Topic: WIP: Shining Hope II (remake of my personal flagship)

[atheorhaven]

Well, finally saw the ship that I wanted to use as a basis.. the Terran Empire Anubis


So I started to redo the textures on it using the old ship as a basis.. and here's where I was as of last night (and I'm farther along today).

I think that I am going to replace the warp engines on this ship though and replace them with either the original warp engines, or else grab some new ones from DCS.. (edit: went and downloaded the LN-68 engines, think that they're the best suited for the refit)

Addition to the back story is that this ship is around 17-20 years after the original ship (Lost Era), and the original ship has been refit with some updated and uprated technologies.. and experiments are still being conducted onboard to adapt Minbari jumpgate engine technology to Federation power systems and technologies.  The current development has a jumppoint forming in warpspace, but it is still too unstable to allow the ship to pass through into hyperspace.  Experimentation is being done on two fronts to retrofit transwarp  or highwarp technologies to open a jumppoint, and development of a gravitic engine using modified deflector and tractor beam technologies to try and form a jumppoint.

Crew roster has increased from the original 45 Rangers to almost 90 crew, with new members coming from Vulcan, Human, and even a few Klingon and Romulan recruits (who find the strict Ranger code of honor and service to be very appealing).

[Fallen_Warrior]

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[atheorhaven]

im liking the paintjob, i do hope the saucer is gonna match the hull with those blue glows, its looking good. and its a good choice with the mesh

Thanks FW.. I chose this mesh because it went snap for me when I looked at it and thought that this would be the perfect update for my original ship.  For a reference against the original, still have shots up of my original ship (based on WZ45's Lethality):





The final ship will look similar, with some modernization and texture tweaks.  Color illumination maps all around, realistic lighting, thinking of doing a few window surprises (maybe add in a Vorlon to one of the windows for instance).. plus more windows than the original and more of that blue glow.. (I'm likeing it too). 

[atheorhaven]

Last update of the night.. pretty well finished the texturing for the new LN-68 warps with the old look  (to be polished):

[atheorhaven]

Another quick update.. got more work done on it before going to work this morning.. got the new nacelles on. 

(and this'll show nicely why I like to make colored illuminations, haven't done them yet)

It's coming along.. just have to block out the neck and saucer now, plus add some additional details on the secondary hull and nacelles..

[Fallen_Warrior]

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[Centurus]

What program do you use when making textures?

[atheorhaven]

What program do you use when making textures?

My old standby, Paint Shop Pro 7.   

Also use an older Canadian program from time to time, but am thinking of replacing it with something like Inkscape.. (just have to figure that one out a bit better).  I like to use natural materials in my textures because it gives it a more natural look.. the dark hull metal texture (as an example) is a combination of a blue ice block and dark marble layered down and more transparent with a base color and upper layers I add vector based details to (like windows). 

[Fallen_Warrior]

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[atheorhaven]

Added more details and test fit the old bottom saucer texture on the new saucer just to see how it'll look once the textures are rebuilt for the upper and lower saucer.  Also layered in the old neck texture (over the new one) for rebuilding that texture, and redid the docking port on the neck.

[atheorhaven]

... the nice thing about doing screen captures as you go along is that it gives you refernce points to see where things are moving to or away from, and that makes the design process a LOT easier..

Latest shots show the temporary neck texture and then the nearly finished lower saucer and new neck ones.. (which was based off the original graphics for positions and placements).

But when I looked at the further distance shot and compared it to the screen capture from ingame, I realized that I need to change the phaser placement colors away from yellow again back to silver, and I need to decrease the size of the lower saucer prong graphics to fit inside the new interior saucer band.  That should better fit the new graphics to the original.  But now that I have them as vectors, that'll be easier and they now look a lot cleaner..

See, this is what a WIP is all about..

[Fallen_Warrior]

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[atheorhaven]

Okay, had a bit of time at home today without child, so got in a bit more work.  It's probably about 90% or so done I think now...

I have decided that once I finish the ship, I'm going to ask for permissions to release a version of this.. it'll be mostly the same, just a couple of differences from mine so that I won't see my flagship everywhere. 

But I got the bottom adjusted (bringing in the prongs was exactly what was needed), and got the upper saucer mostly completed and blocked out, plus the rim done as well.

So it's a lot farther along tonight than it was.. just now mostly tweaks (primarily upper saucer) and a few things here and there (like the sensors on the secondary hull, and some extra images).

[Centurus]

It's coming along quite nicely, I have to say.

[atheorhaven]

It's coming along quite nicely, I have to say.

Thanks.. depending on time availability tonight, am going to re-enlarge the prongs on the upper saucer and start adding the tweaks to some of the windows I wanted.. plus start building alternative "registries" as it were..

[atheorhaven]

Okay, quick morning update..

Pretty well done the upper texture now.. just a few tweaks to the bottom texture now, and then adding some logos to the back of the warp nacelles and the impulse engines, and it's pretty well done..

[Rod ONeal]

She's looking great! Possibly blend the color of the bridge with the gray of the saucer? It looks a bit too white, I think.

[atheorhaven]

She's looking great! Possibly blend the color of the bridge with the gray of the saucer? It looks a bit too white, I think.

Yup.. it's not done up there yet (different texture). 

It'll probably be given the dark w/grey or dark w/glowie blue treatment. 

[Star Dragon]

Wow, that looks a lot sharper than it's predecessor Awesome job...!

[atheorhaven]

Brief update with no pictures (yet).. bridge is re-done, and I've vectorized a lot of the graphics (gives me cleaner lines that way)

Nacelles are complete (wasn't able to logo them without totally redoing the mapping which I might do down the road), secondary hull is complete, neck needs a little more (redoing the windows), lower saucer needs lights, upper bridge deck needs colouring and am going to add in a docking port up there to more match up with the original.  Conference windows are don eon back of bridge, may do a teeny bit more tweaking here and there.  Also, deflector secondary hull area has been reworked a teeny bit.. just have to adjust the texture to make it cleaner..

Am now planning on my ship, a different customized version, and then two general releases that everyone can download (once I get permission from WZ and Centaurus).