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Old March 29th, 2009, 04:13 AM   #1
jayru
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: In a house, in the dales of Derbyshire...
Posts: 83
3 D CGI A leap into the future? - The Wolf Class

Sorry for the lengthy post... but one of my current "works in progress," a 24th Century starship - the Wolf Class.

Orthos:


Scale Renders:


Beauty Scale Shots:


And now for some bumph about it:
The Wolf Class was developed around the same time as the Intrepid, and is my answer to Star Trek's lack of design innovation which I feel would have happened in the 100 or so years since TMP (I truly feel that the last innovative starship design to come out of Trek was the Intrepid Class. Everything created after Star Trek: First Contact seemed like a step backwards, and more about look than showing that the technology was moving forward). Like the Intrepid the ship has variable geometry nacelles - however, they move along the x and z axis, rather than just the y axis (in English - the move out to side, and slightly forward, rather than angle up ). I based that idea on something I saw in the TNG Tech manual about a possible future design of exploration ship, which I thought was pretty innovative.

I wanted to create something different, hull geometry wise, so decided to run with a a single hull design, rather than the old saucer/secondary hull format. I also wanted to get away from having the bridge stuck on top, and have it at a more accessible part of the ship for the crew.

The basics of the idea where to create something that was designed to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life, and new civilisations, and boldly go where no one has gone before – a true exploration ship, rather than start with the principle that the ship had to be built for war first and foremost. In saying that, the ship has the same sort of armament to the Intrepid, and can be best seen as that ships equal in battle. Where it differs from the Intrepid is that it has a few more of the exposed sensor pallets – including some on the ventral surface, something the Intrepid lacks (so like, how did they scan stuff from orbit again?). The hump on the bottom is the main deflector, the hump on the top is a powerful long rang sensor array (with the aux deflectors), and twin dedicated probe launchers.

I drafted the original plans for the ship back in July 1997 – I feel it important to state that because I know that the design isn’t perfect. This was the first Star Trek starship I ever designed. In fact, I have revised my original plans somewhat so that I can produce what I consider to be the definitive version of the ship.

As it stands, the ship is 318 meters long, with 14 decks, and probably crews around 130-150 people. I see no reason why it shouldn't be as fast as Voyager was shown to be, but several people have argued that idea because small nacelles means less power (believe me boys, size isn’t everything). I think the fact the nacelles are angled is also something of a scratch head thing for a lot of people. Admittedly when I drew that back in 1997 I did it because it “looked cool” – but in the decade that’s followed, I see no reason why a new type of warp nacelle couldn’t have been created. New ideas, new technology, new ways forward.

The resons to render it up against the Intrepid was to show the scale of the ship - as it lacks enough detail to actually show how big it's suposed to be (aside from the docking hatches).

As I say, my guiding principle in this project/WIP – which is still very much in early stages, was/is to create something that says “innovation” – rather than the “same-old-same-old” ideas used in the TNG universe.

Latest updates on this are that I've gotten round to finally building the detailing in (those who know my work of old know I don't use texture maps for detail, but insanely build it all in... one day I will learn to texture, lol);



Also been thinking about whether this ship should be able to land or not (credit to S-Stephen for the actual Landing Legs themselves);



Let me know what you think - C&C welcome.
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Last edited by jayru; March 30th, 2009 at 08:06 AM..
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