Mark Rademaker

In other news:

2012-02-01T22:15:00.001+01:00

CBS in the shape of John van Citters gave me green light to get my starships in Star Trek Online.

I'm preparing a list of questions and tech specs that I need to sent to Cryptic, see how and if we can shape this. To be continued. :)

Alejandro, here is that underside view! :)

2012-02-01T21:59:00.001+01:00

Click on the "Actions" tab and then "download" photo. I find it extremely annoying that Blogspot decides what format would be best for these pictures.... :P

Planck topview

2012-01-29T11:23:00.003+01:00

It will be a slow sunday! :)

I kind of like this image so I wanted to share it.
This was made a few days before I finalized the ship.

The image below explains why the registry looks flipped on the bottom.

I apologize for my insanely bad post construction/writing this morning. Time for some breakfast!

Priority One! YAY!

2012-01-28T00:25:00.000+01:00

Thanks for the support guys! I really appriciate it!
Listen to their latest podcast here:

Vesta Class Third Anniversary!

2012-01-23T00:01:00.000+01:00

I wanted to type an entire essay, but lets cut that: Vesta class became 3 years old this month, time to celebrate: Wallpaper in 2560x1440 can be downloaded by clicking the image

Trivia:

The saucer of the Vesta is designed to be separable in case of an emergency
For the last 2 years the sensors have been covered by white or black gel pads that I replaced by transparent membranes this weekend.
This is the first image where the Vesta is firing weapons. Including the forward phaser cannons, in equal yield mode.
Back in November 2008 Andrew Probert came up with the flowing pylon idea, he made a quick swept forward concept as well.
The 3DS Max file of the Vesta is around 1,5GB in size and takes up to 10gb of ram during renders.
A render of the Vesta takes 45 minutes in decent quality nowadays compared to 10 hours in 2009.
Since Friday evening I worked about 20 hours to create this image.

Looking forward to next week, will work on Voyager and on something that has to do with rapid prototyping.

Somewhere deep in my mind I'm thinking about a new Enterprise as well. Also I'm wondering what would happen if I would do my version of the TOS-E. Sadly my time is limited, and I need to pick my projects with care. Voyager first! :D

See it became somewhat of an essay anyway!

Game resolution model

2012-01-14T12:19:00.002+01:00

My first low poly object since 2003! I still need to do more texturing. (half done)

This runabout was a testsubject: from Powernurbs to low polygon model. (In other words: from 500.000 polygons to 7500) This worked a lot better then I had anticipated. Currently I'm streamlining my workflow, but the basics are there. I learn a lot from this one.

Time to do some work on Voyager!

Quick heads up

2012-01-08T00:08:00.002+01:00

2012, happy new year to you all! I had a bad case of flu, but I'm feeling ok again!

Currently in development: (in order of priority)

Voyager refit
Learning to model with very little polygons
Demeter

What I want to achieve this year:

Getting the Vesta in STO
Maybe getting some other ships of mine in STO as well, but lets not stretch it. :-)

That's about it, ofcourse during the year this could change around a little. Seems to be common these days.

Tomorrow I will start with the modeling phase of Voyager, I hope to have a basic shape ready by next weekend.

Planck Flyby

2011-12-06T21:28:00.001+01:00

For Drexfiles I created this flyby of the Planck.

Link to vid on Youtube

Blog reconstruction finished.

2011-11-04T20:57:00.000+01:00

Blog changes done for now. I decided to not use Dynamic views yet, as it still is rather uneditable thru the blogger menu. (I'm a 100% dummy in html/css template editing.)

Anyways lets take a look at Demeter's first full view concept:

Vulcan meets Andor.

Under heavy construction!

2011-11-02T11:14:00.000+01:00

My blog is a bit messy these days, I'm trying these new dynamic skins. (With strange results)

Vulcans did their part!

2011-10-30T22:56:00.000+01:00

Nice and clean, but they always use that dreaded red color! Federation standard coating will fix that. :) But that still is a couple of months away. First, the drive system needs to be placed. Good thing Vulcans can also write logical service manuals. This thing is quite different in technology, it has Andorian design written all over it. Calibration has to be done very precise. I'm wondering what that magnetic plasma guidance system does.

"No Sir, I wasnt touching that button."

That is how my brain works I guess. Jumping from left to right in utter short and chaotic phrases. :)

My first starship (2003)

2011-10-30T00:27:00.000+02:00

Dwight Williams commented on my Vienna class starship. I was about to write back within the Picasa album, but then I noticed I only had 512 characters. :)

Anyway we are talking about this starship:

Back in the day (2003) this was fine for me. It was my second serious 3ds Max model created with all kind of new techniques that Truespace (my previous modeling software) did not have. It also was my first Star Trek inspired ship. I loved working on this as well as keeping the guys at SCN (my favorite board) updated with build up shots. I learned a ton, but in retrospect: it's rather flawed. (modeling and design wise.)

Lets see:

Design: not present, I was only working on a mesh and battling smoothing errors. My design eye was untrained. (It's half trained now, hence no Enterprise F :P)

Modeling issues: It suffers from blobbyness, where the mesh itself has too little information for the meshsmooth modifier to work with. These surfaces become rather curvy and undefined. It's a huge NO. I sometimes see people still doing this, it's the nr 1 method to make an "alien" ship. (sadly lol)

The escape pods: they are stuck into the main hull, as are most items on this ship. I had no clue how to conform parts into or onto the hull. I just created something that I could move (manually) down the hull mesh. Same goes for the phaser strips. No clue how to make a conforming phaser bank, so these strips would mask that lack of talent/skill.

Windows: I tried thousands of methods (ok I tried 3), but ended up with texturing them in. I created a huge alpha map and used it as bump + opacity map. Some lit inner textures do the rest. That actually worked out rather well, but it felt too much like cheating, even if it would be closer to the real thing in 300 years then an actual window. I think hullparts can become transparent on demand by then.

Details:
The poly modeling parts where very detailed. It's the easy part. But imagine taking a close up of that deflector when it's on the model, you have this rather detailed deflector, but the surrounding hull still is flat and uninteresting and shows clearly that the deflector is just stuck into it. The difference is too large. Fun: yes, but another NO in retrospect.

Bridge module:
This was done with patch modeling, splinecage and all. I had zip experience with that, and I dont really know why I did it with patch modeling, but the result was pretty ok. Probably the best part of this model. (By coincidence)

Inner bridge: Sized like a ballroom, but in some shots had a glimpse of realism that the outside lacked.

Conclusion: I made big learning steps with this one, but it's a museum piece, not something I would like to render again. :)

I got bored...

2011-10-18T21:58:00.000+02:00

....and decided to cut a nacelle in half and make an exploded view of it. It gives some insight in my modeling approach I guess. Might contain spelling errors as I'm doing too many things at once. (never a good idea) :P (Warning 8000 pixel image link)

Almost forgot!! Quantum Cafe interview.

2011-10-18T14:30:00.002+02:00

Low quality lunchbreak post alert.

Podcast of interview about the Vesta class and some of my other designs. (3 weeks ago) with the 2 ship designers of Cryptic (Star Trek Online)

http://www.thequantumcafe.com/priorityone/1-podcasts/99-episode-49-the-shipyard-ft-capt-logan-and-thomas-the-catQuantum

This was very cool!

