CGI | Sci-fi Art

Scale comparison between the Palatine class SSC Adamant and the Sovereign class from Star Trek.

Sovereign Class model: Paul Trenkler

Palatine class model: Me

I finally reached the point where I can put my own work next to Trenkler's models without embarrassment.  Progress, I guess.

Dan

Well, it's time to start working on some interiors for our brave space cruiser, Adamant. Interiors are something I greatly enjoy making.  A lot of 3D artists groan at the prospect of building rooms, especially complex ones such as bridges of spaceships.  For those who do it well, however, the results are usually phenomenal.

Me, on the other hand...

Well, let's see some of the past attempts at interiors I've made.



Now, these look somewhat impressive.  I made these a few years ago.  However, there's a problem: my modeling techniques were very poor back in these days, so these scenes were very hard to build, and I didn't do a very good job.  I had to borrow a ton of stuff from other models for the props, and that's also no good in case I wish to sell the model in the future.

I want to build a ship's bridge for the ages, which I would be able to sell on-line with no potential problems.




Loads of work left to do, but this bridge looks pretty good.  I made it wider than the Enterprise - E bridge because the Adamant has a broader beam for the bridge module than Star Trek ships.

Still to do: Lots of stuff.

• Holographic displays, a la Tony Stark, whose computer GUI is just about the awesomest gadget I could possibly imagine for my home office.
• Consoles.  Lots of consoles all around.
• Lights.  Lots of spot lamps.
• Railings.  The crew needs something to hold onto when the ship gets blasted at by vicious alien thugs.

And that's about it.

Dan

I've been working on converting my two favorite spaceships of all time into Blender Cycles. =D

First, the Sacrilege! This is, by far, the baddest ship in Eve Online, as far as I'm concerned. It is also, obviously, the inspiration behind the Adamant. =D It makes the Adamant look silly and amateurish, as far as I can see, but oh well.

The model was imported from the game itself. It's been a bit of a challenge getting all the textures and whatnot to look right, and I've still got a little bit to go before I get it perfect. Obviously, I didn't make it, and it's really got no place here for the most part, but I just thought I'd put it up to show off that I haven't been completely lazy. =)


The second is something I've been working on for a LONG time. This is the model Paul Trenkler made of the Enterprise-E, the awesomest Enterprise, by far. =D It was originally modelled in Rhino, and then saved in .max format. I had to download a trial version of 3DSMax just to get to open the file. And then to export it took a bit of tinkering, which I actually can't remember even how I did.

Then, of course, there was importing it into Blender. Keeping in mind, this is back in the day when Blender was still around 2.3x, and I was using a Pentium 4, it took all night to convert the .3ds file into .blend. In the morning, imagine how thrilled I was to see Paul Trenkler's Sovereign, a ship model I had drooled over for a long time, sitting there, ready for me to play with. =)

Then came the arduous process of texturing the thing. This is the result (in Blender Internal):


And here is the Cycles version, which, in turn, calls on me to once again, completely re-texture!


Finally, since I feel that scale comparisons make things more interesting, and more real, here is a scale comparison of the Sacrilege from Eve Online and the Sovereign class starship from Star Trek.



What do I like to see in spaceship design? I like sleek, masculine designs, which are unorthodox, and are powerful looking.  However, I believe that all machinery and vehicles ought also to express an artistic flair to them.  The finest cars, I feel, down through history have been those that stand out stylistically--smart, beautiful lines and fascinating curves which look good from many angles.  I appreciate Lamborghini more than Ferrari, not because they are necessarily better built cars, but because I like the more sinister edge the Lambo designs have.

To me, the Sacrilege and the Sovereign represent the pinnacle of spaceship style for much the same reasons:

• Outstanding. They are not ordinary rocket ships.  They are not ordinary saucers, and they do not follow the general conventions of general spaceship design.  The designers realized a true, space-borne vessel can look like anything, since there is no atmosphere or any other like encumbrances which stand in the way.  

• Visually Interesting. They started with bizarre extremes: the Sacrilege's deeply dipping nose. The Sovereign's extremely long and thin profile.  These things feel daring, as neither of these design elements are particularly necessary and are not the first thing you think of when building a spaceship.  But they define the sense of the craft, and give it the marked personality which sticks with you.

• Menacing. Both ships look threatening.  They look as if they could hurt you, and you wouldn't want to be facing their might head on. One of the most powerful visuals in Star Trek movie history is this shot:

           
Someone's in for a world of hurt. Aren't you glad it's not you? When these ships are angry, you know it.  They bristle with power and menace.

In the end, this is what I love about these particular designs of starships, and what I would love to be able to produce on my own, had I the talent of the artists who designed the Sacrilege and the Sovereign.

Dan