Design: Venture interior view

[CELS]

After receiving some nice advice from Haarken and DaBoss, I've finally managed to put two and two together and found out how I'll do the Venture interior view. 1) Modular design. 2) STC interior design from Forgeworld's Anphelion base. The result? Here.









Unfortunately, I always seem to realise the benefits of taking a modular approach only after having finished my model, but this time I'm prepared. So this is the aptly named 'Corridor 1'. We can only imagine that there will be 'Corridor 2' and all the way up to 'Corridor 10', with different kinds of junctions, doors, computer terminals, ladders and no smoking signs. All in due time. I've also come to realise that I should probably do corridors with different widths, and I can even break the larger rooms in to modules, creating corners, floor segments, wall segments and whatever else, and then just piecing them together like Lego blocks.

I guess I am stating the obvious. But what is obvious to more experienced (or clever) artists is actually news to me

PS: Note the M24 Age of Technology ceiling vs the M41 Dark Millennium ceiling. I can update the aesthetics of an entire deck with a few clicks of the button. Why didn't I think of that before?

[Dragon Lord]

I guess I am stating the obvious. But what is obvious to more experienced (or clever) artists is actually news to me

I think its very good CELS, and while I may not be an artist I certainly hadn't thought of it either.

The simple change from the angled to the arched roof is very effective too.

[CELS]

I'm glad you like it. I've finished the set of small corridors, which are approximately 4 x 4 meter modules. I now have...
- 5 different straight corridors (with various containers, machinery, pipes and computers, and 1 clean version)
- 2 different T-cross corridors (one clean and one with computer walls)
- 2 different corners (one clean and one with computer walls)
- 1 X-cross intersection

And when you put it all together, you get something like this.
(Note: I haven't finished making ceilings, so I only have ceilings for the straight corridors)





The next step is to create ceilings and then typical sci-fi blast doors. Having done that, I guess I will have to create some simple modules for large rooms. The trouble with the Space Hulk game is that it mostly works with lots and lots of corridors. And space ships have more than corridors. So I'll need to make straight walls, corners, inverted corners and open floors. I think I will create 2 versions of each, one rough and industrial and the other clean and pretty. Actually, there should be one pretty version for M24 (very angular and typical sci-fi) and another for M41 (with gothic arches and skulls).

And I suppose I should create a small corridor with ladders and an open space with stairs for the larger rooms. <scratches chin>

Now, the cool thing about these modules is that not only does it really make it a lot easier for me to model the interior of the Venturer.... but it allows everyone else to join in the fun. Because all you need to learn is how to insert and move objects in Sketch-Up, and that takes 60 seconds (90 seconds if you're a bit slow). And sharing the workload is always fun.

Once I've completed the first two sets (small corridors and large rooms), I'll upload them to the server and then anyone who wants to help out can start modelling the interior of the Venturer. If other people do the easy stuff, that will allow me to work on special locations such as the bridge and the hangar.

[Da Boss]

Looks like damn fine work to me

thank you

[horizon]

That's impressive Cels.

Will we be able to walk through the ship in the end?

[CELS]

Many thanks, guys. Yep, you'll be able to walk through the entire ship, walking up stairs between decks and strolling from the hangar all the way up to the bridge.

[Disclaimer: Results may vary depending on whether or not people help out.]

Of course, despite how much these modules speed up the process, we're still left with a lot of corridors and empty rooms. We will be able to fill up the empty rooms to some degree, as I will try to create a minimum of inventory such as chairs, tables, beds, computers, cargo crates and cabinets. But there is no way the entire ship will be modelled to every detail. I am not going to make a hyper-detailed model of the engines or warp drive, for example. If other members were to handle the meat and potatoes of the interior, I could do the special locations such as the weapon decks, the bridge, etc.

Hopefully, when I upload the models to our server, some of you guys will download them and play around a bit.

[CELS]

Some more images. Here you can see the Gothic style large rooms, and a little segment featuring the Industrial style large rooms and the generic 'Clean' style large rooms. I will be adding a third style with more angular STC features. Now, putting this together took me only a few minutes, so I'm quite pleased with the modules. Although this would only be a tiny piece of the large Venturer, imagine what one could do in a few hours.
I must say, however, I am rather happy we did not make the ship over a kilometer long.

Hope you like it.








Here is a top-down view. It's not very easy to make out the details, unfortunately. It would help to have it in colours or at least grey tones.

[Kage2020]

Drools...

Gets back to RPG statistics...

Kage

[CELS]

Well, I've finished the small corridors and the modules for big rooms with a clean look (i.e. no gothic arches, no industrial bulkheads, etc), which means that I've done 1/3 of the interior models for the Venturer. I'd say that 50-60% of the work has been done though, because now it's just a matter of modifying the existing models, more or less.