Thanks guys!

First look at Full Circle Vesta's

2011-10-16T16:22:00.001+02:00

Some updates

2011-10-05T23:34:00.000+02:00

Created some time ago as a little helper for me during the design of the Vesta.
A four page PDF file that shows primary specifications. These where/are not final but more of a rough guideline to me and some writers.

Part below is a quote from the spec list that still has to be taken out. It was intended to be a justification for the creation of the MK.II that I decided to cancel anyway. Instead I made small changes to the MK.I.

LOG ENTRY:

This refit is planned to convert the Aventine NCC-82602 from a "McKinley" (NX) pattern to a "DeSilvo" pattern (NCC).

While labeled as an "NCC" the Aventine currently is identical to NX-82600. (U.S.S. Vesta) with exception of the added experimental quantum slipstream conversion.

NCC-82602 is subject to refit earlier as expected because of the destruction of NX-82600 during the war against the Borg. The refit is scheduled to start at stardate 58969.656 and will take up to 4 months. Currently the Aventine is docked in drydock 18 here at Utopia Plantitia. Drydock 18 is an enclosed dock that requires a higher security clearance and is off limits to all normal personal, including medical staff.
Spec list link thingy

In other news: these brown blog colors look kind of heavy. (what was I thinking.) I will change that back soon. (EDIT: DONE!)

Anything else?

A small deck layout for the Demeter, IF it stays at it's current 216 meter size. It might be too small for the desired hydroponic bays capacity. I might size it up a deck or 2.

Here you go Justin, current progress:

2011-09-23T12:11:00.001+02:00

Treknology +1

2011-09-17T15:04:00.001+02:00

A look at one of the strongest materials ever created. Andorian Shielded Fullerene. 1 cm thick layers are used in the composite outer hull of the Demeter.

Voyager, the second start! :)

2011-07-24T14:46:00.001+02:00

I had to postpone it the last couple of months, mostly because I could not find the focus to do it. But now is the best time to continue and finish it. After all, as Malcom Lu (brilliant 2D artist) said to me, Voyager is the star of the show, it should be done first. He certainly has a point.

I will consider this day 1 of the project.
I created a light rig and some decent render settings for my work in progress shots.

Because Voyager will need all of my attention to get it right, I will put my other projects on hold.

Because it's my summer break!

2011-07-22T16:41:00.001+02:00

A freshly rendered alternative angle that I left out for ST-MAG:

Click for a 6000 pixel wide image ;)

Merian Poll

2011-07-13T09:04:00.000+02:00

Poll closed, thank you for voting!

The Merian variant (U.S.S. Hawking) will contain:

The "dual wing" layout. (55%)
Different sensors pods (44%)
A more uniform color scheme (19%)

I decided to skip the vertical nacelle idea for now. Perhaps a different class sometime.

Totally unrelated: You can hang out at the messhall from the U.S.S. Batavia again. (Fixed the link)
(360 degrees panorama)

Think! Before you post!

2011-07-05T18:46:00.002+02:00

In the Merian Poll please ignore Horizontal Nacelles.... I should have typed Vertical Nacelles.... (1 on top 1 below...)

In my enthousiam I typed what I thought, then was called away and never noticed my error. :) Sorry!

Voyager research.... :)

2011-07-04T18:57:00.001+02:00

I had to make a picture of myself for Dougs blog, but I always end up looking different or too serious. So this time I kept my curvy arch enemy (for the next couple of months at least...) in my hands, much better results! :)

USS Planck (my SOTL2012 entry)

2011-07-04T18:47:00.000+02:00

It aired on Dougs blog yesterday, and now I can show some more images of it as well! :)
Most of these are work in progress images. Enjoy!

Variant Experiment

The final Calendar image

Wireframe view, showing the spine in white.

Vesta class, STO and some Demeter news.

2011-06-21T16:08:00.000+02:00

I noticed that there is some "discussion" going on about the Vesta class and Star Trek Online.

4 or 5 months ago I had brief contact with Cryptic about getting this class in Star Trek Online. They had to check with CBS. That is also the last update I got. Just to be clear on that: If they would contact me, I'm willing to help out.

In other news:

Working on Demeter. The ship is taking an entirely new route and will probably be the cleanest/less greebled ship of the fleet. This in contrast to the very heavy looking Merians.
Hope to post first work in progress pics in a couple of days.

Warfield geometry (first concept.)

Voyager Refit

2011-06-09T09:18:00.000+02:00

This image, that I posted yesterday on Trekbbs.com is by no means a final concept, had to clear that up. :)

Ipad arrived

2011-04-28T14:14:00.000+02:00

Good for research & brainstorm sessions :-)

Voyager status update

2011-04-09T12:24:00.001+02:00

Going quite slow, but I better make this look good.

The original mesh was made about 16 years ago by Amblin Imaging. They 3D scanned the Voyager physical model and created a cgi version of it. I manipulated the mesh to reflect my refit plans and used that as a guideline to create the nurbs model on. As you see this has some advantages if it comes to "Wires". (However this will change once the detailing starts...)

Lots to do, I better continue! :)

Escape pod. (Work In Progress)

2011-03-21T23:40:00.001+01:00

One of the 36 escape pods that will be placed on the refit.

Showroom

2011-03-21T23:00:00.001+01:00

The concept car showroom is ready. The “car” in the middle is a pseudo 3D placeholder.

Enteaprise? :)

2011-03-09T15:57:00.004+01:00

Experiments I love them! While drinking a cup of tea it hit me! (Splash!)

I present to you a starship entirely made out of the teapot primitive. (For non modelers: THE Teapot is a shape that comes in most 3d packages. I think it's the nr.1 test object.)

Anyway I used 24 teapots and a couple of simple modifiers (bending, tapering, control point manipulators.) to get a generic looking starship. Kind of cool!

Earl Grey, Hot...

It does make me wonder if the JJ also sipped too much tea... :D

Lets say I needed a break from the workflow documentation that I'm currently setting up for my next 2 projects: U.S.S. Voyager and U.S.S. Galen.

Yay! Time to spare!

2011-03-06T23:54:00.001+01:00

Ever thought about working in a better environment? Me too! In the physical world I'm all set. A light looking room, not too much stuff in it, and my desk is looking tidy. (And there is tea, lots of tea!) At the moment my pc is rendering my new showroom environment. This will become my virtual "design office". It's just before the coast of some strange island, that started out as a geosphere... I can imagine designers in the 2200's would use these floating islands to get both inspired and focused without distractions by common things like the Internet, the Dutch and mobile phones. The first object I'm going to place and design here will be the electric car concept. My main concern at the moment is render time, it adds 60 minutes to any render in super high quality, but I think it's worth it. :-)

I'm typing this from an iPad that I borrowed from work. This goes so well that I'm seriously considering to buy one for myself on the 25th of march. I believe it is a replacement for a whole bunch of other devices and it would help to organize my chaos, uhm I mean my life. :) Anyway I will add an image of this showroom when it's done. (somewhere tomorrow I hope!)

