Akira tweaks and the birth of a Galaxy...

I've been adding interiors to the Akira to help the animations stand up a bit better, as well as playing with getting some more interesting looking lighting. I also tweaked the hull material slightly;

Aside from fiddling with the Akira, I've mader a start on a Galaxy Class mesh, I can see this one being a very long term project...

Lewis.

First animation test

For a first test I'm happy with it, needs a lot of refining though

Lewis.

Back on the Akira

Working on the Akira again getting it to a point where I can start rendering out some animation footage. Also been working on planetary renders. I used Blender Guru's excellent tutorial to get going with the planets then just started fiddling with settings.

Lewis

Extra finished...

4k renders here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rixDr_nqdoGxBfU7JEC__8w2JtjHUErO

Lewis.

Finished (Pretty much)

All the text was done with the blender text tool converted to mesh, shrinkwrapped to the surface, and then given a pinch of solifidy just to bring it off the surface ever so slightly. Next job is to block out a very rough interior so that I can make the windows translucent.

Lewis.

Better proportions

Yeah I was out by a fair bit on some of the proportions, fixed now, plus further modelling;

Lewis.

Getting back to modelling

I've spent a few months working abroad a lot so havent been able to get near blender, thought I'd model something a bit simpler than a full starship just to get the juices flowing again...

Lewis.

Texturing

I've started the texturing process, having learned a bit more about unwrapping and projections and what not. I need to tweak this and draw a better aztec texture but the idea is there;

Lewis.

Details, details details

Just pouring in the detail now, various bits done to the weapons pod, as well as the vents put in the saucer impulse engines. Got a few more panels and windows to cut out on the catamarans but I like to meter those out so as not to get bored (they're very tedious).

Lewis.

RCS thrusters and sensor palette

Completely re-modelled the RCS thrusters, the original ones were quick and nasty. Also added a sensor palette similar to that on 1701-D. (Old vs. new)

Lewis

Better geometry

I learnt a far better way of doing the escape pods, mainly building one, and then cloning that using empties. So I've been going round aligning empties with my existing escape pods and replacing them with the much higher quality version below, looks far better imo.

Lewis.

Escape pods and better lighting

I've added some escape pods, as well as changing up the lighting to be more physically accurate to real world values. Cheat windows for now with emission added to the glass, I'll do interiors later on down the line.

Lewis.

Ahead full impulse

We have impulse engines, plus some underside panelling and other various detail bits dotted around.

Lewis.

More windows...

Windows all cut in the saucer underside, phaser strips added, and some detailing added to the insides of the nacelles.

Lewis.

Re-route power from the deflector

Now that we have one! I re-did the deflector, using the Enterprise E deflector as a the basis. It needs a bit of tweaking but the idea is there. I didn't go wild on the geometry because it'll never resolve at anything other than hyper close range.

Lewis

Playing with some temporary materials

Had a play with setting up some base materials, and trying to dial in a look. The Enterprise-E is surprisingly 'white' when brightly lit (in First Contact anyway), whereas the Akira looks very dark in FC, but again that could be due to lighting, so I need to decide how I'm going to play this;

Lens flare to hide the awful first pass at the deflector

I feel like this is almost certainly too dark

Lewis.

More phaser & nacelle detail

I made the strip a bit 'humpier' (that's a word right?) and rebuilt the detail, also added the caps on either end, plus some other bits on the nacelles done.

Lewis

Phaser Strips

I need to play with the profile a bit but as a test for the array-along-a-curve theory I'm happy with the result;

Lewis.

Details, panels and bussards...

I'm sort of darting about the ship filling in various bits and bobs, just so as not too get to burnt out on one section, but it's slowly getting there...

Lewis

Just a little scaling aid

A Type 6 Shuttle.

Lewis.

So I decided to re-model the whole thing...

I seem to have fallen in to re-modelling the Akira class from scratch. This is my first 'large' model in Blender so I'm learning a lot as I go but happy with the progress so far. Getting the shape of the catamarans right is by far the trickest part but I think they're about as close as I'm going to get.

Given how low poly the production mesh was I'm allowing myself a little bit of creative licence with some of the details, approaching at as I would were it a 'hero' ship in some cases.

Lewis