NEKOSEI

Wow... sorry about the late replies... I don't come here as often as I should. XD Okay, about the storylines: We will be having a script written up with a few storylines of various people involved in the battle. We won't be following anyone exclusively. The stories however will be done by listening in on the comm chatter, rather then having people in costumes or CG people. Unless of course we can get some *REALLY* good looking sets and characters to use. We will also have a few different strategies to show to give some credit to the battle plan other then a giant fur-ball in space. Otherwise the main CG will be exteriors. Soft shadows: The soft edged shadows were created by changing the rays cast in the shadows to 2 rather then 1. That image was rendered using multi-pass as well.

Yeah, we have that and a whole bunch of other sites bookmarked for getting our information on starships. The reason I was using the ERTL model and sheets is because there are *NO* accurate plans of the Excelsior online, at least not in the form that it actually exsists. They are all early designs and not the final. The closest we get is the Heavy cruiser version a-la Enterprise B. The ERTL model at least is accurate enough that it's the actual design, but they sure as shootin' didn't get the whole thing right. On another note, my website has gone down worse then a school girl on tentacle appreciation day and I've had to get a new host. With a new URL. But this will be better for everything involved. More space, more bandwidth, which means better quality videos can be uploaded and distributed.

Thanks Martin. This is really going quite well. Plans of a better teaser are already in the works. The paneling has been made more complex, and I've added specularity to it now. Three decals total so far to create this look. [attachmentid=20160] If I can get the rest of this looking like the saucer... whooo boy will this be good.

Been working on the decaling for the saucer, as well as remodeling certain portions of it... Apparently ERTL was looking at a totally different Excelsior when making theirs because there is stuff on their version that is *not* on the real model. No biggie though. It was just a matter of removing things. And it is so much easier to destroy then to create. Case in point: [attachmentid=20134] this is mainly tests for the saucer decaling, getting positioning correct and such as well as seeing how well the aztecing works so far.

That would indeed be the explosion bit (and a DAYMN nice one at that!), but the concussive force would throw the ship around somewhat so it would be needed to see damage from this close a distance. From further away the damage could just be a decal with a few lights, or if it's a total destruction of the ship just hide the thing. Would you be willing to donate that explosion project to the cause?

Yeah, I'm wondering about that myself. Because that sounds like the best way for this to be done. Unless I have fun modeling the battle damage for each ship, and use an explosion to mask the transition to the battle damaged version... Anyway, I've finished the modeling of the ship, including the forward torpedo tubes in the lower hull that was going to be boolean cut, but now it's fully modeled. So much needs to be cleaned up now, but according to the director, Mark, finishing this means about 5-7 ships are done. Since Excelsiors are the most prominant ship in starfleet. And once the Heavy Cruiser refit is done, that'll be 2 more in addition to the 5-7 original Excelsior types.

If you mean holes in shadows, I've worked around it before by creating an enclosure inside the model surrounding the area getting cut out... I've not really noticed any other bugs in it otherwise...

Modeling is 95% complete. Some minor things to fix up here and there, and a smegload of windows and the forward torpedo tubes to go. Though it looks like I might as well make the deflector a boolean. That secondary hull just doesn't look smooth at all.

We'll find out when I texture the saucer of the Excelsior Class. I used them to *severely* cut down on the number of polys there.

The only place I have a spline setup like that is on the impulse section. Almost every other area I've been able to use a 5% magnitude, creating a bevel without actually beveling.

I've used the Boolean cutters before, but everytime I do I find I need to fix the hole that it creates in the shadow. I must admit though that I've not rendered anything with one for quite some time so that problem could be fixed now. I didn't really want the deflector to be a boolean cut object, since I will be making the windows booleans. But if that's the only way to make the lower hull smooth and still have it, then so be it. But I'll see what the texturing looks like on it first before I do that. And Scott? Yours, along with most of the others, won't need to be as high detail as this one, but you can certainly do so if you wish.

I agree, this is shaping up nicely. latest additions to the ship... all that is about left are the nacelles and a few little details in the nacelle struts. [attachmentid=19806] I've been getting an error though every time I open this after working on it for a while... A group or two will say there was CPs with similar names... Apparenlty it's harmless, and I've not seen anything wrong with the model after one of them... Ah well, so long as the model is just fine. XD

I agree... progress is going well, and thanks to both of you. I'm looking forward to that BOP as well. Thanks for the update! And to continue with my Excelsior class... Those minor saucer fixes? Some are still there... But some MAJOR fixes had to be done first. [attachmentid=19653] As you can see the sensor pod at the bottom of the saucer has *way* more detail in it now, as well as what I am calling the "long range sensors" in the neck windows. Sure the fan community calls them torpedo tubes, but in the pictures of the offical Excelsior from Paramount those things don't have holes for outputing torpedos. Plus if one looks head on at the model, the torps from the upper tubes would need to turn sharply or blow a hole the sensor pod. Also the model that I had failed to be detailed enough to have the indentation in the saucer that is around the neck. So I had to model that in as well. Surprisingly it wasn't as painful as one might think. [attachmentid=19654] And here you see the back end where the cargo bays are slowly getting their shape. As near as I can tell on the models they are located in the block that sticks down from the structure inside. General thoughts: I'm not 100% happy with the secondary hull, especially around the main deflector. I really need to make that smoother, but at the moment I'm not seeing any better method then eyeballing it. And this is my second go at makeing that mesh area. Though some of the problems will be difficult to see once the aztecing and decaling are in place. Or so I hope...

