3D Gladiators Forums - Miscellaneous Stuff

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Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

More work on the ship. The part that looks like it should be part of the Batman emblem took a long time. I made something yesterday that I hated, so I had to redo it today. I'm fairly happy with how it came out after I rebuilt it. Originally, the back came to points like it does in John's drawings, but I had some mesh errors that wouldn't smooth out, so I cut it off and capped it. I'll put some thrusters or something there. That's also why there are "trenches" in the side, I'll put some greebles in those. ;) (the sub-patching is great, but it can leave errors) The other stuff is pretty basic, modified cylinders, spheres and cubes.

Also, I had to cut some off of my pylons because I realized AFTER I did all of those grid lines (of course) that I hadn't rotated the part that connects to the ship like I did the part that connects to the nacelles. So, they weren't lining up with the ship, so I sunk them in some and removed the part that got buried. It was either that or completely rebuild them, which I wasn't doing.

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Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

Starting on the saucer was the next logical step. I need it in order to get the other parts laid out. It may look simple, but the saucer is actually not just a standard saucer. The edge is round, like the saucer on Enterprise and Intrepid, but the center parts are ovals. It's not difficult to do, but it's a bit time consuming. But, it's worth it because it's coming out exactly how I want it to look.

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Fun facts about the ship:

Length: 240 meters
Width: 154.55 meters
Height: 36.38 meters (there's a possibility that will change)
Decks: 5

How I got there:

The specs on Enterprise are as follows:

Length: 225 meters
Width: 135.8 meters
Height: 34.4 meters

When I built Intrepid, I noticed that it has the same saucer as Enterprise, it's just been modified. However, the base saucer is the same. The windows are the same size and are in the same places. That's because Pierre Drolet kitbashed the NX to save time. So, that means it's a more compact version of Enterprise, much like how the Nebula-class is a more compact version of the Galaxy-class. So, using that, I scaled Intrepid to these specs:

Length: 177.44 meters
Width: 136.16 meters
Height: 34.96 meters

(Intrepid has impulse engines that stick out slightly on the sides of its saucer, that's why it's slightly wider.)

These specs are fairly accurate, they might be off a hair, but not much. I've seen similar sizes on other sites, so I think I did a fairly good job. ;)

So, bearing all of that in mind, you'll notice in John Eaves' original drawings that the ship I'm building is around the same size as Intrepid, it's just more "stretched," making it longer:

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Comparing the nacelle sizes, I realized they were pretty darn close to the same size. So, I used the orthos that I have from Doug Drexler's old blog of Intrepid as a size scale for the nacelles. Using those as a scale and laying out the ship in what appears to be the correct configuration, that's what I came up with. And, indeed, it's been confirmed by building the saucer. That's the size the ship will be.

Sorry for the long winded explanation on that, but I don't want anyone asking how it's the size it is, so I explained it. ;)

Originally, I'd planned this ship to be older than Enterprise, but I don't see how that's possible if it's longer. Yes, they could have made longer ships in the past and the ship certainly won't have the internal volume of Enterprise, but I still don't like it being longer if it's older. It's safe to assume that Enterprise was the largest ship built by Starfleet to date, it was certainly the most advanced (as was Gene Roddenberry's intent for ships named Enterprise, they were supposed to represent the latest Starfleet tech.) So, having a ship that's longer that predates the NX is problematic and I can just see Trekkie colons clinching at the thought of it, so the ship post-dates Enterprise. I'm thinking this is something that was built during the war with the Romulans, when Starfleet needed new ships. So, its service time would be from the late 2150s to around 2190 to 2200. That way, it's possible for the ship to be larger, faster, etc. than Enterprise, which was decommissioned after the war. That means I'll also be adding phase cannon ports, as opposed to the originally planned plasma cannons.

Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

And the ship is now a single unit, more or less. I built the structure that goes in the center of the saucer. Obviously, both that and the saucer itself are thicker than on John's Drawing. But, you have to take a bit of creative license when doing things off of a single sketch. Indeed, they did so when they built Intrepid, it's not exactly like the design. For one thing, both ships have really thin saucers. Neither one is a deck thick at its edge, as many Trek saucers are. Some are two decks thick, but all are at least one deck thick at the edge. I thickened the whole saucer and gave it a more rounded design to fit better with other ships of the time.

So, here's the ship as it stands. I included a render that's close to the same view as the sketch, to give an idea of how it compares. Obviously, as I already stated, there are some slight differences. But, overall, I'm happy with how it's progressing.

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Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

oh now that is nice...... love the panel detail...

Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

Thanks bro. I love doing paneling in Lightwave, it's so much better than doing it in TrueSpace.

Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

It should be fairly obvious what I've been working on. ;) Needless to say, the saucer grids were very time consuming, but worth it in the end. The cut-outs on the side also took a bit of time, more than they should because there were extra verts in there interfering with the rounder. I had to find and eliminate those to get the edges rounded.

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And now it's time for a fun game: Spot the Error.

I made a mistake somewhere that has now been corrected. It's blindingly obvious to me, but I want to see if anybody else can spot it. So, if anybody on either my blog or the three forums on which I post my work can tell me where and what it is, I'll admit to it and tell everyone. If not, there is no mistake and it looks exactly as it was intended to look. :tongue2: These aren't the droids you're looking for. ;) I'll give you a hint: it has something to do with the saucer grid lines. (the big part of the saucer)

Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

You must be a starship design engineer come back through time!
Very cool.

Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

Thanks a lot. :D

There were a few guesses as to what the error was that I spoke of in my last post. However, Eric Reinholt (AKA, scifieric) got it correct:

“My best guess would be the two straight lines under the saucer that match the edges of the rounded cut and move forward. The look a little odd when the rest of the lines are radial lines.”

Illustrated here:

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Basically, those lines shouldn’t exist on the bottom, or at least they shouldn’t go back that far. I needed them on the top and partly on the bottom so that the lines could have a nice edge and not go all the way into the thing in the center. So, I selected the faces where I needed a line and knifed it in. Unfortunately, I also did it all the way along the bottom. So, I put in the paneling and then rendered it and realized my mistake. I had a few options, I could have deleted what I did and used the “clean” version to redo that part. However, I decided to simply knife in another line and panel between them. However, (again) I decided I don’t like that, so I went with option one and just redid the paneling.

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Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

And now it has windows. This will pretty much do it for Windows on the entire ship. What this ship has for a secondary hull is small, so it won’t need many. There are three windows back there on the drawing, so I’ll probably add those to both sides. There are also three on the bridge module, which I’ll also do. Other than those, this is it. Enterprise had all of its Windows in its saucer and bridge module, the catamarans had none.

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Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

yeah they work very nicely :)

Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

Thanks bro. :D

I’ve been working on various bits. I added the docking ports. They’re a simplified version of what’s on Enterprise. I don’t ever plan to show them closely enough to justify doing a full detail version. If I do, I can build one that’s higher detail. I also added the RCS thrusters and impulse engines. And, the bridge dome. It still needs the smaller dome on top, but it’s mostly done. Also, I may put a hatch on the bridge, Enterprise has one or two. Though, Enterprise’s bridge is also less curvy, but I can add a section to the back that’s less curvy and put it on there, or just work it into the curves.

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Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

the more I see this the more I like .....

Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

More bits. I’m closing in on being done with the modeling phase of this ship. It’s all small stuff left, which is both a relief and a pain because you can spend more time working on little detail bits than big structures because of the size and intricacy. But, it’s nice to almost be done.

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Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

great,,,,,,,,, any chance of wire-frames when finished :) ?

Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

There's chance, but who knows if it will actually happen? :lol:

Seriously, you're probably going to have to remind me about that. I have a bad memory. Also, will Lightwave render wires or do I have to do screen grabs from Modeler?

Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

Never mind on the wires question, I found my answer. It will, but I don't like how they look, so I'll probably just do the screen grab thing.

More stuff. I added a bunch of sensor/communications things. The NX had these all over it, so I'm doing the same. Ignore the piece of the secondary hull that's intersecting the sensor thing below the impulse engines, I'll be rebuilding that when I finish the secondary hull. Also, I haven't figured out what's up with the overblown white glow on the port dorsal navigation light. Though, that may just be a result of the crappy scene lighting. Still, it shouldn't be happening.

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Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

Chris, your work with Lightwave is already looking so good (or even better) as your truespace stuff.
Just the "bodyboard" plataform appears a bit strange there, But I´m sure it will change after you detail it. :)

Re: Miscellaneous Stuff

Thanks dude. :)

Though, I don't know which part you're talking about with the bodyboard remark.

I think this is going to do it as far as modeling on this one. I could add more greebles, but it’s a Trek ship. (not a Borg ship ;)) One thing I definitely try to avoid doing is over-greebling Federation ships.

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Gerard Duffy (AKA Taranis) asked for some wires, so here they are. Lightwave does have a render to wireframe option, but I don’t see anywhere that I can render to a “hidden line” wireframe (where you can’t see the lines on the other side that shouldn’t be visible from the view.) So, I just did some screen shots.

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Up next is UV mapping and textures.