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3D models do not, sadly, make themselves - although there are some clever laser scanning techniques which can get the job done. As someone who's tinkered with computer generated imagery in the past, I can tell you that what you see on screen in a movie like Shrek is incredibly difficult to achieve - even with a big team working on it full time. So what Nigel is doing, in creating Star Fleet ship models from scratch, should not be underestimated. So when you look at his initial work, please don't think "God that's crap, it looks nothing like the real thing" - these are works in progress, and it's a long term thing we're looking at here. If you can do better, then you can talk! Set out below are the screenshots, renderings etc for each month of the project. Enjoy!July 2001
Initial models for the Imperial Fighter underway.
December 2001
Due to work commitments Nigel isn't really able to continue with the project at the moment, but here's a final image of the fighter with some skins added to the basic shape - they make a lot of difference to the feel of the ship. The potential is obvious...
January/February 2002
Clearly Nigel fibbed a bit about those work commitments! Here are 3 new images - another beauty shot of the fighter, the fighter opening fire, and the fighter indignantly turned upside down to display the entrance hatch for the pilot! Also included here is an image of Zelda from Terrahawks and a brief animation of the crone...
February also saw the more than welcome return of someone who was making 3D models of Star Fleet ships before Genesis was even conceived of - Brad Smith. Remember this?
Well, he'll be returning to that X-Bomber model - but in the meantime he's also been creating his own Imperial Figher models as well as beginning work on an Earth Defence Force shuttle, based on the Look In strip comics.
March 2002
Nigel has finally had to leave the Genesis project, and my thanks to him for kicking it all off. Brad continues to display his talents, and things are getting interesting - you can now spin his shuttle prototype in Quicktime VR, and even more excitingly, spin the X-Bomber! This X-Bomber mesh is a complete rework of his original prototype and in this Quicktime VR file has the side view graphics from the Manga Max article added as a skin. This is probably the first time the X-Bomber has "taken off" afresh for more than 20 years!
You can see the latest developments at the Star Fleet Genesis forum and there are more images on the Update page.
Last updated 14 December 2013
