Simple Star Trek Ship Tutorial

(We will save often as we go , just incase things go ugly)

step 5 With ring1 selected (white) , select the point edit-face tool and touch ring1 It shoud turn green, now select the sweep tool and right click it to set 0 x, 0 y, .3z This should have expanded ring 1 up .

step 6 Select the point nav scale tool (small green pop up window). Use this tool to shrink the top edge and reposition as desired. Repeat this procedure , sweep then scale. Repeat this procedure , sweep then scale for a third time.

step 7 Select the paint tool-roller. Select texture map Hzrzhul.jpg Set 4 vertical, 4 horizontal and paint the model. After painting save as ring 2.cob

Your model should look like this:

step 8 erase ring 2 . Select the poly tool and draw a trusters from your background image. The truster is that little dog house looking thing. Now select point edit face and sweep it . Move it slightly down but still in position . Copy this shape 3 more times and move them into position using the Background image. Glue them together and save this as Cutter1.cob

step 9 Load ring 2 again and check it is still in position over background. Select ring 2 (turns white) . Select object subtract tool , now touch the cutter1 shape Save this as ring 3

Your model should look like this:

step 10 Erase ring 3 , load ring 2 , load cutter 1.

Select the object intersect tool and touch cut 1 . Select paint tool, roller and select material Red LED. Paint these and save as thruster.cob

step 11 load ring 3 and glue thruster to it , adjust thruster if required. Save this as ring 4.cob

Your model should look like this:

step 12 Erase all . load ring 3 . Deselect background image. Using top view , zoom in using Nav zoom tool (not the shape magnifier) You want to zoom in till the edges of the saucer touch the edge of the screen. Render this to file using 800 x 600 4 x anti-alius.

step 13 Now open your paint program select this image and crop it cown to the edges of the saucer. Select a light gray color from the image and floodfill in the background. Select a slightly darker gray now. Select a line tool , pencil , 0ne pixcil , anti alius . Draw a line down the center horizontilly , draw a line down the center verticaly. Draw lines to make an x . continue this several times allways going thur center.

Now select a shape tool , ovil , outline only onepixcil anti-alius. Start at the center and make rings, do this several times .

step 14 Lets get fancy . Select the color red. Select the ovil tool , change to 4 pixils wide start at the center and go 2/3 of the way out . This gives you a nice stripe , maybe two. Your image should look like this : Select the clone brush and touch up the image to remove part of the red ring. Our registry numbers go here.
If you want a black phazer ring , paint it on in a similar manor . Save this image . You can add other details here too , such as windows, vents, other strips It is up to you how detailed you want to get at this time. We will come back to touch this up again so dont worry about it for now.

step 15 Go back to trueSpace , top view , load ring 3 . Select UV projector click the box on the left . Paint the ring 3 with this new image. Load thrusters , glue to ring 3 . Save as ring 4 .

Your model should look like this:

The picture on the right is the top down view . It should be about 500x500 More if you want better details to show.

step 16 Registry Numbers Registry Numbers can be tricky . The hull is changing shapes quickly. Here is an easy way to make them . In TS select a cylinder new shape. Adjust it to the same size as the saucer. Select the letters tool and select caplocks. Start with N . Place the edge of the letter so it just touches the cylinder. Next do C and so on. Glue all the letters together and then paint them black . Now reposition the letters over the saucer. Adjust or srink them till they fit correctly. Zoom in on the saucer again till sides touch edge of screen.. Render this image.

step 17 Open paint and crop the image as before. Again flood fill the backgroud with a light gray . Add more details . See I told you we would come back . If you want to get fancey , you can zoom in on the numbers and outline them with white , or not. Save the image.

step 18 Open TS , load ring 3 ,top view, UV select, paint with new image. Load Thruster1 , glue together . save as ring 4 .cob

