An ambitious Star Trek project.

[NEKOSEI]

If it's installed correctly it should be there...

 

There should be a file called "Simbiont2.atx" in your textures folder.

If it's not there, try finding it and putting it in yourself.

 

Hopefully that will work.

[Dark_Jedi]

that worked perfectly thank you.

 

if i have anymore questions ill ask

[Dark_Jedi]

ok i got everything to work. thanks for all your help

[yoda64]

As for warping, we might not even see a ship go to warp,

 

Hey, can Newton Physics do zero-grav explosions? I'll bet it can...

 

Yes , it is possible

[NEKOSEI]

ok i got everything to work. thanks for all your help

 

Glad I could help!

 

Hey, can Newton Physics do zero-grav explosions? I'll bet it can...

Yes , it is possible

 

Though, from what I've seen of the Newtons Physics, it breaks the shape up into it's various patches when exploding or breaking them.

 

Most areas of these ships won't require huge numbers of patches to create the shape, and having those areas explode will look very odd at close range. Even with a bunch of sacrifical polys just laying around waiting to be tossed.

 

I've not actually played with the plugin yet myself, but I do have it.

Can the plugin subdivide a polygon?

 

If not, I just might need to create an "explodeable" version of any ship in question, and keep it hidden until the very last moment that we need it to break appart.

[NEKOSEI]

I am proud to announce the first (95%) finished starship for this project.

Only some very minor decals need to be added, but the majority of the work is done.

 

Say hello to the nearly ignored Apollo Class starship, the U.S.S. Gage.

 

This ship was designed to be the next generation of Enterprise way back when Star Trek: Phase II was in early production. However the project was scrapped in favor of ST:TMP.

 

However they did get as far as to make a mock-up model of the ship.

And as a result of the needs for the Wolf 359 graveyard, was one of the many mock-up ships that was tossed into a box and photographed for use in that scene.

 

I present to you, my version of this poor little vessel.

 

Note that this is probably the first time this particular ship has been moddeled in 3D with this kind of detail.

[martin]

Very nice: both the modeling, and the creativity and initiative you're showing to this project. I (an old time Star Trek fan who watched the original series and NG, but no further) am following your recreation with great interest.

[jon]

neko: great ship! all it needs is a little grunge, and it's ready!

 

martin: you really need to catch deep space nine.

 

it's a good deal edgier and funnier than any other trek incarnation.

 

-jon

[KenH]

I hated DS9. Could never get into it. NG all the way. Don't mention Enterprise...and that ending!

 

You're ships looking good on the whole Nekosi, but there's something about the lines of it. They seem too straight and blocky.

[luckbat]

I always respected DS9 for at least trying not to just be a carbon copy of TNG, but the uneven tone--attempting to mix "darker" with "wackier"--just didn't work for me. True, the Dominion War half of the series was a vast improvement over the first half, but it also forced the show to abandon nearly everything it had tried to establish at that point, switching from a station-based political/religious drama to a warship-based action series with bad-guy monsters.

 

An improvement nevertheless, though.

[NEKOSEI]

Thanks for the continued encouragement Martin!

I swear there's no better compliment then the man behind the program telling me things look great so far.

 

The original model itself is very straight and blocky.

 

Just take a look at what I'm working from:

 

[attachmentid=16691]

 

And that's the *only* real life model shot there is of it.

The rest are very very old and undetailed sketches.

 

Personally, I'm more of a DS9 man, but I have quite enjoyed every version of Trek that has ever been produced. The only thing about trek I don't like is the constant time travel crap.

 

For something that's supposed to be so hard, it sure happens alot.

[KenH]

Oh right. It's a good likness then. Are you peaking the splines to give them a corner? If so, you might consider unpeaking them and giving them a small magnitude.

[MMZ_TimeLord]

I always liked the classic as well as TNG and Voyager. DS9 kind of lost my interest after the first 2 seasons.

 

You are making excellent progress. Looks spot on with model. All you need now is a little bit of grunge.

[NEKOSEI]

Interesting suggestions... Small magnitudes with smothed splines... I'll give that a shot.

 

And grunge...?

Don't want to over-do that natrually, but I'll come up with something.

[NEKOSEI]

Presenting the finshed U.S.S. Gage:

 

[attachmentid=16811]

 

Yes, that is the absolutely wonderful Earth model created by MMZ_TimeLord.

(8k version using earth image 7)

 

One down. 42 ships left.

[Julian]

The "aztec" pattern on the hull really should be drawn by hand instead of relying on a procedural. On the saucer section of all Starfleet ships, the pattern is oriented radially, so the easiest way to pull that off would be to draw a vertically-oriented pattern for one sector of the saucer, repeat it for however many sectors you want to have, and run a rectangular to polar conversion on it.