Speaking of images, for someone with a blog about graphics, 3D, design etc, I really do a bad job of showing them. I promise to update this blog with visual updates asap!

Look up! :)

2011-02-01T17:45:00.001+01:00

Experiment; a page bar that shows that status of projects that I'm working on. At the moment there is only 1, but a couple of others will follow later on. (Not all Star Trek or Star Ship related.)

Enterprise F, a first idea.

2011-01-28T15:30:00.001+01:00

Because of the STO contest, I kept doodling Enterprises everywhere. :)

Just wanted to share my more serious (but incomplete) doodle:
The pylon and nacelle area still need a lot of thought. The rest I was pretty happy with. I do expect to 3D something along these lines one day. (Galaxy II class probably)

*p.s. In length I believe 850 meters would be the max.

Full Circle Fleet: Planck, Hawking & Curie status

2011-01-08T13:39:00.000+01:00

I'm currently very busy getting the Planck ready, next to follow is the Hawking (variant 1) and the Curie (variant 2)

Cant show much yet, but here is a raw screenshot of Planck's wireframe so far:

Got to go shopping!

Next!

2010-12-31T17:47:00.006+01:00

Well that was one year gone by too fast!

Thanks to everyone for their support this year!
Personally I hope to do a lot more design/3D next year! It was hard to fully focus on multiple projects because most of the time I was busy with the new house. Amazing how much work and organizing it takes. Perhaps I want everything too precise? :-)

Anyway, I wish everybody a Happy New Year and lets make 2011 a special one! :)

p.s. before I forget: Thanks for voting on the poll! I will see if I can somehow push that poster idea forward.

p.p.s My English writing skills once again went down the drain, I will probably be spell checking this post until 2012... doh!

Last image of 2010: My first idea and "sketch" for SOTL2011. The ringship passing small space debris and pushing it out of the way with the deflector. However I decided to go with the big asteroid idea instead, it was safer in terms of Treknology workings. :)

More winter!

2010-12-20T10:34:00.002+01:00

(deleted the other winter post...already had enough of it lol)

Small Holiday "gift"

2010-12-17T11:17:00.000+01:00

The full shot of the Enviropod, that is also seen on SOTL2011 center page.

Slightly more Trek

2010-12-10T20:58:00.002+01:00

Small recap of this week:

Enterprise F contest: I'm not participating, time is the biggest issue, a smaller issue: the contest is U.S. only. (There might be workarounds for that though.) I will design an Enterprise F somewhere in the future. I do have some ideas but I need more then a month to develop them into something believable.
U.S.S. Planck: Going as planned. I'm redoing the nacelles entirely. Was not happy with the shape and length of the ones seen before.
I'm hearing all these rumors about the Vesta class coming to Star Trek Online. While I have tried to contact Cryptic a couple of months ago I was unsuccessful in doing so. I'm getting a lot of emails with the same request: "Can you get the Vesta into STO?" Perhaps now we can! :-) Just for the record: I don't play STO, I'm afraid I might get addicted as I'm very quickly addicted to games like this. (really!) Besides somebody needs to design ships. :-)
I created a new web-album called "Aventine Declassified". It shows work in progress shots and raw screen-dumps and sketchy rendered concepts that where not yet released.
Below are some small Planck updates:

Possible colors for Merian class variants. (U.S.S. Planck)

Sensor Pod in progress. (not sure if I showed this)

Small tweak

2010-12-08T23:38:00.000+01:00

I decided to replace the sliding mini gallery with something that shows the 8 last uploads. It's a bit more dynamic. (If I would upload...oh yeah!)

What is going on!

2010-12-05T12:34:00.001+01:00

Phew! Things are very slowly settling down for the next 2 weeks. I'm still moving from old to new home, it's taking some time, as there is still some more work to be done before I can really pack > transport > unpack.

Sadly this is also the reason that I wont participate in the Star Trek Online "Enterprise F" design contest. I cant go 100% at that, so I wont do it. Good luck for the people who do! :)

My schedule was extremely messed up, so I created a new one.

end 2010 - mid 2011:

Finishing Merian class with 3 different modules (3 ships)
Continuing the U.S.S. Voyager refit (yay!)
Participating in a local electric concept car project. (new stuff!)

I get a lot of requests for more "Aventine", I can only go into that a little bit by placing some 1600x shots of it:

I'm planning on letting go of the current starship styling. I think some things have become obsolete overtime. Currently all my efforts are based on ships that where designed between 10 & 20 years ago. While this might be comfortable, it's not renewing. This means I'm going to take a lot more "creative risk" in new designs. Anti clutter I would call it. :) Time will tell I guess!

Blog now extra dark!

2010-09-24T19:24:00.000+02:00

I have been playing around with the blog colors and layout a bit. It could change some more over the weekend, so keep your helmets on for now. :)

Aventine "special" in next Star Trek Magazine

2010-09-22T12:59:00.002+02:00

In the (to be released) October issue of Star Trek magazine there is an article (quite extensive article even) about the U.S.S. Aventine. I got interviewed by Marco Palmieri, mostly talking about the work involved to design the ship. It features quite a lot of build up images that where not shown before, as well as some new orthographic views and a new beauty shot that is also used as a "miniposter".

I'm really happy how the article turned out, thanks Marco!

Voy. update

2010-08-29T13:52:00.002+02:00

Made a small start yesterday:

Here is a list of changes that will probably make it to the final version:

Define the superstructure/spine a bit more (Slightly more pronounced lines)
Replace the nacelles with new versions that are quantum slipstream capable. (Approx 30% longer on the rear end.)
Adjust the variable warp field geometry system.
Replace the bridge module, with a more streamlined one.
Add a thin (5 centimeter) layer of armor over parts of the hull that could benefit from the protection
Replace the current main deflector.
Add a (sliding or transparent) cover over the auxiliary deflector.
Enlarge the rear bay door/bay interior, to fix Delta Flyer dilemma.
Repaint the ship in a more porcelain white.
Upgrade to Sovereign style escape pods or a modernized "square" version.
Upgrade sensor strips with integrated quantum slipstream sensors.

Possible other changes:

Swap out of phaserbanks and torpedo launchers for new types.
Replacement of the Aeroshuttle with an Aventine inspired weapon system or another craft.
Planetary landing system might be overhauled entirely.

Voyager news

2010-08-21T20:20:00.001+02:00

After positive feedback from Rick Sternbach, I decided to push forward with the Voyager "Full Circle" refit.

I will, somewhere in September, start on this. Right now I'm just brainstorming on how to update the 16 year old design in a natural way. I'm calling this an update, but what I really have to do is start from scratch.

The ship probably saw a major refit after it returned from the Delta Quadrant, so that does leave some room for changes. I do have some ideas, but I want to be careful not to take them too far...

Slide

2010-08-20T23:42:00.000+02:00

Before I bought a real couch, I ofcourse got inspired to try one myself. I did a 60 minute concept that I called the "Slide" The back can slide fully forward so you can sit on the other side of the couch. Most ideal for people who want to divide a room.

Wallpaper

2010-08-12T21:22:00.001+02:00

Someone asked for the background that I used for my iMac concept.

