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[Olias]

Hello again Anim8or community.  It's been awhile since I posted here.

Back in the distant swirling mists of time (The 80's) there existed a tabletop roleplaying game by a company called FASA.  Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game and Star Trek: Starship Combat Simulator covered gameplay on the ground or in space in the Star Trek universe.

ST:SCS was quite good, and supplemental manuals such as the Federation Ship Recognition Guide listed specifications for both "canon" ships and originals created by FASA.  "Flavor Text" was provided for all ships, and it made for an interesting read.

At the time, there was also a magazine called Stardate which primarily dealt with the FASA game in much the same way that Dragon Magazine covered Dungeons & Dragons.  There was a section called "Jaynz Ships of the Galaxy" in each magazine where they would detail a new ship class which could be used with the game.

The one that caught my eye in those days was a design by Josh W. Spencer, the Indomitable-class battleship.

Here's the original blueprint:



As you can see, it's a "kitbash".  Looks like an Excelsior Saucer slapped onto an elongated Enterprise secondary hull with Enterprise warp nacelles.

I'd like to also credit Bernd Schneider and his Ex Astris Scientia (www.ex-astris-scientia.org) website for the awesome ship database contained therein, and a contributor to that site named GUS for his awesome Excelsior reference images.

More to follow...

[Olias]

The Challenge...

About a year ago I threw together a low-poly set of Star Trek ships with the intention of modding a game.  These were Original Series era ships, and according to the FASA lore the Indomitable wasn't created until the movie-era, but I figured just for giggles I'd take some artistic license and throw together a TOS Indomitable, just to see how it would look in 3D.  Here's the result:





As you can see, it looks rather strange.  It's one of those things that looked great on paper, but in 3D there are very few angles you can view it from where it doesn't look way too long and just rather silly.

I'll be taking some artistic license with it again, and the challenge is to keep it true to the design, but modify it enough to make it look good.

So with all that said, here's some initial renders of my progress on the saucer section so far:

[hihosilver]

Olias, it's good to see you back!  You always come out with some great ships.  So far this is looking very sharp and clean, I'm looking forward to what you come up with.

[sgwan]

nice

[Olias]

Thanks guys.

Hiho, good to be back, and nice to see that you're still around as well.

[Olias]

I don't know if this was a studio model, but based off of this reference image, I added some details to the impulse engine area.  I'm going to redo those two "wings", as I think they could look better.  Also still trying to figure out what those two little thingies are in front of the two dome structures, they're rather hard to make out.


Reference Image

[Olias]

Every time I do a Star Trek ship, I debate with myself whether or not I want to do the hull plating as part of the actual model, or work it in later with a bumpmap.  To date, every time I've done it with a bumpmap I seem to run into issues with Anim8or.  It seems to work fine when first applied, then sections of it seems to become reversed (i.e. sunk where it should bump, bump where it should sink.)

So this time, I just modeled the plates in.

Also rebuilt the "wings" and added the dorsal phaser banks.

Here's two ART renders:

[davdud101]

woah, the added detail is simply amazing!

[Olias]

Thanks Davdud.

Here's a Kerkythea render:

[Bobert]

Very nice so far. Its good to see the ART renders look just as good as the Kerkythea render

[$imon]

Very nice detailing so far! Can't wait to see more updates.. maybe you can show a wireframe of some details? Good luck modeling.

[headwax]

Great stuff Olias. Nice  to see  you back on board.

I finally found your avis!

cheers

[TheRetroZombie]

My H.L. Hunley will destroy your U.S.S. Indomitable!

though it the Hunley will sink after it's attack

[floyd86]

Very nice work Olias. Lot of detail there, cant wait to see it finished!



@TheRetroZombie: please keep your posts on-topic

[hihosilver]

Olias, I just saw your Serenity flyby from some time ago.  I just started watching that show, love it!

The current model is of course looking fantastic.  I agree with your idea to simply model the panels this time.  I remember the trouble you went through before, and I don't think it was worth it.  Anyways, with all the detail you put into your models, you might as well have a few more polys

Very smooth modeling though, it looks great so far.