KJCs Work

[Hellkite]

That it is "starting to fell real " or as real as the show version if not surpassing it

 

[kjc733]

Minor texture update. Engine nozzles, a couple of warning stripes and cockpit detail (a photo of the actual studio). It'll probably be a while until the next update... Mothers Day this weekend after all.

 

[kjc733]

Weather looks like it'll be nice this weekend, so I'll probably working on the garden (yes that time has started again...).
In the meantime, yet another base texture change (although you probably can't tell the difference), and some additional engine detailing and wing cutouts. Just need to fix the vanes to the nacelles and put some actuators on the main exhaust and that'll be the physical modelling done. Then I can finish the main texture, before starting on the paint schemes.

 

[kjc733]

Physical geometry complete!
Now to do a proper job on the textures and create the bump map.

(Oh and say high to Bob. He has appeared in my thread before, it's a bit of an upgrade to go from hover bike rider to Starfuy pilot)

 

[CABAL]

(Oh and say high to Bob. He has appeared in my thread before, it's a bit of an upgrade to go from hover bike rider to Starfuy pilot)

Lucky Bob, he gets to drive all the fun stuff.

 

[Hellkite]

I first thought it was "The Stig" From the BBC's Top Gear

Oh well good to meet you Bob sure you not the Stig cousin or something

 

[kjc733]

And so starts the beginning of what is going to be an onrunning project to uplift my lower poly work to a higher poly standard. This will include the Serephim and the Galaxy Conqueror - but first up, the Intrepid II.

 

[Hellkite]

And so starts the beginning of what is going to be an onrunning project to uplift my lower poly work to a higher poly standard. This will include the Serephim and the Galaxy Conqueror - but first up, the Intrepid II.

Okay you now have my attention

 

[CABAL]

Speaking of the Seraphim, you should be able to just update its resource page to include the new model rather than submitting an entirely new one.

 

[kjc733]

Now wishing I'd started with the Serephim, but I actually wanted to do some proper mesh work instead of just uv mapping - the Intrepid was built to be an A2 mesh and so needs some modification to upscale (which is turning into a painful process).

Just to clarify, these are unlikely to be A2able meshes, the Intrepid currently stands at around 30k in Maya (i.e. 60k in msd3d) and the Serephim (which was originally built as a high poly mesh) weighs in at 47k in Maya. Seeing as the GC starts at around 8k anyway, I'm not sure how big that will get! So these will in all liklihood be for beauty shot renders only.

 

[Hellkite]

Works for me

 

[kjc733]

Not dead. But with the excellent weather (this time last year Somerset was under water) I've been outside gardening and generally not being on a computer. Been a reasonably good week off, albeit not as productive as I'd have liked mesh wise.

Anyway - Starfury, minimal progress. I'm still trying to figure out a decent weathering technique for the wings. Why a Starfury wing would be weathered I don't know, but all pictures of them include this.

Intrepid II - some progress. She's been a real pain to re-map, and my textures really do not scale up that well to the higher poly hull. So there's significant work required to get her up to spec. Nacelles are pretty much ok, and I've remapped the saucer section. I'll need to redo the shield grid lines, but I expected as much. Freed from the constraints of A2, I've also redesigned the bridge area, adding a little bit of 3d detail and reintroducing the conference room and ready room windows. With the smoother hull blend it looked a little bland, the cutouts add some character. Besides, we wouldn't want Admiral Janeway getting annoyed... I'm not sure yet what to do about the smaller windows, weather to just leave them as textures and bump them or to actually cut them out with a luminescent backing (which will take forever...)

 

[CABAL]

this time last year Somerset was under water

I'm going to assume that's some place local and not a misspelled Elder Scrolls location.

 

[kjc733]

My county (sort of equivalent to a state for our US cousins - just a lot smaller), an area of the south of England. The Somerset levels flooded quite heavily, fortunately my town was more or less ok, but it did cause chaos trying to get anywhere.

 

[CABAL]

My county (sort of equivalent to a state for our US cousins - just a lot smaller), an area of the south of England. The Somerset levels flooded quite heavily, fortunately my town was more or less ok, but it did cause chaos trying to get anywhere.

I figured it was probably something like that, and tried to make a joke. It wasn't very good or clear.

