At work we had some mid-day updates going on in some tools we use and I did not have too much to do for about an hour. I don’t have 3D Max at work but I do carry around Wings 3D on a thumb drive. I have a number of non-Trek images laying around that I want to try and realize that would be easy in Wings.
Here is a ship inspired by a design from an artist over at Deviant Art called Orpheus7. It is a ‘Combat Pack Ship’ and this mesh represents about 80% of the ship. I expect another hour to complete and maybe throw in some of my own details (to make up for not being an exact model of the original design). I expect to add this to a previous container ship design I did some time back over at 3D Gladiators.
Update 11/04/09
Added a set of side views as I develop the rest of the ship textures. I have completed the brace thing that holds the two saucers and everything else together. I have also ‘played’ with unwrapping the rear hull and slapped on a quick texture to see how it lays out. I’m now working on a final texture for that part as well.
Here are the two views.
Brace texture complete
Rear hull test
End Update 11/04/09
I have finished the saucer textures for the Pisces. I removed some of the port holes from the first pass texture and illumination masks so that additional details can be added, such as lifeboats and phaser arrays. I have noticed, yes took awhile, that this ship has no impulse engines. I have to figure out where they would go and what they would look like. I have some ideas.
So I am now building out my textures for the Pisces. Oddly, getting these done has re-inspired me (as I hoped it would) to go back to the Jefferies. Then maybe that pesky Saganami will get done too. Anyway, I worked this using PS pro and GIMP. Probably easier in Photoshop but I was running this off of a USB stick running MojoPac where my personal apps are loaded (yeah – doing this at work). I do save everything to PSD format so I can work with it at home. It still is about 40MB in size at the moment (the source file).
Here is a sample of just the diffuse map. Got some of my base elements from Filter Forge (would love to have this tool)
So, have the day off – forced vacation because I never use it so I have to. Of course it’s pouring rain here right now. So no real plans, I might as well do some modeling work. Well, I spent a couple of hours this morning on more details and rendered out a few views to see if I like it.
Not bad.
Now it is mostly just getting textures put together (oh damn!)
Okay – my A.D.D. is in full swing now. I am pondering textures for the Jefferies design and surface details for the Saganami cruiser. This happens a lot to me and generally spurs me on to finishing some other lingering project. And so…
While not a favorite of many who have seen this before; here is the Pisces, a design by ATOM (aka Chris Reyes). This was his attempt at a dual saucer Federation starship. The attached images are my rough out of it with only a few ‘details’. The original design was just a sketch and it never got his full treatment beyond rough pencils. I’ve been working (not seen here) on a better main engineering hull and other subtle improvements where I can.
SO, my ADD has kicked into full gear and my Saganami cruiser has been put aside for now. I’m hung up on details that I’ll never use, so to clear my mind I brought out my Matt Jefferies ship.
I’ve never really used map channels before but decided to experiment with them on this ship. I over complicated the base texture and mask so I will go back and try a simpler approach. Working on this gave me some ideas.
Here is it with a first pass on the upper saucer panels. Single pass render just to see how it would look.
