The Redux Misanthropic Retreat

For another part of Plagarus, the interior of Lethgoshis' ship, the Misanthropic Retreat will need to be built.  So, I've decided to just build the entire interior set, which will likely be available online after I finish it.  The set will include the following rooms:

• Cockpit
• Captain's Cabin
• Engine Compartment
• Crew Common Area
• Crew Cabins
• Galley
• Cargo Bay

  
  

   

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

The habitable areas of the Misanthropic Retreat

The cargo bay.  The tube-like area to the left is where the lift to the second and third levels will eventually be located

I used a previous design motif to greatly speed up the process.  I'm assigning this particular style to an alien race in the universe I made.

Still a great deal of work to be done, obviously.  The majority of the scene in question will be located in the cargo bay.

Here is the fictional lore on the Misanthropic Retreat:

  XD-202a

THE XD-202A spaceship is a light-duty spaceship in operation in the Lathkos Sector since 1,962 M.E. A variant of the Cenathlori designed XF series space freighter, it is considerably lighter and more versatile. It is capable of almost any light-duty assignment required of it, and its modular design was considered revolutionary in its day.

It is deemed a commercial failure by most market experts.  Only 2,508 XD-202a spaceships were built, with the last one rolling off the assembly line on Canthlor in 1,979 M.E.  By the year 2,010 M.E., only about 500 remained in space.

A heavily modified XD-202a spaceship, landed on planet Plagarus

Characteristics 

The XD-202a spaceship was designed to be as versatile as possible, able to serve as a freighter, an asteroid miner, a gunboat, a bomber, or even a family yacht. It was built with the ability to attach different lower sections, which would connect to the ship directly behind the main cabin. These sections would be mission specific, and were originally designed to be as easy as possible to remove and replace.

Consumers who bought the ships, however, quickly discovered that these modules were anything but easy to remove and replace, often times requiring hours of painstaking effort to finally fit them together. Also, the ships became notorious for dropping these modules in mid-flight as the connecting supports which would tether the modules to the ship would, in cold temperatures, simply detach without warning.  At least 200 such documented incidents resulted in fatalities, with 42 of them resulting in the complete destruction of the victim's ship during the accident. 

As such, most XD-202a ships which are seen today have mission specific modules simply welded permanently to the ship, with the owners of the vessels abandoning the modular abilities of the ship altogether.

The Misanthropic Retreat, Lethgoshis' personal XD-202a. Note the missing loading struts and the addition of weapons, making it a gunship

The remaining XD-202a ships which still fly in space have almost all been bought up by hot-rod and space-racer enthusiasts due to the abnormally large engines for the relatively light ship, due to the ship's original intention of hauling additional weight of cargo containers under its main fuselage.

Misanthropic Retreat

Sometime after his leaving New Isus the second time on his way to search for Padoen Titus, Lethgoshis came into possession of the Misanthropic Retreat, an XD-202a whose container module had been removed permanently.  The ship had been fitted with small blast cannons, re-classifying it as a light gunship under Thrassi maritime law. Although offensive weaponry on private spaceships was outlawed in the Thrassi Republic in 1,992 M.E., Lethgoshis, who was still technically an Isus guardsman, had clearance to possess weapons on his ship.

The Retreat later served as Padoen Titus' and Lethgoshis' personal starship and home as they started up their business together, travelling long distances across the Lathkos Sector. 

Upon being asked by Padoen why he chose the Cenathlori designed XD-202a, Lethgoshis responded, "Because I can fit through the doors."

Dan

Viminal Class Exterior Turntable 2

Dan

Viminal Interior Walk Through Animation

Dan

"Yep, it does fit..."

One of the questions I get asked the most is: "Do your interiors actually fit inside your ship exteriors?"  The answer is always, "Yep, it does fit."  No weird MMO-style it's-bigger-on-the-inside stuff.  I am nevertheless a Doctor Who fan, mind you.

