U.S.S. GEMINI - CGI Model

[BolianAuthor]

Okay... I have something new to share with you all...

Recently, I contacted Charles Casimiro, and inquired of him if he'd at all be interested in building a 3D CGI model of the U.S.S. Gemini, that would follow the plans I am drawing out. He liked the direction I was taking with my plans, so he agreed! So, here is his first WIP of the ship... more will follow.

3D model by Charles Casimiro

Again, my most sincere thanks, Charles!

 

[Tiberius]

Any sketches of what the finished ship will look like?

 

[BolianAuthor]

Well, the Gemini is based on the TOS-era Surya-Class ship designed by our own aridas sofia. The set of external (and eventually internal) plans I am drafting for the Gemini follow a purely Matt Jefferies TOS design aesthetic, where the forms are smooth, and the hull panel detailing is extremely subtle. There are also no Franz Joseph-style phaser banks on the dorsal hull.

You can see my work on the Gemini's external plans in the thread entitled "One More Slow Dance", and I will be posting the FINAL versions of those plans here, but for now, this thread will remain devoted to the 3D CGI model.

 

[Starship]

Looks good!

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

Thank you!

Casimiro has told me that he has started to cut some of the windows into the hull, and I assume he is also now starting on the hull addition, so hopefully a new WIP image will be up very soon.

 

[BolianAuthor]

A new update... the templates for the windows and markings are all done on the lower saucer, and he is now tackling the dreaded point where the hull addition meets the edge of the saucer.

3D model by Charles Casimiro

 

[Nero's Shadow]

Very nice !!!

 

[BolianAuthor]

A new update... pretty much done with the basic structure...

3D model by Charles Casimiro

 

[MadMan1701A]

Looking good. He's pretty quick, too.

 

[backstept]

I definitely would have had trouble with that shape . . . I also would have taken the cheap route and done intersecting geometry instead of what looks like creating a single mesh

 

[MadMan1701A]

I probably would have too... but now that I've seen it, I can see how you could simply extrude the verts from one of the radial lines, and flatten it out at the top. That's how I'll do it, next time.

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

Thanks. Yeah, that area (one of many on this ship) looks WAY simpler than it actually is to render out, be it in 2D or 3D, respectively.

Here is another WIP:

3D model by Charles Casimiro

 

[Saquist]

Looking like the Anton class from Fasa

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

Well, the Anton's hull "extension" is quite substantially longer, but aye... it certainly falls into the "TOS-Miranda" line of design.

As I said in my 2D thread for the plans of the ship, a lot of people tend to confuse the Surya and Coventry designs with each other, but if any of the two is more like the Miranda, it'd be the Coventry, because its hull extension is longer than the Surya's, and more in line with what we see on the TMP-era Miranda-Class.

 

[BolianAuthor]

A new update from the artist... the Bridge module is now built.

3D model by Charles Casimiro

 

[aridas sofia]

^

As I said in my 2D thread for the plans of the ship, a lot of people tend to confuse the Surya and Coventry designs with each other, but if any of the two is more like the Miranda, it'd be the Coventry, because its hull extension is longer than the Surya's, and more in line with what we see on the TMP-era Miranda-Class.

Surya was designed with the assumption that it was the ship that would later be "padded out" from an older frigate into a new heavy frigate -- the Reliant -- so it was shaped well shy of the Reliant's contours for a reason. IIRC, Coventry was designed as an intermediate ship -- a bigger frigate, but not as big as the eventual heavy frigates Reliant/Avenger etc.

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

Yeah... my point was that the Coventry IS a physically larger ship than the Surya, and that the Coventry's lines are much closer to the Miranda's lines. I have whipped up a little comparison to illustrate why I consider the Coventry to be the most Miranda-like:

Ship images by Vance

 

[aridas sofia]

You're right. Coventry is the most Reliant-like. Because it was meant to be the next step on the path TO Reliant. Surya is a late 2230s design, while Coventry is from about ten years later. When the older Surya frigates were refit to the eventual Reliant heavy frigate configuration, the Coventrys weren't old enough for such radical overhauling.

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

Ah... okay, now I understand what you mean. BTW... did you also design the Coventry, or was that someone else's design?

Here is the latest update from the artist... she's coming along quite nicely:

3D model by Charles Casimiro

 

[aridas sofia]

Todd Guenther and I did many projects together and we are still good friends. He came up with Coventry and I came up with Surya. Since I came up with Surya first (and because its fictional launch date was much earlier) we decided it would be the one to be portrayed as the direct Reliant predecessor in Ships of the Star Fleet.