Star Trek - My Ultimate Enterprise!

[lightborne]

OMD! I'M FINISHED WITH THE INTERIORS! I can't believe I'm done with the interiors! I also can't believe I typed "OMG!" I'm a dork.

Anyway, I'm going to caveat this all to hell and back, but I finished the last interior today. These are all about 95% completed - there's still graphics and signage to be added and textures tweaked, etc., etc. So, here's the shuttle bay / cargo bay:





Next comes all the exterior goodies. I need to develop a plan on doing this because there's going to be literally hundreds of little graphics and signs and bits. I will use the images of the studio model as a guide and then figure out what I need to make and where to put everything. But it's all very exciting to be at this final creative step. Of course, then there's all the clean up, labeling materials, optimizing meshes, etc., but that'll come much later.

[nightfever]

Outstanding work, love the detail you put into this.

[patch]

Blows my mind! Awesome job.

[trekki]

Fantastic, a very nice work!

[lightborne]

So I've been working on the docking ports - getting in all the little bits of detail and what not... and I've run across an issue on which I'd like to get your collective opinion.

I'm trying to figure out the numbering of the docking ports. From what we've seen in the films, the port side port on the secondary hull is #5. The port side torpedo docking port is #4 - although they were shown docking at the secondary hull port, Kirk and crew arrive in the torpedo room which was labeled #4. When Spock docks the Surak in TMP we see Chekov waiting at airlock #3 - which is also labeled externally as "A." You can see where I'm getting tripped up here. There's no real canon logic to this because they were just making movies and try as they might, some things just didn't make sense.

Anyway, using the fact that we know ports 3/A, 4 and 5; I came up with this numbering reference. My question is: did I miss anything that creates a conflict with this numbering scheme? Or am I going way over the edge on this project in general?

[David cgc]

Interesting, the label for the torpedo bay docking port changes; when Kirk's party arrives at the beginning of the movie and in the funeral scene, it's "2," but during the "loading the cannons" scene before the final battle, it's "4."

I don't know if I'd count the gangway on the saucer rim as a docking port; it doesn't have the standard collar, after all (and it's debatable whether the ones on the lower saucer are "supposed to" have docking collars, or if they just use the same circular hatch. I figured they did, since there's just enough space in the recess for a travel pod, but YMMV).

Where's there an external label on the bridge airlock? I don't remember seeing anything like that.

[lightborne]

Thanks! I've been looking for a photo - I think it's from Mr. Scott's, which I don't have with me at the moment - of Kirk coming aboard in TWOK. I think it's cut off on the actual film so this might be just a production still; but there's a sign above the airlock saying docking port 4. The #2 label on the wall is designating the torpedo bay itself as "Torp Bay 2" and not the airlock/docking port.

[Rigel]

Don't place too much faith in Scott's Guide to the Enterprise. That author had a habit of contradicting himself in the various books he wrote.

Your interiors are truly amazing!

[lightborne]

Originally Posted by Rigel

Don't place too much faith in Scott's Guide to the Enterprise. That author had a habit of contradicting himself in the various books he wrote.

Your interiors are truly amazing!

Yeah, I'm finding that out. When I was a kid I thought that if it existed, for sale, etc., it was the official and blessed truth. I'm not surprised that a lot of the things I am recalling from memory are not indeed "official" in any way. For example, I could have sworn that I've seen the letter "A" on the exterior of the bridge docking port (much like the number 5 on the secondary hull port). But I have yet to find ANYTHING that supports this.

So this project is going to be a lot more me taking creative license that I had thought... which is cool with me anyway.

[lightborne]

Hope everyone had a good holiday break if you were fortunate enough to get one...

Anyway, I've started the exterior details and graphics and bits. Since I had references for the neck and parts of secondary hull, I started there. I'm now moving on to the remainder of the secondary hull. So here are a few renders of the start of the process... As always, comments, criticisms, etc. yada, yada, yada...

[John Marchant]

Who would of thought there was so much detail on the exterior beyond what we see all the time.

[patch]

Holy Poop!

[GMD3D]

simply amazing work.. Wow

[Professor Moriarty]

I'm going to be very interested to see what this looks like from a "normal" full-view-of-the-ship distance. Will all the little black marks look like rendering artifacts, or will they fade away and the ship will look like it did in all of the ST:TMP shots?

