Diplomatic and Espionage Windows

[vjeko1701]

Looks great, can't wait until I see the final result. If you need I could make some screen textures or anything else needed.

This will give our game credibility and professionalism, I have no doubt that it will be a great game.

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

Thanks for the feedback.

As long as you offer I could use some Romulan faces and head shots for use on and in front of the video walls in the Tal Shiar complex. The Tal Shiar spy on other races and their own. One wall will get the texture you already made. The other will be a collage of Romulans being monitored. Some will be in their own window set out in front of the walls with a partial see-through look. The female Romulan you see above and the male that will be added later are manipulating the windows with their hand motions.


Also helpful would be uniform textures for Romulans and a head shot of the young Spock. As was seen in the JJ film where old Spock's head is thrown up in holographic view I want a young Spock head being observed by the Tal Shiar. That would be best as a 3/4 shot, at an angle.

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

More nice work from TSS.

TSS writes:

"This is the last of the color comps for now.

The Klingon Espionage Piece The great City of Vospeq- I used the large Saturn moon which is purple to coincide with the blood red of Qo'nos...
Using based ogre, variations of violet and red and maroon. You get a nice bloody feel to the deadly Vospeq as intended.
I also made the separation little clearer here. You have the blood cliff of Vospeq and a clear view of the structure and mountains. The Ship can be done with those colors or the colors more reflective off the Klingon Destroyer which is commonly off metallic gray. I'd have the model characters faded to give them a historic past presence. If this is too dark I can send it lighter.

I will be in touch in a few weeks. On to the Dominion! HAhahaha...evil laughter.

Have fun gang"

I think he has to do some work to live off of for now. The rest will come later. It is not too dark to get the ideas. There are ways to make the ship in gray but reflecting the color of light from the surface. It looks like what you are doing below.

(BTW If that is a gas giant in the background then you are likely on a moon rather than looking at one.)

[Captain Bashir]

TSS - Really cool picture! Don't know how you do it so quickly. Did I miss why the background characters are Romulan / Vulcan

Oops, just found it. I withdraw the question. CB

[vjeko1701]

Looks great, can't wait to do some part of it.

By young Spock do you mean Quinto from Star Trek 2009, or Nimoy from the original TOS.

Also I don't understand what angle do you want?

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

Given our time line I would say TOS young Spock.
I guess the angle is not importanat as bender will
apply the texture at any angle. It can be full face or
some angle.

[vjeko1701]

I'll try, as for the faces in the screen, how many faces do you want?

Oh, just one more question, will you make an model of Spock's head or will you just make an flat transparent surface.

[Matress_of_evil]

I thought he meant kiddy Spock, as in:



Anyways, great pic as always TSS. (God it seems weird not calling you Slim) Even if Supremacy flops (And I don't see any chance of that happening), it will always be remembered for its artwork. Thumbs up to your hard work.

[Captain Andrew]

Well said, Matress. The artwork so far is amazing, and I definitely see a negative percent chance of Supremacy flopping.... like, I mean negative percent. Unless there is divine intervention from Q.... but that's doubtful.....

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

Not a 3D mesh but the 2d surface the texture goes on will be facing the camera. That way it will look 3D in the render.

The angle on his face you sent in the PM is good. It will go on a transparent surface so only your texture should show. I will turn the mesh so the texture is facing the camera. That way with his head turned a little in the texture he will be looking more out from the wall and not right at the camera. He will also appear to be in 3d.

[Valcoren]

everything is looking great guys...

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

Well I have to post in the blender artist's forum to get some help. You should be able to set the material/mesh to transparent and only see the head
of Spock. But if I turn down the visibility of the material/mesh the head also can not be seen. There is a setting someplace for this but I have
not found it yet.

(It should just be his head and no gray box around it.)

[Matress_of_evil]

Paint can sort that out for you...if you don't mind some jaggies.

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

Looks good but I want to be able to see the wall behind without
the black rim. It would be easy enough to make the mesh follow
Spock's head. Then I could just make his head partly transparent
and you see some of the wall right through him.

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

Here is a first look at the Dominion Diplomatic background. It is Slim's, he said just use TSS in the credits and we can call him Slim here, best work yet. The problem we have is it needs to fit on a 2650 wide by 1600 high window. So do we give it black boarders or can we come up with art work for the sides that still makes it work like Slim's art or is there something I did not think of yet? Will vjeko1701 save us here yet again? Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion fans.

Here is what Slim said about it.

Working on the Dominion Diplomacy piece...Its the Planet of Dras

Dras is within the Gamma Quadrant, one the closest to the Wormhole. It is also a Diplomatic meeting place and the only location you may contact the Dominion for any discussions. heavily armored and many Dominion ships and men. No Alpha Quadrant personnel are permitted within the heart of the Dominion space unless members of the Dominion. The Dominion are also not permitted any military personnel into the Alpha quadrant. My view is since the end of the Dominion War and peace accords. The Founders established Dras as a meeting place for any outsiders coming from the Alpha quadrant to discuss any diplomatic or trade discussion. Now in the game this is a tactical advantage for the dominion because it gives them a non viewable option. I would keep them dark to anyone else. Like a cloak of darkness. They have to find this planet to have discussions. You know they are there and growing, at least until Espionage penetrates.
Also because of the dominion war. The winning side gained another advantage. Planets conquered and within the Dominion circle where given the choice to leave the dominion freely. Some chose to, but most did not since the Dominion way of life and civilization has virtually become part of these conquered worlds. Those who chose to leave meet here to contact Alpha quadrant representatives from any race.

