Firefly / Serenity WIP (CLOSED)

In celebration of Serenity movie's 20th anniversary, I'm trying to build my most ambitious project yet.
Planning to release it in parts starting with the bridge/cockpit (hopefully with some interiors also), 'cause I don't think I can complete it in one go.

PS. In the meantime, please come visit my store for some cosplay outfits for G8F/G9.

Hellz ya. Best of luck on this. Many exterior Fireflys out there. Never seen interiors before.

Damn, one of he best shows Fox ever cancelled. Looking forward to seeing this!

UPDATE:
I've been following the "official blueprints" as seen in previous post. The exterior proportions seem about right compared to the movie/show. The interiors, not so much.
For instance, I counted about a dozen steps for the walkway between the bridge and mess hall (as per the show), but viewed from the outside, it's more like 20meters. To compensate, I needed to modify stuff, like add more vents and spread the rooms apart.

Still needs a ton of gorram details, but getting there. Next up: the bridge.

Yessssss. You are rising to the challenge of harmonizing exterior and interior with the least compromise of either.  Cool.

UPDATE:
The blueprint for the bridge seems ok enough compared to the movie, with minor adjustments. There were other challenges though:
- The movie version bridge is way different from the TV version. With only the movie as reference, we get limited scenes for screen grab.
- Since the bridge is a confined space, we don't get camera shots (e.g. wide angle) that give good views/angles of the bridge. I had to stitch scenes together, and even that is incomplete. For the gaps, I had to do some guess work.
- There are tons of little details, like buttons, switches, panels, cables, LEDs, etc. I had to find a balance between level of detail and high poly count. It won't do to go overboard on details but end up with an unusable model unless you have a powerful rig. 

So here's what I have so far, for fine tuning later. I've taken the liberty to rearrange some of the panels, but I'm sure she'll fly just fine.
Next:  The main body

UPDATE:
Worked on the Main Deck, incl the Mess Hall.
While the ship's exterior proportions seem alright (not perfect, but workable), the interior proportions needed adjustments.

The mess hall turned out to be longer (as compared to the movie's), a bit narrower (squeezed on both sides by the shuttle bay), and the ceiling is higher (in order to reach those observation windows). I needed to do some creative changes again in order to match the interior to the exterior. Kinda like fitting a short and stocky body to a tall and slim dress..

Speaking of the shuttle bay, I put it on hold until I had the shuttles figured out. I mean, how exactly did they move back and forth to the shuttles? One scene shows the crew inside the shuttle, the next scene shows them on the catwalk above the cargo bay. And how do the shuttles dock? Is it just an airtight, snug-fit hole for the shuttle to slide in, or are there more intricate docking mechanism? Well, at least for the shuttle doors, to allow the crew to access the shuttles even in space flight.

Next: Mid Deck, Cargo Bay

This looks sweet! Not only because its Firefly, but actually having a fully functional spaceship, inside and out would be amazing! Pretty easy to improvise an interior with the larger ships, but some of the mid size ships just don't make sense. No bunks, bathrooms, or mess halls but large control/cockpit areas for a 10+ man crews. Maybe their just making a quick run to the Galaxy Mart? 

Are you planning on rigging the doors, hatches, etc? Regardless, I'm an insta buy once you finish it up and put it in the store!

UPDATE:
Midway thru working on the cargo bay, I realized that I needed a placeholder for the shuttles. This would allow me to figure out how the shuttle bay would look like, as well as determine how to connect the shuttles to the cargo bay.

So I took a quick detour to make the shuttle exterior, which wasn't exactly free of challenges.
-  The movie only briefly showed an undocked and flying shuttle. In addition, the interiors were not shown either except for the cockpit and airlock doors. Which meant there isn't much chance of getting a decent screenshot. Of course, I could always get back to the series, which I probably should do.
- The blueprints, while providing multiple views of the shuttle exterior, only gave a top view of interiors. So (I think) they overlooked the fact that the shuttles are lacking in headroom. I'm no mechanical expert, but I'm pretty sure if the wings fold/retract the way it did, it is going to need some space to fold into. And that would take up part of the interior ceiling. The cockpit's fine since the pilot is just sitting down, but for the rest of the shuttle, people should be able to stand up.
- To fix the previous issue, I could (1) raise the dome but the shuttle shape already seems fine when compared to the movie version, or (2) lower the floor nearer to the base but this raised the question of where do we stow the landing gears. I'll deal with this issue later.

