Topic: Will Decker: Phase II Retexture thread

[WillDecker]

Here are some updates to the Phase II textures

[Rod ONeal]

That's looking nice there. Who did the original model, BTW? Also, what's the poly count? My machine can't run 10k models in anything but small skirmishes without noticable lag.

[USS Mariner]

That's looking nice there. Who did the original model, BTW? Also, what's the poly count? My machine can't run 10k models in anything but small skirmishes without noticable lag.

StressPuppy and Anduril. Polycount is 3321.

And hey again. I've been out too long.

[Centurus]

That deflector catches my eye the most.  It's beautiful, and wickedly awesome.  :-D

She's definatley looking incredible overall.  VERY NICE WORK!!!

[Norsehound]

Faaacinating...

If I can ask, where is the source for this Phase-II connie? Was it the plans I put forward or did it originate elsewhere?

[Rod ONeal]

StressPuppy and Anduril. Polycount is 3321.

And hey again. I've been out too long.

Welcome back. I think I saw you over on the trekbbs forums recently. Maybe?

3321 polies eh? Now I'm really stoked. Even my crappy setup will like this one.

What would be cool is if The Stress Puppy added his weathering touch to this model after WillDecker finishes with it. If both parties were agreable to it.

[Chris Johnson]

Although I have been mainly silent/inactive, I've been interested in your projects since I was a tiny bit more hyperactive six years back, and your latest projects are without exception.  However, this one truly interests me as I have tried (but nowhere near finished) a similar retexture project from a long while back.  What I was doing was more of a private, for-me-only cut-and-paste (as I can't do much more than plaques; of which I gave up on producing more) project of TSP's TOS Constitution-class with WZ's TMP Constitution-class textures.  I only got so far as the saucer (I believe the dorsal section only, but I'm going from memory), and eventually the project was lost by both lack of interest and eventually wiping it out in an HD format.
What mainly boiled my interest into such a thing, however, was musing what a Constitution-class from the 2260s would look like under the clothing/textures/hull/what-have-you of the TMP-era refitted Constitution-class; of what some would regard as a more "realistic-looking" refit rather than one where only the skeletal structure of the original was remaining (however botched).  Though I usually went with the idea of such a refit for the Big E in 2271, I just thought it would be nice to see an alternate view/universe's version/etc. of a Big E refit (ala "Parallels" [TNG]).  That musing came from looking at this image; specifically the third design of the five shown in that image.

So, for all the reasons above, I have more of an interest on this retexture than usual.

[Anduril]

I like the look.  As always you do great work.


Concerning weathering or giving a weathered look to a ship I found that in the end I did not really agree with doing that on a large scale.  Freighters seem to invite it and I can agree with that.  In a lot of cases I can see them hastily thrown together with non top of the line components and alloys.  Weathering would seem to make sense in these situations and even more so if the freighter was capable of planetary landings.  Over the years the crew would be less and less likely to keep cleaning the hull on regular intervals.  Kind of like people that buy boats and keep that hull spiffy and shiny for a few years only to stop cleaning it every time it comes out of the water.

A ship of the line is going to have far more maintenance as they appear in front of admirals and dignitaries all the time and no self respecting or ambitious Captain would want to present shoddy material to superiors. 

Now patrol craft or deep space scout craft that spend their existence at the rim would seem to be right for this kind of texturing.  If I was still making textures and such I'd go with more of an "oxidation" look and come up with a texture to respresent the myriad of small or large dents from collisions with space junk over the lifetime of the ship.  That stuff probably was fixed when the ship was young but would tend to be "patched" as the ship aged.

I also was one of the modelers that started putting weathering near the grid lines, hull sections and such and decided that it just didn't seem right.  I felt that spots of worn hull or paint areas could really be anywhere on a ship that wasn't being tended to constantly and the stained areas should be kept to obvious vents.  Even something innocuous could be reasoned to leave a stain after years and years .

Of course if someone felt that setting up an universe with all the ships looking worn and torn except for the latest and greatest versions of the classes that is their prerogative.


Added disclaimer.. I'm not proof reading this since I'm still waiting on the coffee to finish up so if something didn't come across right blame that.

[Norsehound]

Mr. Decker, any updates?

[WillDecker]

There will be an update tomorrow

[Rod ONeal]

How's it goin'?

[FoaS_XC]

Captain Decker is very much like me: weather by mitigating circumstances, distraction, or pure lazyness , we have a fairly liberal sense of time.
Time.

Time.
Flies.
Time.
Bandits.
Time.
Wounds all heals.
Time.
[sings] Rosemary and...
Time.
Time ends.

[WillDecker]

Sorry I haven't been giving an update. just started a new job. I am also looking for a program to transfer from 3DMAX 7 and convert it to .mod format.

[Rod ONeal]

Congrats on the new job. I hope you like it. I can convert it to .mod when it's done, if you need me to. 

Max 3-5 or Milkshape are your only options for conversion. You can DL milkshape and use it's 30day trial period to convert anything you want.

[TheStressPuppy]

Thats looking really good. I really should update that model sometime lol. Its what 7 years old now (i built it in 2001)

The sources for that model were images of the unfinished phase 2 studio model, and a set of Matt Jefferies drawings of the Phase 2 refit. Myself, Anduril, Atrahasis, and a few other close modeler friends purely speculated about how the hull coloring, and detailing should be. There was no guide other than artwork on a book cover. The studio model was never painted, and was scrapped after it was decided to turn phase 2 into ST:TMP. I chose to keep the ship more TOS-ish, but add the hull plating, and TMP details to bridge the gap between TOS, and TMP. Like i said there was no guide. Much of the unfinished, and unseen areas of the studio model, and prints was artistic licence, and made up as we went along. There was enough to get general silloette of the ship right

Looking back on the phase 2 books, and references i can see that this ship could have appeared more TMPish. I think you are going in the right direction with the textures will.

As far as weathering is concerned.... It aint gonna happen. At least not by me. The phase 2 big E was supposed to be a fresh out of spacedock refit just like the TMP big E was. In fact they used Phase 2's pilot script ("in thy image") as the story for ST:TMP. AFAIK the pilot show would have been somewhat identical to the movie except no Spock, and they wouldnt have killed off Decker, and Ilia (unfortunate redshirts would have taken their place :p ). In any case the Enterprise would have been "squeeky clean". Just like the TMP enterprise was.

[ModelsPlease]

To say I'm excited about this one would be an understatement.

Thats looking really good. I really should update that model sometime lol. Its what 7 years old now (i built it in 2001)

Now that would just be the icing on the cake !!!!

[Don Karnage]

there many model build in 2001 for sfc1 that need to be refresh and re textured.

that would be great since some are a bit unique like the F-GSC with his 2 deflector dish on the saucer.

[WillDecker]

Congrats on the new job. I hope you like it. I can convert it to .mod when it's done, if you need me to. 

Max 3-5 or Milkshape are your only options for conversion. You can DL milkshape and use it's 30day trial period to convert anything you want.

yeah definitely. Any help is very apprieciated