The Dominion Diplomacy Shot- Is the great city of Dras within the Moon Planet of Dras. Its an upshot on a massive structure where a Breen Destroyer (Xvor-first ever seen of this class) has docked and a diplomatic envoy and bustling delegations are taken place. The Founders still have a huge distrust to some of the solids.

For the game I suggest the Dominion are sly and cunning in diplomacy, but want no contact. Maybe even have some diplomatic treaties already in place and pure distrust in others like the Romulans and Cardassians who betrayed them. Their Vorta should be great diplomats. This presents a problem for other races who do not deem Diplomacy a strength. They will view any species who threatens the Founders in any way, cautious first. Like the Federation you deal with them fairly. Then they leave you be, but unlike the Federation, even after the accords, any new Dominion members are forever binding. I would work their Diplomacy like the Federation, but once you start plotting against them, no worse enemy.

Slim

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

Here are some more instructions on the Dominion Diplomacy and solving the aspect ratio issue.

Two ways to solve this, since you a merely using the concept artwork as templates, and following them for composition, adhering to them so that its exact composition wise to what I am doing. Then as you build the Dominion City, do so horizontally, but maintain the same perspective. That is why my layouts don't matter if they are to the right view point, follow? I can do a Vertical layout. In fact when done Horizontally it has more of an impact.
For the tread, simply make them proportional 7.34 x 5 to a black background. This it appears vertically to the right size, now you can do this for the blender or model piece as well. Now if I was doing this on Maya, Painter and CS4 I would enlarge this to the right proportions making it massive but maintaining the same viewpoint and then rendering and painting it. How you do it is your call, but maintaining the correct composition is all I care about. I don't want to see 8 ships or a guy falling down the city walls...hmm, maybe thats not a bad idea.

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

OK, here is the color composition for the Dominion Diplomacy.
(I like that ship and would love to build it for both the render here and for use in the combat engine)

Slim writes:

City of DRAS-Simple in colors, maintaining the established Browns and Oranges of the Dominion Empire. The Breen Destroyer in their normal light blues, and light teals, the figures are dark to indicate their location, and I would not color them in too many colors. The hatching circles up top in lime green and the founder is dressed in purple on the left. I did not add a light source, but indicated shadows, and no gradation of the different browns. I kept it flat so you can determine the colors, but where ever your light source is it should be darker as you gradate up or down the tall great city.

I explained several options to maintain this perspective and composition despite its vertical appearance. You can simply extend the perspective lines or if creating from scratch simply maintain the same vantage point despite its vertical appearance. On to the Espionage Layout

All the Best

Slim

[Captain Bashir]

That last image is so good looking I almost say, "use it as it is." Captain B.

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

It turns out I will have to wait for a future generation of blender to be able to see through the transparent portion of a texture on a transparent material / mesh. That means the image of Spock's face can only by opaque. The frame around it can have some transparency though. (as you can see below)

I guess that if it is a good holographic projection you would not see through it anyway. Then you would not have the see-through frame but it does seam to look better with the boarder. The lighting needs work and more images will be added.

[Captain Bashir]

If you want to send the stuff to me, I can give it a try in Lightwave. I think it will actually be fairly easy to do.
On another note, I am currently doing tutorials on drawing faces and bodies and eyes and ears etc. It's fascinating. I hope it will give me some more background in improving texturing. Captain B

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

There are still a lot of things to add and refinements to make. It would be premature to send the file.

[Captain Bashir]

Hey Kenneth, I actually meant just Spock's head and the background LCARS image. I can probably create a transparent head in front of the LCARS that you can drop into your scene. I wouldn't dream of taking over what you are doing so well.

Here is an update on the Cardassian Obsidian order image. Bashir

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

Nice look to the wall in the Cardassian Espionage. That gives it a sinister feeling.

Good idea about the Spock head. I have some partly transparent versions of it but am not sure if it really would look better that way or not. I will try dropping it in on the render at some point.

[Captain Bashir]

Thanks, I started thinking about the Obsidian order underground like Cheyanne Mountain.

So it sounds like you have another way of gettin her done. Glad to be of help.

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

I finally did find how to do it inside of blender.
Now I have to decide if it looks better that way
or not.

[Zeleni]

Great work guys!

[Captain Bashir]

Hey Kenneth, you really did a nice job on Spock, even making it appear to float in front of the background. It might be possible to use eyedropper and pick up nearby colors and paint out the glowing border around his head. Bashir

[Captain Bashir]

Update on Obsidian image. I used the surface of a Keno from SGU as one layer of the texture for the overhead ducts. It still needs refining. The desk is moved forward to match the original image better. The transporter pad needs to be moved forward too. CB

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

It is looking very nice. I did take a look back at Slim's drawing.
The arch work in your ceiling looks more like exposed conduit in
Slim's image. It does not change the focus or meaning of the
image but just an observation.

[Kenneth_of_Borg]

Here is the Tal Shiar so far.
I will ask Vjeko about some
more heads to add to the
video walls.