Your model should look like this:

step 19 The Bridge

We make the bridge just like the top of the saucer. Using the bg image trace the edges of the bridge. Select spline poly tool and trace, then select point edit-face tool , sweep , shrink. Select the paint tool-roller. Select texture map Hzrzhul.jpg, paint it . This is smaller now so change to 2 h 2 v I like to think of the bridge as 3 layers . This big area , the bridge and other. The bridge is an area on top of this last plate . For it I use a new shape circle and strech and flatten to my taste . The paint it as above and , using side view place it mid way thru the main plate. For the "other" section , we use various shapes. Select a square and copy it , srink one of the copies and subtract using the object subtract tool. This gives you a tunnel square . Shrink it to size and move it to where it goes usng the BG image. Paint it. Copy it and move it into location. Do the same with a cylinder , then some squares again. Glue all this together and zoom in till the sides of the image fill the screen . Save this as Bridge.cob Remder the image as bridge 1. jpg

step 20 Open the image bridge 1. jpg with your paint program. Crop it down till the edges just touch the sides of the screen . Select a gray from the image and flood fill the background. Select another darker gray and draw on your bulkhead lines. Select the olil tool and make rings. Now draw other details such as windows , vents , ect . You may have to mirror this image to make it work. Save image.

Your image should look like this:

step 21 Open TS and select the bridge object, select UV projector and select the pattern on the left paint with the image. Now select a new shape , ball or circle. Paint it red and shrink it. Move it inside the hollow cylinder shape . Copy it and move it to the other side . Glue all toether and save as bridge.cob





step 22 Next comes the escape pods . You could paint these on but.... It looks better to model it . Select the regular poly tool 5 or 6 sided. Select point edit-face tool , sweep. Paint this shiny gold . Shrink this to small. Move this to where you think the Escape pod should be . If your ref background shows it then place it there; if not use other ref to place it or put it where it looks good. Copy this shape and place escape pods where ever they need to be . Glue all the escape pods on the bridge and save as Bridge_a .cob See we are saving parts as we go , incase you want to change or make a mistake. Or use these parts when building your next ship.

Your model should look like this:

step 23 Next comes the lower saucer. Remember we saved ring 1 , 2, 3..... Select ring 1 and sweep down this time instead of up. We will make this the same way we made the upper hull. NOTE We do this because UV projecter tool will make things NOTE When we sweep down or opposite than normal , use the "fix bad geomety" tool if some faces will not render or paint.

step 24 After you make the lower hull , turn it over . Zoom in till sides touch edge of screen and render. Dont forget to save the model as ring 1b.

step 25 open paint . Open the image and crop , backfill with a gray color. Draw on your hull lines and ovil lines and details. Save it .

step 26 select your ring1b , we left it upside down so we could paint it . So, select UV projector tool , the paint the hull with the image. NOTE some ships have bridge like structures on the bottem hull , some don't. This ship does not and the lower hull is mostly flat , while other ships might be more symetric in shape.

step 27 Save ring 1b again. Rotate it 180 . Load ring 4 . using the side view adjust ring 1b and ring 4 to align . Use two windows , top and side . When they align correctly , glue together and save as ring H.

step 28 Now load bridge_a . Move it in position and glue . Save as ring h_a.
step 29 The main saucer is almost done . Now we add the impulse engines. Using the top view as a reference, Select new shape box. Select one side of the box . Sweep it and shrink , now move that edge back inside the box. Paint the box. shrink the box vertically. Select new shape box , paint it with red led. Shrink it an place it inside the other box with just a portion of the box extending from the rear , where we reverse champfered. Glue this together and place it via the bg. Shrink as required. Copy it and place the new engine where it goes . Glue the two together and save as impulse.cob Glue this to your saucer(ring H) and save as ring S.

Your model should look like this:

step 30 Next main warp engines.