Regarding the windows, I think that bump maps may be the better route than modeling them.

 

[Hellkite]

Has Glastonbury Tor turn back into a island yet ??

 

[kjc733]

I believe that Glastonbury escaped the worst of it. I've attached a map and (speaking of islands) a famous (well, round here anyway) picture of a house whose owner was determined that he wasn't going to get flooded!

 

[Hellkite]

Looks like it still got him in spite of his efforts

 

[CABAL]

a famous (well, round here anyway) picture of a house whose owner was determined that he wasn't going to get flooded!

Looks like it didn't quite work, but that was an excellent try.

 

[kjc733]

Progress is slooooowwww and there's not too much to show for it. Even more frustrating, for some reason I can't Boolean in the shuttle bay. But on the good news front, here's the new deflector. I was going for a step between Intrepid and Vesta.

 

[Hellkite]

But progress none the less

 

[kjc733]

Took a break from mapping and refit the saucer shield grid. This will eventually be bump mapped but actually looks quite good as just a texture.
Also, my experiment with adding text using a separate image file on a copy of the mesh geometry (raised by a point or two). By alpha mapping the text itself everything else is transparent, so you just see the text on the outer geometry with the hull plating on the lower geometry. Saves messing around with the hull textures themselves every time I want to change a name.
Sunny today, but also a bit blowy (cold wind), so haven't decided yet if my last day off is going to be out in the sun or sat in front of a computer...

 

[kjc733]

It's been a while - sunny weather means that lounging around in the sun had had priority. But we're back to normal British spring weather now (wet).

So, texture updates. Firstly I've refitted the shield grid on the pylons and belly of the Intrepid, replaced all the escape pods with physical ones to make rearrangement easier, added my Impulse Engne textures from the Righteous and added some more labels (it seems the launch ship will be Voyager).

In other news, as I've just finished The Dilgar War (again) and the incomplete followup about the Minbari War, I felt in a Starfury mood, so I've been dirtying up the textures. I'm relatively happy with the results (maybe a few minor changes), so I can move on to finishing the engine and pilot textures and convert to bump mapping. Plus there will be something on the Starfury Squadron thread momentarily...

 

[kjc733]

I have reached the point in the build process which I hate - the final touches to the textures. This bit always stumps me, especially when the form of the mesh looks nice without anything draped over the top.

So here I am with the Intrepid II... the shield grids are in place (with the exception of one minor modification), and I need to redo the shuttlebay and redo the Phasers, and add in the seperation line but that's all small detail. On the low poly version I added armour around the bridge, but I've completely redesigned that area for the high poly version.

So, any thoughts people? Where could I add bits of detail in? Should I even add more? I don't want to bump anything until the textures are finished.

(Oh, and I think I know why the Connie Refit had fins on the nacelles - it was so they could mount the spotlights to highlight the registry. Its proving very difficult to light the Intrepid II.)

 

[kjc733]

This is an English spring - so it rained this afternoon.

A friend of mine told me it was too plain and smooth, it's a small ship so it needs roughing up a bit.

After a bit of trial and a lot of error I've made a few changes. I'm still working on the deflector area as the stepped effect from neither the Intrepid or Sovereign work with the way I've integrated the neck, D'oh.

But, I've added fins and grills to the nacelles as well as a slight step to the upper surface and emphasised the buzzard and coil grills indent a bit more. I've also added some cutouts in the aft pylon, call it inspiration from the Vesta.

I noticed that the Intrepid has a lot of... "handrails" on its saucer. I've no idea what they're supposed to be, but I put a couple around the bridge anyway.

 

[CABAL]

I noticed that the Intrepid has a lot of... "handrails" on its saucer. I've no idea what they're supposed to be, but I put a couple around the bridge anyway.

They could actually be handrails for people working on the hull to hold on to. I don't really know what else they could be.

 

[Hellkite]

Hull reinforcements for atmospheric flight

 

[Majestic]

Some nice progress there, not too sure about the impulse engines on the Intrepid Mk II though.

Nice to see the Starfury is getting some more work as well.

 

[kjc733]

Some nice progress there, not too sure about the impulse engines on the Intrepid Mk II though..

Aft hull or saucer?

 

[Majestic]

On the pylons near the warp nacelles.