Keepin On Keepin On

Some updates on the way.  I've been threatening to replace the site design for a long time now, and it's high time something actually happened.  The beta version of the "new" layout has been sitting around since last summer and is basically already obsolete without having actually been launched.

My plan is to get down to serious business this week and make something happen on that front.  I need something that can keep this blog on its own page and also give me quick news updates on the front page, and a leaner design that shows off more work.  As it is now, virtually anything worth seeing on the site is here on the blog, and that's not good for business.

Meanwhile, what started out as a re-texturing of my Enterprise model (you may recall the 3500 poly version modeled around 2007 and the 30,000 poly version modeled around 2008 or 2009) has turned into a full re-modeling of the Enterprise.  I've completed the new mesh and it weighs in around 150,000 polygons, all spent in the cause of matching the studio model and the CGI version from the remastered original series.  I already have an enclosed space that could be modeled into an actual hangar deck, and enough blueprints to fit a bridge, transporter room, sick bay, and engineering.  No textures yet, but that will primarily involve UVW unwrapping the new model and fitting the latest textures from the 30,000 polygon model to it.

Of course, no one can ever have too many irons in the fire.  While this has been going on, I've been re-tooling (mostly textures) my Romulan Bird of Prey model, which is a lean, mean 14,000 polygons.  I also have a new Klingon D7 Battlecruiser about 30% modeled.  After banging my head on the desk for a week or so over the primary hull, I've lately been banging my head on the desk over the secondary hull.  The rest is busywork.

To round out that little menagerie of sci-fi models (you judge the pun), I will be kitbashing the Enterprise pieces into some of the old Franz Joseph designs and possibly banging out a shuttlecraft and a few odds and end pieces, maybe a Tholian ship.  The Tholian ship looks like it relies more on lighting than geometry and textures.  Might be a fun exercise.

And finally, so it doesn't appear as though my head is entirely in outer space (remember, I spent most of last year working on the old west saloon, crystal lake, and bits and pieces of Helmut's medieval world), I've been getting the itch to work on a new horror-themed setting, possibly a haunted house interior.

I'll have some more pictures next time around.  I'm actually pretty jazzed about the new Enterprise model.  It came out really, really nice.  But even ambient occlusion renders look pretty bad naked; it needs some textures and fancy lighting before I can show it off.  In the meantime, here's a shot of the current state of the Romulan Bird of Prey.  Texture work continues....

Updating Textures

So I decided I wasn't entirely happy with the textures for the Enterprise model I posted a few months back, and have decided to re-do them.  It's still in-progress, but I have mostly completed re-texturing the saucer section and refining the model in a couple areas (such as re-doing the shuttle bay doors and ironing out a few oddly tessellated bits).

For the new textures I used for reference photographs taken of the original 11 foot studio model as it was unpacked (in pieces) for restoration; photos of the restored model as it sits now in the Smithsonian, and the nicely detailed coloring of the ship schematics in the Haynes workshop guide to the Enterprise (which agrees for the most part with the aforementioned sources).  I also used high definition screenshots of the remastered model from the original series blu ray sets, although I have tried to stay more true to the original studio model than the new CG interpretation.

The engineering hull and warp engines still need to be re-painted, but it's coming along.  For comparison, here is a shot of the first texture before I began work re-painting it:

And here are several shots of the new paint and texture work:

Let me know what you think of the new paint design!