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Thinking about improving the Artwork in Vega Strike, or making your own Mod? Submit your question and ideas in this forum.

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Jack Cloudy
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Kirk is back!

Post by Jack Cloudy »

Nah, just kidding. The ship you see in the pics is the USS Dawn. I’m working on an attempt to recreate the Constitution. Here’s what I have right now. The details are still a pain, but I’m working on it. The bad part is I’m still an amateur, so it will take ages to get things right. Does anyone have any suggestions about what I should change? Just thought I would show it off anyway. If it wasn’t for Vegastrike, I would never have started modelling, and I really like what you've made, makes me jealous :D .
The pictures speak for themselves. I’ve got a top view, front view and side view.
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.
chuck_starchaser
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

Looking good. I would double or quadruple the steps in generating the main round part; looks too polygonal at 16. The other sections, being cylindrical, will be fixed by the smooth shading; but the main body... I'd give it 64 steps; and maybe reduce the number of radial points if necessary to keep poly count under control.
BradMick
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Post by BradMick »

whoa.....64? 128 tris + the caps...another 128. 24 would be the way to go.
LightWave nerd extrodanaire...

"Who need drugs when you got Brad? He's a trip enough already!' - stoner friend of mine...
Jack Cloudy
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Post by Jack Cloudy »

Thanks. Regarding the steps, you do that with the smoothing tool, right?
I'll also need to do something about the undercut near the hangar, it's too straight and needs to be a bit more rounded. A bigger bridge module, and it'll look a whole lot better. I'll see what I can do.
,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.
chuck_starchaser
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

Okay, here's an idea that might be more palatable to Brad:
Use 24 steps for most of the main disk, then 48 steps for the outermost rim. The two just overlapping; no welding.

If you're using Blender, there's a Spin function. Read this tutorial:
http://free.hostdepartment.com/B/Blende ... index.html
Jack Cloudy
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Post by Jack Cloudy »

Ok, I've made the following changes.
1: I selected the edge of the saucer and applied some smoothing, cutting up each face in four smaller ones. The results is much rounder.
2: The Bridge module has been enlarged a bit, making it more visible.
3: The warp nacelles have been moved up and a bit to the back, so they are now actually above the saucer.
4: The undercut near the hangar has received some scaling and a bit of extruding, making it a bit rounder.
5: the cilinders making up the body underneath the saucer have been smoothed also, after that I had to do a bit of dissolving to get rid of weird lighting effects.

Here are the current statistics of the model.

USS Dawn
NCC-1753

Faces: 3053
Edges: 6348
Vertices: 3455

And I use Wings 3d for this.

I'll see if I can put up a few pics tomorrow. (My internet is crappy so I can't acces my Imageshack acount back home, so school is the only option and it's rather annoying.)
,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.
Jack Cloudy
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Post by Jack Cloudy »

Well, here are the pics I promised. The top view somehow refused to be uploaded, so that one is missing. It was the only one that actually showed the smoother saucer, so it is a shame. I’m quite satisfied with the model, so I think I’ll try to work on a texture during the weekend.

Image
(Sorry, but I just had to make a shot from an angle like this.)

Image
(The Undercut has been changed and the Nacelles have been moved and rescaled.)

Image
,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.
chuck_starchaser
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

Good stuff. I think it needs a brushed metal look and tons of tiny windows.
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