Project:
Latest render above – I’ve been adjusting the custom metal shader alongside adding detail using texture maps – the early renders had a nice quality to them in terms of lighting and this is mostly accidental – once you start drilling down into the mapping, certain things become apparent, but then the previous renders were just quick and dirty using a shader with rather coarse settings, giving the surface a granular appearance but with interesting reflections and specularity.
Anisotropic shaders simulate metallic surfaces which have fine scratches which cause reflections & specular highlights to appear a certain way depending upon the viewing angle and lighting.
Still a way to go in terms of surface detailing but it’s looking interesting – the lighting set up is really to help me see how the textures are working at different angles.
This part of the process has been useful as far as determining if there needs to be more modelled fine detail , which I have decided to add – but again, I’m trying to retain the clean lines and simplicity against honouring the original too much – e.g. it’s tempting to add the “probes” on the ends of the nacelles but I’ll probably leave them out.
I’m also trying a different approach to the dish surfacing – not really apparent from the image above – using a hexagonal pattern, which suggests solar panels – again, not the usual radiating panel lines seen on the OS Enterprise and later iterations, although I may reinstate these as an additional detail element.
I may extend the project to include a retro version of the bridge, which is an interesting idea, and I might post something in a future post.