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harroldsheep — Escort Build, part nine...the end of modelling?
#mentalray #modeling #nurbs #startrek #wip #workinprogress #autodeskmaya
Published: 2015-05-15 12:00:05 +0000 UTC; Views: 1674; Favourites: 33; Downloads: 0
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Description
ok, so i've pretty well modelled all i think i should make with geometry, leaving the rest of the details to texture and bump mapping.i've taken a complete set of orthos, including 45° off-sets, put them all together in a ridiculously-large comp.
[EDIT: List of changes from last version. Escape pods (both secondary and saucer) rear ventral phasers, aft docking port behind the bridge, completed bridge interior]
one thing i might change after looking at the front angle, i might increase the size of the deflector just a little.
please zoom in and tell me...did i miss anything?
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Software: Autodesk Maya
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Comments: 24
To start, This is a fantastic design. I think you've done exactly what you set out to do. As a small escort and transport for dignitaries, this ship looks like it would work very well. It's closer in size to a Runabout than a full Starship, but that's about right for it. I can definitely imagine it running errands and breaking up skirmishes. Your proportionally huge impulse engines would scoot this thing along at a great clip and it's armed better than some full Starships. Somehow, I imagine this thing as a police boat or Coast Guard cutter assigned in packs of three of four to outlying starbases.
There are only three items which I think are a bit odd about the design. The first is one I noticed from one of your very early updates. The Nacelles are the perfect height and length, but they are very narrow. From a side view or a 3/4 view, they look great, but from the top, rear, or forward view they almost vanish, especially near the back end. I think it would be very possible to add some horizontal bulk in a sneaky way by providing a little extra space for the coils.
The windows above your expanded halls/viewing areas flanking the bridge look unfinished. All of the other windows and viewports on this ship have classic Star Trek rounded edges, but these would be a better fit on a building by Mies van der Rohe with their sharp edges and little mullions. Some heavier mullions and rounded edges (even just a little) would make that area look less of a non-sequitur.
My last comment is one I only noticed because my first Mariner had this issue, so it makes sense that your ship would have the same problem. The saucer section looks like it's snuggled too closely to the engineering section vertically. My solution was to raise the saucer and push it forward, which required major surgery to the model. But, I think you could get away with the much simpler solution of shortening the nacelle pylons and bringing the nacelles down about one deck height. As a bonus, you might be able to get the pylons to run tangent to the bottom of the impulse engines (which happen to have about the same curve as the bottom of the saucer), and that would make the back end really click.
You have a ton of awesome details in here. The shape and design of your engineering section is especially good with the appearance of multiple hull cowls near the deflector dish and extending back to the nacelle pylons that look a little like mildly organically shaped plate armor. The small asymmetry on top of your impulse drive adds a surprising amount of interest at very little cost. Your deflector dish is spot-on. The subtle cross in the center is a great contrast to the blocky and bulky details of most of the rest of the ship reminding us that this is high technology, not a brick. (And, don't make it any bigger, it's fine as it is)
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i think this is spot-on, echoing some of my own unspoken concerns about the ship. i did make the dish a little bigger, but that's easily changed back if in further posts, that scale change was a mistake.
thank you so much for the in-depth and particularly well-though out critique!
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Frankly, the dish size change is pretty minor. When I did my Ranger I thought for sure that the dish was bigger than the diameter of the Bussard collectors, but when I set it to parallel projection and looked at the front, I was surprised to discover it wasn't. When you look at it in perspective, the deflector dish will look bigger than it does in parallel projection.
I think that the thing you could do to improve the look of this ship the most would be to edit those windows. The two links below come from the Starship Polaris. (I want to know where that movie went...) The designer of the Polaris went with the thin mullions, but I think the thicker mullions (or something like them) would work better with your ship. Either way, I think it would look best if the top surface of the mullion was smooth with the top surface of the hull.
www.vektorvisual.com/projects/…
www.vektorvisual.com/projects/…
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I zoomed in and noticed you forgot the picost.
I also noticed the rear view looks like a stylized angry monkey face. The main fuselage looking like his snout and the bay doors looking like his mouth. Then... well either you see it or you don't. I blame that I was watching "Madagascar" last night.
I actually thought you might add in textures of the hull plating sections or are you going to leave it as is? Honestly, I don't see anything more than that... It looks great.
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um...i even tried googling it...what is a picost (other than $3.14)?
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oh, about $6.50. I guess there's been some inflation since your google search.
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I think that's the joke. (I googled it too)
But, I think that price is a bit low. It's short by about a henwhey.
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I think that monkey face thing will only be relevant in the parallel projected image of the precise rear elevation.
When his thing gets rendered in perspective at any other angle at all, that will disappear.
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Yup yup. My commentary sometimes goes in directions of dry to an almost tart sense of humor. Such is the case with the stylized monkey face.
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(on the other hand, I totally see it)
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great...now even i see it.
ANGRY SPACE MONKEY-class?
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The U.S.S. Kong might be an appropriate name. Or, of you're actually worried about it (and I wouldn't be), you can merge the two impulse engines into one, which should give the over-sensitive face recognition portion of our brains a rest.
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i dunno: the USS Kong sounds like the name of a ship you'd find in a Star Trek porn-parody.
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True, but then it would look like K.I.T.T.
...or a Cylon
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The deflector is perfect as is, considering the shape of the engineering and shuttle bay section. I say it's ready for textures.
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i caved in and did scale it up a wee bit, but, yes, texturing has begun!
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This is quite an interesting design, I look forwards to viewing many more like this one.
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i am glad you are enjoying this project!
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I think the deflector is the right size for a ship of this size. Good job.
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