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Thomas P
September 4th, 2001, 06:45 AM
From the recent add at the museum covering the Archer class I started a series. Here is the valiant death of the Hachez during the battle at Mohannak VI. The other Romulan ships are, well... my shot at an Elbow class - easy to fix when Masao comes up with the real one :D

http://tow.concept40.com/gallery/archBat01.jpg

Masao
September 4th, 2001, 05:27 PM
Very nice!

I might, however, suggest that you add a bit of blur to the ramming ship. Although digital shutter speeds might be higher in future, our modern eyes are accustomed to seeing fast-moving objects blurred. Now it looks as if the two ships are just hanging in space rather than one ramming the other. I suspect that ramming would've happened at a high percentage of light speed or even at warp speeds.

I'm thinking that Hachez might be a bit too big. Archers (62 m) should be about half as long as the diameter of the Cabbage (112 m). It looks about right, but may be too long.

I like that little Romulan ship. I haven't worked on any Romulans for quite a while (I've been working on some Klingons recently). Could you send me some orthographic renders? I'd like to draw some schematics. How big is this ship?

Thomas P
September 4th, 2001, 05:58 PM
Spot on about the blur and I was thinking of adding it - now I'm more modivated. I'll recheck the sizes too, I always seem to get it wrong even though I 'measure twice - cut once'.

I'll post the 5 view and figure out size, I was honestly hoping you would be able to 'improve it' once you saw it :).

Masao
September 4th, 2001, 06:48 PM
Thomas, don't underestimate your design skills. You bring a fresh eye to these Romulan ships. I'm too stuck in a winged-ship rut. If you feel it is necessary I will make some token modifications to the ship. :)

By the way, did you check out that website about the Conquest of Mars?: http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/surfacesrendered/MCSEnter.html This is a cool project for all you retrotechnology fans!

Masao
September 4th, 2001, 07:46 PM
Here's an idea. If show the ship coming in from the right, as you have it now, there might not be enough room for the blur. Also, why is this stupid crew ramming? Maybe the ship is mortally wounded in some way. You might show the ship on fire and venting a stream of plasma or something, perhaps on a curving path. Trouble is it might look like a rocket. Just a thought.

the_chief2k
September 4th, 2001, 11:51 PM
hey - cool pic !
i have to visit the museum again and read about the battle...
i agree with the blur, what would also enhance the pic is a little "heat" blur for the impulse engine of the ship in the foreground. i admit i have seen too much in final fantasy but hey...forgive me :)

i can't remember having seen the bulgy little romulan bastards top right and bottom left.
have i missed a thread here ? what are those ships, do you have more views of them ?

and p.s.: the impulse engine texture are very nice ! beautiful i say (although it reminds me of an orange :D j/k

Thomas P
September 5th, 2001, 06:16 AM
Thanks all!

I went back and tried to add blur with very strange results. I had all the ships animated and heading at one another at high speed, gave the scene the right blur properties and.... nothing!? The only ship that blurred was the foreground Archer. I guess it has to do with the focal point and angles presented. (?)

I'm going to try a few more things :(

The Rommies 'Elbow' class ships are yet to be seen and I did not get around to running the 5 views yet. The setup for above and test renders took hours.

Heat blur in space? Umm.. need air :D

I also thought about various views showing that the Hachez was in desperate straights - damaged and venting plasma or something. As was clearly stated in TOS, these guys fought in life or death battles with no surrender or likely rescue so a ramming attack would make sense. Maybe I should show that and not worry about a big bang - let the viewer understand that..... hmmm.

the_chief2k
September 5th, 2001, 06:37 AM
got me ! blur in space wouldnt be possible but then again we slide into the whats possible whats not-discussion.
because then you wouldnt see any laser rays simply because there is no dust...so one would see a light at the weapon of one ship and the damage on the other one...
ok, back to tos-life: the scene is still great, i have no clue with the motion blur. i mean you have to activate mblur for each object in max but this should be set as standard anyway.