[META/Image] Hand of Bobb's Stuff

[Black Aeronaut]

Space station? In Mars orbit?

[HRogge]

Space station? In Mars orbit?

Yes... a space station... in an orbit around Mars.

I am currently looking for some tips how to improve the model. My concept called for a modular spacestation without windows, but it looks pretty boring from the outside, thats why I added the two small drones around it and the communication dish.

I will post the first details about the project as soon as "Shadowrunning 2" is finished, because the project is a result of SR2.

[Black Aeronaut]

Cool.

Any chance you can make that a touch smaller so we don't have to side scroll to read messages?

[HRogge]

Cool.

Any chance you can make that a touch smaller so we don't have to side scroll to read messages?

Moved the picture to a google picassa album now... so I get a smaller thumbnail.

But I fear the other pictures in the thread are even larger than mine.

And here an update... tried to add some simple windows.
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[Mark Skarr]

It's not the size of the picture, it's what you do with the pixels . . . oops, sorry.

The windows help, but the overall structure is too featureless. There's nothing to hold onto either with hand or your eyes. The windows help break up the monotony, but the individual "containers" need to have some details to them.

[HRogge]

It's not the size of the picture, it's what you do with the pixels . . . oops, sorry.

Not sure how you mean this.

The windows help, but the overall structure is too featureless. There's nothing to hold onto either with hand or your eyes. The windows help break up the monotony, but the individual "containers" need to have some details to them.

Yes, I know... but I don't really know what to do with it. I cannot at much 3D surface structures because the base IS constructed from containers... without a flat surface, they would not fit together anymore. ^^

Maybe some more painting or color structure (like thin pipes) on the surface would work.

[Dartz]

I quite like the greeble-free look. It looks quite stark and clean and crisp. While if you go ahead and put anything on it anywhere, it'll immediately look important.

But, if you want Greebles, maybe that'll help. Found it when googling the correct spelling.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[robkelk]

There's always the Trekkie dodge of "aztecing" the surface so it looks like individual sheets of construction material came from different manufacturing batches, or the tried-and-true "give it a fancy paint job" - but not both.

Maybe some expansion joints or flexible joins along the connection surfaces?

Navigation lights in the corners, perhaps?

I thought of suggesting corrugating the surfaces, but that might make them look too much like overgrown shipping containers... or make them look exactly like shipping containers, in which case the radio dish would look far, far too small.

(Mind you, if you use all of these ideas, you'll have a very cluttered model... so choose one or two, if you choose any.)

Edit: Upon re-reading, I see that you want these to be shipping containers. Definitely go for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrugated_galvanised_iron]the corrugated look, unless you're up for something more complex, and make the radio dish larger.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Mark Skarr]

Shipping containers are not smooth.  They're highly textured, it's just that they have connection points/load-bearing members all in the same place, so they fit together.  They don't have to be smooth to fit together.
(And the picture reference was a silly joke.  Sorry.)
On the other hand, I've been putting ideas together for my GURPS Supers/Star Trek game, and figured you guys could use this picture (still being rendered) of Lt. Holly Brandt, and Ensign Carmen Alexandros.

[Bob Schroeck]

Why do I get the impression that the ensign might mutter "I'm surrounded by idiots" every once in a while?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

There's an ensign in that picture?

("Legs that go all the way up and a skirt that doesn't make much of the return trip," to quote from a film-noir pastiche of Sailor Moon that I started and abandoned years ago. Yum.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Mark Skarr]

Bob: Carmen, nah, she's too nice. The only people that she really rips on are the French and the overtly religious (she's an atheist). But, now that you mention it she does have a striking resemblance to a cute little supergenius. That was unintentional; Carmen is a fairly old character of mine (the original three-day head start on CoH).

Rob: Yep, Carmen's a cute, little medical ensign. And, oh yes, Holly's got legs on her (So does Carmen, but the size difference, Holly's 5'10" and Carmen's 5'2", makes Holly's more pronounced).

The funny thing about that picture is that, originally, I had Holly in a green dress (I can't stand the Star Trek Mustard color, so I drop it for a nice, deep green color), and Carmen in red (they're both blasters). Then I had my "Duh! D'oh!" moment. Holly's super name in worlds where she uses a code name is "Red Velvet" and Carmen's is "Blue Electron." So, they had to wear red and blue respectively.

[LynnInDenver]

The funny thing about that picture is that, originally, I had Holly in a green dress (I can't stand the Star Trek Mustard color, so I drop it for a nice, deep green color), and Carmen in red (they're both blasters). Then I had my "Duh! D'oh!" moment. Holly's super name in worlds where she uses a code name is "Red Velvet" and Carmen's is "Blue Electron." So, they had to wear red and blue respectively.