Venturer interior preview video

Note:
- The quality sucks because Google has turned a 55,7 mb file into a 3,1 mb file. Bastards.
- The lighting is very glitchy at the start,but I know how to fix that, so I'll fix it later. But it takes my computer 5 hours of crunching numbers to make this video. The joys of a laptop.
- Note the option to download the video for your iPod. This gives you the file in an .mp4 format, which can be played using VLC media player.

[Kage2020]

<jaw drops>

Well, that's not at all impressive, CELS.  What were you ever thinking?

Just wanted to post a Star Trek link that people might find inspirational as well when coming down to the "mapping" parts of the project.

http://www.waxingmoondesign.com/NX01VesselSpecs.html

I think that there are definitely some ideas and approaches to that project that we can pilfer... erm, pay homage to.

<goes off to be jealous at the video and the link, thinks twice about that and goes to try and upload another SR to the Explore site>



Kage

[CELS]

Well, it's certainly not impressive when one considers the potential here... Now that I've used Sketch-Up for a while, I'm left with quite a library of models to throw in here and there. For example, the ship's armoury will be loaded with the 20+ models of weapons I did back in the day. The cargo containers can carry bikes, speeders or trucks. The possibilities are endless. I'm looking forward to seeing the kind of videos that we'll be able to make, say, three months from now. By then, the content is probably going to be so awesome that I'll be tempted to edit together a video with music and such. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Here's another peak at the Industrial set, with some of the latest inventory I have drawn. I plan on drawing 4 generic machines, two of which are seen here. The goal is to make them generic enough that they can be used anywhere, from the life support facilities to the ship's factories, instead of drawing custom components for each new room.



I'm quite happy with this, actually. Also note the pipe connecting the two machines, allowing several components to be linked together.

[Da Boss]

Well, I've finished the small corridors and the modules for big rooms with a clean look (i.e. no gothic arches, no industrial bulkheads, etc), which means that I've done 1/3 of the interior models for the Venturer. I'd say that 50-60% of the work has been done though, because now it's just a matter of modifying the existing models, more or less.

Venturer interior preview video

Note:
- The quality sucks because Google has turned a 55,7 mb file into a 3,1 mb file. Bastards.
- The lighting is very glitchy at the start,but I know how to fix that, so I'll fix it later. But it takes my computer 5 hours of crunching numbers to make this video. The joys of a laptop.
- Note the option to download the video for your iPod. This gives you the file in an .mp4 format, which can be played using VLC media player.

wow simply wow - very very cool no idea how to do such stuff

I am guessing making it is v v v complicated

thanks again

[CELS]

Cheers. It's actually very simple to make these models once the all the different components / modules have been made. And making the video after that is equally simple.

Progress report:
I'm making seven sets of components for the Venturer's interior.
1) Inventory set - Various chairs, tables, machines and such.
2) Small corridor set - Roughly 3 meters wide.
3) Big corridor set - Roughly 7 meters wide.
4) Industrial room set - Big industrial rooms such as factories, engine decks, etc.
5) Gothic room set - Lots of pillars, gargoyles and gothic arches
6) STC room set - With the STC Aesthetic (tm)
7) Clean room set - Generic large rooms with a neutral look that can be used for anything.

Right now, 1, 2, 4 and 7 are about 95% complete. Set 5 is maybe 30% complete and I haven't started on sets 3 and 6 yet. Anyway, the plan is to finish sets 1, 2, 4 and 7, upload them to the website and make them available for people to check out. Then I'll work on the three remaining sets over the next weeks. The Gothic one is possibly going to be quite detailed and thus time-consuming.

Here's a view of the Clean room set. I've inserted chairs and people to make it look like a bar or café or something, but using the Inventory set one could easily turn the room into a computer mainframe room, medbay, research facility or briefing room. Of course, to really get a detailed image of the ship's interiors, we need the artists. The 3D models are just there to give a basic idea of the dimensions and structures.

[horizon]

Oh my bloody drooling jaw.

CELS, you say it is easy I am utterly perplexed on what an amazing job you are doing with this ship.

[CELS]

Many thanks, Horizon. I imagine this stuff can be used for a variety of different purposes, not just the modelling of the Venturer, actually. But that's a discussion for another time. Here's some more pictures.

I've finished the first set of inventory for the Venturer, with which to equip the various rooms and give them function. An empty industrial room becomes a machine room, an empty clean-style room becomes a research lab, and so on. Maybe I'll cook up some more items for a second set one day.