[lightborne]

Originally Posted by Professor Moriarty

I'm going to be very interested to see what this looks like from a "normal" full-view-of-the-ship distance. Will all the little black marks look like rendering artifacts, or will they fade away and the ship will look like it did in all of the ST:TMP shots?

You and me both!

[John Marchant]

Originally Posted by lightborne

You and me both!

At a distance they wont look like allot but boy can you do some lovely animations with it up close.

[Rigel]

Decal-licious!

[lonewriter]

This is incredible.

[Professor Moriarty]

You must either work really, really fast, or you have the patience of Job.

Or both.

[PixelMagic]

Oh man. This is so incredible. I love it.

[lightborne]

Thanks for the comments everyone! I have some additional renders to post but my hard drive is acting up. I'm backing up everything and moving it all onto a new drive (maybe two drives) and then I'll be back posting more stuff.

[lightborne]

I've completed the graphic elements on the secondary hull. Not sure if I will start on the saucer section or the nacelles next. But in the meantime, here are a few renders of the secondary hull. I've completed more than what is shown here, but haven't rendered anything current.



And if there's any doubt that the elements will or will not disappear in a full wide shot...



On another note, I've been doing some VR stuff at work and so I've been experimenting with stereo 360 still frames of the interiors - which are turning out pretty cool. Once all this madness of a project is done, I'll probably put some of them on the YouTubes for you all to see. The RecDeck is pretty freaking awesome in VR if I do say so myself.

So that's it for now. I'll be working on the exterior graphic details for a while... then it'll be all the final 10% details and fine touches to everything, and then clean up and optimizing, etc.

[Treybor]

Very interesting. The level of detail on the decals is impressive. Are the black pins along the deflector grid actually part of the original model?

[overseer]

Wow, that is indeed one hell of a detail level! Very nice. That surpasses any life model work I'm sure at this point. Definitely looking forward to more.

[lightborne]

Originally Posted by Treybor

Very interesting. The level of detail on the decals is impressive. Are the black pins along the deflector grid actually part of the original model?

Yeah. Here are a few reference shots from the Wrath of Khan model. I've circled the areas of interest for you. Like I mentioned at the start of this thread, these detail graphics are not found on any other studio models other than that engineering section close up model... so I'm using a lot of creative license to do all this.



In fact, upon looking at these references photos again - with fresh eyes - I can see that my graphics (especially the black marks) might need to be a little bit smaller in scale. But I thin I want to wait until they are all done so I can see it in context of the entire ship.

[lightborne]

Things are happily busy at work once again, but I'm managing to do some work on this from home every once in a while.

Anyway, so I’ve been continuing on with putting on all the little exterior graphic bits and signs and stuff… and I am struggling computer-wise. Right now, my project is 2.46GB and consists of almost 30 million polygons…



I’m no where near done adding all the little exterior graphic bits and signs and stuff. At this moment, all I have is the neck, the secondary hull and the nacelle pylons completed… and that’s only for one side. And I’m only able to render the model in sections; which up to now hasn’t been a problem... but now it is. Not to mention it takes a good 5 minutes just to save the file...

So I think it’s time for some serious optimizing and cleanup. I had planned on doing this once everything was completed, but I obviously can’t wait until then. So I’m saying goodbye to the creative work in favor of reducing polys, instancing objects, cleaning up meshes, etc. Not very fun work at all, but in the long run it’ll be so much better. If I run across something worthy of posting while I’m doing all this I’ll let you all know. But in the meantime, wish me luck!

[trekki]

Well then, have fun and good luck ...
I hope we see even more so great pictures.

[Cannikin1701]

This is my all-time favorite sci fi ship, and you're really doing her justice. Well done.

[gerb200]

So this is kind of an out-there idea but have you considered working really light "smudge marks" into your textures? Places where model-makers might have slipped a bit or touched a bit of paint or left dust on a translucent surface? I feel like that might be a kind of interesting approach to realism in such a detailed model.

[wayne85]

oh please please please release this after you have finished your work is totally amazing i would even pay to use this in animations it is that good. You have really captured the cinematic feel and scale of the ship with the ammount of detail you have put in.