What the current set looks like without the ship around it.  We're nearing the end of the architectural modelling phase here.  Next, we're into the detailing phase, where we add props, furnishings and other stuff.  Then materials and we're done.

What the chunk of rooms looks like inside the ship, and what space is taken up.

What each section is, by color, with future additions pointed out, as well.

Rendering up a video walk-through overnight.  Hopefully I get to work tomorrow instead of watching the computer render.

Dan

Viminal Interior Adjustments

Still deliberating on the furnishings in these lounge areas.  Also, for some reason, I find these windows so incredibly beautiful, I'm seriously considering adding more of the things around the ship, particularly in the flat areas around central ring of the ship. 

This has a potential two-fold benefit. 1.) I was never pleased with those greebles.  2.) It'd give me more compartments on the ship with an awesome view.

Dan

Yet Another Viminal Interior Update

Another Viminal Update

Still working out the details on these rooms.  I'm not sure what purpose they serve, but it's likely some kind of crew recreational area.

Was thinking of deleting the walls between the two rooms (the walls form the corridor in the middle of the ship visible in the center picture) and simply making one, large, open lounge area with windows on either side.  That would be an interesting space for filming.  The problem is, if that room were holed by enemy fire, it would effectively cut off the bridge from the rest of the ship.  Probably not a good idea in the design of a military vessel.  Of course, in the civilian versions of this class of ship, I'd imagine the owners would tear out the walls and create that lounge area.

Weird place to find resistance: the end walls of the rooms.  Still have no clue what I'm going to put there...

Dan

Viminal Update

Update on the work on the interior of the Viminal gunship.

It's funny as you go along in the process of making one of these things, where your eyes are drawn.  These areas are usually ones that stand out as different from the rest.  In this case, my eyes are drawn to the place where there are no greeble details.  It's really annoying to see those big, open spaces.  Will probably have to go through once I'm all done and see one last time where everything needs to be filled in.

Dan

More Adamant Warp Drop Out

The Escort Tactics of the Republic

The original intention of the Palatine cruiser was to have it like the starship Enterprise from Star Trek, in that these starships operate more or less without escort and are solo most of the time, just cruising around and cataloguing star systems.

Then I discovered that while the Lathkos Sector universe I created is not as militaristic as, say, Battlestar: Galactica or Star Wars, these ships are very much still military assets and would require escort, considering they're huge investments.  Plus, if one ship is cool on screen, how much cooler is multiple ships all maneuvering in formation?

And, of course, it also gives a ridiculous excuse to show these ships in comparison to each other.  Size comparison is a very important way human beings denote importance, as well as become more familiar with objects.

All of this destructive power in this small tactical group is under the command of one man, the captain of the lead ship, in this case, Adamant.  There is little wonder that captains of Palatine cruisers are known for their serious, almost solemn personalities.

Smiles and joviality aren't really an option when you're controlling a platform with enough fire power to obliterate a planet flying at 10,000 meters per second.

Dan

Viminal Class Gunship 2

More greebles need to be added, I think...

Dan

Viminal Gunship

Working on a name for this class of gunship.  Keeping with the tradition I started with naming the Thrassi ships after the seven hills of Rome, I'm probably aiming for a name like the Viminal class gunship.

This ship is very Thrassi in its design mantra.  The Thrassi Republic (or, TR) has always been strapped for cash, so it decided to invest in a million little ships like this one over having a few large ones.  The Thrass also have the most planets to patrol, so having a multitude of small ships was smarter for them.  I imagine they built a lot of these Viminal gunships, probably numbering into the tens of thousands of them, to patrol backwater systems and provide escort for larger ships, such as the Aventine destroyer and Palatine cruiser.

These gunships were basically just lightly armored, yet extremely fast and deadly heavy sluggers, meant to carry as much fire power as possible right into the enemy's face.  While the TR never designed multi-person ships to be expendable, this ship probably had the highest casualty rate in any of the skirmishes the Navy had with pirate factions or with the Trisst Empire.

