Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Here's a preview of what I have so far for my refit Connie redux...

(This is what we in the starship porn business call a tease) :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps30ccea5c.png

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Doing YET another redux of my Enterprise refit:

Here's what I have so far:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps85e8271c.jpg

The saucer, and secondary hull. As you can see, in the saucer, I have airlocks. I will have external animated opening plates over those. Most of these textures were applied in Blender, and then transferred over to iClone. The textures were hand drawn in PhotoShop.

In the aft of the secondary hull, I have the fantail doors...if I do this right, the fantail doors will also be command ready for animation to open and close.

I have not applied ship's nomenclature yet, except on the saucer rim. (No Enterprise or NCC-1701) All text is generated in PhotoShop with the StarFleet Bold Extended font

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Those look great!

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Looking good steve

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Thanks, guys.

Applying glow effects has been fun too.

I now have the neck and torpedo sections placed on, but I still need to get the glow effects adjusted for the torpedo bay.
If all goes well, I'll have actual tree props placed in the arboretum (those six rectangular windows on either side of the lower part of the secondary hull.) :)

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

The texturing looks really good. Nice detail work.

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Thank you, Matador. :)
If I do say so myself, I am pretty proud of the hand drawn textures.

One more thing I must point out though is that the Azteca hull design on the saucer is taken from a source slice I'd found on the net. I managed to put it on with just enough opacity so that it is visible, but it also tends to fade a bit when the light hits it from certain angles, just as the practical shooting model did. :)

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

UPDATE:
Jumping for frakkin' joy now!

Initially (and fairly recently) I had learned how to do simple textures via YouTube tutorial by one Alimayo Arango. Well, I also remembered that a few years ago, another guy (going by the moniker "Headless One" had done a tutorial on texturing a full model...in this case, Serenity from Firefly. It was an older version of Blender too, perhaps in the 2.3ish build. (My current version is 2.69). I thankfully found this video, and now, after translating a couple of elements between the older version and my version, I have learned how to apply textures to a full component...not just breaking it down by sides, then assembling the piece.

So, in the last couple of weeks, I have learned how to unwrap, texture paint, and then learn the more advanced elements of both.

Tonight, I successully painted ALL sides of a warp support pylon in a single project. I can do better with it though.. Just need to tweak the unwrap a little more! Then, I simply duplicated the compenent, mirror axis'd it, and got BOTH of my pylons, in full texture.

Folks, my models are going to look LIGHT YEARS improved beyond what I've done before.

Doin' the pee pee dance now....doin' the pee pee dance....ok...now gotta go pee pee.

UPDATE: Here's how she is turning out now, after having sorted out how to texture entire pieces instead of just doing a side at a time. This was done with the warp pylons and the impulse deck. Amazingly enough, somehow, my impulse deck had the separate components already stored, so that I can independently adjust the glows on the impulse deflection crystal and the two impulse thrusters. :)

Textures hand drawn by moi.

Pee pee daaaaaaannnnnnccccce!!!!!!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps7f6021a0.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps9b752727.jpg

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

excellent ..

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Thanks, mate. :)

UPDATE:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psc1b23618.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psb801d3f4.jpg

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

UPDATE:
I managed to solve the Boolean problem on the saucer section. It was a mildly tedious effort, but it was a payoff in spades! It is something I might have to try with other parts of the hull.
By removing the internal extended faces of the Boolean windows, I managed to get rid of the stretch mark effect. Also, by doing that, I was able to apply an internal glow disc to the saucer section. Now the windows look as if they are glowing from within...AND, the light can be better controlled for brightness....the contrast is far better than just applying a glow texture to the saucer itself. AND AND....I can change the color of the lighting...even make it red to show the ship on red alert (ala Star Trek Into Darkness). :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps15074299.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psdaf61ae5.jpg

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Latest shots:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps8f0e50a6.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psddf19977.jpg

Planning on adding working hatches to all the airlock areas on the secondary hull, the torpedo bay, and the back of the bridge.

