TOS Constitution

[Loneknight]

I’m using Blender since it is free, and many reviews claim that Blender is very on-par with industry standards like Maya, Lightwave, etc. Using the Alex Sinclair blueprints, scouring the internet for & downloading pictures of the original model, I set out to create a virtual Constitution-Class starship.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie_3.jpg
My approach was to model the big pieces first before focusing on the details. By this point, I had gotten quite a bit done: the saucer & neck were nearly complete, and I had just finished the secondary hull & deflector housing.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Nacelle_Side2.jpg
Starting on the warp nacelles.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie_Full2.jpg
Pylons created, nacelles mounted.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie_Full3.jpg
Still so much more left to do.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie_Sensor.jpg
Started the windows on the neck & got the deflector/sensor dish in place.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Secondary_Details2.jpg
More windows added/cut out on the warp pylons & secondary hull. Added raised details to the flat surfaces on the secondary hull.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie_Top2.jpg
Started some detail work on the saucer section. Also started adding details on the nacelles.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie_engines2.jpg
(Almost) Completed nacelles.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie_engines.jpg
The rear of the nacelles, where that ball sets into the endcap, is tricky. Because of the corrugated shape, it didn't render a smooth, flat plane. Its on my to-do list for fixing.

That's where she stands for now. There's a few things that need some tweaking: the b-c decks below the bridge, the nacelle endcaps, and (if I'm willing) correcting the shape of the secondary hull. Total time to get this far: about 6-8 months (the secondary hull was a PAIN).

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie_bottom.jpg
Still, for picking up a book and learning as I go, this hasn't turned out too bad.

Thanks for looking.

[The Cat]

That's some great work there - the Lady's looking wonderful!

[Taranis]

This looks great Loneknight... No fantastic is a better term.

I recently built this model in Lightwave.

Question to the seasoned 3D modelers out there: after some thought, I began to question if I should have cut the windows out, or left the polys in but changed their transparency settings (the intent is to add lights when I get to that point, maybe a few interiors here & there). Any input?
While I am not a professional modeler just a hobbyist like yourself.

What many of the pros do for the model in close up is to build a room behind the portholes... to get that added depth to the ship........ the great thing the original and for me still the best Enterprise (ok the refit is awesome) has a few windows. another thing I notice is your primary hull....... its has segmentation on it..... I assumed you use a lathe function (I am not sure of the term used in blender) you created the profile of the saucer shape and lathe it..... giving it some sides or segments. how many sides did you give it ? ....... at a guess between 60 and 80.... hard to say without wireframes.

this is what kills models in close up shots when you render it..... or even an animation.... when I built mine I gave it 180 sides so the model can handle close ups.

Check out this approach to doing windows (http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?15346-Starship-windows-with-Interior) it shows a great approach to added windows to your model. it is another program but the approach is the same as I would do in lightwave... the tutorial is found on scifi-meshes.com

Hope this helps...

Another thing that would be interesting to me and other modelers in cgi is seen your wireframes of this model....... is handy to show other how you built it.

I hope you don´t mind me posting images of my model in your thread to show what I mean....

looking forward to see more..

PS .. Don´t ask about texturing ...... its an area I an not very good at..... :hammer:

[Loneknight]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. It means a lot, and has certainly re-invigorated my motivation to keep working on it.

Taranis: thanks for posting that link for the window tutorial. I have seen it before actually, but the writers' terminology had me stumped. Since he was working in 3DS Max, I have no idea whether the tools or features are transferable to Blender. I'll have to take another look at his tutorial & see if there's anything I can extrapolate from it. Worst case: I go to Blenders' forums & start asking there.

Regarding the segmentation...I have noticed it in several renders as well. Initially, it was to keep poly count low for pity on the machine I was using (also as a noob following an author's insistence to keep poly count low for render times). As I progressed further on the model however, I realized that re-doing the primary hull was a strong possibility.

I did use a 'lathe'-like function, though (in Blender it's called "Spin"). Again, because I didn't want to kill my PC, I kept the step-count around 12-15. After smoothing it & adding an additional subdiv surface smoother, I setup the mirror. Now, I don't know how Lightwave does it, but Blender uses a mirror 'modifier': basically, it's a non-destructive setting that dupes the geometry without adding any additional polys; I can turn it on & off at will, but if I want I can 'apply' the modifier to add the extra, mirrored geometry to the model. Since the window placement is staggered on some areas of the saucer I had to permanently set the mirror, but lately I've noticed that in close-ups there's a thin seam running right through the middle of the saucer (it goes away, strangely enough, when I render the shot. Editing inside of Blender, it's sometimes painfully obvious).

