Working on the obligatory Trek model. Here’s my work so far on the Shuttlecraft. It’s my intention to make it the most detailed you’ve ever seen for this ship. I know Trek is not everyones cup of tea but I thought I’d share it anyway.
It looks very nice
It’s looking quite good. The materials seem to fit it rather well at this point. I haven’t scrutinized the shuttles from Star Trek but your models are quite detailed.
The front view looks somewhat like a desk shelf/drawer-type object. Perhaps that’s just due to the work being in progress. Some parts of the modeling makes it look too much like a household object/toy, i.e. the ventilation outlets, the ridges on the windows, etc. The material’s creamy-white look makes the shuttle resemble a kitchen appliance.
Of course, the Star Trek shuttlepods might actually look like that, so you decide 
Great job so far, can’t wait to see the final detailed product.
Hmm, is that backview correct? The class1 shuttles have a flat hatch at the back. It somehow seems a little off, like it’s a variation of an actual shuttle. What are you modelling of, memory, picture, blueprint?
BTW, when you’re done, try making a class2 shuttle, or a deltaflyer. Those look cooler
That’s looking very good so far. Looks like the way the original shuttles should have looked - like what they would have made if they’d had a proper budget 
Nothing to crit yet.
Everyone,
Thanks for all the comments and crits. I’ve worked pretty hard on this so far and of all my Blender work I think this is the one I’m most proud of. More updates soon.
sno4wy,
A kitchen appliance! I never noticed it before but your right. Thanks for the chuckle. In reality it’s simply my standard WIP texture that I use until modeling is complete. Unfortunately the forward few is rather sparse on detail but perhaps when I get the door put in and some of the signage “painted” on things will look better there.
halfgaar,
I have poured over many, many images of the shuttle as seen on the show as well as several construction photos so it’s definately not from memory. However it’s not an exact replica as I’m trying to update it to where it’s hopefully more “believable” without departing too much from what one expects it to look like.
Are you also going to model NCC1701[D/E]? It would be cool to see an animation with the two… :).
Star Trek should be everyones cup of tea!! if not… i pity the foo! LoL
ANyhoo, it’s looks really good. Only thing is, where’s the door? There should be a door on the side of the shuttle, yet there isn’t from what I can see. :o
And it’s nice to actually see someone doing a fairly decent job on the inner workings of the nacelles. Most trekkie’s don’t even have the basic idea what they look like… oi
But since I’m not familiar with the older nacelle innards, I can’t say how accurate yours are. But they Look great non-the-less. LoL
Now when are you going to get the cockpit in there?! I wanna see chairs and buttons and dials and all that other great classic stuff!
And it’s nice to actually see someone doing a fairly decent job on the inner workings of the nacelles. Most trekkie’s don’t even have the basic idea what they look like
If you really wanna be cool, you could do some reasearch on how the plasmanetwork is layed out, and how the plasma is put trough the warp-coils… But to be honest, I think that at Paramount, the light of a nacelle is also just random 
My model of the Original Enterprise is not finished but check the bottom of this post and you perhaps will find something you might like.
I’m waiting on getting further on the interior before I add the door. The thing is, the studio interior set is built at a larger scale than the “full size” mockup! So putting the two together involves some compromise (hopefully nothing that will drastically change the way the door looks but we’ll see).
I’m sort of going out on my own on this one, with perhaps some influence (re: the warp coils) from later Trek. I’ve got a new take on parts of it that have not been modeled yet so hopefully no one will be out for my blood by the time I’m done. I will have some animated lighting effects on some internal parts that I hope I can get to “leak” out of the nacelle grill work but they are kind of small (in fact they are not yet even really grilles yet just cylinders that haven’t been opened up yet).
Nothing much to report as far as progress goes as I’ve not had a change to do much modeling lately but I did manage to work up an animation test. It’s far from finished and far from what I want to do with it but It’s a start…
Shuttlecraft animation test (WMV, 386KB)
I can do a DivX as well if any of our non OS-X Mac users wish to see it.
Hehehe, nice !
The Enterprise appears to be slightly reflective, which seems odd (but a nice model, you can’t model Trek and NOT make it ) given its colour and lighting.
The lighting looks good, but not at all space-like. But I’m pretty sure this is deliberate.
^^^ Thanks. Your right, the texture on both models are temporary until modeling is complete. As for the lighting, it’s a faked GI setup that provides plenty of shadows for a nice sense of scale.
Very nice, keep up the excellent work. Star trek rocks!!
btw, could you post a blend with your GI setup? I’m doing some space stuff in blender and am having trouble with the sense of scale… flying around planets feels like I’m an ant crawling around marbles…
good work, looks very nice.
mystery
Sure thing. I added some comments to the script. Hope this helps. I’d be interested in any improvements anyone might care to make.
Fake GI (.blend, 208KB)
Thanks for all the positives, so far I’ve really enjoyed working on this one. It just might be the one that actually gets finished.
Could anyone please enlighten me: What does GI mean? I know of GI Joe, but I guess that something different
GI stands for Global Illumination. And as opposed to YafRay or something similar I’m simulating it with a great many lightsources. Although the way the script works you can have as few or as many as you want (and in the locations you want them).
Is using the ambient lighting in the world settings not good enough?
BTW, in space, you generally see nothing, except when close to a star. But even then you only see the side of the object facing the star.
Yeah, why don’t we all just use ambient light?