CG Galactica - Page 12

Titon · December 12th, 2013, 10:50 AM

In some of the books i remember reading of support ships in some copacity. I believe one of the biggest reasons you do not see that in the TOS on screen is because of the FX of the day. The Galactica does have missles and has been seen in close combat with Basestars.

Matador · December 12th, 2013, 01:37 PM

martok2112 excellent history lesson. I think the fact that the colonies fought with each other is a story that is often forgotten or overlooked.... The show Caprica was pretty good at exploring that. The colonies did fight with each other for many yarens.

Titon, your right. Galactica did have missiles... Nuclear ones I believe. They showed them on the episode when Galactica and Pegasus, original series, took out one of the base stars. Also the very last eposide "hand of god", original series, showed them too.

Senmut · December 12th, 2013, 08:50 PM

My take about why the BaseShips are usually seen alone (aside from ABC being pinchy with the budget!) is that with their centralized mentality, the Cylons pile as much as possible into each ship. As we have seen, the BaseShips can carry out a variety of operations. Even the Raiders, with more internal space than a Viper, could carry extra troops, ordnance, or bombs. To be, as Tigh says in FIS "packed with solonite", they must have room for extra stuff. Again, the centralizing philosophy in action. This can of course be a great asset, as well as a drawback.

Senmut · December 12th, 2013, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matador

martok2112 excellent history lesson. I think the fact that the colonies fought with each other is a story that is often forgotten or overlooked.... The show Caprica was pretty good at exploring that. The colonies did fight with each other for many yarens.

Titon, your right. Galactica did have missiles... Nuclear ones I believe. They showed them on the episode when Galactica and Pegasus, original series, took out one of the base stars. Also the very last eposide "hand of god", original series, showed them too.

Too bad, at some point in the 1,000 Yahren War, the Colonies didn't just ammass as many ships with missiles as possible, jump to Cylon, and pump every missile into the planet.
Might have shortened the war a bit.

Punisher454 · December 12th, 2013, 11:57 PM

My take on it was that due to some reasons of design efficiency related to scale(based on colonial technology), a single Battlestar provided the colonies more bang for the buck than a Battle-group with a myriad of ship types. Perhaps for a given amount of flying tonnage its more cost effective to produce one big version of each ship system (drives, life support, controls, etc..) rather than many smaller version of each of those.
The Battlestar is a carrier, a battleship, and should be capable of supporting several thousand troops for ground operations. The sheer bulk of the Battlestar is its protection once ships slip past the fighters.

Matador · December 16th, 2013, 08:12 PM

This is for all my friends, comrades, and fellow warriors. Wishing you all the best this Christmas... And a grand Holiday.

Thanks all for your feedback and tips... I'm so grateful for this site and the folks here. It's nice to have a place to go to and talk all things Galactica and sci-fi related.

The Matador

Senmut · December 16th, 2013, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Punisher454

My take on it was that due to some reasons of design efficiency related to scale(based on colonial technology), a single Battlestar provided the colonies more bang for the buck than a Battle-group with a myriad of ship types. Perhaps for a given amount of flying tonnage its more cost effective to produce one big version of each ship system (drives, life support, controls, etc..) rather than many smaller version of each of those.
The Battlestar is a carrier, a battleship, and should be capable of supporting several thousand troops for ground operations. The sheer bulk of the Battlestar is its protection once ships slip past the fighters.

The drawback though is the need to carry all those consumables. Since the Cylons don't need fresh oxygen, food, water, and all the recycling that entails, plus both living and recreational space, they can load their ships with just that much extra weaponry, fuel, and/or troops. We know they can field 300 fighters at a go, compared to half that number from a Battlestar. Since they have fewer restrictions, and probably have no concepts such as money, or economics as we think of it, they can put all their eggs in one basket, whereas Humans need to diversify to some extent. I suspect it is that very need to be flexible that has contributed to the Colonies managing to fight the Cylons off for so long.

Matador · January 1st, 2014, 08:40 AM

Finally working on the texture for the landing bays. I also finished adding the laser cannons to the area above the launch tubes.

Matador · January 5th, 2014, 09:17 PM

I started to work on the landing deck a little. I'm not going to put too much detail into this area because this will only be used for external camera shots... I will create a fully detailed set for internal camera shots...

I am also going to incorporate a little bit of Star Trek tech and create containment shields. Like the Next Generation shuttle bays and what not.

To help with scale... I added a few vipers in the images.

martok2112 · January 7th, 2014, 12:12 AM

oh, wow! Love the scaling of the Big G vs the Viper.

Matador · January 9th, 2014, 07:19 AM

Ok... After speaking to a colleague of mine... Who happens to be a pilot... I decided to modify the texture of the landing strip...

I also added some runway lights like they had on the show.

martok2112 · January 9th, 2014, 01:38 PM

Me likey a lot!

Matador · February 19th, 2014, 01:40 AM

OK... Maudib got my creative gears spinning and I decided to start working on my rear engines...

I borrowed his idea for modeling the insides of the big G's engines. I wanted to break up the mesh and give something cool for the eyes. Not as good as Maudib's, but it's better than just an empty hole.

Also, from a lot of feed back I decided to remove the rear cannons. I'll figure something else out for Aft protection.

I also thought I would share a teaser of another project I've been working on.

gmd3d · February 19th, 2014, 02:58 AM

cool going for the Nautilus..

maudib · February 19th, 2014, 10:51 AM

Reusing the greebles I see, having a "parts bin" is cool isn't it?

I wouldn't bother with the honeycomb mesh if you're going to light up the engines in renders. I like the glide slope lights for the landing bay approach. It's a very low tech but fool-proof method of assuring you're on target if all your hi tech gadgets are shot out from battle damage. Maybe some on the side walls as well? Otherwise nice work!