I'll try & post wireframes soon, and I certainly don't mind you posting wireframes of your model. Your Connie looks very nice, by the way!

[Taranis]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. It means a lot, and has certainly re-invigorated my motivation to keep working on it.

Taranis: thanks for posting that link for the window tutorial. I have seen it before actually, but the writers' terminology had me stumped. Since he was working in 3DS Max, I have no idea whether the tools or features are transferable to Blender (I'm sure they are, but I still have yet to find a lingo translator between 3D programs :p). I'll have to take another look at his explanation & see if there's anything I can pick out from it. Worst case: I go to Blenders' forums & start asking there. It isn't that I'm not finding ways of creating windows (obviously...my pictures show a great deal of them), but I'd love to know if there's an easier way at it...especially since, down the road, I'd love to tackle the Enterprise-D.

As for your comment about the segmentation...I have noticed it in several rendered shots as well. Initially, the idea was to keep poly count low for pity on the machine I was using (also as a noob following an author's insistence to keep poly count low for render times...I gotta stop following ALL the instructions :D). As I progressed further on the model however, I realized that re-doing the primary hull was a strong possibility.

You are correct that I used a 'lathe'-like function, though (in Blender it's called "Spin"). Again, because I didn't want to kill my PC, I kept the step-count around 12-15. After smoothing it & adding an additional subdiv surface smoother, I setup the mirror. Now, I don't know how Lightwave does it, but Blender uses a mirror 'modifier': basically, it's a non-destructive setting that dupes the geometry without adding any additional polys; I can turn it on & off at will, but if I want I can 'apply' the modifier to add the extra, mirrored geometry to the model. Since the window placement is staggered on some areas of the saucer I had to apply the mirror, but lately I've noticed that in close-ups there's a thin seam running right through the middle of the saucer (it goes away, strangely enough, when I render the shot. Editing inside of Blender, it's sometimes painfully obvious).

I'll try & post wireframes soon, and I certainly don't mind you posting wireframes of your model. Your Connie looks very nice, by the way! I hope mine turns out just as good.

I don´t know much about Blender so I cannot help as much as I would like....... Lathe is Spin in Blender I have to remember that.

what kind of machine do you have....... Ram wise...

Between 100 sides or Spins..... and 180 would be enough.. all you need is to texture it...... a Blender forum should help a lot there.

[Loneknight]

I'm building the Connie on two machines: The first is a desktop with 4GB of ram, AMD dual core @ around 3.0ghz, and an ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card. The second is a laptop, but I don't have the specs in front of me right now.

Thanks for your feedback, by the way! After your comment I decided to create a new saucer, stepped it 100 times @ 180 degrees. The results certainly look better:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/saucer_new.jpg

Performance-wise, my laptop bogged down when I switched the viewport shading from 'Solid' to 'Textured' ('Textured' view tries to display the model as it would appear when I go to render it, but it tries doing this in real-time). The desktop appears un-phased...I just need to remember to keep the viewport in 'Solid' mode for the time being.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/saucer_new2.jpg
Still need to apply the mirror modifier, but the saucer definitely looks better! Note the white-ish square to the top-left: trying my hand at applying different materials to the model as I'm re-adding details.

I'll probably work on the details of the saucer first before starting textures. There's a wealth of tutorials I've seen to get me started, but I probably won't start that until I get the windows & cargo hatches/landing legs (whatever the hell those triangular thingies are supposed to be on the bottom of the saucer) finished.

[Taranis]

I'm building the Connie on two machines: The first is a desktop with 4GB of ram, AMD dual core @ around 3.0ghz, and an ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card. The second is a laptop, but I don't have the specs in front of me right now.

Thanks for your feedback, by the way! After your comment I decided to create a new saucer, stepped it 100 times @ 180 degrees. The results certainly look better:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/saucer_new.jpg

Performance-wise, my laptop bogged down when I switched the viewport shading from 'Solid' to 'Textured' ('Textured' view tries to display the model as it would appear when I go to render it, but it tries doing this in real-time). The desktop appears un-phased...I just need to remember to keep the viewport in 'Solid' mode for the time being.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/saucer_new2.jpg
Still need to apply the mirror modifier, but the saucer definitely looks better! Note the white-ish square to the top-left: trying my hand at applying different materials to the model as I'm re-adding details.

I'll probably work on the details of the saucer first before starting textures. There's a wealth of tutorials I've seen to get me started, but I probably won't start that until I get the windows & cargo hatches/landing legs (whatever the hell those triangular thingies are supposed to be on the bottom of the saucer) finished.