Interestingly, believe it or not, the 'gold' of Command on original series Trek was actually light green. Turns out the fabrics they used for the uniforms picked up the lights and washed the light green out to the gold color we saw on television. Kirk's 'informal' uniform wrap tunics appear more like the color the uniforms were intended to be overall.
http://www.startrekhistory.com/index2.html
(Note: be careful which Trek forums you go into looking for more information, as you get 'what color the costumes were' versus 'what color the uniforms were on television'.)
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

[Mark Skarr]

Ah, well, that explains some of it. But, I think a nice, deep green (0,64,0) makes a nice uniform color. The girls' uniforms are currently (128,0,0) and (0,0,128) respectively. I had Holly's uniform at (0,128,0), but it was too bright. So, I went with the darker color and it looked better. Now, I just need an idea of who to put in that green outfit . . .. Hmm. No, I think that would be too loony.

Most of what I'm going to be basing the game on is the old FASA version, the newer game put out by Decipher, and Prime Directive for GURPS Fourth Edition. But, it'll also have a healty dose of IST and just a touch of Brave New World from AEG. I'm trying to decide if I want to come up with a damage conversion from the old Star Trek Tactical Combat Simulator game into GURPS or not. I love the Tac Game, but it may not be relevant for the campaign. And, no, I'm not going to teach my players how to play Star Fleet Battles just to do ship-to-ship combat.

[HRogge]

First, thank you for the tips...

maybe its time to explain a little bit what I have for a concept of the station in mind.

The basic building element of the base is a board.

A board is a 8x8 meter steel surface which mounts infrastructure on one side, the other side points to vacuum. An inner wall is put on from the other side to hide the infrastructure, forming a 'wall' of one meter thickness. Boards can be put together in a 90° angle or parallel to each other. The connection is semi-permanent, but with the right tools you can get two boards apart again.

Some boards mount a large airlocks to allow getting in and out of the base, others contain life support, energy reactors, sensors or small point defense weapons. Many are just 'empty' inside except tubes and cables.

A module is a cube built out of boards, which look like the 'shipping containers' in the picture. At the state the station is in the picture, all modules are two or three boards long and one board wide and high. The inner space of a module is 6x6 meters large and 14 to 22 meters long (as long as you don't built different modules). Many have an intermediate ceiling that splits it into an upper and lower deck.

The modules are put together with airlocks facing airlocks to create the whole base.

--------------

I think I will go back a few steps in the next days and start with a single module again, made out of objects for each board. Maybe I can get more structure into the surface this way.

[robkelk]

Bob: Carmen, nah, she's too nice. The only people that she really rips on are the French and the overtly religious (she's an atheist). But, now that you mention it she does have a striking resemblance to a cute little supergenius. That was unintentional; Carmen is a fairly old character of mine (the original three-day head start on CoH).

Rob: Yep, Carmen's a cute, little medical ensign. And, oh yes, Holly's got legs on her (So does Carmen, but the size difference, Holly's 5'10" and Carmen's 5'2", makes Holly's more pronounced).

The funny thing about that picture is that, originally, I had Holly in a green dress (I can't stand the Star Trek Mustard color, so I drop it for a nice, deep green color), and Carmen in red (they're both blasters). Then I had my "Duh! D'oh!" moment. Holly's super name in worlds where she uses a code name is "Red Velvet" and Carmen's is "Blue Electron." So, they had to wear red and blue respectively.

Since you already have some idea of who they are in your game, perhaps they should be close to the same people in Fenspace. Does anyone mind if I put both ladies on the staff of Starbase 1, with Holly the Security Chief and Carmen one of the doctors? (They can even keep "Red Velvet" and "Blue Electron" as their call-signs.)

---

First, thank you for the tips...

maybe its time to explain a little bit what I have for a concept of the station in mind.

The basic building element of the base is a board.

A board is a 8x8 meter steel surface which mounts infrastructure on one side, the other side points to vacuum. An inner wall is put on from the other side to hide the infrastructure, forming a 'wall' of one meter thickness. Boards can be put together in a 90° angle or parallel to each other. The connection is semi-permanent, but with the right tools you can get two boards apart again.

Some boards mount a large airlocks to allow getting in and out of the base, others contain life support, energy reactors, sensors or small point defense weapons. Many are just 'empty' inside except tubes and cables.

A module is a cube built out of boards, which look like the 'shipping containers' in the picture. At the state the station is in the picture, all modules are two or three boards long and one board wide and high. The inner space of a module is 6x6 meters large and 14 to 22 meters long (as long as you don't built different modules). Many have an intermediate ceiling that splits it into an upper and lower deck.

The modules are put together with airlocks facing airlocks to create the whole base.

In that case, I'd definitely recommend going with the "aztec" effect - different boards come from different production batches, and so have slightly different reflectivity indexes, depth of color, or both. (Assuming Blender can do that, of course.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Mark Skarr]

This will be the 3rd time I’ve tried to respond.  Yuku keeps timing out.



 robkelk wrote:

---

Since you already have some idea of who they are in your game, perhaps they should be close to the same people in Fenspace. Does anyone mind if I put both ladies on the staff of Starbase 1, with Holly the Security Chief and Carmen one of the doctors? (They can even keep "Red Velvet" and "Blue Electron" as their call-signs.)

