ATOLM design - sort of

Thomas P · April 13th, 2009, 10:06 PM

Okay, thought I had an old WIP around here of this beast but could not find it. There is a funny story about this one, short version is that when I asked Atolm a modeling question about the ship, it is Gorn, he was amused because it was a kitbash of various SFC mods he just threw together. This is another project ship that got close to complete but I stalled on.

I have made my own tweaks to it with some changes to the upper and lower pylon assemblies and warp drive. Oh, and it has way more polys than the original (like about 10,000 times more

). Chris (Atolm) provided a 'template' for me to design the panels for the wings and that has inspired the rest of the texture panels.

Here is the basic ship but it is missing a few parts. This was to see the start of the texture on it as well.

evil_genius_180 · April 14th, 2009, 12:23 AM

http://www.3dgladiators.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=22494

Do I win a prize or something?

In case you didn't know, you can click on your (or anyone's) profile, go under the "statistics" tab and click on "find all threads started by *insert user name here*." It's a time saver when you know you started a thread but for the life of you can't remember when or where (I know.

)

I like the looks of the ship. It's a cool, compact design. I also like the texturing.

Thomas P · April 14th, 2009, 08:48 AM

It was late and I did do that but obviously missed it

Thanks for finding it!

jayru · April 14th, 2009, 10:06 AM

I've always liked Atolms stuff, weird and wonderful in a good way.

Liking this... nice to see a non Fed Trek ship

gmd3d · April 14th, 2009, 10:21 AM

cool design ..

evil_genius_180 · April 14th, 2009, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas P

It was late and I did do that but obviously missed it

Thanks for finding it!

Yeah, I can't say I've never done that (even when it wasn't late.

) Fortunately, I remembered this project, even though you initially only had a single progress post in the first thread, I guess it just stuck with me because it's cool.

Thomas P · April 17th, 2009, 09:27 AM

Okay, above 3 images have been updated as I have reworked the textures (and you can see added one that will go on the top / bottom assembly. I still have to work up a few main textures and then I'll be able to detail out the balance of the ship. I also need to come up with pylons

The textures will ultimately get some subtle wear and tear to them as well.

Here is the first attempt at my textured in windows. The Gorn interiors will be some color that will suggest a different light spectrum from their Sun being a different type (or age).

gmd3d · April 17th, 2009, 09:59 AM

very very nice update the detailing is great

evil_genius_180 · April 17th, 2009, 10:07 AM

You mean those windows are a texture or they have a texture applied to them? If they're a texture, that's a great texture. They look modeled to me. Great work on everything. ATOLM designs some cool ships and you're a great modeler.

Thomas P · April 17th, 2009, 12:24 PM

^ Thanks

The windows are three layers. The outer texture has a transparency layer for the windows. Just inside of the main mesh is a smaller panel mesh with the same transparency but it is two-sided. The texture color needs to be dark so it gives a sense of depth from any viewing angle. You loft / extrude the poly just enough to give the sense of hull depth you want. You then add a mesh of a room or another poly behind that (which could have an illuminated texture) to give a sense of depth. This is what they did on Voyager.

In this case, I have not yet added the rooms I just put a third poly in that is illuminated orange. My Sparta actually has little rooms built into it

.

gmd3d · April 18th, 2009, 04:50 AM

that's sound interesting .. must really save on the poly count ??

Thomas P · April 30th, 2009, 09:33 PM

^ Yes, and eliminates mesh errors that result from cuts into the poly surface.

Thomas P · April 30th, 2009, 09:36 PM

An update, who'da thunk it.

I re-did the engines to 'TOS' era it and have been tweaking and tweaking the textures. Still not happy with the masks used to pull wear and grime layers up but that's because I'm keeping the maps at about 1600 pixels. I may re-think that when I start seeing how long it takes to render.

Anyway - here it is with a lot of work left to do. Some slight modeling and a bunch more texture work.

evil_genius_180 · May 1st, 2009, 12:38 AM

That's pretty damn cool, bro.

gmd3d · May 1st, 2009, 01:45 AM

sweet .. more updates

skyhawk223 · May 2nd, 2009, 09:14 AM

Interesting design. I like how it's coming out. Nice technique on the windows. I remember scouring the web for images of rooms that I could use as window textures.

evil_genius_180 · May 2nd, 2009, 12:45 PM

Bernd Schneider's site has a bunch of Trek room images in the gallery. I either use them or the room textures that I made last year for Trek stuff. Though, truth be told, it doesn't really matter if you use it on non-Trek unless you're going to be getting close enough for people to see inside.

XFozzboute · May 3rd, 2009, 03:03 PM

I like it. It's turning out nice. I keep thinking about doing some ATOLM designs but something else usually come up instead.
Look forward to seeing this finished.

Thomas P · May 11th, 2009, 09:47 AM

Updates.

Life intrudes and I (again) shelved this for a while. Some feedback on the engines had me go back to the original design and I like them. The engines are more in the overall design feel. The rounded warp engines have gone into the 'kit box' for later use.

Textures done except for a couple of parts and then it will have to be rendered.

evil_genius_180 · May 11th, 2009, 12:53 PM

This ship is awesome. I really like the look of the original style nacelles as opposed to the more rounded ones. They really fit well with the rest of the ship.

Thomas P · May 12th, 2009, 08:52 AM

Well it is done.

Need to plan some real renders now.

evil_genius_180 · May 12th, 2009, 09:05 AM

Nice beauty shot. I'm looking forward to the "real" renders.