USS Calypso.

[Trekker4747]

The Claypso has been the hero ship for a bit of fan fiction I have been working on and off for several years now and my personal "vision" of the ship has changed and mutated over time but has, more or less, remained the same. I imagine her having about 30-40 decks and being a bit longer than the ED. It's a 26th Century ship fitted with a drive system that can take it to the Triangulum galaxy. (My fiction is called: Star Trek: Triangulum.)

The drive can take it to the neighboring galaxy inside of a couple of weeks but there's limitations on it. (i.e. it can only work between galaxies in true "open space" withing a galaxy it uses conventional warp which is not too much faster than it is in TNG-onwards although higher speeds are more stable.)

Anyway, it's been a while since I've messed around in a 3D rendering program and thought I'd mess around with the ship again and here's a take at it:

This is just the secondary hull's rough look. One picture is without in-window lighting, and only added lighting, the other picture is with no in-window lighting and the lighting added.

 

[backstept]

you weren't kidding when you said rough
my advice would be this: before you go on to any further detailing you should start again from scratch and model from a single primitive instead of adding more shapes
build up your objects instead of adding more

 

[sojourner]

One picture is without in-window lighting, and only added lighting, the other picture is with no in-window lighting and the lighting added.

??? doesn't "without" mean the same as "with no"?

And to go further, what windows?

 

[Trekker4747]

One picture is without in-window lighting, and only added lighting, the other picture is with no in-window lighting and the lighting added.

??? doesn't "without" mean the same as "with no"?

And to go further, what windows?

I'm talking about in the program. The program gives me the option of "it" lighting the model or offering no light on it at all other than the light icons I've added.

 

[sojourner]

^Ah, ok, the original sentence grammatically said the same thing about both images.

 

[The Axeman]

I'm with backstept, you need to go work on your construction techniques for a bit before continuing. Lots of instersecting low-detail primitives is not the way ahead for this one. A bit of practice will get you into the swing of it again, and then you can do a decent job on your ship. As for the design, doesn't your 26th century ship look very like the original TOS Enterprise? Unless this is just a very small part of the ship I dont see how you're going to integrate this into a much more modern looking ship.

I also have issues with a ship which can jump 3 million light years in a couple of weeks to suit your story, but is no faster otherwise. Such a drive changes the Trek universe completely, and is not just a way to access new characters in another galaxy. You'd be better off with the 'stable wormhole' ploy of DS9, or the accidental one way trip a la Voyager, saving a lot of dodgy technobabble.

 

[Patrickivan]

I'm with backstept, you need to go work on your construction techniques for a bit before continuing. Lots of instersecting low-detail primitives is not the way ahead for this one. A bit of practice will get you into the swing of it again, and then you can do a decent job on your ship. As for the design, doesn't your 26th century ship look very like the original TOS Enterprise? Unless this is just a very small part of the ship I dont see how you're going to integrate this into a much more modern looking ship.

I also have issues with a ship which can jump 3 million light years in a couple of weeks to suit your story, but is no faster otherwise. Such a drive changes the Trek universe completely, and is not just a way to access new characters in another galaxy. You'd be better off with the 'stable wormhole' ploy of DS9, or the accidental one way trip a la Voyager, saving a lot of dodgy technobabble.

I don't know. Maybe his drive is based on the same original premise that warp drive couldn't be activated close to gravity wells in a solar system (that I thought was a good restriction on the technology). In this case (and I'm sure the OP can clarify since it's his idea) maybe this intergalactic drive would otherwise is just to sensitive to gravitational forces within a galaxy.

My problem with his premise about the drive is that though it may only work in between galaxies (if I'm understanding the OP), what about the travel time it takes to get to the end of any given galaxy. If you're relying on standard warp drive for that, there's going to be a lot of long trips involved just to get into the galaxy proper.

 

[The Axeman]

It's an issue, certainly. My point would be it would change how people got around. It would be quicker to head to the galactic edge, fly out and round the galaxy or even out to another galaxy and back, than it would be to fly across it. Also if it's just warp drive free of some gravity restriction, then normal warp engines would increase in power the further you got from galactic center, which would be a noticable effect.

 

[Trekker4747]

My techobabble is that the intergalactic drive uses protomatter and it's felt that protomatter reacts badly in areas of complex gravity. (In a galaxy the gravity of the many different planets and stars and such interfere with it.) In open space between galaxies none of this stuff bothers the protomatter or the drive systems. But, honestly, I've not given it a ton of though on "why" beyond that. When ever I get around to really nailing this story down and seriously write it I plan to avoid techobabble like this as much as possible and just pretty much say, "it works this way because I say so."

I've still not figured out too much how to get the most out of this 3D program (AC3D) to make as fluid and realistic a look as possible but just want to get the general "idea." It'd be real nice to have a cool, awesome, detailed manual on this program to know how to really pull stuff off in it.

Can someone give me so examples or specific tips or whatever on what needs to be worked on? I may continue with this model to get the final "shape" of it nailed down and then go back and go from scratch again on it.

My problem with his premise about the drive is that though it may only work in between galaxies (if I'm understanding the OP), what about the travel time it takes to get to the end of any given galaxy. If you're relying on standard warp drive for that, there's going to be a lot of long trips involved just to get into the galaxy proper.

Inter-Milky Way galaxy travel has been made faster between making higher warp speeds more sustainable, peace agreements with most of the AQ/BQ species and the help of Warpgates. (Jump/Star Gates.)

 

[The Axeman]

You might want to switch to Google Sketchup, its pretty easy to get to grips with and there are a ton of tutorials out there. There's also a few skilled users of it here who will no doubt be able to advise on specifics. If you're really into your 3D you should switch to Blender, but it's far from easy to pick up from scratch.

 

[Trekker4747]

Well, what I like about AC3D are the four views (side, top/down, front/back) makes it easier for me to put the parts together and make them. Now it's just a matter of figuring out all of the tools, settings, and details to get the best possible look. And, oy, I've no idea how to even start texturing but that's a long way off.

 

[Trekker4747]

Okay, like I said right now I'm just kind of dicking around and trying to get the "idea" of this design settled and then I may go back and tinker some more with it and try and figure out how to get a more realistic "product" out of the 3D program.

I finished up the Primary Hull tonight.

 

[backstept]

fascinating hull arrangement

 

[Trekker4747]

Okay, here's the "basic" idea. I'm tinkering with the program some and trying to read the PDF on it to find out how to get the most out of it but I think this, more or less, conveys the idea I want. I'm not likely to ever master the proram enough to get this 100% high quality like others get here. I'm first of all not sure that's inside the capability of this program and, secondly, I don't even now hot to begin to master the texturing/details.

But, alas, this is what I've got: