Vortex' WIP's; Lost Era Avenger Class

[Vortex]

No, you aren't. I think it's the roll bar that give it that Romulan "wings" look. Interestingly, I've been thinking of how I'd approach redesigning Trek ships in my own way, and I was thinking of having the Defiant been a joint design with the Romulan's. I'll get around to those someday.

For now though:

Having read the 150 Years book, I got inspired by it. It stated that Captain April served on an Einstein class. I had a picture of what that may have looked like in my mind, then they went and said the Kelvin was an Einstein class. I've never been a huge fan of the Kelvin, so that left me somewhat dissapointed. I decided to go ahead and build my own version of what that class could be.

The idea is that this is something to bridge the gab between Daedalus and Constitution. Yesterday I started a quick concept model to get it out of my head, today I've started trying to work out the neck. I'm liking the overall shape, just not the way it was modeled.

Anyway:
EINSTEIN CLASS





Oh, and I'm not going to start another ships until I've got one of my current WIPs done. xD

[Gorandius1256]

Nice looking ship, reminds me a bit of that Metaluna class that Ricky Wallace did over at madshipyards

[TraxZion]

Nice job, look forward to seeing how this progresses

[Vortex]

Thanks for the comments. I've just given the neck another go.

[TraxZion]

Nice stuff, stick with it.

[WileyCoyote]

It looks like you successfully connected the neck to the saucer!  That is difficult to do, and you can use that same process for the Enterprise-D neck.

Good work!

[Vortex]

Thankyou. With the saucer being oblong, it's looking a little Galaxy-ish. xD

At the minute, the neck is a separate object. How do you go about overlapping polies like these? Are they an issue or not?

[TraxZion]

I am not an expert on this particular game engine but a general rule in modelling for games:

If its a moving element, springs on suspension etc. or an element that needs animating then it should not be unified (a single mesh)

If it represents a solid piece, and has no intention of animation or movement then it should be unified (made one piece in a clean fashion)

So in your case, in my opinion you should unify, and make it one piece.

At the minute, the neck is a separate object. How do you go about overlapping polies like these? Are they an issue or not?/quote]

[King Class Scout]

unfortunately, unifying the mesh often makes it nearly impossible to get a good texturing done, from what I've seen.  I'll bet someone will argue the point, though.

[Vortex]

Trax, I believe that BC's engine requires(or at least works better with) a unified mesh.

As Blender doesn't support smoothing groups and subsurf is no good for gaming models, things have to be separated out manually to smooth.

[Vortex]

Knocked up something for the pylons. Needs a lot of work, but should show roughly what I'm aiming for.

[hobbs]

looking classic Vortex 

[Vortex]

Thankyou. Having seen Killa's New Orleans, it's struck me that this looks (unintentionally) like a TOS version.

[TraxZion]

unfortunately, unifying the mesh often makes it nearly impossible to get a good texturing done, from what I've seen.  I'll bet someone will argue the point, though.

Not really, Once the model is unified it can then be detached into separate elements to make the texturing and mapping easier. once your fully mapped you can then just re weld the verts and you will nave no uvw issues etc, it is a method I was taught a fair few years ago and it has served me very well.

Back on topic.
The model is getting better and better, nicely done.

[Vortex]

Not really, Once the model is unified it can then be detached into separate elements to make the texturing and mapping easier. once your fully mapped you can then just re weld the verts and you will nave no uvw issues etc, it is a method I was taught a fair few years ago and it has served me very well.

Ah, cool. I'll have to try that when I get that far.

And thankyou. I do need to find a better way to build the pylons. At the minute, they're just extruded from the neck and they have a really odd tilt to them.

I'm also thinking of bringing the nacelles forward a little more. At the minute, they feel too far back:

[hobbs]

id say the nacelles are fine where they are... if, to my eye, a bit high.

[Vortex]

The height bugged me as well, but it gives the nacelles clearance over the saucer.



I have thought of slightly reshaping the saucer in order to lower the nacelles. Something like so:





Oh, just thought, I still need to add a bridge module at somepoint. xD That may help to sell the nacelles height a little better.

[nxadam1701]

The new shape reminds me of the Niagara.

[Vortex]

Had to look that up. Ugly ship. :p

Okay, so I've extended the neck, nudged the nacelles forward a little and given the pylons another try. I'm liking this result much better.

[Vortex]

A few ortho's.