Star Trek Builders Unite 7: The Continuing Mission
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Has a bridge module replacement on a Galaxy class ever been depicted? The procedure was described in the Tech Manual but I was wondering if there were any visuals out there.
I never saw one in any of the books I use to have or in the 1701-D blueprints.
Hello,
I am curious as to what kind of lighting people use for for their ship scenes.
Also when creating a uniform from a template, do you fill it in one square at a time or is there someway of applying the colors en mass?
The closest you'll get is the bridge from Generations, which added two side stations to the original design.
I can't help you to much with the lighting I would suggest you check with some of the comic creators here on the Trek formum like Paul and Ashe5K if you use Studio and Bruffy if you use Poser. As far as textures what I do is use photoshop and I will generally take one of the textures instead of the template as a base then create a blank layer to work with. By using the texture I have a better idea of where things are laid out and can better picture what it will look like. I will lay out the lines for the image first then I can just use auto fill to color it when I am finished. If you are using GIMP I am sure it can do done in much the same way. Hope this helps you out and glad you stopped by to ask questions.
I meant the actual removal of the whole bridge module, not just the updated stations. Basically, they can disengage a few locks and remove the entire thing in drydock, bridge, observation lounge, the undepicted lounge below the bridge and observation ports, then lift it away and put a whole new module in it's place.
I imagine it'd work something like Worf, Picard and Hawk disengaging the deflector in Star Trek Frist Contact only it'd be a LOT more involved and require a lot more prep time as well as some workbees to cart the old bridge away.
I'm mainly looking for references for the connecing parts on the underside of both the module and how it hooked into the actual ship and hull.I may just have to wing it and cheat so you can't actually see much in the shots I have planned. It's going to be in a drydock... hmmm
For my interior lighting I'm taking full advantage of iRay in DazStudio. You need at least version 4.8 for that though. I just select what should be lights and make them actually light up the scene. Some sets have better 'internal' lighting this way than others.
I use Photoshop for all my texturing needs. Unless I'm adding weathering to it, I color things in enmass using the selection and fill tools. Weathering and detail I'll add in using a paintbrush or pencil in Photoshop.
If you want a more detailed guide for any of this let us know. :)
Thanks for the replies. My plan is to use the MFD as the base for a jacket and skirt uniform based on this http://images-cdn.perfectworld.com/arc/a4/8e/a48e545c2f2aa6ee767f7ffdce5ceb631406239062.png so
I can use it on all figures from V4 through G3
I have GIMP and can use that. Any advice would greatly apprieated and I will gladly share them when completed
I always found making custom textures to just be a process of trial and error. I have photoshop and Studio open at the same time, with just the item I'm texturing loaded. Then I just switch back and forth, applying my in process textures as I go along.
Snowsultan generously makes a lot of free seam templates - get the one for the MFD. You'll be very happy you did.
I avoid trying to put any lines or material breaks on the shoulder and upper arm area of anything made for the Generation 4 figures. It gives a stretched looking effect that drives me nuts.
Save your layers so you can make displacement maps, bump maps and normal maps. That will help sell the look of your garment.
While I love mdbruffy's corridor kit, I decided to break my Trek set modeling virginity a bit (I'd really only modeled bits and pieces to slap into existing sets and my completed shuttle bay set is FAR from done) with something I thought would be simple. The existing kit makes for a very wide turning corridor which is great for exterior concentric corridors but means you have to add in a lot of corridor to get that long shot. So I started building what I hoped would be more of a match to the actual set in Star Trek TMP Through SFS but ended up somewhere between where mdbruffy's curve exists and the real world set plans. I'm not done by any means, and I really need to model my own radial corridors and Transporter and briefing room and smaller crew quarters for the grunts who aren't Admiral/Captain Kirk, but I figured I'd share some of what I'm working on. The ceiling ductwork and panels are in fact way WAY too low and I'm working on a new render with them jacked way up into the ceiling where they should be.
I didn't want to share the other TNG style corridor set I'd built as I'd used parts exclusively from another set to build it, but when I'm done with this and the completed TMP set build I'll be more than happy to share this one. I may actually have this outer ring tie into the proper set build with corridor junctions to give a huge amount of corridor to play with.
You might want to look at how the saucer seperates from the battle section. Used those clamps amd locks as a guide.
Hve fun!
Yeah I'm really appreciating what you came up with for this. Lots of work but really rewarding!
For something like that you can pretty much do your own thing. There never was any depiction of a bridge module being swapped out, not even in fan blueprints - that I know of anyway.