Just to clarify, I'm planning to have the wings, landing gears and airlock doors rigged. That's why I needed to figure out a solution to the above issue. Any suggestions?

For now, I have my placeholder. Back to the Cargo Bay.

This project is progressing nicely. Great attention to detail.

This looks pretty sweet.  Love that you're doing both exterior and interior.

UPDATE:
I gotta admit that modeling the Cargo Bay was more fun than I expected, not because it is huge, but because there are plenty of basic geometrical shapes which I found easier to model than irregular shaped ones. That and because the Cargo Bay is one of the three most used scenes/sets in the movie (the other being the bridge and mess hall), which thus gives us plenty of reference stills from different angles. Yet still, it is not one without issues.

- The path from the shuttle to the cargo bay was never shown in the movie or the series. The blueprints had stairs from the main level to midlevel, but is a bit too steep for my taste. So I made a path squeezing its way down to the midlevel. I don't exactly like it as it is a bit long but I'm sticking to it for now. If it's only up to me, I'd rather have a vertical ladder or a fireman's pole, which Inara may not like. I'd recommend she take the path thru the mess hall instead.

I could of course just skip the airlock. I mean, I doubt if anybody would be making interesting scenes inside an airlock. Unfortunately, my OCD behavior won't let me sleep if I do that.



- With that airlock design, I had to modify the cargo bay ceiling a little. Part of it was "eaten" by the airlock, just like part of the mess hall. And while on the ceiling, I thought I'd simplify it a bit. Hope nobody looks up or mind the changes.

- Remember that belly landing in the movie? That implies that the cargo bay is the lowest part of the ship. However, when going from the cargo bay to the lounge, you'd take four steps up a short flight of stairs, go thru that big round thingie they call a gravity amplifier, and down six steps another set of stairs. So the tail section should actually be lower when it comes to floor level. I'll have to deal with this later.

So here's what I have for the cargo bay.






And here's how the doors would look like:



NEXT: Tail section (lounge, infirmary, passenger dorms). Need to figure out that floor level issue.

This is lookng pretty good!

UPDATE:

The Tail section is arguably the most detail intensive exterior part of the ship, what with all those pipes and conduits and vents. Trouble is, whenever there's a scene showing the tail section, it's either a wide shot of the ship (hence details are small) or the ship is moving or in space (details are blurry or dark). So I had to rely less on screenshots and more on drawings/blueprints and guesswork. I wonder why they didn't just put those conduits inside the chassis to make it less prone to damage in case they encounter an Alliance patrol or reavers.

The other thing about the tail section is that rotating thingie (rotor?) at what I call the waist of the ship. It looks nice watching it rotate slowly as the ship moves, but it eats up the bottom part of the tail, which affects the floor level. I haven't done the interiors yet, and maybe I can raise the floor level, but that won't be consistent with the live action version (as stated in my previous post).
The current workaround (cheat) I have is this: I have two geometries for the rotor - one rotates like that in the movie and a fake one which is fixed but provides enough space for the interiors. For exterior renders, use the default rotor. For interior renders, hide the default and/or use the fake one.



Here are previews for the tail exteriors.






I figured I have about 4 more steps before I can release the first part (i.e. complete ship exterior):
-  Tail section interior (infirmary, dorms, engine room)
-  Wings section (shuttle and shuttle bay, engines, landing gear)
-  Exterior detailing
-  Exterior texturing and rigging

Still much to do, but getting there.

UPDATE:

Thought I'd do a quick update and get this out of the way. It started with my previous post (re: tail section exterior) where I got a little carried away with detailing. Well, it didn't end there.

The Aft Hall or Walkway is normally dimly lit so you'd probably never notice the details they added on the walls. (I still wonder why scifi walls can't be plain simple walls.) I had to crank up the brightness of the screenshots just to see them. A little stretched maybe because this walkway is longer than the movie's, but they're there. 

