Having messed with blender off and on for a while but recently decided to really try my hand at it. To that end, I have started building the USS Titan NCC-80102 (from the Titan series of Star Trek novels). I have been using reference images from Google image search and following those as close as I could.
I know I have some skills I really need to improve with modeling, but, truthfully, texturing scares me to death. Currently, my materials consist of a single texture for the hull and two simple colors set to emit. I’m completely confused as to whether I should do windows and details via modeling (which I’m not totally against) or if I should do it via textures/materials… in which case, what’s the best way to go about it.
In any case, I hope you like how she’s looking so far
Nice ship
I have had my hands in a couple starships… they never turn out as nice as this one.
She seems a bit boxy? a multires or two would fix that.
Modeling windows and lights might be the best way to go, define windows on the model itself.
Texturing is a bit daunting at first. It gets easier with practice, like anything else.
Really nice work with the starship Titan.
Thank you. I do know she looks a bit boxy… I haven’t done much smoothing to her yet. I just started adding some details like a few more light areas and escape pod bays (at least, the surface if not the whole pod).
Yeah… I may just go with modeling the windows. I think that will save me material complexity… err… maybe? lol
An update to the USS Titan. Spent a couple hours and added a few of the escape pods and a couple minor details to just in front of the bridge. Only got to the top portion of the saucer, in terms of the escape pods, though. Still need to add them to the bottom of the saucer and to the main body. Ahhh… but that’s what the weekend’s for
i really love this project… maybe its cause i am watching all the star treks shows in Chronological order… started with enterprise, finished star trek (Leonard Nemoy), now watching TNG, DS9 is next… such a geek.
Yay! More escape pods! cough
Ok, and I finally added the running lights to the bottom of the saucer section too. Next, I guess I will be adding more pods to the drive section of the ship… Wheeee!
PODS! PODS! I’ve finished adding the escape pods to the drive section. True, there’s not as many as on the saucer, but, because the body has a slop to it that the pods have to follow, I’ve had to change up my MO for building the pods. Look me a little while to figure a good method out.
Next, I think I’m going to add the fine detail to the nacel pylons and along the side of the drive section. After that… texturing… maybe.
Added details along the main drive section. I hate irregular surfaces!!! Anyway, that’s why I only did the drive section and haven’t touched the engine pylons yet to add their detail. What I have started working on instead is… WINDOWS!!! HA! I’ve just started adding windows to the saucer section (doesn’t appear to be any on the drive section). One row done. Hope to finish at least the top of the saucer section windows by the end of the day.
By the way, the second screen shot is of the windows, but, they may be a little hard to see. THEY ARE THERE!
O_O Windows…
O_o W-w-w-windows!
o_O All I see are W-w-w-w-w-w
WINDOWS!!!
At least they’re done! Added all of the windows to both the top and bottom of the saucer section. As I’ve said before, I don’t see any windows on the drive section, so, I’m assuming I’ve added them all! Ok, ok… not quite all. The reference image has a couple in places my geometry makes adding them difficult at best, so, I opted to keep those out, but that’s only two or three pair of them.
Hoping my next post will contain some form of textured render of this ship. I want to see my windows in action!
Here’s another textured test render (compiled series of renders actually). This should give a much better view of the windows
In any case, I would LOVE some comments or suggestions. Any ideas anyone has on how to texture this bad boy would be greatly greatly appreciated, because I’m very raw to texturing!
Added some detail to the nacell pylon, but most of my work has been in smoothing the model. After spending quite a bit of time looking up various ways to smooth my model, I opted for marking edges as seams. Seems to work rather well in my opinion.
Sighs Still need to figure out how I’m going to go about texturing she nicely (not just those temp materials I’ve been putting on her).
wow! you’ve got some great work there!
a word of advice, though,
before you start on materials and textures, make sure to nail your lighting–otherwise you will have problems, and it won’t look as good as it deserves to look.
Spacetug… might you have any suggestions on how to go about lighting? Beyond basic cube modeling modeling I’m very much a noob.
In terms of lighting, the only thing I really had in mind was a couple of spot lights (to shine on the name… when I texture it on), and, maybe, some lights near the windows. Beyond that… Sheepish grin and a shrug
Added some details to the top of the saucer section I actually missed my first time around with details. I’ve "sharp edge"ed the whole ship, for all intents and purposes.
In the screenshot, Titan is only using 3 textures. The first is the hull, the second is for the windows. The third I used everywhere else. The third is mostly just a white, translucent texture. For areas I’ve setup with the translucent texture, I utilized colored lights (area lights mostly) to add the color and the lighting. Not sure if this is totally how I plan to go with it, but it seems to work for the most part.
Lastly, I applied “smooth” to the model, so, it shouldn’t look so “boxy” anymore.
it looks awesome the only thing that particularly bothers me is some of the edges 24th centery star trek ships tend to have nice curves but other than that great work.
You’re right, there are still a few places that could use a little more work. I find I have difficulty working on surfaces that aren’t strictly along one of the axies, so, some of the surfaces are … “fudged”? Perhaps that’s part of the problem?
