WIP: U.S.S. Bozeman revisited--aka Unused TSFS Ship Design.

[USS Jack Riley]

Hey Gep - it's your design, do what you want to with it. If I am that attached to it, I can darn well get off my butt, learn how blender works (who am I kidding? Like I have that kid of time! ) and do it myself.

Personally, I do like the neck. But neck or no neck, this is a sweet design and a great idea that you had for coming up with it. Looking forward to more!

 

[Technobuilder]

I'm going to say pretty much what Jack Riley said.

It's Gep's ship and he can do what he wants, but I myself like the design with a neck.

Of course I liked the design without a neck too, I just can't fathom a reason why Starfleet would build a ship with such an obvious structural flaw not to mention limiting the real world mobility of personnel and cargo in any sort of emergency type situation where transporters are down. (Sometimes I just need a reason to justify things in my mind, and then it wouldn't bother me so much. - Of course that's just the way I am)

I mean heck, we may have elevators but we still build-in stairs just in case.

Again, that's really my only gripe. (Plus I admit it's what I'm most used to.)

I wish I had Gep's skills at 3D Modeling.

Keep up the good work, I'm eager to see the finished design.


Update: After looking the pics over some more, I have to say I really like the pylons joining the secondary hull to the primary saucer along with a neck, it seems more stable to my eye with 3 points of connection vs. just 1 or 2.

 

[Jon1701]

Nah, lose the neck.

Loving the window detailing at the back of the secondry hull. Is the circle underneath from the contitution class?

 

[USS Jack Riley]

^^That is what I was going to suggest. The circle was the design element from the Constitution Class Starships.

 

[Gepard]

Not only are the circles and rectangles on the bottom inspired by the Constitution class (which I had forgotten I'd done, actually..), but the three little circles on the bottom tier of the hull are taken from the front of the saucer, and the sensors inside are tiny Constitution deflector dishes...

The secondary hull modeling is pretty much done. I still needs to add openings and housings for the floodlights, but the rest is finished. (As much as one can say such things.) All ("all" I say!) that's left is to sort out the areas of the UVs that got messed up by the additional details cut into the mesh, and to UV the myriad tiny details that haven't been mapped yet.

So unless anyone has any further design suggestions, I'm going to call this final for this part of the ship.


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I went a little overboard on the poly count for some of those details. I've been wanting to look into figuring out how to implement normal maps in LightWave and, assuming I can find a free plugin that works with Intel Macs, this seems like a good area to do so...

It's likely that this will be the last update for a while, as I'm flying to LA on Monday for a month and will be away from my personal computer. Though I'd squeeze more in before Monday if only I could make up my mind about what to do with that @#$%ing saucer!

 

[USS Jack Riley]

Looking great! Can't wait to see her with her livery painted on and all the bells and whistles (including the primary hull) lit up and ready to head out into space.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Why do you need turbolifts? I assumed that the Oberth-class had point-to-point transporters to ferry crew as needed from the dish to the secondary hull.

 

[Jon1701]

Looking good.

Is that a secondry bridge on the back, or just a sensor dome or something?

 

[roguephoenix]

omg that looks amazing. how did you do that? what program are you using. it looks like one of those clay prototypes people make before they build the real car.

 

[Gepard]

Why do you need turbolifts? I assumed that the Oberth-class had point-to-point transporters to ferry crew as needed from the dish to the secondary hull.

Because of everything Christopher argues here. In essence: it's overcomplicated and stupid to build a system that replaces a simpler piece of proven technology with fancier technology just because it's new and "cool." That's not to say that site-to-site transport wouldn't have a place on a starship, but to totally scrap turbolifts--even as backup systems--would be insane. Even buildings that have elevators and escalators install stairs!

Is that a secondary bridge on the back, or just a sensor dome or something?

I don't think it's big enough to be a bridge--in truth, it's there because the painting has a domelike structure there. I figure it may be a sensor or an obervation dome, like the big glowing dome on the classic Enterprise above the shuttle bay doors.

what program are you using.

LightWave 3D.

omg that looks amazing.

Thank you.

how did you do that?

Long answer or short answer? It boils down to laying out basic shapes that roughly match the proportions of what I want the final object to look like, then pushing, pulling, and adding and/or deleting points and edges until it has enough detail. Though it was written for a different software package, this tutorial gives a basic rundown of some elemental techniques for 3D modeling.

So it looks like I was somewhat mistaken about my prior post being the last update. A few friends and I held palaver today about the saucer issue, and my works-for-a-game-studio-and-I'm-really-jealous friend nabbed a copy of the mesh and mocked up a different take, which after some refinement is:


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So...yay? Nay? I think it has promise, though I'm still not sold on the ridge running around the middle of the saucer...

 

[Jon1701]

I like it.

I prefer it to the tapered sides on the last saucer update.

 

[Gepard]

Final shape for the saucer (at last):


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And for comparison purposes, the very first version:


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While I'll miss the smooth bell-curve of the first try, the advantages of the new take outweigh that one loss, I think. Plus, as has been pointed out to me, this new version is very, very Deco.

So there. That's it. That's the saucer, and I'm not touching it again so I can pack for LA like I'm supposed to have been doing all weekend!

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

I too miss the more structurally defined B/C deck structure, but this gives the ship a slightly better sense of direction. Looks a slight bit more like it's moving forward at standstill.

 

[Starship]

Your interpretation of that concept ship is very interesting. Sounds really good!
Just one niptick: the missing neck, as in the Oberth class. The crew using the pylons to move between the saucer and the sec hull sounds a bit strange... Inclinated turbolifts?
Why not a little neck at the center? The saucer sits at a small distance of the sec hull, and a small neck won´t hurts the design that much. In fact, will give her more credibillity.
Hope to see this wip posted at http://www.foundation3d.com and http://www.scifi-meshes.com too.

 

[Blip]

Starship, did you just not read the last page or so, or did you simply ogle the pictures and hit post?

 

[Starship]

Starship, did you just not read the last page or so, or did you simply ogle the pictures and hit post?

In fact, I didn´t read the previous pages. Only the last posts...

 

[Blip]

Tssk! Heheh.

 

[AJBryant]

I like it better without the neck, personally. Screw turbolifts. It's a small sacrifice to make for a cool, elegant ship. In the words of someone else, "When you look this cool, nothing else really matters".

Except those who actually believe in functionality.

I disagree.

I think that neck is necessary.

BTW -- EXCELLENT design work.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

No neck, please! Make the crew use stairs... they need a workout. Besides, less maintenance that way.

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[David cgc]

C'mon, they're turbolifts. If they can go up and down as well as side-to-side, I'm sure they can handle a gently curved diagonal.

Or we could have like a caste system, where the people in the lower body and the people in the saucer never interact with each other. Each group is just locked into its section of the ship.