Star Trek Discovery Enterprise - Scaled Build WIP

[Edymnion]

Where did you find the mesh for the ship?

There are several places to get free models from. I don't remember precisely where I got this one from, its been kicking around for a while.

But places like this are good to start:
Star Trek Free 3D Models download - Free3D

Basically just google "star trek <ship name> 3d model" and you should get hits.

And what is the process of making the scaled orthogonals?

First, I loaded the model into my 3D modelling software of choice. For me, thats AC3D (since its cheap and has an easy learning curve), but you should be able to do it with Blender as well.

When I get the model imported, I see this:


I can then turn off the display of the vertices and surfaces, and I get smooth ortho views.



Then, I crop the orthos down to the exact pixel.


Next I needed to scale the image. I wanted to scale everything to a shuttlecraft I made, so I knew how wide that shuttle was and how many I wanted to store in the shuttlebay, so I did some basic math to be able to say I needed the bay to be about 33 blocks wide. So I highlight the area of the shuttlebay doors on the smooth ortho and find out in this case its 59 pixels wide.

Now I'm being kinda fast and sloppy with my exact size needs here, but you should get the idea.


So, quick math of 33/59= 0.559, so I know I should resize this image to ~56% of it's current size.


Now I have the image scaled to 1 pixel = 1 block, more or less. I can then go into my Canvas Size and get the exact pixel length of the image:


I can now resize the other ortho to the same pixel width.


To get front and back properly sized, I just check the pixel width of the saucer from the side and since circles are round I could repeat the process above to scale the front and back orthos to the same pixel size.

After that, its just a matter of pasting the images together and getting them all lined up.


From there its time to just start tracing outlines on a new layer so I can toggle back and forth to see model details and raw pixel outlines as needed.

This is looking very awesome. I'll take two please, one in light grey, another in pristine white. :D

You'll get your wish, I fully intend to put the empty shell up on the CC soon as its done.

 

[Gasboy]

Sweet, thanks for the barebones tutorial. Should get me started.

And I'm looking forward to seeing her up on the dock.

 

[Edymnion]

Yeah, if you run into a block, just yell and I'll be happy to help ya figure it out!

 

[Gasboy]

Hah. I have having no luck finding that version of the Enterprise. D:

 

[Edymnion]

Hah. I have having no luck finding that version of the Enterprise. D:

I'll shoot you a PM.

 

[Edymnion]

Glowie things, because everything needs glowie things!





Now I really have to get back to the damned pylons...

 

[Edymnion]

Dear lord, cutting those slits was every bit as terrible as I expected.

So I started off by laying out where I wanted to cut in lights so I could get a feel for it from a distance.


Then cut it out on just the top layer.


Went through and did basic rounding on the edges, and started dropping walls down from them at a 45 degree angle.


Once the walls were done, I cut out the bottom side.


I still need to wedge the underside, and I'm not 100% happy with how this looks from all angles, but dammit that took forever and I'm not redoing it. Who am I kidding, I'll probably try to take out some of that wobble later, but just tired of looking at it for right now.

 

[Edymnion]

Okay, I finished roughing out the rest of the nacelles and did the cowls at the end.





And I still have a lot of detailing to do, and seams to fix (you can see the pylons still don't actually merge into the secondary hull in the above pic), but at this point thats all thats left. Detailing.

So, time for some GLAMOUR SHOTS!

 

[Gasboy]

She looks fantastic. The saucer section is especially pleasing, it looks so round and well shaped you can almost forget it's a voxel game.

 

[JinM]

850m of joy.

 

[jstenholt]

This is grotesquely good. I'm really amazed at how well this came together.

 

[Edymnion]

Nacelle detailing.




[doublepost=1553879625,1553879113][/doublepost]

850m of joy.

866m, to be precise. :D

She's 397m x 182m x 866m, and currently just a smidge over 528,000 blocks.

 

[Edymnion]

As promised, the shell is now up for download in Community Content:
https://starmadedock.net/content/star-trek-discovery-u-s-s-enterprise-shell.7831/



I'm still not 100% happy with the pylons... but hell if I'm going to rip them out and start all over on them again now!

Whats next? Why, time to get started on interiors, of course. Haven't watched season 2 yet, hopefully they have some more shots of the insides of this girl by now. Especially the bridge, I want to start the bridge...

 

[kikaha]

Might help you a bit. All the pictures i found where of the same area unfortunately.

 

[Edymnion]

There is rumor going around that this is the bridge:


On one hand, I'm kind of buying it because the overall layout is similar to the Discovery's:


It has a lot of the same feel, while still also being the classic Enterprise layout. Its got the same general door style as the Discovery, but there's just something about it that I can't quite put my finger on as to why I don't trust it. But, its a lot better than the blue and red stuff that Kikah also found, so...

Guess I'm gonna go with this and replicate the feel of the insides of the Discovery using TOS layouts when in doubt.

 

[Edymnion]

Okay, quick build for the bridge.


Part I like, the button there on the console toggles Red Alert mode.

 

[Gasboy]

Excellent bridge.

 

[kikaha]

 

[Edymnion]

Welp, been watching Season 2, and guess I'll have to rebuild that bridge!