A quick update on the Excelsior Class starship... The modeling on the saucer and the neck is finished, though a spot or two of touch ups on the saucer is still needed... [attachmentid=19549][attachmentid=19550] Mark has also asked if this can be converted into a Heavy Cruiser Excelsior class (aka: Enterprise B ). Naturally the answer is: Quite easily. I would like to ask the other model builders, Scott, Jin-Kazama and Jon how their respective ships are coming along? Not that it's urgent of course. Your own priorities come first. Just curious to see how it's all coming along.

I am *VERY* much looking forward to getting my hands on these models, as we *need* Mars for the Wolf 359 project, and it would be awesome if we could use that. I've used your high-rez earth before, and just love it. So I can imagine how good the others will look.

It's been a long long time since I last thought about work on this project, but I am now starting the next model that we need. The Excelsior class. The USS Gage still needs some work done on it, but that's mostly texturing and getting the paneling right as mentioned by Julian. I've already got the proper saucer aztec pattern created and applied, it's just a matter of doing the rest of the ship. But, on to the Excelsior! A render of what has been completed so far: [attachmentid=19440] For the saucer, I worked out the numbers for getting the polygon count as low as possible, without sacrificing the spline groups needed to create the detailed indents on the edge of the saucer. The best way to do this in my opinion was to remove the majority of the cross sections as possible. This required figuring out the values of the bias handlers to keep the saucer perfectly circular. Unfortunalty I had to do this rather tedious task by hand as I do not know if there is an easier way to change those values without changing the values on all splines intersecting those points. But, it worked out in the end. Origially there were 144 cross sections created by the lathe tool. It's down to 24. Wireframe of the saucer only: [attachmentid=19441] And wireframe of everything: [attachmentid=19442] I've been adding tiny bevels to certain areas to give the ship a more rounded look, as I have not yet mastered making a shape smooth with a 5% magnitude. Especially with some of the odd shapes in these designs. But it's all part of the learning experience. This particular model is going to be fairly high detail, as we will actually need to go inside a cargo bay on screen for one shot. Of course once inside the bay we can change camera views and switch to an even higher detail cargo bay with a relatively high detail ship positioned around it.

The model is looking great! Yeah, I only had c/f/a work properly once for me, and I've never figured out how I got it to work. And I swear I'm doing it correctly according to the help file. Using the brush, yes you can only manipulate the end control point. If you use the arrow then you can manipulate a control point anywhere on the hair controller. But in versions 11 and 12 hair did crazy things when you did that (bunched up) so it was tough to get an actual hair style. I've not tried v13 hair controlling yet.

Vrooom Vrooom! It is done!

No problem. And as for that oil stain: [attachmentid=17890] Also decided her skin didn't look too healthy with that dark of a "tan", so lightend it up and gave it a bit more of a specularity.

See my project for your answer: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22529

Alright, I re-took that 360 degree photo on saturday, and bought a few things to help me get a more accurate measurements of the angles of the sun in the sky for light matching, re-matched the main light, and added a few more fill lights to create some reflected light on the girl. Then I added a guardrail to the back end of the parking lot, since it would seem very silly for a curb to be the only thing keeping cars from going over the edge of the hill. Also added some oil stains and crack patching to help the old parking lot feel. So, I think that this is now ready for a final render. At least I don't notice anything glaring that requires any more attention... And answering the questions for Viper GTX2.0: Body properties: Color= Whatever you want Specular Color= white Specular Size= 40% Specular Intensity= 1000% Reflectivity= 50% Rim properties: Color= 128,128,128 Specular Color= white Specular Size= 100% Specular Intensity= 1000% Reflectivity= 75%

Those slits are gills, she's part shark. But this isn't my thread, and I don't want to thread-jack Ilidrake's characters. Work on the image I posted is being shown here: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22529

Did some 360 degree photographing thursday, and projection mapped it after stitching it together. I think I'll need to take another photo set because the sun wasn't during the whole shoot. Adjusted the lighting to match what I have at least. Will probably need to do so again for the new 360 shot. It's all coming together well.

Alright, just to show you an example: These were rendered on a Laptop 2.8 Ghz with 900 megs of ram. Rendered at the same resolution, both with shadows and reflections turned on, one pass only. Without particle hair: [attachmentid=17801] Rendertime: 6 minutes 1 second. With particle hair: [attachmentid=17800] Rendertime: 29 minutes 36 seconds. Yes, particle hair is a pretty decent hit on rendertime. Hair density values: (Each section of hair has 3 hair emitters to get the three tone color of the hair) Hair on the back of her head: 35, 35, 25 Bangs: 35, 35, 25 Sideburns: 18.75, 18.75, 12.25 Finding a good set of values that covers the head enough, yet doesn't kill your rendertime is quite important. This is something I figured out just by working on the project this image is for, so I learned that only a few days ago.

Allrighty... Arm moved, hair adjusted for the new movement, skin adjusted as well... Then worked on the tires of the car, blocking off the ability to see right to the treads through the wheel hubs, and widening them as suggested. Then used MMZ_TimeLord's tutorial to make the tire treads after finding a *GREAT* Diablo tire reference. Only had to alter it a tad to fit, namely adding the pivot point of the two sizes of tires, and changing the rotation angle to 5 degrees, and the number of copies to match (72). And now they look AWESOME. Thanks for tossing the tutorial my way TimeLord! I personally feel this part of the image is done. Now I just need to find a suitable location, and take some photos! Then work my Photoshop Magic!