USS Albacore, Ambassador Class Prototype

[SCE2Aux]

Hello
I've been making a new starship model for a bit and would like to share it in its current state of wip. It's based off of the ambassador class, but with some Excelsior/Ent-B inspiration, and some of my own ideas in the mix too.
The model is pretty much complete, and I've just started the textures.

Some close-up details:

Finally, here's the current progress with texturing.

Hopefully will be posting some secondary hull texturing progress in the coming week.

 

[Finn]

Those....are amazing!

 

[Santaman]

I like your style a lot, it's really one of a kind, love the impulse engine clusters, a big lunk of a ship needs quite some oomph to get going.

 

[SCE2Aux]

Thanks! That impulse engine design started off as an extruded cylinder on the low res blocking mesh, but ended up getting influenced by the doubled up SpaceX SuperDracos that are mounted in 4 packs on Dragon capsules.

 

[Michael]

This is insanely good, @SCE2Aux! All this detailing is breathtaking. This looks huge and heavy and like it means business. I feel like it's more militaristic than anything that was actually seen onscreen on Trek.

 

[MisterD]

This is insane. Very impressive.

 

[SCE2Aux]

This is insanely good, @SCE2Aux! All this detailing is breathtaking. This looks huge and heavy and like it means business. I feel like it's more militaristic than anything that was actually seen onscreen on Trek.

Thanks, @Michael ! I intended it to look sturdy and solid (with the stock Ambassador not being exactly light and graceful to begin with) by thickening out the neck and adding exposed structural elements everywhere. The militaristic vibe kinda happened as a byproduct.

I don't think I'm able to edit thread titles, but would it be possible for you to fix the typo by adding the 'm' in Ambassador please? I should know to proofread posts at this point haha

 

[saddestmoon]

Love this! An interesting concept well-realised - keep up the great work @SCE2Aux !

 

[Michael]

Thanks, @Michael ! I intended it to look sturdy and solid (with the stock Ambassador not being exactly light and graceful to begin with) by thickening out the neck and adding exposed structural elements everywhere. The militaristic vibe kinda happened as a byproduct.

Seeing this – can't stop marvelling at your renderings, especially that final shot of the warp nacelle – I wonder how much you plan ahead while working on this versus just going with the flow one what shapes and forms you are integrating in the detailing. Does this just happen in the 3D program or do you make sketches beforehand and figure out how you want to do things?

I don't think I'm able to edit thread titles, but would it be possible for you to fix the typo by adding the 'm' in Ambassador please? I should know to proofread posts at this point haha

Got you covered.

 

[SCE2Aux]

I wonder how much you plan ahead while working on this versus just going with the flow one what shapes and forms you are integrating in the detailing. Does this just happen in the 3D program or do you make sketches beforehand and figure out how you want to do things?

I used to just throw myself into projects without a significant amount of planning, but that led to problems later on in the project.
If I could sketch competently it would be a real boon because it allows artists to rapidly iterate their ideas before committing to a final product. I've got basically zero traditional art skills, so I did my 'sketching' in 3d, with very rough models. I started here with a blocky Ambassador, which I then modified until it had some shapes that interested me:

I then made a slightly better version with more ideas I wanted to include. If you saw the wireframe you'd see this model is a combination of really hacked up geometry, and some stuff (like parts of the nacelles) that made it through to the final model:

At the same time, I created some diagrams based off of the above model, that detailed some of the features I wanted on the final model:

Again, because I haven't got traditional art skills, I still came across bits of the design that just didn't look right when it came to the final model, case in point, the saucers hangar bar and impulse engines, which ended looking awkward and blocky, so I made another low res mesh that helped me figure out that region:

So, that's pretty much been the method running through this particular ship project. Same for the texturing side of things, lots of shader tests, texture tiles etc, figuring out what works and what doesn't.

 

[Santaman]

Even that low res mesh looks great, that kind of colour is also used a lot in prototypes/design sketches which again has that industrial feel.

 

[Death Ray]

Awesome. (Mmmm.... space tuna!)

 

[publiusr]

Even that bare-bones version is elegant.

 

[SCE2Aux]

Some quick WIP renders show the secondary hull texture progress:

 

[cardinal biggles]

Some quick WIP renders show the secondary hull texture progress:

I'm really loving this whole thread, but this area of the ship in particular... it kind of looks like what you might get if one of the designers from the Battlestar Galactica reboot was asked to flesh out the fine details on a Star Trek ship.

 

[Santaman]

That's looking awesome.

 

[Finn]

That's really amazing. I shudder at the thought of the detailed interiors if you did them.

 

[SCE2Aux]

That's really amazing. I shudder at the thought of the detailed interiors if you did them.

Haha, thankfully the vast majority of windows will just have textured mapped boxes with a self illumination material behind them.

 

[NervousEnergy]

Although I love the clean simplicity of TNG+ starship designs, I absolutely love this hyper-detailed version of the Ambassador. Really good job!

 

[UssGlenn]

I'm really loving this whole thread, but this area of the ship in particular... it kind of looks like what you might get if one of the designers from the Battlestar Galactica reboot was asked to flesh out the fine details on a Star Trek ship.

I was just thinking it had a very Star Wars feel, sort of Corellian.