---

Honestly, neither one of them would be out if they didn't have their powers.  They'd both be 'Danes.  They'd both be working off the assets they have and be models. 

While Holly is quite adventurous (in many ways), she’s not the kind who would go off-planet looking for it.  But, if the Fen were looking for someone (who’s not afraid to be taken into space aboard a ship that, previously, was an Oscar-Meyer delivery truck) to do a publicity photo shoot, Holly would be your girl.  She’s not the kind who would play with Wavium as she wouldn’t think she’s smart enough to figure it out.  (Holly has a lot of issues.)

Carmen is much more internal, and much more like a ‘Dane.  She wouldn’t want to get too far away as she’s still close to both of her parents and their families (her folks are divorced, and her modeling keeps her bouncing between the two).  She, also, would work for the Fen, but only on short-term contracts.  She doesn’t have anything against the Fen, she’s just not sure what all the hubbub is about.  She wouldn’t play with Wavium as she’d be concerned of it changing her into something she wouldn’t want to be.
ETA: All that being said . . . you're still welcome to use them, but I would recommed neither of them being something terribly special.  Holly should just be in security (she's competent, but still young), and Carmen's a Nurse, not a Doctor (still young and not sure that's what she wants to do).

 

HRogge wrote:

---

First, thank you for the tips...
maybe its time to explain a little bit what I have for a concept of the station in mind.
The basic building element of the base is a board.
A board is a 8x8 meter steel surface which mounts infrastructure on one side, the other side points to vacuum. An inner wall is put on from the other side to hide the infrastructure, forming a 'wall' of one meter thickness. Boards can be put together in a 90° angle or parallel to each other. The connection is semi-permanent, but with the right tools you can get two boards apart again.
Some boards mount a large airlocks to allow getting in and out of the base, others contain life support, energy reactors, sensors or small point defense weapons. Many are just 'empty' inside except tubes and cables.
A module is a cube built out of boards, which look like the 'shipping containers' in the picture. At the state the station is in the picture, all modules are two or three boards long and one board wide and high. The inner space of a module is 6x6 meters large and 14 to 22 meters long (as long as you don't built different modules). Many have an intermediate ceiling that splits it into an upper and lower deck.
The modules are put together with airlocks facing airlocks to create the whole base.

---

Still, you wouldn’t want a truly flat surface in space (unless you’re trying to capture sunlight).  A textured surface increases surface area and allows you to radiate heat and keep direct sunlight off of a large chunk of your object at once.

[HRogge]

I did some more work on the surface elements to give them more structure... I think it payed off. Will try to build some 'modules' from it tomorrow.

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[Mark Skarr]

Oh, yeah!  MUCH better!
It's one of those things that sometimes just a little change pays huge dividends.

[Mark Skarr]

MonkeyFist and I got talking about Holly's outfit and decided that we didn't like it because it didn't have the right sort of collar.  So, I went in and gave her the same type of shirt Carmen has, and a miniskirt.  Now, she looks much more professional, I think.
Also, I went with the SFB-style rank pins (Senior Lieutenant has 2 gold pips, Ensign has 1 gold pip).

[Mark Skarr]

He's spoken for, but, he might make a visit to Fenspace somtime in the future.
Duncan "Explosions make everything better" Starr and his sidekick/brains of the operation, Ace.

(I'm not sure what's up with his eye, I'm working on it.)

[robkelk]

He's spoken for, but, he might make a visit to Fenspace somtime in the future.
Duncan "Explosions make everything better" Starr and his sidekick/brains of the operation, Ace.

Going from the vibes I'm getting from the image, I could see Duncan and Ace hanging out with the Warsies or the Firefly fen... or both.

(I'm not sure what's up with his eye, I'm working on it.)

I've seen the same problem on occasion - the only workaround I've figured out so far is to change the pose and/or camera angle (which rather defeats the purpose).
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Mark Skarr]

Going from the vibes I'm getting from the image, I could see Duncan and Ace hanging out with the Warsies or the Firefly fen... or both.

Heh.  Duncan would try to get along with everyone.  As Rose once said: "His skill as a womanizer is second only to his skill as a mecha pilot.  Do not underestimate either."

I've seen the same problem on occasion - the only workaround I've figured out so far is to change the pose and/or camera angle (which rather defeats the purpose).

It looks to be an alpha channel issue, but I'll be darned if I can figure it out right now.

[Mark Skarr]

Mark Skarr wrote:

---

Yeah, I did some ray tracing on my laptop (before the i7 and Lux), and it was slow.  I did it on the i7 and had to check, to make sure, I had ray tracing turned on.  This i7 has just been amazing.
Edit:  Heh, I should add another version of Pogrom to the image, then three of the originals.  Then I could add this behind them all and call her a Robots Mastermind.
But Aurora's so very, very much more.

Having made this joke, I broke down and did it.  Not quite to my original specs, but, still:

  

[HRogge]

Some experiments with Blender for my next project. Still not completely happy with it, but the first more complex thing I tried to render.

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