Found a really good MSD of the Galaxy that did up the bridge module in kind of the shape I'd imagined it would be. I'm thinking a series of locks around the edges like they mention in the technical manual and a kind of control column that ties into all the bridge stations to control the ship like the central column on the deflector dish in First Contact. No big cables though. I'm thinking giant isolinear optical connections like a huge USB stick. Should be fun when I get around to it. Probably putting way too much thought into this, but oh well.
Nah I wouldn't say that at all. That is one of the cool things about Cannon, someone comes up with an idea and it takes off, the next thing you know its ina book or a movie ... Instant Cannon. Take the Mirror Universe badge I had done for my brother Pauls comices. I offered it as a freebie and it turns up in a Star trek comic produced by one of the major comic brands and approved by Paramount ... Instant Cannon!! Now that badge is Cannon for the Mirror Universe, kind of mind blowing when you think about it.
Good point.
I did some quick mock-ups, mainly because I had to work the EARLY shift for a friend and got caught up real fast. This is REALLY quick and dirty for what I'm thinking about concept wise for the 'innards' below the bridge module. I was thinking about your idea with the docking clamps from the star drive section mdbruffy and I might still go that route, but I wanted to see how something a little different and closer to what they talk about in the technical manual would work.
I was thinking a partial model would do a bit better than carving up the Galaxy mesh I'm using, but now that I'm thinking about it, why not go all out? It's not like I'm breaking the real model. :P
If you've got the modeling programs that will allow you to do it, go for it.
The modeling part will be the easier part I think. Getting it to convert and import will be the harder part. I use Truespace which doesn't save natively in any kind of format that anything else will import so I have to use a 3rd party to convert the files to OBJ files for import. I should probably finally sit down and work with Lightwave enough to learn it, but Truespace has been way too comfortable for too long.
I find both Lightwave and Blender to be very much NOT user friendly.
Well the corridor test looks a bit better now. I was toying witht eh idea of bringing over the corridor color schemes from the original TOS set, hence the red ceiling panels and the blue bulkhead. There'd be a red bulkhead further down from that ifit went that way. It was supposed to be a send off to the red and blue floor striping in the TOS corridors, but I'm not sure I like the look. I do think I'm keeping the option to color the doors based on what's behind them though instead of having nothing but red doors. I need to work on panel labels to identify what deck and section you're in and make up some of the wall details they started adding in Star Trek II. I'm seriously thinking about completely and totally redoing all the bulkheads and the endcaps so they're one piece. Right now it's a big pain to line them up as they're split and paired up with their section and when you're building a corridor and they can be a pretty big pain. Probably be easier to just have the bulkhead separate to make adjusting it easier. I need to separate the panels to that either wall is independent of the other. Come to think of it, that'd make converting this over to the Next Gen walls even easier!
So there's that.
The other one is a lighting test render I did with a stand in space station (the Alexandria if you're going out looking for it) that's probably not going to be stand in later and I'll just go ahead and use. I'll need to drop more ships into this if I do though. That's a lot of drydocks to have empty. The Nemesis drydock also doesn't work too well with the Galaxy class. It was meant to be universal to everything but it was designed with the Sovereign in mind for the film and wasn't completely fleshed out. I added a spacer and resized it a bit for the wider saucer section of the Galaxy. Still not sure I'll use that or a different drydock. I am of course getting way ahead of myself yet again.
http://www.daz3d.com/collective3d-portrait-vignettes-sci-fi-2
Anyone else find this set somewhat familiar?
Yeah that was my first thought too. It's a flat version though. No way you could do a circular bridge with it without heavily modding it but for one off shots it'd be great! ;)
You'd probably have to reduce the width of it to get it to go into a circular bridge. The station seems a bit long in the width with there only be one set of controls.
yeah, but it's not angled at all either. All of the original bridge consoles aren't flat, they're kind of V shaped. I could totally see using this as part of an office or if you're creative with it, part of a different shaped bridge.
Minor technicality. Could probably put a dummy pylon in where the sections meet. Where there's a will there's a way or a workaround. LOL
Oh kind gentle soul, I have spent several hours filling in each individual square on the template. If you know a better way to transpose textures, please enlighten me.
It's out?
<clickety-click>
It's out!!1!1eleven!!
Hooboy, now that's what I call starting an episode with a crash, bang, wallop...
This thread is awesome!
When I get home I'll open up photoshop and throw together a quick tutorial. All I have at work is paint and that just won't work