Tiny Trek Adventures (ongoing comic)

[ashleytinger]

How long did it take to create each character model?

They're all built around DAZ Genesis 3 using the Guy 7 and Girl 7 initial morphs but then I customized them out using a combination of built in morphs and some custom mesh tweaks and then a bunch of changes to the character textures to make them into Vulcans and Trill.

I'd say it was overall about an hour per crew member on the ship. I wanted each of them to be unique, some ended up more unique than others.

 

[K1productions]

They're all built around DAZ Genesis 3 using the Guy 7 and Girl 7 initial morphs but then I customized them out using a combination of built in morphs and some custom mesh tweaks and then a bunch of changes to the character textures to make them into Vulcans and Trill.

I'd say it was overall about an hour per crew member on the ship. I wanted each of them to be unique, some ended up more unique than others.

and you had to pay for each basic model? Did they come with clothes already or did you build them yourself?

 

[ashleytinger]

and you had to pay for each basic model? Did they come with clothes already or did you build them yourself?

The base starters come with some basic clothes but the ones I'm using here are a clothing set made for several generations of figures back (M4 Valiant and V4 Courageous) and are almost 10 years old now I think. There's several freebies out there but they're for Gen 8 and don't translate well to gen 3.

 

[Sgt_G]

I wanted each of them to be unique, some ended up more unique than others.

Yeah, even in written fiction, that tends to be true.

 

[K1productions]

The base starters come with some basic clothes but the ones I'm using here are a clothing set made for several generations of figures back (M4 Valiant and V4 Courageous) and are almost 10 years old now I think. There's several freebies out there but they're for Gen 8 and don't translate well to gen 3.

im just wondering what it would take to create a cast of characters without having to spend too much, and yet have some variability of clothing.

 

[ashleytinger]

Evil Slime available through DAZ
Remaining Sets and props built in Truespace
Rendered in DAZ Studio
Uniforms are V4 Courageous
Uniform Textures by JamesJAB
Figures are Genesis 3

 

[Redfern]

That "Pet Slime" is a neat model to have in one's inventory. I once used it in conjunction with a couple of other meshes to depict a Kaled mutant housed even a Dalek travel machine.

(I just noticed something. My spellchecker acknowledges "Dalek" as a valid word! Ain't that a hoot?!)

 

[ashleytinger]

That "Pet Slime" is a neat model to have in one's inventory. I once used it in conjunction with a couple of other meshes to depict a Kaled mutant housed even a Dalek travel machine.

(I just noticed something. My spellchecker acknowledges "Dalek" as a valid word! Ain't that a hoot?!)

I do enjoy a good slime



Sets and props built in Truespace
Rendered in DAZ Studio
Uniforms are V4 Courageous
Uniform Textures by JamesJAB
Figures are Genesis 3

 

[scifieric]

Nice. Very nice.

 

[Sgt_G]

@ashefivekay --- May I just say, I love that bridge. The retro helm and controls stations are cool, but the overall layout has a more modern feel. Hate to ask how long it took to put that together.

 

[ashleytinger]

Nice. Very nice.

Thanks!

@ashefivekay --- May I just say, I love that bridge. The retro helm and controls stations are cool, but the overall layout has a more modern feel. Hate to ask how long it took to put that together.

I'm very fond of it as well! It started out as an attempt at creating the 'Bridge of the Week' from TNG, (The one that doubled as the later battle bridge and other Starfleet ships including the Enterprise C before it was rebuilt around the time of DS9) but then I realized I wanted a TOS bridge of the Week as well as a TMP era bridge of the week and it went from there. While I don't have the TMP era done, the bones are obviously there to build from it.

I started doing the TOS conversion for the BotW at the end of May 2019 and then had the bulk of the modeling on it done within a week. The textures took me a lot longer as the day job kicked up so it wasn't finished until almost a month after I started converting it over. I'm guessing about 40 or so hours in building it with about 5-8 hours researching the consoles and heights, etc.