What I meant was setting the segments either at 100 or 180 and 360º ,,,, but having 200 sides will definitely be better :)

I have a tutorial I done for the Enterprise but in Lightwave (http://taraniscgi.wordpress.com/category/lightwave-tutorials/).. I am re editing it at the moment......
some awful error in grammar
Oh I will say that the 2nd and 3rd deck or that teardrop shape as some call it, the approach I used was one used also in Blender. I can get you that link too if you like

4 gig is what I have.. you have enough ram......... of course it also depend on blender.... but I have not heard of any performance issues with blender

[Loneknight]

What I meant was setting the segments either at 100 or 180 and 360º ,,,, but having 200 sides will definitely be better :)

I have a tutorial I done for the Enterprise but in Lightwave (http://taraniscgi.wordpress.com/category/lightwave-tutorials/).. I am re editing it at the moment......
some awful error in grammar
Oh I will say that the 2nd and 3rd deck or that teardrop shape as some call it, the approach I used was one used also in Blender. I can get you that link too if you like

4 gig is what I have.. you have enough ram......... of course it also depend on blender.... but I have not heard of any performance issues with blender

I see what you meant regarding the segments now. I didn't want to go too crazy with it, so 100 steps looked decent. Whether I choose to do close-ups or not may determine how much more detail I add, but at least this way the saucer will look good from any distance. ;)

I'd love to take a look at your tutorial for the b/c decks (2nd & 3rd...whatever it's called, lol). I was happy with how mine turned out, save for the back-top of the teardrop, so any additional advice would be great!

[Taranis]

Here is that tutorial for the Enterprise in Blender by Scifieric.

http://www.3dscifi.com/forums/showthread.php?2367-How-to-Build-the-Starship-USS-Enterprise-in-Blender-2.49-WARNING-Image-Intensive!

[Loneknight]

The re-designed saucer is definitely an improvement:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/saucer_new3.jpg

All of the cuts made so far were to get the mirrored elements done. After I apply the mirror, I can continue adding in the rest of the details.

The details were added by way of boolean operations. If there was an easier way to do this I'd kill for it. Still, a little clean-up and the cuts look pretty darn good.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/saucer_new4.jpg

It may just be me, but the top of the saucer looks more like a pimple. Maybe its the angle, the lighting, or just the default material. I'm hoping it will look better after I get into materials & texturing.

[Taranis]

It looks a lot better..... the lower saucer looks great, I see what you mean about the top...

some wireframes would help.

This ship while a simple one by many standards can cause problems to get right.... its a unforgiving design that way..

It took me 5 attempt's to get it and to finish it and I will work on it again. :)

[Loneknight]

This ship while a simple one by many standards can cause problems to get right.... its a unforgiving design that way..

...and here I thought she'd be just enough of a challenge to build in 3D. Oy...

Well, here's the wireframes. Looking at the fore of the ship:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/saucer_wireFore.jpg

Side:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/saucer_wiresbd.jpg

Top & bottom perspective shots:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/saucer_wire3.jpg
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/saucer_wire2.jpg

When I lined up the saucer with the Sinclair blueprints, I only saw a very slight deviation (actually, it looked more like my saucer was slightly taller compared to the prints...go figure). The top curve of the saucer appears correct, so I'm hoping that the previous image I posted was just the way in how I setup the camera.

[Taranis]

Looks good ....... Thanks for the wire-frames

I used Charles Casimiro Blueprints for mine.....

[Loneknight]

I've seen the Casimiro prints, and I use them (among a TON of reference photos found all over the internet) to help define details.

The Sinclair prints are nice though because he offers them in standard image formats, along with DWG and DXF formats. I can view them with Solidworks' eDrawings viewer (free download, btw) to get ridiculously up-close for details. Plus, the DWG format can be ported over to Illustrator and converted to high-res images. It may be overkill, but the bigger the image that I can get into Blender and use as my background template, the less squinting I have to do (plus, being an anal-retentive graphics guy, I tend to get hung up on the details :D). Also, when I 'port it to Illustrator I can save it as a .svg, which Blender can import & convert the lines to a 2D mesh. I used that trick a few times to help with proportions & sizing of my objects.

[Loneknight]

So work & life have dominated most of my time as of late (had to get a new car, building a website by myself for work...and I thought 3D modeling was tough :wall:), but I managed to sneak in some progress on the Connie.