Here it is! :-)

Edit: I always forget that it’s getting reduced to 1600xsomething. Updated to its normal size: 1920x1080.

Project Schedule up to January 2011

2010-08-09T22:32:00.001+02:00

So much dry text today.....zzzzz
Anyway what is coming up:

Full Circle/Voyager fleet:
Working on the 3 Merian class ships. (More work in progress images of the protoship soon...)
Working on the 2 Vesta class ships. (I'm thinking about giving these a different paint scheme to keep them apart from eachother and the Aventine.)

Hopefully getting Voyager's TV mesh soon for study. If time permits I want to remodel her to show refitted area's. After coming back to Earth, the ship probably was taken apart and reconstructed with upgraded technology. Maybe some new deflector parts, new escape pods, slightly longer nacelles that would improve the ability to make the slipstream jump etc. Nothing too extreme, but a slight facelift to bring it back in 2010 again. Sounds like a great idea btw: Voyager Phase II, but this time less Treknobabble and more real solutions. Some new faces, some old? :) Anyway im wandering off....

If the above is done it will be close to December, I will continue with the other ships of the fleet in January. Also somewhere between October/December I have to move from my current house to a new house, so that will be stressy too, but I will manage.

Canceling Aventine MKII

2010-08-09T22:05:00.004+02:00

last week I decided to cancel the second version of the Aventine. For an upcoming situation I really needed an Aventine model and I needed it quick. Finishing the MKII in such a short time wasnt an option and a "repaint" of the first model, while taking a lot of time too, would be the only right course of action. I'm extremely happy that I did, maybe my desire for "perfection" in the shape of a second version was a mistake from the start.

The first and now only Aventine model (I deleted MKII entirely, I dont want to reuse it.) was made with different software and used incompatible materials that my new renderer wont render. So I had to do the job I feared to do for all those months: Go over all 2035 parts, and assign new ID's and materials to them. It has taken me 2 days to get it all done, in the end it was actually easier then I imagined. I also fixed numerous tiny errors along the way and added "rooms" behind the 1000+ windows. (The larger panorama windows actually have an interior as well now.)

Right now she is again "in the dock" to further optimize materials, textures, file size etc. This is needed because I really want to animate the ship soon.

I promise to have a set of high resolution rendered orthographic views somewhere at the end of October. I cant get this done any earlier because my time the next few months will be extremely limited.

I'm happy, CBS is happy (I think...) and a certain writer is for sure happy. I dont think he was too enthousiastic about a second version, and maybe he was right all the time!

SOTL2011

2010-08-09T21:40:00.000+02:00

Time for a long overdue update.

First of all thanks a lot for the feedback I got on my Ships of the Line 2011 calendar image! Always great!

Doug also asked me to do an animation of the ringship. I knew that with the calender settings animation would not be an option. The rendertime is very high due to the reflective materials used. However my new machine, the smaller resolution and some adaption in the lights made it possible. It was my first serious animation ever, but it was fun to do, so it wont be my last. Also it is featured in Doug's video blog on StarTrek.com. That is a part of a dream coming true! :)

I now have taken a crash course into animation, so I hope to show some improvement the next time I'm featured.

Anyway onto to some other news!

Architecture?

2010-07-13T13:25:00.000+02:00

I'm not sure yet! (highschool @ Doetinchem)

Planck in progress

2010-07-09T21:20:00.000+02:00

Yay!

2010-07-09T14:38:00.001+02:00

The test below was a camera test, to see if I could post a photo directly to my blog.

That worked! :)

Test

2010-07-07T11:00:00.000+02:00

Test

Update Time!

2010-06-06T14:53:00.000+02:00

Sorry! Too busy with a lot of things, anyway here is a long overdue update on all my current projects:

Ringship XCV-330:
Now that the SOTL2011 image has been sneak peaked at Doug’s, I’m happy to show it on my on blog as well.

I want to thank Andrew Probert, Mike Okuda and Doug Drexler for their support, input and patience. :)

I’m currently creating a more in depth article about dimensions, functions and the “construction” of the model.

Voyager Fleet:
This project now also includes the Vesta MK2 project.

The idea is there, the support is there from both the Author and the editors, we just have not yet heard a GO from the higher levels at CBS. So for now this is pending. The Vesta MK2 is also on hold for now. The "USS Planck" is in progress. More info about this on my next post.

Yacht project:
Because this year is actually too busy to focus on research intensive projects I decided to abandon the Enterprise F project for now. The next 2 months I will be focusing on a yacht. (A near future yacht.)

NX-1701 Doodle:
A quick 3D doodle I did to explore how a 1701 like secondary hull would look on the NX-01.

Hope to have another update in a short week.

Vesta Update II

2010-04-19T13:11:00.001+02:00

A close up render of the (HUGE) panorama windows on the side. I added a low quality interior that I borrowed from an older ship. (The “dirt”" on the close up is due to low quality shadow settings to speed up render time.)

Vesta Class MK2 update

2010-04-10T18:04:00.001+02:00

Because of last minute release date shifts the MK 1 will be featured on the cover. The original schedule was already extremely tight, so we decided to go with the MK1.

The good news is that I now can finish the MK2 without haste, so I can go over the details a bit longer, and really make it 3D printable.

I’m also playing with the idea to create the “Voyager fleet”. This fleet appeared in the books "Full Circle” and “Unworthy”, both by Kirsten Beyer.

Ships in the fleet:

1x Intrepid class (USS Voyager)
2x Vesta class (USS Esquiline & USS Quirinal)
3x unknown class ships (USS Hawking, USS Planck, & USS Curie)
1x unknown class medical ship (USS Galen)
1x unknown class mechanical/repair/transport (USS Achilles)
1x unknown class biological transport/production (USS Demeter)

Anyway, first I will focus on the Vesta.
A shot of the bottom in progress:

IMac Touch Concept

2010-04-03T14:25:00.001+02:00

Sadly but understandable went unanswered @ Apple, so I decided to post it here. :) Shown is a 27 inch version.

OFF (Transparent)

ON, the OLED display is nearly opaque

The Apple logo will adapt to the colors displayed, a symbolic “rainbow”.

The display can tilt by 2 servo motors in the pivoting system. The servo’s will make sure that there is zero slop in the display, for easier touching.

Fully 90 degree flat is also possible, for table applications.

The Mac is also wall mountable, ideal as a home automation station or for kiosks and information stands.

Some specifications:

info@clawhammer.nl for more information.

Holodeck Lunch

2010-03-14T16:54:00.001+01:00

Engineers having a lunch break on their ongoing project. (Holodeck 1 @ Antares)

Aventine Update

2010-03-12T22:01:00.001+01:00

The new base shape is as good as ready, from here on it’s detailing and tweaking. For now coated in a metallic paint that I wanted to test. Don’t worry it will get Starfleet colors in the end of course. Besides: this is too much Italian sports car. (But fun to do.)

Writer…

2010-03-07T21:04:00.001+01:00

Somehow I get distracted if I type within a web browser, so I was looking for an offline editor to do my posts. I’m using Live Writer for 30 minutes now, and I’m already impressed.

