UES Longbow render

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Graham Kennedy
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UES Longbow render

Post by Graham Kennedy »

So I thought I'd take a break from the Kororra class and have a go at one of the earlier ships. I chose the UES Longbow :

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I chose this because ships from this era are really hard to do well in Photoshop. Ther eason being they use rotational hulls, which means there are lots of cylinders and sections of cylinders. And they have spherical fuel tanks. And one thing Photoshop cannot do is draw good circles. Seriously, it is next to impossible to draw a circle that is exactly one pixel thick, exactly the size you want it, and exactly symmetrical in the x/y planes. And this is doubly a pain when you're doing multiple views and trying to get everything pixel-perfect.

Well spheres and curved sections are WAAAY easier to do in blender - though I'm still avoiding going to super high numbers of faces for spheres and cylinders, partly to save rendering time and partly because I figure building real ships is probably easier when you can use flat planes rather than actual curves. It's interesting what it would do to the ship too, because it would mean that corridors and floors would be flat panels rather than gradual curves, which would mean as you walked across the panel the gravity would slowly drift out of alignment with the floor, so it would be like you were walking up a shallow hill. It's only a few degrees, but it would mean spacers would be so used to that that when they got onto a planet the gravity would feel all weird to them because it wouldn't be constantly wavering about.

Anyway. This is a much older design than the Kororra, obviously - they'd look on a ship like this much as we look on something from the age of sail - which was the inspiration for making the FTL drive a great big sail at the front. I wanted different forms of FTL drive to look as different from one another as oars, sails, paddle wheels, and propellers do in the real world. There's also attention paid to having cooling fins on the hull, and much more of a feel that the ship is a bunch of machines attached to one another.

This is also the first model I've done in blender where i finally managed to texture an image over a surface rather than relying on simple colouration. Never would have got the sails looking right otherwise. The reactors and repellor STL drive at the rear are textured too, though it hasn't worked out as well as I'd have liked in that case.

Another nice thing about ships of this time is that they're not ridiculously large. With the sail in docked configuration he Longbow is 277.15 m, or 909 feet 3.28 inches, long. I put a little guy on there for scale in one shot - not mine, a freebie mesh I found online. Alas, I can't work out how to bend his arms.

So here's my attempt, which has taken about three or four days probably totaling 25-30 hours.

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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Mikey »

That looks SO much better in your 3d rendering. Just wondering what the preoccupation with skydiving is among UES sailors. ;)
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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Griffin »

Pretty damn cool. Will you be retexturing it? Also, you should render it next to your other ship, it'd be great to see the size difference with this just floating next to one of the cannons or something.
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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Mikey wrote:That looks SO much better in your 3d rendering. Just wondering what the preoccupation with skydiving is among UES sailors. ;)
Spacers! :)

Yeah, it does look pretty cool!
Griffin wrote:Pretty damn cool. Will you be retexturing it?
I'm still very much a learner when it comes to textures... playing with the basics so far. As I learn more no doubt I'll be retexturing bits here and there.
Also, you should render it next to your other ship, it'd be great to see the size difference with this just floating next to one of the cannons or something.
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Imagine a time travel story where one emerged from an anomaly next to the other... :)
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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Teaos »

I'm amazed at how fast these come together. You could have your whole fleet done in weeks rather than years.
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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by shran »

I'm wondering now, are sail drives still in operation anywhere, or are they long since relegated out of museums and the like?
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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Teaos »

Maybe like hotrods? Collectors and enthusiasts.
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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Graham Kennedy »

shran wrote:I'm wondering now, are sail drives still in operation anywhere, or are they long since relegated out of museums and the like?
In the Coalition itself you'd find a few museum ships and the like, along with some hobbyists who just like them - much like you find guys with sailboats now. Outside the Coalition you'd find plenty of more primitive civilisations that still use them.
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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Graham Kennedy »

I've been working on adding detail to the Longbow and thought I would try making the sail pod look a bit more interesting. I like how it turned out... but I gotta say, it's maybe a bit too reminiscent of a Starfleet nacelle now.

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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Also much improved the detailing on the laser cannon. I loooove how this turned out! :

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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Mikey »

Graham Kennedy wrote:but I gotta say, it's maybe a bit too reminiscent of a Starfleet nacelle now.
I don't get that at all. I think the ridges or rings that divide it help break up the outline and avoid th ultra-streamlined Starfleet look. Love the guns, BTW.
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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Tsukiyumi »

It isn't like Star Trek has a monopoly on "glowy, cylindrical spaceship drives". :wink:
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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Mikey »

Tsukiyumi wrote:It isn't like Star Trek has a monopoly on "glowy, cylindrical spaceship drives". :wink:
Would have if Roddenberry had gotten around to it.
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Re: UES Longbow render

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Two firsts here. One... this is the first animation I've done in blender where the camera moves as well as the object... and second, I've made a youtube channel to put these on. Since youtube accepts videos up to 2GB, this means longer animations are coming! They are all marked as "unlisted", so searches and such won't throw them up to anybody - anybody can see them, but only if you know the link. So here's the Longbow in action...

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