Topic: USS Equilibrium WIP (Read 4604 times)

calamity_si · « **Reply #20 on:** January 03, 2006, 02:43:33 am »

Great to hear Mr_Tricorder! Really can't wait to see more mate.

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #21 on:** January 05, 2006, 10:47:40 pm »

Sorry I haven't done much work on this lately, but I think I've come up with a pretty good hull texture. Let me know what you think. I've also reworked several parts of the model to better fit the pictures.

calamity_si · « **Reply #22 on:** January 06, 2006, 06:54:16 am »

(Dribbles) WHOA!

That looks GREAT! I'd like to see the grid lines on it a little darker but she's really coming along nicely! I love the Aztec pattern. Can't wait to see what the underside looks like! I've got another guy working on a mesh of this same ship on Scifi meshes.com, so you've got some competition now! Great work so far...

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #23 on:** January 06, 2006, 09:07:34 am »

It would be interesting to see how he does the textures.

How do you want the markings to look? Should they look similar to traditional Starfleet markings, or did you have something different in mind?

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #24 on:** January 06, 2006, 03:23:40 pm »

Here's a little more work on the hull textures. I made the gridlines more pronounced. Is the color good, or do you think it's too purple?

calamity_si · « **Reply #25 on:** January 07, 2006, 10:25:12 am »

No, I like the purple. And for the markings, I'd like to see the traditional twin red 'go faster' stripes leading up to the StaFleet delta sign replaced by the same twin stripes but in a metallic blue colour. For the S/F delta sign itself, I'd like to see the future version shown here:

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #26 on:** January 07, 2006, 11:52:58 am »

That's a 29th century Starfleet insignia. I think it would look good with this ship, but it seems a little out of place since this is supposed to be a mid 25th century ship. I was thinking something closer to the "All Good Things" insignia, but not the same, since this is supposed to be from several years after the "All Good Things"/"End Game" period. I like the blue streaks idea. It would really fit this ship.

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #27 on:** January 07, 2006, 10:19:44 pm »

That could work. I'll have to experiment and see what looks good.

calamity_si · « **Reply #28 on:** January 08, 2006, 03:05:19 am »

Yeah, that's a good idea. Or perhaps 'hollow' out the silver portion so that it's just a silver outline rather than a 'filled in' silver delta? Just a thought...

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #29 on:** January 08, 2006, 04:56:30 pm »

Here's an update. I've pretty much finished with the basic textures for the top side of the ship for now. I haven't done anything with the bottom side yet.

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #30 on:** January 09, 2006, 10:01:06 pm »

I've finished tweaking the mesh and mapping out some basic textures and am ready to start coming up with some details. Here is what it looks like now. I've added a meshsmooth modifier as well.

calamity_si · « **Reply #31 on:** January 10, 2006, 08:34:23 am »

Whoa! That's looking absolutely class! I especially like the look of the blue deflector grid. That's come out pretty much exactly as I first imagined it to be. I'd love to see some more detail done in terms of windows / ports but she's looking really sweet. I don't have time to do it now, because I'm now logged on in a hostel, but when I'm next online, I'll update these beauty pics onto my website, full credits given of course. I'm wondering what else I can do as the designer in terms of what else I can post for this ship. It looks as though the outside of the ship is pretty much finished, so I might start doing some more sketches of the bridge etc from different angles. Perhaps even a new kind of computer interface...?

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #32 on:** January 10, 2006, 11:16:15 am »

There are still plenty of details left for the outside, which I could use your help in designing. There are certain details that any Federation ship of any era needs unless it was specifically not ment to have them.

Warp Nacelles (check)
Impulse Engines (check)
Bridge (check)
Shuttle Bay (I'm calling the little indenture near the rear of the underside of the hull the shuttle bay for now. Let me know if you planned on having it somewhere else.)
Weapons (We already decided on M.A.R.S.)
Markings
Windows (I need a better idea of scale first)
Lights

I'm not too clear on where you intend for the shuttle bay to be. Where I have it now makes it seem small and inefficient with a lot of wasted space since the bottom of the ship is curved and gets wider as you go up, meaning that the shuttle bay would have a very narrow floor and a very wide ceiling.

I also need to get a better sense of scale. How big is it compared to a Galaxy or Sovereign class?

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #33 on:** January 11, 2006, 12:53:10 pm »

I've started work on the M.A.R.S. textures. What do you think?

ModelsPlease · « **Reply #34 on:** January 11, 2006, 01:54:44 pm »

Kinda looks like a mesh grill from a car.

calamity_si · « **Reply #35 on:** January 13, 2006, 02:34:47 am »

Okay great. I can see the MARS system is going to be tricky... Essentially I wanted to create panels on the ship that blend in with the surface contours. I didn't want the panels to be 'raised' plates or panels that looked like they had been bolted on, like Voyager's Ablative Shielding panels.

As for the actual pattern on them, me thinks I'll have to redesign it a bit. I'm trying to achieve something like a solar panel on a car with that kinda 'tinted' colour to it...something like this?

Okay my credit's running low...catcha laters!

Mr_Tricorder · « **Reply #36 on:** January 13, 2006, 11:14:07 am »

I've made them sort of blue and I'll try playing around with the illuminaton map to see if I can get that tinted feel.

ModelsPlease · « **Reply #37 on:** January 13, 2006, 05:09:49 pm »

Well, how about reccessing it , that would eliminate that "bolted on appearance". Perhaps panels slide back to reveal the weapon when in combat abd are closed during normal opperations ? Just an idea

PS BTW this area I circled would make a great deflector dish design. Perhaps not on this ship, but for future ideas

calamity_si · « **Reply #38 on:** January 15, 2006, 10:02:42 pm »

LOL Good call with that nav deflector idea. We'll save that one for another day, eh? As for the MARS panel, sorry to keep mucking you about on the details on it but I think I've FINALLY come up with a surface pattern that'll look great and solve all of our problems with this...I've got one word for ya....HEXAGONS! An interlocking hexgon design like honeycomb would, I think, give the right kinda detail we need.

As for the colour of it, stick with the dark blue/black as before or how about trying a copper/gold sheen? I'm thinking of the same colour as those mini-solar panels you find on calculators... I tried finding a picture to demonstrate what I'm on about and this picture shown below shows the exact gold/copper tone that I'd like to use:

I know you probably think I'm being a bit anal about all this and maybe a bit too precise but honestly, try it out and I'm sure you'll agree that the results will look great!

I've tried doing a quick demo of the shape of the MARS panel itself and the colour scheme. In your version, just 'curve' the shape of the panel to match the hull contour and fill in the copper tone colour with hexagons and you'll have what I'm after.

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