I have settled on my new machine and enjoying a Sunday of peace and quiet. My computer room is entirely clean and orderly now, my main project is continuing steadily and I’m for the first time in months able to feel inspired. Perhaps it’s the weather change. (It was grey for months and now it’s sunny with a blue sky.)

Anyway, lets see if I can drop some unseen images of random (unfinished) stuff:

Some interior concepts I did for Dark Armada (A Dutch fan series)

Engineering section of the U.S.S. Batavia

Example of modular designed hallway sections.

Bulkhead type, 6 slotted. (This was useable for 45 degree wall sections.)

First concept I did of main engineering of the U.S.S. Batavia

Material Palette for the interiors.

Some other random things:

This is a top plan of an “artificial” island that I want to create as a background for my new yacht design. (whenever it’s ready.) Early efforts of this will be done again.

The first version of the rear “"Centerdynes” from the XCV-330 Ringship. We decided to abandon these entirely because the blueprint showed a very different shape.

A Borg cube is passing the 700 meter U.S.S. Reinksbergen, a Vienna II class ship, that was escorting some Vienna I class ships. (The Vienna I is designed by Peter Weaver, he basically got me into modeling spaceships.) The nacelles are vertical on a Vienna class. (Done in 2003/2004)

An early color test of the U.S.S. Spirit by doing a hueshift in Photoshop, to check how a grayish blue would look instead of red. (The black armor was also abandoned.)

For test renders there is always Photoshop to filter it into something relaxing. Lets hope that the Summer will arrive soon!

Speedtest

2010-03-07T16:50:00.001+01:00

Typing this post in Writer.

Quick testrender of Orbital blue on my old machine: 21 minutes. The same render on my new machine: 3 minutes.

Build report new PC

2010-03-06T21:49:00.000+01:00

Disconnected...

Dust had free play as the 2 front fans (not visible) had no protection at all, even fingers could get stuck into them. :)

Almost stripped!

An emtpy shell....

Taken downstairs, cleaned up entirely in the garage and the "as good as new" case is up in the kitchen awaiting the new parts. (Much to the annoyance of other family members.)

Intel Solid State boot disk and a green Spinpoint as a working disk.

Asus dual Xeon mainboard (5520's) with 2 Noctua coolers. The 16GB of RAM is hardly visible. Thank you Salland for mounting this all on the mainboard.

Added the Radeon 5870 Vidcard. Maybe one day this could be softmodded to a newer generation FireGL.

Gently slided the mainboard into the case, connected all the cables, and tried to avoid cluttering it all.

Ready to be put back into the room.

Uhm..maybe the room isnt ready for the computer yet... (4 hours later the wiring was redone, tieripped and the entire room cleaned up.)

Ready for battle! (Well modeling that is...)

Solar Boat Concept

2010-02-25T20:12:00.005+01:00

I designed this concept as kind of a gimmic for my other job. A team of students is creating a solar boat for the Frisian Solar Challenge 2010. After talking to one of the teachers I got kind of inspired to do a concept, roughly based on the rules and regulations of the challenge. I was also planning on doing a Trimaran concept, a bit like the one they are creating now, but time wasnt really on my side for the last and the next 3 months. :) Made this about 3 months ago in 1 weekend.

Bottom view, pointy tip is forward position

p.s. just edited this post because it was kind of hard to read. (spelling errors)

Strigiform Workstation Case

2010-02-22T18:37:00.000+01:00

Talking about new computers, I was looking for a new case, but most of them look either cluttered, kitsch, extreme plastic or had, in my eyes, not enough ventilation for a Dual Xeon CPU setup. I will stick with my CoolerMaster 830 for now.

Still I took a few hours to concept my own case. Noctua, the company that specializes in silent air/active cooling has some very strange colors for their fans: Light Brown and Dark Brown. I asked them why and there reply was quite enlightened for a PC brand. "These earthlike colors reflect quietness and calmness." Oi, I was not expecting that. With that in mind I tried to develop a case that would match their colors and would show their primary product: cooling fans. After 6 hours I got a concept ready: The Strigiform. (Latin for 1 member of the owl family tree.)

While I got permission from Noctua to show this (Thanks!), dont expect it to be produced, it was a personal concept, very fine cut to my own needs.

Maybe one day I will develop it further.

Updates

2010-02-18T02:17:00.000+01:00

After 3 years my PC is about 3 weeks away from replacement. (It's future job is being an internet/multimedia pc.)

The new machine will be something more cut to 3D/CGI and less to gaming. It will be here in about 2 to 3 weeks and should make my life easier.

Main features:
Dual Xeon E5520 cpu's,
16GB RAM ,
Solid State Drive for the OS,
Radeon HD5870 video card,
2 Noctua Xeon coolers will make sure the system stays cool without a lot of noise.

Besides a new system I also think about changing my modeling methods a little. Instead of using large datasets with (in case of the ringship) more then 1000 parts, I will explore ways to use perhaps 10 to 15 combined parts for 1 ship. It would greatly improve scene management and portability. I already started to experiment with this on the Merian class. Any new ships, including the Aventine MKII, will probably also be done in that same fashion.

Speaking of the Aventine, I got green light from Jaime Costas, the editor of all things Star Trek in print, to show the progress on the new MKII. This means I will post images of the work on a regular bases starting from this weekend or so. Looking forward to it!

At the moment I'm doing the "technofold" renders of the XCV-330 (Ringship) The last 3 months have been quite demanding, but I think it was worth the effort.

Hmmm 2:14 in the night. I will probably add some more tomorrow, perhaps some images as well.

For now have a drink in the U.S.S. Batavia messhall, it's open again www.ewe-squad.com/panotest (might take a while to load.)

zzzz

Ships of the Line 2011: Ringship

2010-02-01T18:54:00.001+01:00

Doug Drexler's preview about this on his blog

Last year Andrew Probert suggested I should do a 3D rendition of the Ringship for the calendar. I knew the ship from Trek history, but I wasnt really planning on doing it in 3D. (In fact I was already thinking about an upgraded 2380 Miranda class...after all, "post Nemesis" is my favorite era.)

Anyway... how hard could it be, just an old stick and some giant rings... So I thought, maybe I could add a bit of detail here and perhaps I could also model all the mountingholes, you know... to keep the platework attached to it's frame... I'm going to start "painting" tomorrow. This better be good.

Small crop of a "clayrender". (no mapping/texture applied)

SOTL, Work In Progress II

2010-01-23T23:50:00.000+01:00

Don't break your "neck" over this one! (HA!)

Fruit (cake)

2010-01-20T12:13:00.000+01:00

I'm having this strange urge to design something "Apple". Not working on an Apple and not having owned an Apple doesnt ofcourse really help. But there is something about their minimalistic approach to things. (The idea to do something "Apple" all started with that chair I did.)

Multitouch probably is something that will be on the next Imac. This is kind of a challenge as it probably requires a moving part: to bring the screen down for convenient touch mode and up for normal viewing. I got a couple of ideas, and one looks fairly valid. I might do a quick concept of it tonight.

Picasa test

2010-01-13T14:42:00.002+01:00

Just a quick check to see if uploading directly from Picasa works as good as it should.

