LightWave - Star Trek - USS Enterprise NCC-1701 Tutorial

[Taranis]

For over a year (2011) I have been working on a tutorial for the classic USS ENTERPRISE seen in the Classic Star Trek,
Built in Lightwave 9.6 . last update 18/04/12

I set out to keep this as a record of how I am building the Enterprise,

I thought I would share it and at the same time help out anyone that is just starting in Lightwave to give them a few ideas and a introduction to a number of the tools and skills for building a model in Lightwave.

I would like to thank the following

Jennifer DeSalle: aka VK08: for all the guidance
Dan Baran: aka Fretslayer: for all his support
Alain Rivard: aka Al3d:
For Advise Given & New Cover Layout Design
Greg Charest: aka Mikala: for his support
Pernik: for giving it a shot
Prologic: for sharing his work
Acidstorm: for his help and support

And for all the others too numerous to name for helping
and sharing there work and experience over the last few
years.

I hope that this will help those just staring modelling and some feedback would also be of great value for any future tutorials.

I will not assume responsibility for any heir loss you suffer due to this tutorial

please do not re-post this

[torturebori]

This is great thanks for the start....I cant wait to follow where no man has gone before....

[mislav_01]

Thank you for this tutorial.

[Taranis]

I hope you find it useful.
I will post the following chapters as they pass my limited editing skills and are given a proofreading to see if they hold up.
I built this first sections with the basic shape and no details (yet) like the grid lines or windows. these will come later, or even the display options setting smooth angel etc.

for example it would be like this
006 The Bridge Area - (how I made it)
----- The Bridge Area Details.- smooth angle and textures windows.

I have not built it like I would normally do it. I wanted to finish the over all shape before tackling the details.

In later sections over time I will add different ways of doing a thing to get better results for controlling the polys count as I understand it and
using other plugins ...
Jettobevel
True Fillet
Spline Lathe
which for me are handy to have.

Good luck with your builds

[ronaldheld]

Good stuff. I could have used this years ago.

[Taranis]

Same here
I will post the main model chapters soon as possible once I have finished editing them and they have been proofread.

of course if anyone see a spelling or technical error please let me know here and I will fix it asap.

Please no modelling hints as I am doing this with a view for new novice modellers. (I still place myself in that grouping)

[GrahamTG]

I'm really liking this, so far it's been clear and concise.

[Taranis]

Thanks ..... I had some great feed back and encouragement.

[today]

I'll have to give this a read

[Rigel]

Always good to see another tutorial. I find I invariably learn at least one little trick from each one.

Once you get everything written, we should take a look at getting it into a nice .pdf format and house it in F3D's tutorial section.

[Taranis]

Cool. I am looking forward to seen what you think about it.

[Rigel]

And I have added a link to the Tips, Tricks and Tutorials Index for this as well.

[Taranis]

Great thanks Rigel

[3D_CG]

oh
wow
Now, I suppose you want a TON of donuts for this.. stuff ... hehehe

Awesome went thru the pdf's great stuff

Thank You
Mike

[Taranis]

Originally Posted by Rigel

Always good to see another tutorial. I find I invariably learn at least one little trick from each one.

Once you get everything written, we should take a look at getting it into a nice .pdf format and house it in F3D's tutorial section.

I am doing this in Open Office (has a handy pdf option) as this is new to me I would like to see if I could present it better (if needed - ego boost "lol")

I learn a few things in doing myself while going back and forward over it
always looking for a easier or better way to do it or explain it for a new user.

That was the time consuming part of the whole thing, I think this has nearly taken a year of dancing back and forward with it.

I had to (I felt it was needed) redo all the images I had as I had them in JEPG format and they bleed and looked bad, so I switched to BITMAP .

I don´t know how many words I typed (2 or 3 times) but image wise I have 396 images, over 1.5 GB in the folders in 14 chapters as seen
in the list above.

The secondary hull has been the most time consuming part to work on and describe. "oh my head".

it will be an interesting total when finished.

I also hope to show how to texture it in GIMP or "similar" as its a few program, this will come later.

[Taranis]

Originally Posted by 3D_CG

oh
wow
Now, I suppose you want a TON of donuts for this.. stuff ... hehehe

Awesome went thru the pdf's great stuff

Thank You
Mike

Thanks. this is encouraging.

one donut will do ...... one or two pints of any alcohol you care to offer. Guinness is my usual

[bmckain]

Very cool, I'll get this added to the quick index list.

[Taranis]

Thanks Bob.

I hope to have the remaining 9 chapters in the works done in the next week or so,
I would like to see first how members get on with these that are all ready posted and it will give me time to work on the following chapters.

Then I have to learn how to use Gimp / Paint.net for the textures
as these are free programs.

[Rigel]

Originally Posted by bmckain

Very cool, I'll get this added to the quick index list.

Done boss.

It's what you pay me for, right?

[Taranis]

Just started chapter: 015 Hangar & Doors

I think I should work a little quicker with this part.

[Taranis]

No I was wrong,

I found out when I started this I spend a lot of time thinking and looking at the model. I try one of two things, then backtrack and try something else!!?.

Questioning all the time,
Is this good enough for someone new to lightwave to follow with some ease.

I am not sure, I hope those of you that are new to Lightwave modelling with give me some feed back on this. Not that I will alter
this tutorial at this time but I would for the next one, approach a little differently and perhaps make less mistakes.

again I am not asking for modelling tips. but wording, layout, images needs more, needs less. etc.

also I tried to use as many different tools as possible, even when a tool I already used would have done as well or better, so I could show as much as I could.

[Treybor]

Sweet! Nice to see another tutorial! Great work!

[Taranis]

Thanks. I can now join your club "Tutorial Guy"

[Taranis]

I have temporally removed the pdf files for addition editing and will reload soon.
I have left the Backdrop images and Guide for the moment.. but I will have to up date them later.

[Taranis]

No and no lol.

found some errors and I wanted to make a few additions to some.

[Taranis]

Finished chapter 015 Hangar & Doors Part 01 which has become a 2 chapter task and now I have just started 016 Hangar & Doors Part 02

[neoworx]

I'm working on yet another version of a Trek ship so I look forward to reading your tute to see the million ways I could no doubt have improved it.

[Taranis]

Its will be a while longer as I am re-editing the work.

[ronaldheld]

That is all right. It will be welcome when it arrives.