I start the engines by tracing the shap from a side view. Select spline poly tool , trace the shape , select point edit-face tool , sweep. Then select one side and chamfer , roll the model 180 and chamfer the other side. Looks sorta boxy , but..... Select the paint tool-roller. Select texture map Hzrzhul.jpg Set 4 vertical, 4 horizontal and paint the model. Save as warp_e_1.cob Select a new shape box , select a new shape cylinder . Subtract the cylinder from the box , this will give you a "u" shape cutter. Save it as cutter 2.

step 31 Move cutter 2 to front end of warp_e_1 . From the side rotate cutter 30 degrees tpo align it with front of engine. Select engine and then select subtract tool. This should have rounded the engine front nicely. save as warp_e_2 Next select a cylinder and and rotate it to 90 from the engine . Looking from top it makes an x . Enlarge the cylinder and then shrink vertically till It looks like a flat ovel . Move this ovedown to the top of the engine . Select the engine and subtract the two. This cuts out the top of the engine. Now select a new cylinder . Strech it till its long and skiny , but shorter than engine. Select the enge and select the cone tool. Do the same to the other end. It should look like a two ended pencil.

step 32 Paint the pencil with blue green led. Move the pencil to the cut out area and a little lower on the engine. Glue together . next select a box and make it long and skinny ,, paint it darker metal, then align it to the engine and position it on sides of engine . sorta like rails. Do this to both sides . From the side view trace out fins for the moter . use the poly tool again and sweep .1 z Make fins for the front and the rear. Move then and shrink or adjust as requird, Then glue them on. If you want to get fancy , you can put the registry Numbers on one of the tail fins. Save this as warp_e_3. Later we will copy this engine and position the two engines using the BG image as a guide.

Your model should look like this:

step 33 Still a bit boxy in the front for my taste. This type engine has scopes in this area, feeding the bussard colector. Select a new cylinder , copy it and subtract the two . It should look like a hollow pipe. Now turn it 30 degrees . Select a new shape- square . Subtract the box from the pipe. Select the paint tool-roller. Select texture map Hzrzhul.jpg Set 4 vertical, 4 horizontal and paint the model. Move this new scope to the side of the engine and shrink as required . Copy it and mirror clone it . Place it on the other side of the moter. Mow select a new shape-ball. Paint it red led. Shrink it and put it between the two scopes. Save this as warp_e_4 .cob

Your model should look like this:

step 34 Lets back up and add details

Select new shape square, copy it. shrink one. Coppy the littleone 3 times; glue them together and paint. Now select paint BRUSH . Paint just the very end of the little squares. Save this as cutter 3.

It should look like this:

Load ring 3, position the cutter 3 near the outer ring, low. Shrink as required. Change hyarcy of ring 3 so you just have the hull. Use the subtract tool , and touch the cutter 3. Then it looks like this:

step 35 Engineering hull Start with a new shape ball. Add 2 new squares and subtract the squares from the ball, so you have 1/4 th of the ball. Look a the picture below. Strech the new shape . Make a new shape cylinder and turn it size ways like the picture , subtract it from the hull and save as e_hull. Paint it.

step 36 Open your paint program , make a deflector image like I did. Make a new shape , cylinder , and paint cylinder wit UV on the end with your deflector image.

step 37 Position the cylinder as the picture shows and subtract the two using subtraction tool.

step 38 Now save as e_hull2. Rotate the hull upside down and zoop in. Render like we did with the saucer. Open paint , crop it and add details like a stripe and or windows.

step 39

In TS top view , use UV on the hull and paint it with your image. Roll the hull over and Save the hull again.

step 39 Load Ring 3 Select Hull and shrink to size if required . reposition the hull to fit on the saucer section . Glue it on , Save as ship 1

step 40 Now we do the struts . Again copy from the back ground(Trace using poly tool) Select it .Now select point edit face and sweep it . Not too much , they are skinny. Select the leading edges one at a time and champer the edge with the bevel tool. Zoom in and render . Open your paint program and crop and color the Background gray. Add details

Mirror the immage.

step 41

Select the strut , select UV projector and paint with the image. Load Ship 1 and position the strut , rotating it 30 degrees or so .

Load the engines , shrink as required and move into position

step 42 Glue it all together and save .

step 43 Select a spot light and position it over the bridge and aimed down about 20 degrees . Glue this on too.

step 44 Remove all the lights now . Pick a point away from the model and put a couple of lights. One level with the ship , one higher. Pick a background and load it.

step 45 I use anti alius x4 with TS 3 or adaptive alias with TS 4. Time to see what it looks like . Render a picture .....800 x600 100% . You do this so you can crop out some of the picture with your paint program.