Development Log: The Motion Picture Update Part 3

Just a quick update to add some CAVE2™ pictures of my Star Trek: The Motion Picture anniversary updates.

December 8, 2019: TMP bridge in CAVE2™

December 8, 2019: Bridge 360 image from command chair

December 8, 2019: Recreation Deck

Development Log: The Motion Picture Update Part 2

Just my way of celebrating the 40th anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Often underrated as a Star Trek film, it has plenty of flaws but there are so many iconic elements that this film introduced such as the refit Enterprise - which I argue still remains as the iconic USS Enterprise in the general public and Jerry Goldsmith's 'The Enterprise' and 'Klingon Battle' themes.

Still hoping for a  40th anniversary release of the 2001 director's cut in 4K which I consider the definitive version of the film. While it had a DVD release, it was never released on Blu-ray since the new digital effects were rendered too low resolution to be decently up scaled and the server containing all the art assets was never backed up, sold, and apparently the files lost. Sadly this is also the case for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with a few exceptions - notably some of the artists who worked on the show who have backups of their work.

Given I wrote and presented my PhD thesis proposal on December 2, I mostly rushed to get as much of this done by the 6th - ideally ending with some new CAVE2 footage. While some tests were made, a more polished video tribute was just not feasible.

Main efforts went to adding the recreation desk introduced (and only seen) in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Ironically similar to the above story, I had started this room a few years back and lost the file before it was finished.

December 4, 2019: Starting the recreation deck (again)

December 4, 2019: Wall details

 Similar to the torpedo bay, this room as shown in the film can't actually fit in the exterior model of the Enterprise. As seen in the screenshots above the curved walls are about half the height they're supposed to be, but I'm already hitting the top of the primary hull, with the floor about as low as I can without going through the bottom of the hull.

December 5, 2019: Main floor, balcony, and partial ceiling

 Working on making a scaled, but representative version of this room was a bit challenging. In particular how high the balcony should be. Only after a quick viewing in CAVE2 did I realize I needed to make the top balcony taller.

December 6, 2019: Back wall details

After nearly 8 hours of modeling over 3 days, I managed to get a decent amount of the main wall details done on the 40th anniversary of the film: turbolift alcoves, main display, and the Enterprise legacy display.

Development Log: The Motion Picture Update Part 1

In preparation for the 40th anniversary of Star Trek's debut on the big screen, I've made plans to extend parts of my Enterprise model based on scenes that appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

I'm targeting the original theatrical release date (December 6) but with the limited screening of the film in theaters on September 15, I've started with a relatively quick modification of the main bridge.

September 13, 2019: Re-dressed bridge

Reverting the bridge, which I originally designed based on Wrath of Khan, consisted of a brighter and more beige color scheme for the walls, floors, and display panels. More notably several stations (Science, Engineering, Security, and Environmental Control) were moved around and the wall frames around several displays (most notable on the four left stations in the image above) are connected across the bridge stations.

I left a few of the WoK era display screens up and recolored a few as necessary instead of using some of the simpler more generic displays that were used in TMP.

After the basic recolor, I started to completely re-model the bridge chairs as seen in The Motion Picture.

September 19, 2019: Redesigning the bridge chairs

September 21, 2019: Old and New Chairs

In the image above I'm comparing the original WoK command (far left) with the new TMP command chair (middle left) and the original WoK bridge chair (far right) with the new TMP bridge chair (middle right). Unlike the original chairs, the new ones also have a metal and fabric texture insead of just colored materials.

The original chairs I modeled in 2011.

Development Log: January 31, 2019

Chicago Polar Vortex 2019 Update:

Completed medical laboratory stations and Dr. McCoy's desk terminal.

January 31, 2019: CMO desk terminal, data card, medical scanners, protoplaser, and scalpels

I originally just modeled the protoplaser for scale since it does appear next to the desk terminal in one of the Wrath of Khan promotional images. But since I had the rest of the dimentioned diagrams anyway, figured add the rest just for effect.

January 31, 2019: Medical laboratory station 1 panel details

January 31, 2019: Medical laboratory station 2 panel details

As mentioned in the previous post, most of the lights and buttons are actually modeled to make it easier to eventually programatically modify them later. Text labels are still a texture, but definitely saving a lot of time by duplicating those white elliptical  buttons.

Development Log: January 1-28, 2019

January 1, 2019: Sickbay Main Ward

January 10, 2019: Examination room back wall and bad

January 13: 2019: Examination room console

For this console I initially used the same technique as done in previous Enterprise models by creating textures of all the control panels. However as I moved to the computer and comm panels on the far right, I started creating 3D models of the buttons, microphone, etc. This was inspired by my previous work Millennium Falcon cockpit where every single light and model was a 3D object, not just a texture.

January 13, 2019

January 20, 2019: Updated examination bed and display wall

January 20, 2019: Examination room transporter console

The transporter control panels are the first ones in the project to be fully modeled (opposed to just textured) from the start. The remaining scan mode console below would be next. This started the groundwork for having templates for many of the reoccurring buttons and lights that I would easily be able to reuse on later control panels.

January 20: 2019: Examination room revised console

January 21, 2019: Medical lab station and doctor's office

Starting Doctor McCoy's office was a bit challenging since I created the chair completely from eye-balling a promotional image. Other models like the wall details where I could use simple geometry to get better estimates of the dimensions from known objects like doors or actors standing next to it.

January 22: 2019: Additional panel details to medical lab consoles

January 28: 2019: Doctor McCoy's computer terminal

Doctor McCoy's computer terminal was a similar challenge trying to guess the dimensions from promotional images. Fortunately there is a protoplaser in the same image. I was able to get a decent approximation of the terminal using the well documented dimensions of the protoplaser prop seen in The Original Series, The Motion Picture, and The Wrath of Khan.

The curved nature of that terminal also made it a challenge to model, but after approximating the height and width using the protoplaser, I think I have a good approximation of that terminal.