Matador · February 19th, 2014, 04:19 PM

Yes... Having a parts bin is very nice... Plus I have something to start with and then modify if need be... I suck at greebling... That in itself is an art form and takes much trial and error.

Lightwave 11.6 has a new tool called "Transform tool", which makes lining things up a little less daunting. That was a tool they had in 3ds Max that I missed. Glad Lightwave finally added it.

Yeah, can't go wrong with the lights... I always thought that would be a nice touch...

I like the grill thing inside the engine houseing... But your right. They probably won't be very visible once I light up the engines. It was something they had on the new Galactica series that I thought was a nice touch.

Thanks for all your tips Maudib.

Matador · February 21st, 2014, 12:50 AM

I completed the inside of the engines. Now to figure out what to do with the empty spots.

Sure it will come to me when I get to it.

maudib · February 21st, 2014, 01:19 AM

Nice! Could you post a pic with the engines lit up the next time you're doing a full rendering? I'd like to see how much I can get away with removing the greebles inside the exhaust ports.

Matador · February 21st, 2014, 11:23 PM

Here ya go Maudib... Hope this gives you an idea. I didn't use full blast light coming out. But I tried to emulate a huge Ion engine.

I put it together quick and dirty for ya'll.

maudib · February 22nd, 2014, 04:18 AM

Thanks Matador. That's helpful to me.

Matador · March 15th, 2014, 12:24 AM

OK... I finally thing I'm done with the AFT section of my Galactica... I really wanted to keep the AFT laser cannons so I ended up cutting a few holes in the mesh and tucking the guns away in nice little cubbies... I thought it was much cleaner than the protruding ones.

Just a few more touches and I think I'm ready for filming.

I've also included some pictures of my Nautilus project too.

And a bonus, I attached a picture for for those that enjoy a cocktail with your cigar, like me. The title is called "Last call".

martok2112 · March 15th, 2014, 01:03 AM

WOW! I love the idea you have with the guns....excellent! (Ain't nobody gonna sneak up on the Galactica from behind now.

) And the rendering looks nigh photorealistic! Love it love it LOVE IT!

That is one mean looking Nautilus too! You wouldn't want to get hit by that thing from ANY angle!

And that is a cute little image with the barfly chick!
Well done all around!

Matador · March 15th, 2014, 08:11 AM

Thanks Martok... That means a lot coming from a master Greebler such as you.

Yeah, this took me a couple weeks to do... Mostly just trying to figure out where to put things and give it some sense of purpose.

I used your reference pics to give me some inspiration. I tried to keep mine as unique as possible.

Yeah, I was really torn about the aft laser cannons... I figure the cubbies were a great alternative and gave the back section a more clean look.

Regarding the Nautilus... That has been a fun challenge... It's still a work in progress too. I just finished modeling the hatches.

Thanks for the compliment on the picture of the girl. She is my favorite character to work with. I thought that would be a classy pose for her.

maudib · March 15th, 2014, 04:24 PM

I like the rivets on the Nautilus. Looks so Jules Verne'ish!

Matador · March 16th, 2014, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maudib

I like the rivets on the Nautilus. Looks so Jules Verne'ish!

Thanks Maudib... I'm trying to re-create the design by Harper Goff. I'm very much into the steam punk theme... So I'm trying to re-create that here.

I was trying to figure out if I wanted to model each rivet. But then I wasn't sure how I could get them to align properly.

I decided just to use a texture map with a high bump value. Seems to help create the illusion. I have not UV mapped it. So some of the paneling drifts a bit. I will eventually UV map it to get more accurate Rivet pattern. Perhaps you may have a tip on that in Lightwave. Something to get the rivets to follow a specific pattern?

Anyhew, Here are some updates from The Nautilus.

maudib · March 16th, 2014, 02:18 PM

Yes, I use rail-cloning function in LW. Just set up your guide curve over the mesh, tell lightwave how many clones and what the spacing is and click button. I used this to model hundreds of pipes along my battlestar's front section. The fit is perfect.

martok2112 · March 16th, 2014, 02:40 PM

Excellence! Sheer excellence!

Matador · March 16th, 2014, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maudib

use rail-cloning function in LW

Thanks for the tip Maudib... I think I tried it once, but I was not able to keep my line straight enough.

Do you know of any cool tutorials on how to use rail clone properly?

Thanks again Martok!

lisac1606 · May 1st, 2014, 12:59 PM

OMG, so cool...

Matador · May 24th, 2014, 04:28 AM

Hello all... I got a message asking "what happened to Matador". Anyhew, I've been super busy... So here are some answers.

Yes, I'm still working on my Galactica project... I've got most my stuff modeled and ready for filming... I'm going to use some CG characters for the ground crew and what-not to guide the vipers to launch.

Soooo, I 've been doing a lot of testing with motion capture. I started this about four months ago and it's been a lot of trial and error. Plus, since I work full time and being a father at the same time. It's a hard balance. I've only been able to do this one day a week.

But here is my very first test of the motion capture.

https://youtu.be/ef3QtXDZ16Q

Also, I've been working on "The Nautilus" project... I've been working on ocean simulation for the sub. Another huge learning curve.

But here is a test I did of the Nautilus floating on water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w_tLJsNpiw

Here is another test I did, just to see how the simulated ocean current would react to my sub... Just a side not, the sub in the seen is my "PROXY" model of the Nautilus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNyqcvHvWBU

I've attached some "Beauty shots" of the Nautilus.

But, I am still working on Galactica. Just working to get this motion capture thing down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKN9nGbkDiw