be semi-transparent, but the contents are some way down the line!)

Docking arms still to be textured.

Lower saucer still to be lit (plus both flat saucer sections.)

Other than that, progress!

(Lighting rig was pumped up some for these test renders so I could spot any flaws. Better renders soon)





 
Still not a fan of the window-texture ;) but it looks good.
The scale is thrown off a bit though, since the texture gets stretched quite a bit the more it goes towards the saucer's edge - those windows must be huge compared to the docking arms.

But your learning curve is quite steep and you make great progress. So, keep up the good work :)
 
Ok completely new docking arms (obviously still working on the textures!)

The original arms when this was an operational starbase would have been the same as the lower ones. The upper arms were retro-fitted with the small island complexes to act as visitor information centres for the static ship displays.

More when I've improved the textures but I'm enjoying the journey! :bolian:





 
Latest test renders. Still some texturing to do and the scene lighting to adjust somewhat but almost complete!!







And a rough comparison shot for fun!



Thanks to Raul for the Spacedock model! 8)
 
A couple more test renders, this time with ships for scale and to give an idea of what goes where!

Thanks to Bucky (1701), Kenny (NX-01) and Andrew Hodges (Daedalus) for their meshes here!



 
That looks really amazing!!! I love how you added observation windows all around the upper part of the "bulge" on the "stem" (for lack of better terms). This is just really cool! Well done! :bolian:
 
danellis said:
I don't think you need to worry about it being too big overmuch. I'm sure inside there is a, for example, much more comprehensive collection of shuttlecraft and other smaller craft, perhaps this is where Picard went to visit the Phoenix. It's possible in a future iteration you may choose to move the NX inside, given her relative size.
Click to expand...

There's also justification for a full-blown resort getaway in there. Since each major starship is going to be a full museum in and of itself, there will be people who will stay on-site multiple nights in order to take full tours of say, the NX-01, a Constitution class ship, an Ambassador, and a Sovereign. Those people could have family that are less interested in starships and will seek other station-board entertainment venues.

With all of that also comes the necessary space for staff housing and other secondary space needs.


ETA: AXEMAN! I see your name in this thread and it's ringing a bell in connection with my hunt for a certain tutorial I started a went-nowhere thread on. Do you have any idea what I'm talking about or am I still crazy?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread:
 
Good grief, you have a good memory. I had a 'build a simple shuttle using nurbs' tutorial on my old axeman3d.com site, before my hosting company turned into spam central and I had to shut it down. I don't have it on my new site, I've switched to making video tutorials and haven't made a modeling one yet.

If you want it, it can still be found. Do a search for the famous Internet archive 'Wayback Machine' and enter my old sites URL, www.axeman3d.com. They have versions of my site saved from several years of updates, and if you select the last date you will be able to browse to the original shuttle tutorial.
 
Just completing a couple of newer renders but I have a couple of questions for the MAX gurus out there.

1. I've placed comms arrays top and bottom but I'm not certain how to place red warning (or obstruction) lights on their tips?

2. I've merged some starship meshes with my museum model but suddenly my material editor is no longer showing the textures for the museum! They're still appearing on the model but is there any way to get the textures back into the material editor?

Thanks for following this thread guys an gals, your input is always welcome!
thumbup.gif
 
Thanks to all the contributors to this thread, (the first of many I hope!)

The model is now (nearly) finished with one or two tweaks to throw in but nothing major I don't think. Unless, of course, you guys have any suggestions? :)

Here she is in several views:











 
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