The USS Consitution’s C.I.W.S.
Very nice! Don’t really like the icosphere at the front but that is more personal preference then anything. Good job man, can’t wait to see more!
The Icosphere is the radar dome, and the black uvsphere is the camera dome.
Ah I see, makes sense now. I thought that was what the missile were supposed to come out of 
I must be a noob when it comes to weapons lol.
Dudebot13 -> It’s a 6 “barrel” railgun that fires glorified ball-bearings. The rounds are 15cm diameter explosive spheres. Spheres are used because they load easily, and maximize volume with the smallest possible footprint.
Oh I see now. Man I was way off… remember what I said about noob with weapons… yea… Great modeling job though. Love the details!
Wouldn’t it make more sense to separate the barrels from the radar and camera dome? If I see it correctly the openings surrounding both are the barrels that shoot the spheres right?
Also although a sphere has the best surface to volume ratio it is very hard to store since it is round and rolls easily. Not something you would want for explosives
Every weapon system is a series of compromises. The current CIWS used by modern navies are typically a multi-barreled 20-30mm auto cannon with a radar assembly above the gun (Phalanx, Goalkeeper, Type 730, etc).
There are some limitation to the systems. There is no course correction while in flight; they’re just bullets, albeit a lot of them (75 a second). They are limited to the range of the round, due to ballistic path, and atmospheric drag. Also, they don’t have to worry about anything below the sea level. In deep space the battle environment is 360 degrees on all axis, the ranges much further, and the ballistic effects are negligible.
The main ship radar would be the first to identify any threats. The axis radar of this CIWS is just used for initial launch guidance, after which the round’s onboard mini radar takes over terminal guidance. The round can maneuver independently after launch, as the rail guns are just used to give it some extra velocity. As for thrusters, NASA is currently working on mini-thrusters for use on micro-satillites.
And the rounds are stored and fired from a micro-gravity environment. There is no point to generating gravity for places where there is little or no crew. So all rounds would be stored in automatic feed hoppers. The crew never touches them, except for routine maintenance. Also, gravity would place undue stress on the equipment during violent combat maneuver.
The Beehive CIWS is loosely based on the Robotech Mini-Missile launchers. So it is in effect a railgun boosted mini-missile system.
I’m still doing character work, and this weekend I worked on the Admiral. He’s supposed to look Mediterranean, and be in his mid-50’s.
Considering the number of hairs he has, I did some render test to see what the times would be like. The next thing I need to look at is whether or not I can do shape keys on the meshes that have the edited hairs emitting from them. If not, the beard and eyebrows are going to be a problem.
Even if my modeling skills still suck, I am really enjoying the hair and cloth modules.
The first image is show the options and times. The second image was rendered in 1024x768, with SS enabled for the right side.
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Great work! That looks really great and nicely detailed, I can’t wait to see some more of it.
Well, I finally broke down and purchased the X2 from Amazon. Heck, the cost dropped 5 bucks since I looked at it last.
While I could use the audio from the DV camera, this saves me from having to rip it off and convert it.
I got frustrated with the Admiral’s uniform, so I put it on the back burner, and worked on the fighter launch bay over the weekend. I’ll post pics tomorrow.
this looks like it’s gonna be awesome.
keep it up!
Damn it people, this need more hype!
Hell, I work in Show Biz. It’s nothing but Hype! Lots of projects don’t have much more then a good idea and a tagline. There needs to be something substantial before most folks jump on the bandwagon. That, or a remake of an already popular idea. Can you say “Transformers”?
Just like your Bernard’s Star project? You keep that up too!
I know that it’s a lot of work, but I’ve accepted that this could take another 3-4 years of my life to complete. But the big animation projects can take that long, and the companies have lots of people to throw at the problem. Wall-E was, what, 15 years in the making? Each of the Shrek movies took 3 years to complete? And even though the Appleseed movies were done in 18 months each, there were 5 companies working on each film flat out. So then I don’t feel so discouraged, and I pickup where I left off.
I’ve been working away on several items. I’ve reworked the Windego landing legs, to allow for a less clunky, more hydraulic look. The tarnished chrome look is my attempt to create a high energy, low atmosphere effect. I worked on the Windego launch bay (seen for 5 seconds in the pilot episode), but I think the support struts are too flimsy, so they need to be reworked. The hallway is a generic military hallway from the main carrier, done to meter scale.
I also worked on the Children of Sand and Sun, one of four alien races in the GSM universe. The creature is a radially symmetrical “tree”, that will require both bones and a lattice to properly animate. I don’t have anything to show yet, because the character doesn’t appear until later in the pilot. This was more for future reference. I’m kinda working the models in scene order.
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Yeaj, you’re back! Keep working, and keep posting 
The opening sequence has a quick asteriod flyby, so here we go. The first image is the asteroid backlit with a star flare (the background is the crab nebulae for grins and giggles) as it would be seen by the camera sweeping in. The second image is a bit more detail on the asteroid. It’s not perfect, but for a ball or rock that we’ll see for 3 seconds while in motion, it may be good enough. The ball is built from a 5 subdivision icosphere, sculpted, and textured with old-wall.
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beautiful asteroids. I cant wait to see the finished animation.