An early starbase (unfinished)

Work in progress

2010-01-11T23:04:00.001+01:00

A work in progress image of my SOTL 2011 ship.

It's a... close up... :)

1 hour "house"

2010-01-08T22:50:00.000+01:00

I got an urge to concept a house, no idea why. It's more something like a loft, nice as a beach house or perhaps also cool in a very rocky environment, kind of contrasting that way. It has a first floor, and I think the rear could contain an entrance/exit as well. I decided to draw it a bit minimal, otherwise it would not be a concept... oh really? :P

Poll result: Enterprise F

2010-01-06T16:59:00.000+01:00

Thanks for voting!

With 93% of the votes, the Enterprise F will be my primary project during the summer holiday and probably 4 months beyond that.I have not decided on a direction yet, but the era will be somewhere between the year 2425 and 2450.

I think there are 2 ways to go: evolving from the previous E's or start entirely blank.I know myself and letting it evolve will probably end up in some kind of clone of the Galaxy class. I'm planning on doing some very rough concepts soon... with pencil and paper.... nooooooo.... I'm really not good at that. :)

Quite white!

2009-12-31T13:52:00.001+01:00

I reverted back to a stock template. This should make the blog lighter both in color (check) as in performance. I think the scrolling speed has improved and it is not so distracting anymore while viewing images. :)

Once again happy new year to all of you!

While I'm at it... look at that poll, where did I get myself into this time! :)

A toast to You, visitor!

2009-12-28T23:08:00.000+01:00

I woud like to thank everybody for their support this year! I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2010 withs lots of cool images! :)

For me it was kind of a hectic year, I bought a house, it's absolutely absurd how much time, paperwork and effort it takes to get things done, and it's not over yet. (Currently the house is under construction.)

This week will be one of extensive modeling because I'm detailing my entry for SOTL 2011.
I want to deliver the final around the end of January. I can reveal that it's a canon piece...sort of... :)

When I'm finished with the above it's time for the Aventine MKII. The MKII will be a refined version of the current model, certainly upclose.(I'm seeing it as a refit.) I promise to flood my blog with pics of it, perhaps also some work in progress pictures. I'm looking forward to this!

After that I will continue with the small science ship. (Merian class) It's an ongoing project that I use for experiments so it could take some time.

Also I will add a poll soon on the left for a new main project in 2010, I'm interested in what people would like to see. If you have an other suggestion dont hesitate to post it in the comments. :)

I will end this post with the full resolution image of the U.S.S. Spirit from this years calendar, enjoy! (2mb to load)

Thanks again!

A lighter blog

2009-12-05T22:44:00.000+01:00

I think the blog looks decent, but it seems to me that with all the image content already in it, the extra images of the layout create a massive slow browsing experience. I'm considering to go back to a more stock setup. Will decide tomorrow. :)

Runabout

2009-12-03T12:18:00.042+01:00

Update:

Initial 2x4 cm post it sketch:

I have no excuse, I made it at 4:00 in the morning...

To answer the question about a 3 view, I have a 5 view but again from the "NX version" it should give you a general idea though.

Because of the size of this ship, I thought it would be wise to create an interior of the area's that would be exposed to the viewer. This shows the cockpit and universal room behind it. It seems the coffee got cold by now... Must admit that the plant and the furniture are not standard issue, then again I'm all for comfort, after all it's the 24th century. :)

The NX 5 view.

End of update
I noticed Doug Drexler posted my sotl2008 image on his blog (thanks!) I got a hard time posting links within the comments there so here are the images I was talking about:

Above image shows how the runabout would look when the lower container is being exchanged.

Same here but this shows the prototype, the final model had at least 80 changes. The largest changes where the increased bussard size and improved paneling, to make the model more "serious"

And a close up of the guy that just replicated 2 coffee

The same prototype but now equipped as a gunship. I doubt this would be something that Starfleet would use though. :)

Did the experiment fail?

2009-12-02T19:48:00.000+01:00

What happened to my 1 post a day... well I got a heavy migraine "attack" fridaymorning, probably the most severe I ever had. I will spare you the details, but on Fridaynight I was still not able to eat 1 spoon of rice without it coming out again. I felt quite miserable the days after and it seems this was more like a combination of a mild flue and a migraine attack. Anyway I'm feeling a lot better today, so lets try this again. :)
Tonight I will work some more on my SOTL2011 entry. The task started out easy but there is this 1 shape in it that is (far) more advanced then I anticipated.

Anyway, besides that I'm franticly shopping online to buy gifts for my family because soon (5th of December) it will be "Sinterklaas" here in the Netherlands. (It's a bit like Christmas only earlier....and ofcourse Christmas is still coming after that.) :) Bottom line of this tradition: people get presents. I have mixed feelings, I seriously have no wishes and still I will get something.

For now: tea, a change of outfit and some modeling. :)

p.s. to make my writing a bit quicker I decided to not read and reread everything 20 times, so there could be errors and strange constructed sentences. Hope I sound like Yoda not...

Echooooooo

2009-11-26T22:51:00.000+01:00

*Dusts off the blog

I was thinking today about how to make my blog life easier while keeping it up to date. So I'm going to experiment with 1 post a day. Just a quick update of my progress on models, design and stuff around that.

For now I will just do a quick recap of the last 2 months:
Got news from Doug Drexler that Ships of the Line 2011 is a go. (Yeah!)
Had a sneak peek at Andrew Proberts entry, it is going to be so cool!

Mailed Simon & Schuster to ask a status update after Margaret Clarck had to leave. (Margaret will however do SOTL2011!) It turns out that the new editor for Trek Literature is Jaime Costas. I wish her good luck!

So what else is happening?

I'm researching what could make my modeling life easier and my models more interesting. For example I want to be able to make more organic shapes and speed up the modeling time by 50%. (Possible, but this thing called "internet" gets in the way all the time.)

Currently working on:

My SOTL2011 entry, something a bit out of my normal direction.
A science/research ship. This 200 meter long ship is a 2380's version of the Miranda class. I use this ship to explore faster modeling, mild organic shapes and above all: the option to have it 3D printed! My goal is to end up with a set of 10 parts that together make 1 ship.

< Merian class in progress

On hold:
Aventine rebuild. When the above 2 are finished, this directly will have my attention again. The idea is to apply the skills I learned on the Merian class and use them to decrease modeling time and increase the quality of the Aventine MKII.

Sorry for this exorbitant long post. Tomorrow you probably will just read 2 lines!

hmmm...

2009-09-20T15:49:00.002+02:00

Afraid it was just a test in Photoshop, but one can always dream! :)

Small Aventine Nacelle news

2009-09-10T23:06:00.002+02:00

Nothing more, nothing less. :)

Wallpaper anyone?

2009-08-30T19:07:00.007+02:00

This is one of these slow Sundays, I thought it would be nice to create a wallpaper from some old scenes I had laying around. Enjoy!

Go here if you want it in 1920X1080

In other news:

I removed Twitter from the blog, I can't keep up, and my login keeps failing.
I started modeling for SOTL2011.
That's about it. :)

The 7 minute chair...