As the years wore on, however, these ships were probably retired from naval service and sold off to the private sector for either scrap or to be used as patrol boats for major corporations or personal ships for private citizens.  Really, the only ships that remained in use for any length of time in the TR were the Palatine cruisers, and even then, only five of the original twenty built were in active service after thirty years.

They probably kept building new Viminal gunships over time, however, to replace the older ones.

The upside to building ships for the same fleet is that you can reuse certain greebles and detail geometry in the new chassis.  This is a huge time-saver, as evidenced by the fact that this ship's exterior is nearly done already, despite me just starting a couple of days ago.  As the greeble library expands, and my familiarity with the hull plating technique gets better, I'm glad to see that the time to build these ships is decreasing precipitously. 

Dan

Gunship WIP

Started work on a gunship.

The round spots on the top and bottom are where the gun turrets will go. Probably will have the warp drive winglets fold up and down like on the Palatine class. This ship was designed to be just a fast, powerful slugger with minimal armor. Its speed and atmospheric capabilities are its best defences. Its main armament is six heavy blast ionized particle cannons, the much smaller version of what the Adamant is armed with. It was designed to fly into enemy lines and pick off turrets and exposed hardware.

They were designed and built around the beginning of the 20th century of my universe, however, and as such, their age is now very evident. As such, they were sold off to private contractors and owners beginning around the 80's. Now they're mostly just owned by private merchantmen and mercenaries. To fly this ship in Thrassi space, however, you have to have a license for all those guns. Unfortunately, some of these have found their way into the hands of pirates in the outer systems. They're usually easily destroyed, though, if the Navy sends in a Palatine class cruiser to deal with those pirate scum.

Dan

The Misanthropic Retreat

Misanthropic: (adj.)

1. Of, or relating to a misanthrope
2. Marked by a hatred or contempt for humankind 

Retreat: (v.)

1. (a) The act or process of withdrawing, especially from what is dangerous, difficult, or disagreeable; (b) The process of receding from a position or state attained
2. A place of privacy or safety: REFUGE

A good old classic space scene with a spaceship, the Misanthropic Retreat, Lethgoshis's private spacecraft from Plagarus.  A spaceship is a great way to get away from it all, isn't it?

Dan

Adamant Dimensions

Someone wondered how big the Adamant was.  Here's a run-down on her stats:

Length from bow to end of armor hull: 403 meters (1,322 feet)

Height from lowest point to highest point of armor hull: 318 meters (1,043 feet)

Width from tips of wings: 541 meters (1,774 feet)

Width of body: 192 meters (629 feet)

The speck next to the gunship is an average height man.

She's a big, beautiful ship. =D

Dan

Plagarus: Part One

Yay! Part One of the short film Plagarus is done! =D  Starting work on Part Two.

Hope you all have a great week!

Dan

Final Render and Composite

Rendering the final shot now!  Things are shaping up.

Now I am passing most of the shots through the make-look-good-erator, which is basically a node setup that adds bloom effects and other nifty, sneaky techniques to make the video look more... uh, more... more good! =D

 As you can see, the images are very similar to each other, but the lower one has passed through the make-look-good-erator and therefore looks more good. =)

Rendering final shot, will be done by Sunday.  Final composite and uploading Part One probably Sunday or Monday! =D

Yay!

Dan

Ice Base Finished

So I'm calling it done. =)

Render Time: 89 hours. =O

Passes: ~6000

Resolution: 3840 x 2160



Dan

The Ice Base Almost Done

I've since added a railing for the hole in the ground, as someone wisely pointed out it needed that.  Safety first on our imaginary ice planet. =D

Huge render over the weekend.  Hopefully I'm almost done. =)

Dan

Ice Base Still Going

Still going on with the ice base.  I'm getting closer to completion, but there's still a lot to do.

Not happy with the lights around the access hole in the floor.  So I'm planning on using one of my nice pre-made lamp models to replace the look.  They come in a variety of shapes. =)



Dan