Refit Enterprise Intermediate Model

[DeMosr]

After over a year of lurking, I finally have built up the nerve to post something myself.
I have been fiddling with the refit Enterprise (doesn't everyone?)-- and here is an intermediate model, done with Anim8or. It is full of glaring inaccuracies, but is more a testbed for learning HOW to make a better model.

[skyhawk223]

You have done well with the overall shape. No glaring inconsistencies there. Smaller details are where more comments will probably come in.
What are those blue patches on the underside of the saucer?

[DeMosr]

The blue patches are I'm guessing cargo hold access panels, plus the landing leg panels. On some models, these are colored, including the fully painted Bandai model I ordered last fall. I've been going off it for much of the color scheme, although I've changed a few spots that I had found were wrong. I guess I missed the panels.
Eventually, as real life permits, I'm going to add the aztec pattern and various other details to the final model, wrestling with the detail devil on all the finer points. The main hitch I'm up against is keeping the poly count down. This model has 30,800 polys. I'd like to keep that count about the same, or no more than 40,000, on the final model. While I have an idea where to shave some off in spots, it's still a learning process.

Darrel

[Thomas P]

Looks very good. Always impressed when I see such good work with tools not in the mainstream on sites like this. Small suggestion - JPG or PNG images, a 2.3MB BMP image post is a bit much!

[DeMosr]

Oops!



about 61k -- much better


Darrel

[Thomas P]

Thanks!

I tried anim8or and am impressed with what you have done with it.

[DeMosr]

Just for comparison -- My first completed refit, a simple model under 2500 polys, the intermediate, and the very early work in progress of my final version.


Darrel

[skyhawk223]

Ahh, here come the textures. A good looking progression.

[DeMosr]

(done with Anim8or)

Except for windows and one section of text, I think I'm pretty much done with the texture of the saucer. I've left the bottom panels white instead of blue in this version. Thanks for pointing this out, skyhawk223.

I've also begun the command deck.

Darrel

[skyhawk223]

I love the texturing and lettering. Coming along very nicely.

[DeMosr]

(rendered in Anim8or .85)

The windows are done, and I'm experimenting with bump maps and lighting.


Darrel

[General Phoenix]

Wow - she's really looking nice!

The only thing I can see is that the outer edge of the saucer doesn't have many segments, but since this is supposed to be a relatively low poly model, that can't be avoided.

Besides, once you put her in a scene (or especially an animation) you won't be able to tell anyway.

[DeMosr]

Maybe I'm being naive -- what is an acceptable poly count for a good model?

[skyhawk223]

Are the doors on the side of the saucer texture maps?

Poly counts depend on what you want to use it for, what your computer is, and personal preference.. Personally I think that bigger is better, even on my old P133 I would have scenes of over a million Poly's, and models of half a mill..

I think it looks great, but if you want to do some close shots, like the ones of a saucer above, I would smoth it out a little more, beyond that it's one nice model


Ryoken

[General Phoenix]

On the other hand, those million poly models and scenes could take a few days to render - not exactly practical.

Darrel, I'm actually very impressed with your work so far - to make the saucer, which is probably the most polygon-heavy part of this model, look that good at such close range is amazing. I can't wait to see what you do with the nacelles - they always seem to be the tricky part.

Yep.. As I said, depends on Use and prefrence.. And computer..

The old one that took my comp to a crawl in wireframe, I can now use in D3D without a problem, and that's a 300 000 Poly unfinished model.. My prefrence has always been modeled details over textures, and speed.. ( Mostly because I never could to textures anyway )

But if I ever wanted to animate anything, I would even with my current comp be screwed



Ryoken

[DeMosr]

Wow! A lot of people checked this out today!

Um, okay. Most of the saucer datails are textured, in the mistaken personal belief that this would make the model easier to work with. My intermediate model on the other hand was texture-free -- strictly materials only.

When I had tried to do even the Aztec pattern on the primary hull, poly count shot up around 20,000 -- this without the command deck, sensor array, or impulse housing.

My computer is now 4 years old. It gets cranky with models over 50,000 polys.
It was the best you could reasonably get for a PC -- 4 years ago.

As for the nacelle, I'm anxious to get to it. I really liked the way the simpler one came out...



Darrel

[skyhawk223]

You were modeling the aztec pattern? Why not just use a texture map?

[DeMosr]

At the time, I hadn't ever used texture maps -- didn't know how.

By the by, are there ANY good higher res schematics of the refit online?

http://www.strekschematics.utvintern...enta/enta.html Is the best I've found


Ryoken

[skyhawk223]

Have you tried the IDIC page?
http://members.aol.com/idicpage/main.html

[DeMosr]

I have been using the IDIC page as queues for texturing. I hadn't known about the other link, though. Thanks, Ryoken, skyhawk223.

A minor update -- I hadn't really liked the way the saucer edge looked on my model, and I took your advice on the saucer and redid it.



(created and rendered in Anim8or 8.5)

Like I said -- still learning how to texture properly. In the old version, the lettering wasn't textured -- it was a seperate mesh. The area on the texture map was only 100 pixels wide -- it looked worse even than the gangway hatch.

The new version I actually hacked out a section of the saucer and used UVMapper to make a new map for it, allowing the higher resolution.

[skyhawk223]

Very nice. Segments are no longer apparent.

[General Phoenix]

I've never been so impressed by something that simple...

Keep it up, man.