Here's the renders I did up of the empty bridge last year




The graphics on the side represent a Saladin class bridge but the ship in Tiny Trek isn't a Saladin so I had to update several of the graphics on the displays.

 

[TrekMD]

That bridge is gorgeous!

 

[EARTHER]

The captain looks like your avatar. Do you, the creator of this CGI comic strip, look like your avatar? Just askin’. Great work, by the way! And what do you call this production? A comic book? A comic strip? A graphic novel? An e-novel?

 

[ashleytinger]

That bridge is gorgeous!

Thank you!

The captain looks like your avatar. Do you, the creator of this CGI comic strip, look like your avatar? Just askin’. Great work, by the way! And what do you call this production? A comic book? A comic strip? A graphic novel? An e-novel?

My avatar was an attempt at a self-portrait with mixed results although she has much better hair. Mine is unmanageable 99% of the time. :P And no, I used a completely different morph set for my Captain. The base set of morphs I added on to make them more cartoon like kind of made her look more like my avatar.

It's an ongoing comic that I'm splitting up by story arc and collecting into a PDF once that arc is completed and I move on to the next one, but like a good serial I'm going to continue on the loose threads. I've got the main story arcs for the first year of the ship's operation all planned out, but I kept the individual arcs more loose so I had a lot of play as I move through it and can jump on ideas more as I get them so they don't end up on a scratchpad somewhere that I forget about.

This first arc is definitely more about getting to know the characters I want to focus on and definitely more character driven, but there's effectively 15 members of the 40 person crew I'm going to follow more often. I absolutely have more action oriented ideas and even more trek based moral-play ideas as it goes on. Plus where I set it is a hot bed of Federation/Romulan/Klingon activity as they all fight over this area of space on their borders

 

[EARTHER]

Great. Keep it up!

 

[Cyfa]

I just want to say (as I haven't got around to commenting on them until now) how much I enjoy your Art Challenge Tiny Trek strip, especially the reveal of the slime and the synchronous reactions. It got my vote
Fridays' "Home" strip is great, too. One thing in particular that I think works well is that the image is too tall to see all at once (on my monitor, anyway). As I slowly scrolled down reading the thoughts of Captain Galven, I was thinking that there were a lot of words, but nothing else going on, and each image of Galven was the same, and then - Bam! - final panel and "Home" on that beautiful, bright bridge! A thoughtful set-up and stirring conclusion

 

[ashleytinger]

I just want to say (as I haven't got around to commenting on them until now) how much I enjoy your Art Challenge Tiny Trek strip, especially the reveal of the slime and the synchronous reactions. It got my vote
Fridays' "Home" strip is great, too. One thing in particular that I think works well is that the image is too tall to see all at once (on my monitor, anyway). As I slowly scrolled down reading the thoughts of Captain Galven, I was thinking that there were a lot of words, but nothing else going on, and each image of Galven was the same, and then - Bam! - final panel and "Home" on that beautiful, bright bridge! A thoughtful set-up and stirring conclusion

The Lower Decks contest spurred me to develop those two a bit and then I thought they would be fantastic little comedy bits as they move in and out of trouble all over the ship.

Home was born out of me having the script done but not having time to render more than two images, so it was a happy accident lol And thank you!

Also

No Tiny Trek this week on account of me accepting a new job! Time to celebrate!

 

[ashleytinger]

Sets and props built in Truespace
Rendered in DAZ Studio
Uniforms are V4 Courageous and M4 Valiant
Uniform Textures by JamesJAB
Figures are Genesis 3

 

[ashleytinger]

Sets and props built in Truespace
Rendered in DAZ Studio
Uniforms are V4 Courageous and M4 Valiant
Uniform Textures by JamesJAB
Figures are Genesis 3

 

[Redfern]

So, the others will soon learn of "Blobby" (or whatever name it's granted), eh?