2009-08-24T22:59:00.008+02:00

When I was doing the virtual set of a starship's messhall I was in need of some chairs. There was no time to go all out, so I came up with a rather minimal design that I did in 7 minutes. I kind of liked it so today I redid it from scratch with improved measurements. I even made it as a do it yourself kit. All you need for assembly is a hammer... or a clawhammer! :P Total working time 2 hours and 7 minutes, with a small Pepsi max break in between.

See the messhall here This is a 360 panorama that the viewer can rotate him/herself. I made this as my last piece for "Dark Aramada" a Dutch Star Trek fan series.

Improved chair here:

Bold statement/webxperiment
It is rare for me to to design household products, but this was rather enjoyable. If you would like to produce this please contact me.

I now have time to focus on my next 3 projects. One will be a little different from my previous work. Hope to show more of project 1 this week.

My Call of Duty 4 addiction is entirely gone, done, toast! :) It seems I'm going to be fully back into design and modeling again. It's going to be war, but this time a good one!

Summer Holiday projects!

2009-07-23T10:59:00.021+02:00

My summer holiday just started! YAY! It's time for a creative reload.

First thing I'm working on is a new PC. I need a more stable station then the current machine. This one had a lot of bad luck from the start: 1 vidcard got fried, hard disk detection problems, corrupted and unrecoverable 3ds max files during save, driver trouble, instant reboots. I'm a bit tired of it, and it does not do much good for my creative side. It would be best if I clean my case out and put the components somewhere in storage to use in some internet pc.

Talking about reloading creativity, I reconnected a trackball since today and I decided that I'm going to reduce the amount of time I play online Call of Duty 4. It's becoming an addiction, and it is in the way of my future progress into design.

Anyhow my new PC components will probably arrive mid august, so before that I have time to finish 2 projects that are overdue.

One is modeling the cockpit/interior of shuttlecraft. It's for a Dutch Fanseries called Dark Armada. Because I'm Dutch myself I wanted to help them a bit on the 3D side. The cockpit is long overdue and I want to have it done in the next 2 weeks. That will also be the last 3D model I deliver to them, in fact I'm cutting all loose ends as in time they start to wear me out. (I make this sound more dramatic then it really is, but writing it down seems to help me focus.)

After the cockpit is done I'm moving on to the Aventine. I already have done a great deal of the "refits" since the calendar image, but I will only show the ship again, when it's completely done. Expect a spec list then as well.

Besides the 2 projects above I also have:
the SOTL2011 image project, entirely different from what I'm used too, but it will be good...

....and I need to start on futuristic Yacht design somewhere this Fall. A huge project, but it will be fun to do! When it's finished I'm planning on having it machined in 1/50 scale, making it about 1.4 meters long. If it's good enough it might end up in my living room. The ultimate goal is to find a buyer for the concept ofcourse. I already pity the shipyard that has to make it, it's not going to be easy! :)

How dull... not a single image in the entire post, can I fix that?

Yes I can! Here are some oldschool images of stuff I did not show before on this blog:

Ship being constructed in some spacedock.

Early concept of the U.S.S. Spirit looking very much like a Triak kayak.

Rare image from the runabout with additional striping on the warp circles. Looks kind of nice.

An unfinished 3D model of a Trek Tug and repair ship, with large shuttle bay.

For the people who missed this before: the runabout and it's modularity explained. (This shows a prototype of the runabout.)

Made in 2003, as my first 3ds max model, this is turbine driven catamaran that is excellent in hunting "Paleo era" sea creatures. I found this image on my hard drive, thought it made a nice moody image to end this blogentry with. :)

Added blog images

2009-07-11T21:23:00.004+02:00

quickie: I added another slideshow: I sometimes post images on the blog that are not in the "official" gallery. The "Blog Pics!" slideshow also includes photo's and very unfinished stuff. Enjoy! :)

Now where was I? Ah yeah I was working on the Pantone color scheme for the Aventine. :)

Orthographic views Aventine

2009-07-04T21:34:00.009+02:00

The following image is subject to change because tonight I will finish the changelist for project "refit". I wont touch any of the main shapes, it's especially the plating and some more detailing/texture that I want to do. At least this images shows outlines. Please be patient for high res renders of all sides, I can only do these after I finished the "refit".

P.s. Aventine's modeling process was explained a bit in an article on Doug Drexler's blog and the one and only Mike Okuda wrote a reply. That impacted me far more then I thought it would be. Thank you! It made my day!

Blog is up again!

2009-07-04T17:53:00.002+02:00

Just a quick update, I finished the new layout of the blog today. I reworked the Kanata template by Klodian

I'm no hero changing code, so I used trial and error, most of my attempts resulted in a (lets use the word...) "cascade failure" of the entire blog. :)

Anyway it's up for now, to celebrate I will post some orthographic wireframe images of the Aventine later today. (Pre-Typhon pact)

Aventine, some minor specs.

2009-06-23T21:54:00.016+02:00

(Concept: Aventine escorted by U.S.S. Spirit.)

(Ships of the Line 2010 calendar image.)

After many months the ship can finally be previewed on Trekmovie.com I'm really thrilled that many people like it!

Considering the short time period I had to design the Aventine, I'm quite happy with the result. As many other ships this is an ongoing project that will be brushed up some more in the next couple of months.

Dimensions;
Length: 672 meters
Width: 182 meters
Height: 87 meters

3D specs:
Model in NURBS format.
Amount of objects: 1290
Filesize: 1.1GB (stacks collapsed)
RAM useage: around 4gb in workmode & 6gb during render. (Once converted to poly this will go down to aprox. 1gb during render.)

*Dust off!

2009-06-14T21:48:00.013+02:00

Hectic month! So far this has been the least productive/artistic/design year that I ever had. This has everything to do with my attempt to buy a house. Next time I will just ask for a cave with a internet connection! What a time consuming, stressfull event. However it's a much needed event. I will be back to FULL creative potential in june 2010, for now we just have to do with the timebits I get here and there. :)

About the Aventine: I delivered a mediocre animation to Margaret about a week ago, it should be on Trekmovie soon. It shows some more of the Aventine's shape. I'm not an animator, it's new and has a different set of rules than print work. It's kind of fun to animate so I'm playing with the idea to storyboard a longer animation that is based on the Aventine. Battle with a borg cube using the new cannons? :)

Some other stuff I did these days:

I did a quick design (30 mins) of my future kitchen. Too expensive ofcourse so I had to compromise. (Something I hate doing.)

Oh and I moved one screen down my other screen, so that the lower one has all the tools for 3ds max. It's quite useful, but I still move my mouse up to the tools instead of down....not fully used to it yet.

I think that's it for now, thanks for reading!

Project updates

2009-05-12T13:01:00.002+02:00

Hello hello,

Long overdue update:
Twitter: Works quite well, decided to continue with it. :)

Starship U.S.S. Aventine: Expect an equal long overdue update on Trekmovie.com in a matter of weeks. :)

Threads of Destiny (Star Wars fanfilm): Cockpit finally finished. Want to thank Rasmus for his patience!

It seems I was a bit behind!

What am I doing at this moment?

Doing a background quality model of a ship called "Leif Erikson". (Obscure but loved.):)

Thinking about how I should deal with the styles used in the new Star Trek movie, and if I should adapt/adopt them.