[NEKOSEI]

Yeah... You're right.

I really should be less lazy about this.

 

Heck, rendertimes might decrease a little bit if I do the texture by hand...

To the drawing board!

[NEKOSEI]

I implied a different method for creating the saucer aztecing, and the whole saucer is made of 2 decals. One for the color, one for the color, one for the specular.

 

And I think it looks pretty darn awesome now.

I've gotten rid of all of the darksim paneling, and AM rendered the full size image in 3 hours instead of 5.

 

[attachmentid=16862]

 

Better?

 

I don't suppose there is a way to change the image I uploaded to A:M Stills is there?

I'd rather have the new version there than the old one.

[Julian]

That's not too bad, but the Starfleet style of Aztecing is usually very regular and distinctive. Take a look at some of the decal patterns used by model builders, like Aztec Pattern and Other Markings Templates or Star Trek Model Resources. The Aztecing on the secondary hull and the nacelles should also follow the contours better; consider how the round nacelles on the NX-01 Enterprise were textured.

[NEKOSEI]

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.

[NEKOSEI]

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.

[Kamikaze]

That's looking good.....good to see things progressing well.

 

Mike

[jon]

i'll haven't started the bird of prey, but i'll certainly have it completed by the end of the year, hopefully much sooner.

 

you've made great progress!

 

-jon

[NEKOSEI]

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...

[Zaryin]

This newest ship is amazing. Can't wait to see all the texturing and more nurnies!

[NEKOSEI]

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

[Scottj3d]

Awesome detail. I can see it's a good thing I'm getting alot of practice. I'll need it for my ship to be up to spec for this fleet. I like the lighting.

[MMZ_TimeLord]

When you are modeling any kind of recess like the main sensor dish on a starship like the excelsior class, you can use a boolean to do the cutout. This will let the curved section of the hull remain undistorted by the hole or recess.

 

Let me know if you want me to post an example project.

[NEKOSEI]

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.

[Scottj3d]

Do you have a spline similarly placed like the ones (basically bevelled) I have the yellow arrows pointing to on this example? (my best example of a similar shape and not as well tweaked as can be yet) If so I'm at a lack for ideas. I've found it gives you better control on the effects on the splines outside the curve. Even a third spline (you can see here how the splines are effected) running with the two with the arrows would smooth the bias out where the splines head out into the ships hull.

[NEKOSEI]

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.

[Scottj3d]

I'll have to study up on adjusting magnitudes and using bias handles and such. I've been seeing a few threads talking about magnitude(Last couple months) and it's obviously very useful especially when trying to keep patch count's down. I wonder how much it will show once textured.

[NEKOSEI]

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.

[NEKOSEI]

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.

[martin]

Though it looks like I might as well make the deflector a boolean. That secondary hull just doesn't look smooth at all.

Don't use booleans... Too many caveats. This model looks great.

[NEKOSEI]

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...

[martin]

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...

You'll probably want to use these models in HA:MR - booleans don't work in real-time.

[zandoriastudios]

great model!!--the Excelsior is one of my favorite ship designs from Star Trek

[MMZ_TimeLord]

Martin,

 

I had forgotten that booleans don't show in realtime such as HA:MR...

 

With that in mind, it's probably going to require more bias tweaking to get that smoothed out, although texturing will help hide some of it.

[lazz]

That's looking good Nekosei its coming out great. Can't wait to see it finished

[Julian]

Don't use booleans... Too many caveats. This model looks great.

Since this is a depiction of the Battle of Wolf 359, these ships are going to sustain massive battle damage. Would it be feasible to use Booleans to cut pieces out of their hulls?

[NEKOSEI]

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.

[martin]

I think the "boolean" idea for ship destruction is fine unless you want to have a "damaged" ship for HA:MR (real-time) too.

[ddustin]

[attachmentid=19973]

 

Or like this...

Excelsior_explode.mpg

[NEKOSEI]

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?

[ddustin]

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?

 

You are correct about the concussive force.

 

I was going to show a secondary explosion under the saucer section, but ran out of the time I allowed myself to play with it.

 

Donate it... Sure.

 

All the explosions can be done in post. They could be layers that you combine in AE or using the A:M composite feature. I would think a couple of chunks flying at the camera would be really cool as well.

 

I have been waiting to see what we could help out with, and explosions are something we like A LOT.

 

David

[Eric2575]

Cool explosion David.

[NEKOSEI]

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.

[martin]

Karl, the more encouragement I can offer you in this project, the better: I look forward to your posts; the models are excellent; the "Wolf 359" theme intriging. Don't let up. This piece could hit the Internet hard - there's a lot of fans out there.

[NEKOSEI]

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.