Because booleans seemed to be the best route for the windows, it required creating individual 'cutters' for every window on the saucer. This shot shows the cutters for the lower saucer, since by this point I had created the windows around the saucers' outer perimeter.
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Saucer_Cutters.jpg

Creating one window is a multi-step process in Blender. I can go into details if someone asks, but for each window it involves about 6 steps (a few more if you're checking to make sure your normals are going the right direction). It borders on laborious, but the results turned out far better than the original process I was using.
Here's a shot of the cutters intersecting the faces where the windows will appear. These faces were separated from the rest of the saucer, and will be re-integrated once all the notches are made.
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Saucer_Cutters2.jpg
Separating the specific faces, or polygons, from the rest of the saucer mesh isn't exactly necessary. Because I'm using boolean operations to create the window notches however, it makes life easier - both on yourself and your poor PC.
Booleans use a decent amount of computing power to apply its operation; the issue is that booleans will use EVERY vertex point, edge and face in a mesh to do so, even if the majority of those faces aren't even intersecting the object you're using for the operation. By isolating those polygons where the notches go, the boolean runs MUCH faster, producing a cleaner result. Its then fairly easy to re-integrate those faces back into the saucer mesh.

Took about a couple hours, but here's the end result:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/saucer_new5.jpg

The triangular sections were off (again), so I had to re-cut those. Thankfully, Blender's recent release (2.6.3) introduced n-gons, which made a few things easier...like filling in the notches with a window-looking material.
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie-windows2.jpg

The window material isn't anything special, and certainly isn't final. I still need to fill in the windows on the secondary hull, bridge & b/c decks. After that however, I'll go back & fine-tune the window material since that's my next section of the book to tackle.
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie-windows3.jpg

Another shot of the Connie as she appears now. I would have filled in the secondary hull windows, but it was late...and I do enjoy sleep. :D
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie-windows.jpg

One last shot looking aft...nothing special, just showing off her 'ample nacelles':
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie_4.jpg

Thanks for looking.

[VolcanoLogic]

Very impressive work there... looks like some very clean modeling.

[Loneknight]

Thanks! I haven't updated in awhile since real-world events & work have kept me busy with other things. I'm also trying to learn lighting, materials & texturing (which, I'll be honest, is a pain in the ass).

Thus far, this is where the Connie is now:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Loneknight776/Renders/Blender%20-%20Constitution/Connie_lighttest.jpg

Still a ways to go, but she's getting there.

[VolcanoLogic]

I think it looks great and you're doing great... I own Blender, but so far haven't been able to figure out how to use the darn thing. The GUI is so confusing to me... I just have no idea where to start or how to do anything. It's the only 3D program I can have though, since it's the only one I can afford. I have a model someone made for me in Blender that I finally learned how to light and render, but so far I'm unable to actually make any objects.

[Loneknight]

Thanks again for the kind words.:-)

Blender is kind of a beast, I will admit. Having tried Lightwave, then Sketchup, and finally deciding that I WILL learn Blender (like you, it was in my price range :D), there is a learning curve. Lightwave was too expensive, and Sketchup is too basic.

There are some pretty decent tutorials online, but I tend to learn differently than 'click this, click that, press x key and move this to there, etc.'. I need to know why I'm clicking this, or pressing that, and what that function does.

I found a copy of Blender for Dummies, and it's a good jumping-off point. The author does a fairly decent job at introducing you to the concepts of Blender, how to use the majority of the tools, and walks you through tutorials step-by-step. He doesn't cover everything - and I can't blame him - but it is enough to get you started. Checking Amazon, you can score a copy for around $20...which kinda irks me: I paid full price for mine!
Blender for Dummies @ Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Blender-For-Dummies-Jason-Gumster/dp/0470584467/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354840552&sr=8-1&keywords=Blender+for+dummies)

If you want links to online tutorials, let me know. Keep in mind, however: the folks behind Blender are constantly updating the program, which is nice since they add features & fix bugs, but sometimes these tutorials aren't updated to the latest version, so you either have to wing it or go searching for a more up-to-date how to. Trust me, though: once you get your bearings, using Blender is (mostly) a walk in the park.

And of course, if you need to ask me any questions, I'll do my best to help you out!

[VolcanoLogic]

^

Thank you, Loneknight! I'll check out that book ASAP. Believe it or not, it took me forever to decipher just how to lock in a camera angle for rendering (CTRL+ALT+0). I am using Blender 2.32 (don't laugh)... I know it's very dated, but I have tried newer versions and I just got completely lost, so version 2.32 is what I'm using for the time being. Again, thank you, and I'll PM you with any further questions about Blender... I appreciate the help!

[Loneknight]

Don't mention it! While I can't guarantee I can offer much help with 2.32, I'll give it my best shot. ;)