Rip it up and start again...

My 'ceiling pod' was wrong, and as I got further in to it, it became more and more apparent. Something had gone awry with my scaling, and I found some actual blueprints from the set that confirmed this for me (see below). It's one of those parts that is easier to just bin and start a fresh with, as opposed to trying to fix it, so that's what I did. So here's the mark 2...

Lewis.

So far so good

There are a few minor flaws that I need to correct but it's definitely on the right track.

Lewis.

The ceiling pod...

I've decided to stop being a wimp and just tackle it head on. I haven't touched this project in a while because I've known that sooner or later it'd come down to this part, which is far more complex to model than it looks. I'm going for it though, wish me luck.

Lewis.

P.S. If anyone has any official measurements or scans from the set blueprints for this part (or any part of voyagers bridge really), I'd be very interested in seeing them ;)

WIP On 3D Warehouse

After a busy few weeks I've returned to this, Finished off the lights round the top edges and done some more ceiling work. I've also uploaded the model in it's present state to 3DWarehouse, feel free to check it out;

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...cbe1355b2fe05a

Lewis

Hours of re-work...

Ok, got a fair bit done on this today, done loads of re-work. Doors have all become 6" narrower, making them 3ft wide now which seems far more accurate. Also re done the turbolift area next to Tuvok's console. The console between the chairs has gone in, and I've also done a fair bit more to Tom's console too, but that's far from finished yet.

Lewis. 

Better lighting...

I've started adding the upper 'ring lights' as I'm calling them, the blue ones here anyway. I've also found a more natural way of creating the light, as opposed to just making the material emissive. The light now essentially sits behind a diffusing filter which while subtle, looks much better and more realistic in my opinion...

Lewis

Back to Voyager...

After a good few months away from this, we're back on track. I've just built a new PC so it's much easier to work on this now, it was getting too much for my old rig and renders were taking ages.

So anyway the corridor next to harry's console is finished, and I've started the whole ceiling again, this one is far more accurate, here's how we're looking so far...

I've also pulled the view screen out, that'll need doing again as it was too narrow before.

Lewis.

Where does that corridor go anyway?

Just a quick render...

Lewis.

Corridors and consoles...

Over the last few days I've pulled a lot of Toms console apart as it needs some serious re-work, mainly the top and the large viewing 'TV' that he has. I've spent a great deal of time on this console now and frankly I had to move on to something else to give myself a break.

In light of that I knocked together the rear corridor section that comes in next to Harry's console. Little way to go yet but it's taking shape. I've also included a shot of the completed centre rail console, or 'Sevens console' as I'm calling it...

 Lewis.

Slight material updates

Lewis.

Doing things the old fashioned way...

One of the great things about SketchUp is that there are literally thousands of plugins available that let you automate various tasks, as well as those tools that come with the program itself. While building Tom's console I tried all sorts of various methods, using a plugin called SoapSkin which will generate a surface stretched over a frame that's already made. The problem with this is that with complex shapes it creates a fair amount of erroneous geometry which you then have to go round and manually tidy up. Also, as the generated geometry isn't very uniform, it's doesn't respond very well to tools like joint push/pull and offset. I'd also tried to use the 'follow me' tool to carve out the shape required on the front, but again this doesn't create perfect geometry (mainly at either end) so I binned that idea.

In the end I went ahead a built most of the front side from scratch, firstly because using this method I could control the output a lot more, and secondly because the geometry required isn't organic. By that I mean the front of Tom's console is actually flat surfaces, not a curved surface, score!

Here's where I am so far with it, most of the key geometry is down it just needs detailing and tidying up now...

Lewis.

Bridge update

Sorry I've not posted in a while, been busy with a million other things lately, but I'm back. I've started modelling Tom's console, which is still in its infancy right now but getting there slowly. This part really is awkward, its a very strange shape and it's hard to keep sketchup behaving itself with really complex structures like this.

If anyone has any original set plans/blueprints from the making of Voyager, I'd really appreciate seeing them to help with this, drop me an email at lewisniven@gmail.com, I'd be very grateful.

Anyway, here's 2 quick dirty renders of where things stand at the moment...

Also, I uploaded Tuvok/Harry's console as it's own model, help yourself at; http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=4a91059b416fde1a15f3b2b460671b92

Lewis.

Corridor Section...

I've started knocking up a corridor section, just for a bit of variety, this represents about an hours worth of work...

The key geometry is there, it's just a case of fleshing the rest of it out. I wont do much, probably just a straight section and a curved section, just for the sake of doing some renders.

Lewis.

Alcove Stations...

-Forward handrails added

-Ready room/conference lounge doors added

-Front 'alcove' station fleshed out (need modifying slightly, the stations sticking out are too long and rake back too much in my opinion)

-Alcove geometry tidied up significantly

-Detailing around upper walls (either side of viewscreen) added and tidied

-RR/OL door frames modified slightly (not visible)

-Rear most handrail raised by just under a foot to bring it to the correct level

Next big thing I think will be re-doing the viewscreen, it needs to be wider.

Lewis.

Main viewer...

I'm going to have to re-model the entire ceiling section by the looks of it, some key parts aren't lining up right and it'll be quicker to just start again with it I think, which is annoying to say the least. Anyway, the main viewer has gone in, and I've also made what I've done available to 3D Warehouse for you to have a nose at, enjoy...

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=7ec01b9c3bf598e2748f5aa438313fb1

Lewis.

A Brief Update...

As opposed to just posting renders, I thought I'd stick some screenshots from Sketchup itself of a few of the detail areas. I've split the ceiling and the rest of the bridge into 2 separate files now to make working on each independently a little easier, but anyway, here's some shots of what's happening at the moment...

Lewis.

Dirty Renders...

The geometry count is obviously increasing and what with lights going in the render times have got a bit silly, so here's some grubby renders of where things stand right now...

Lewis

Back To The Bridge

I've taken the opportunity over the last few days to resume work on the Voyager bridge. The main parts of progress so far are that I've more or less finished Harry/Tuvok's stations, and have begun working on the consoles behind them. During this process it's become evident that my bridge isn't perfectly symmetrical, which is causing some headaches so I'll need to fix that before I go much further.

This is an issue because I'm creating one of each component, and then mirroring a copy to place on the other side of the bridge, and obviously unless the floor plan is 100% symmetrical, things don't fit properly. I'm not entirely sure how this happened as I distinctly remember drawing half the floor, and then copying/flipping that for the other half. Ah well, not a huge issue!

Lewis.

More Intrepid progress...

Things are coming together nicely with the Voyager bridge now, done a few basic material tests too. The most time consuming part so far has been the console along the back of the room but it's getting there slowly, update shots below.

Lewis.

Intrepid Class Bridge...

As well as the Defiant that I'm working on, I wanted to try my hand at something more complex. The Enterprise D bridge has a hell or a lot of organically curved surfaces and I'm not feeling quite up to that one yet, so I went for the Voyager bridge.

Working from T. Weimann's excellent floor plans (as I did for defiant) I started fleshing out the basic structure, and just built from there. Same procedure as before, I'm just basically using hundreds of screen grabs (I get all these from trekcore.com) and working as best as I can from those. Here's some renders showing how things have progressed up to now.

(I did get a bit further, and had fleshed out the rear wall console and the lit floor panels, then the file corrupted itself and I had to revert back to an earlier backup)

Lewis