Planning on designing and constructing a radical concept of an offroad vehicle in a 1:7 or 1:8 scale.

That's about it.

Woei!

The PowNed Truck

2009-04-09T22:45:00.010+02:00

Ok here is a link, because google's Jpg compression technique can't handle bright colors very well. Powned Truck

I promise this is the last time I use this truck. The model is from 2001 and if I ever want to do something "Trucky" again I will start from scratch.

Anyway I thought this would be a good last purpose for it. PowNed is a new Dutch TV channel, I have no idea how good it will be, time will tell.

Somehow the pink kind of blended nicely with the chrome and anodized "raspberry". I added the logo's and tried to add some extra chrome strips to mask "age" errors: 1 hour later a rendered pink diesel powered truck. (Virtually speaking ofcourse.)

late 2001 to early 2009 not bad for a model made in Truespace 5.

Twitter experiment

2009-04-07T23:03:00.003+02:00

Hello!

I'm not sure why but somehow I added a twitter widget to this blog... doh! And I'm really not the kind of person that would use it a lot, but let's see how it goes. If I hardly make use of it it will be gone.

Lets tweet away! :)

p.s. Now that I am here:
what is in the works at the moment?

1. Aventine refit (New armor, slight undercut, new markings/paint/texture (and faster rendering times for animation.)

2. Leif Ericson low detail background model for some scene.

3. Home, I'm in the process of buying a starters home. (In the Netherlands) I find the entire "buying a house" thing extremely time consuming and bad for my inspiration/3D development.
But when it's finished May next year I will finally move out. About time!

4. I'm planning on going back into RC cars. I'm in an early stage of sketching idea's.

That's it for now!

p.s. the for the Dutch guy that asked for the Carbon Fiber damper stays, they are not for sale till I decided what direction I will go with RC's. In fact I have no CLUE where I left them!!! (So thanks for reminding me!)

Spring!

2009-03-07T17:08:00.005+01:00

I thought it would be a good idea to update the colors of my blog to a more suitable spring time style. :) I'm really looking forward to sunlight, green leaves, warmth and DRY weather.

What am I up to next?
I finished the Aventine calendar image, and I'm taking a break from 3D this week and the next. After that I do:

March/April/May:
some tweaking of the Aventine, this is an ongoing project, I still want to modify and enhance certain area's for close up shots and make it lighter for animation.

April/May/June/July/August:
a design of a 50-70 meter long mega-yacht(sea)ship for the near future. I tried to start on this 2 times before but time was a problem. This is however a way to cool project to abandon!

August/September/November/December:
the SOTL2011 image, however I'm not sure what will be up after the new Trek movie, so this plan might change.

That's it for today, enjoy the weekend!

Poll results,

2009-02-21T20:38:00.001+01:00

Thanks for all the votes!!!

As someone already noticed the final result is 99% instead of 100%, must be a bug in the code? :) Anyway it was fun to follow, at first I thought the Excelsior colors would win, but after day 1 the Sovereign became more and more popular. So now I'm going to use 40% Excelsior blues and 60% Sovereign whites/blacks. I have done some samples and the result should look quite nice together. Texturing/painting should start tomorrow night.

USS Aventine nearing completion

2009-02-17T08:43:00.006+01:00

A quick update:

I'm working on the last pieces of armor plating and hope to be finished with the modeling part around Thursday, then I will use the weekend for materials and texturing.

I have narrowed the color schemes down to 2 options and created a poll for it. It's in essence a test to see if the poll stuff is working, so please vote! :)

The chassis that never was...

2009-01-30T21:07:00.005+01:00

We had this great idea about mixing a couple of symbols from Hawai; the Kamapuaa legend to respect the traditional and the Christian cross to show the more modern influence, and merge that into a Monstertruck chassis.

If I recall correctly: Kamapuaa is an old legend about a creature that is half man half Warthog and sometimes full Warthog.

The minor technical part: It had to be designed in such a way that there would still be room to mount an engine, 8 axle links and 4 shocks to it.... not to mention a rollbar/driver seat/plastic body and some huge tires. Well.... why not?

I started out going easy on the tribals etc:

Then it became a bit wilder, the warthog shape was somewhat more defined, but not wild enough!

So my last attempt on this was looking quite cool but it was too complex to recreate out of carbon fiber and do the additional stress tests. (it needed beefing up for that anyway.) Maybe sometime I will adapt it and have it lasercut for a 1/10 version. :)

Aventine, small update

2009-01-07T21:59:00.005+01:00

A small update on the USS Aventine: "construction" is 70% finished. I placed 350 windows this week. So before I go crazy: here is another quick concept of the ship seen from the construction yard. Have a cup of tea and enjoy the view. :)

Happy new year! :)

2008-12-31T18:20:00.003+01:00

Yes! It's almost time to toast on another year gone by.

I'm still a bit sick of all the candy from last week...too much sugar gives me a reaction so I had a killer headache and 0 tolerance for light, even the alarmclock lights where too bright. Doing better now.

Today trekmovie released an image of the U.S.S. Aventine. I have been working on this ship since 1 november exactly, and I'm about half way for the shakedown version so to speak. (Nice on schedule.) Currently she is 672 meters long, and 182 meters in width. I hope I can show a couple of extra previews soon.

For now all I need to do is wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Starting a new capital ship

2008-11-21T21:10:00.007+01:00

3 weeks ago I got green light to start working on a new Starfleet ship. This assignment was quite unexpected, but I'm glad I got it. I'm on a tight schedule to get this finished, but I think I can do it. It's current size is set around 640 meters, which makes it also the largest ship I have ever designed.

I hope to have some updates about this soon. :)

2008 has started in this cave also!

2008-09-29T20:00:00.004+02:00

Welcome Mark Rademaker to 2008......

Old steps to upload an image:
Start an FTP program < 5 seconds
connect to the webspace. < 10 seconds
browse/create a decent folder < 1 minute
upload the image < 30 seconds
Create a link on the blog that directs to that image. <2 minutes.
done

New steps to upload an image:
Start Picasa < 5 seconds
Pick image and upload to webalbum <10 seconds
done

I save 3 minutes and 30 seconds of pure annoying work. A slight drawback is that I will add all kinds of stuff, also stuff that is very old or very UNfinished, but might be interesting to see. I will add descriptions of my work if I feel up to it.

Projects update:
- Ships of the line 2010 calendar image. (Canon design)
- Yacht design (no it's not a canoe design...) :)

All other projects are canceled or delayed to infinity. It's pretty liberating to say something like that, just try it for yourself!

So what else is going on:
I got a speed-o-meter on my mountainbike now, it's very addicting to break your own top speed record. (Currently it's stuck on 44.1 km/h)

I'm learning a lot from Andrew Probert about Star Trek design and detailing. It makes me pretty happy that I got this opportunity.

I think I fixed an annoying bug in my OS that froze my PC during an operation in 3DS max, it happens, but this bug corrupted the file I was working on beyond repair. (can't even merge objects out of it anymore) Seems to be fixed since yesterday.

Well can't think of anything else today, so enjoy the gallery! :)