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Changed up the glow on the warp field generators, and cleaned up the warp engines themselves.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps0385f4c4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps04be7030.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psdba9dc4b.jpg

And here's a few wireframes. :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psd26ea15a.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps950a6467.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps7865d7d8.jpg

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

UPDATE:
Succeeded in making functional port and starboard docking hatches on the torpedo bay. Will apply those hatches to the secondary hull, and the back of the bridge module.

The fun part is going to be making the hangar deck fantail doors animate.
I can do it. It'll just be tedious, but once it's done the payoff will be great! :)

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Very awesome... The glow of the lights are just right. The Texturing is fantastic. :salute:

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Thank you, Matador. :)
If I may say so, yeah, I'm purdy durned proud of how the textures are coming out. I'm still light years behind a lot of folks here in terms of ability and talent, but I feel like I'm light years ahead of where I once was. :)

UPDATE:
I think I was able to correct the shape of the warp nacelles. They also have a wee bit of a weathered look (which obviously flies in the face of Star Trek lore, but then, I'm not a traditionalist. :) )

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps33d69d34.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps840c3838.jpg

Yet to go...
...command animated hatches for the secondary hull and bridge
...fantail animation on command
...phasers
...trees for the arboretum
...possible internal set for the shuttle bay
...shuttle(s)?

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Ok, I think I managed to rebuild and correct the shape of the warp nacelles. And the retexturing turned out a lot better, I believe. (I can do any further tweaking in PhotoShop).
Also, reduced the internal lighting a bit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psbc828114.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps7acf89eb.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psc53d5cc8.jpg

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

UPDATE : Added hull stenciling (StarFleet Bold Extended) and illuminations.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps3afb4187.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps693a64a6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psd9238287.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps09306fff.jpg

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Nice job... Looks ready for filming... Can't wait to see some animation.

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Thanks. :)
But she's still got a few things to be done before I can do that.

I mean.....the crew...haven't had near enough transition time wi' all the new equipment. An' th' engines have'na even been tested at warp power.....and an untried captain.

:D

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Had to make another correction to the saucer...

The window lights on the lower face of the saucer, near the central sensor housing were missing. So, it was a brief exercise in Booleans again, but she turned out good. Just need to reapply the stencils, glows, and reattach the other components (phasers, bridge, RCS thrusters, etc....)
Pics soon to follow...

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Looks better than the movie model. Proportions look better.

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Wow! That is most kind, Senmut. Thank you. :)

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

YW
When I saw the new E in the first film, I thought that the secondary hull looked wrong. Too plump, in comparison to the rest of the ship. You have solved that problem, making the ship look more balanced, and aesthetically pleasing.

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Again, most kind, sir. :)

I did try to build the shapes according to blueprints or orthos I found on the web. Had to rebuild the warp engines a couple of times though. Too rounded at the front...and a lot of it had to do with me going crazy with Booleans. This time 'round....no Booleans on the warp drive. :)

I am indeed anxious to finish her and get her into animation.

UPDATE:
Added in the lower window booleans to the saucer section. This resulted in my having to reapply some textures since it changed up the unwrap and UV map considerably. And this time, for the saucer's side stenciling, I just decided to create a couple of pieces taken from the saucer hull, and texture over those. Resulted in much sharper text than previous methods....since, by applying Booleans to the saucer, my unwraps come out looking a little warped around the rim.

Also, I have the forward airlock doors under the saucer as functional animated props.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps18bcd150.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps42f36759.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps3ac40b00.jpg

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Video coming soon.

The Enterprise is pretty much finished. The shuttlecrafts featured in the video are my builds as well..and the movie era shuttle is my design based off the classic model.

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

UPDATE:

Ugh....have to rebuild/retexture the secondary hull. The starboard (right, for you non-naval types) side of the secondary hull has a lot of errors that cause that portion of the hull to just not hold up so well on close ups.

Ah well....no biggie. :)

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Aye, laddie, she's a beauty. :)


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Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Thanks, Pete.
I did the secondary hull retexture...I think it turned out a lot better this time.

Also, I just sculpted my first planet in Blender. I think this planet turned out better than the ones I did just in iClone. It actually has depth to it. You'll see it briefly in my upcoming demo video. :)

Re: Redoing my refit Enterprise...
 

Looking forward to it! :)