Star Trek Stuff

[scifidude79]

Not really. Cycles was kind of rough when it started. However, the advantage of open source software is that anyone can come up with a fix for something and submit it. If it works, you could see that fix hit the next update.

By comparison, closed source software like Lightwave is worked on by a small team, and it's up to that team to figure out all of the fixes to major issues. From what Brandenberg over at SFM has been telling me, this render engine was new for LW2018 and they're still chasing issues with it. Now, someone half a world away may have come up with a patch that will fix something, but they can't just release that upstream and get it into the software right away like you can with open source. The best they could do is submit it to Newtek and hope they listen. But, Newtek may not since it didn't come from their programmers. Even if they do listen, they'll still want their people to go over it and whatnot. It's just a much slower process.

This is an often overlooked advantage to open source. Most people just like it because it's free. But, it's free in more than one sense of the word.

[scifidude79]

Work continues on the cruiser. I got the main parts all in place, now it's just a matter of adding details. The thing that starts under the bridge, follows the saucer curve and has the impulse engines in it is based on a ship that I did more than a decade ago. The structure under the bride (deck 2) is based on the Ambassador class, as is the bridge itself. I did elongate the back, though. One thing that bugs me about the Ambassador class is how its bridge is basically a detailed dome. Unlike other ships, there's no obvious indicator of the turbolifts. I'm assuming that's because the model was designed and built in a hurry. Still, it bugs me. I'll be doing all of that on my ship. The planetary sensor is also based on the Ambassador class, in its original configuration. They added more details for later use of the ship.

[Freak]

Really Liking that impulse unit.
It got a feel of the design that John Eaves introduced with the Sovereign-class and TOS. 

[scifidude79]

Thanks. Yeah, I think I had the Sovereign in mind when I did that part originally.

[scifidude79]

I started on the shield grid lines with the upper saucer. This is long and tedious work, so it's not going to go super fast.





Since the upper saucer shape is pretty much based on the Excelsior, I based the grid pattern on that ship as well.

[scifieric]

Chris, you do spectacular work and this is a joy to see come together.  Thank you for sharing your progress with us!

[scifidude79]

Thanks Eric. Though, I'm not sure what you're thanking me for. If it wasn't for you guys, I'd have given up on this stuff ages ago, so I'm the one who should be thanking you.

[scifieric]

Thanks Eric. Though, I'm not sure what you're thanking me for. If it wasn't for you guys, I'd have given up on this stuff ages ago, so I'm the one who should be thanking you.

I'm glad you've kept at it.  You've got obvious talent and it is a pleasure to see your work.  And your lightsaber videos!

[scifidude79]

I started adding windows to the ship. I decided to start with the saucer perimeter. I opted for one row of windows here, as they did with the Enterprise-C, as I feel two rows would be too cluttered. I also broke up the edge with horizontal blue stripes, as they did with the Excelsior and Enterprise-C.







I was going to keep the window size consistent with the Ambassador class (Enterprise-C) but I found there's nothing consistent with that class as far as size. When Andrew Probert was designing the ship, he apparently went with roughly 524m for the size of the ship, which puts it nicely between the Excelsior at 467m and the Galaxy at 642.5m. When Rick Sternbach took over the design of the Enterprise-C, he apparently put it at about 478m. (Gary Kerr came up with that number based on the model sizes, and Sternbach agrees) The biggest issue with that number is that it's only 11m longer than the Excelsior. I guess someone else decided that and increased the scale on Sternbach's blueprints by 15%. So, the ship comes out to 526m. The problem with that number is that this image seems to support the Enterprise-C being smaller:



That, of course, is from the episode and it seems to support the notion that the Enterprise-C was built at a scale to fit with the Enterprise-D at about the size that Sternbach originally intended. Why a "stepping stone" ship that's between the Excelsior and the Galaxy is so small is beyond me, but that's what it looks like, at least to my untrained eye.

So, to make a short story long, I can't accurately determine what size the windows are supposed to be on the Ambassador without accurate figures, so I came up with my own number. They're approximately 60cm by 1.2m. Eventually, they'll have rooms behind them, but they obviously don't now, that's why they're all dark.

[scifidude79]

I found a shortcut to doing booleans in Blender without leaving behind a bunch of geometry I don't want and it's been a real time saver for getting these windows in. I figured out, if I separate the faces where I want to do my cut, it just cuts through and leaves a hole, it doesn't leave me with more geometry added by my cutting object. I do the same thing for my windows themselves, and I wind up with just the faces I want when I intersect that with my cutter, then I can inset, extrude and bevel my windows in how I want them. Then I just re-join all of that with the main mesh and I'm good to go. 🙂

So, since my windows started going faster, I also added some phasers and escape pods.

[scifidude79]

So, one last update before I call it a day. I've been thinking about how to add text to the ship. Of course, textures are always an option. However, I've heard good things about the "Shrinkwrap" modifier. So, I modeled the name and registry and used that to make it follow the curvature of the saucer. 🙂

[scifieric]

Chris, this looks AMAZING!  You're moving so quickly and doing such an excellent job.

I know I posted this on your website, but for the windows, do you mean that you detach the quads where you want windows, cut them, and then reattach the quads to the model afterwards?

Excellent work!

[scifieric]

Thanks. Yeah, I think I had the Sovereign in mind when I did that part originally.

By the way, I love this image.  Did you make a larger version?

[scifidude79]

No, I don't have a larger version of that particular shot. However, I revamped the ship sometime after that:

https://evilgenius180.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/brisbane-class-revamp/

Some of the stuff I did on that ship is an influence for this one.

I know I posted this on your website, but for the windows, do you mean that you detach the quads where you want windows, cut them, and then reattach the quads to the model

Yes, that's what I did. It was initially to try something else to make cutting the windows in and getting rid of what I wanted go more quickly, but then I found out that I didn't wind up with what I didn't want. So, it worked even better than I thought.

[scifidude79]

So, despite my claim that I was done with this for now, I can't help but be nitpicky. My escape pod hatches were bothering me. What really bugged me was that some of them were close to the phaser arrays. However, while I was fixing those, I decided to tighten up the spacing on them all, to put them in tight groups.





Anyway, I think it looks less sloppy. Each pod holds up to six people and there are 36 pods (so far) on the top of the saucer, allowing 216 people to abandon ship using these pods. Of course, more will come on other parts of the ship, and possibly more on the saucer top.