Now the Engine Room was shown only once in the movie and viewed from the door. So much for trying to get a view from multiple angles. So this one is a mix of the movie version, the tv show version and my own interpretation. Hope Kaylee won't mind the changes I made to her sanctuary. Plus I still need to make sense of that round rotating thingie they call an acceleration core, which looks like a bloody mess of wires and tubes and parts. I'll add those details in later.

Next: Tail section lower deck (lounge/waiting room, infirmary, passenger dorms)

UPDATE:

And I ran into a roadblock!

This is regarding the path from the Cargo Bay to the Lounge/Common Area in the tail section. 

First issue is the floor level. As I've shared before, the mid-section belly seems to be the lowest part of the ship and is a bit lower than the tail section. So how come one needs to go up 4 steps and down 6 steps to move from the cargo bay to the tail area? (Note on the pictures below: area enclosed in box shows the tail section that is covered behind the rotor housing.) 


Second issue is still the floor level. The cargo bay is like a box, so it's easy to define the floor. The tail section however is circular, like a top lying on its side, and the floor be like a horizontal plane slicing thru it. In order to get a flat area big enough for the common area + infirmary, that plane needs to be raised higher.
It's just geometry and I can't do anything about it. Think of it like horizontally slicing a ball or a can on its side. If we cut it in the middle, we get the maximum area. If we slice it closer to the bottom, we get less. If we follow the cargo bay floor level, which coincides nearly with the bottom of the tail section, we'd get very little flat area. 


The compromise I'm looking at is to raise the tail floor level. Which means however that instead of stairs going down to the tail section, we'd need stairs going up. A major deviation indeed!
Maybe I'll sleep on it for a while, and maybe I'll dream of a better solution. Any suggestions are welcome!

UPDATE:

[Serenity movie scene]: Mal moves toward the stern, passing thru the Mess hall and aft hallway, to reach the Engine room and talk to Kaylee. Going back, he meets Simon and they move ONE level down to the Infirmary where he gets his shots. Afterwards, they move out to the Cargo bay, which is supposedly below the Mess hall but is TWO levels high. So where'd the Mess hall go?

Blame movie magic! We know production builds multiple movie sets to shoot scenes, then they stitch them up in film to make it look continuous. Well, it's obvious here that the stairs should be two levels high and it's quite easy to do the modifications. In fact, that's the easy part.

The Passenger dorms is a different matter. The movie only shows the dorms in passing (and never the insides of the rooms), so I thought of using the TV version instead. In both cases, we have two corridors at a certain angle with respect to each other and (I assume) rooms on each side of the corridor.


This is where it gets complicated. Remember the shape of the tail which is curved and tapered towards the rear? So how would we arrange the rooms as it was in the show?

Let's do the math. The tail at its widest would be about 16m (53') and that's at the center axis. It gets narrower as we move to the rear and near the bottom. A room would be at least 2m (6.6') long to fit a bed. So if we simply line up two 1.5m (5') wide corridors and four rooms (one on each side of the corridors), we'd need 11m (36').  Now spread those corridors so as to form a 'V'. The blueprints have it at a conservative 20-degree angle between the corridors, but looks more like 60 to 90 degrees from the show. I tried a 40-degree compromise and it's a bit tight.


So for now, here's what I plan to do:
-  Prioritize three rooms: River's (1), Simon's (2) and Book's (3)
-  I'll add the rooms without issues, e.g. if it won't intersect with other rooms or the tail walls
-  The rest would be just dummy rooms, i.e. doors won't open or there's no actual room behind it.

Note: I know that rendering interior scenes won't require the exterior at all. So why am I hellbent on trying to fit the interior with the exterior? Simple answer - I want to build a semi-believable sci-fi ship, not a magical Harry Potter tent.   

Ok, time for another UPDATE.

Major changes were implemented on the lower deck of tail section due to the issues from previous posts:
-  Raised flooring: to get enough real estate. Which makes common area floor lever higher that cargo bay's, and hence stairs should be going downwards.
- Two-level stairs from Aftdeck Hall to lower deck.
-  Less spread out passenger dorms and smaller rooms. Except for Book's, Simon's and River's rooms, all other rooms are empty, and some even have no actual room behind the doors.



Because of these changes, and the limited showing of these areas from the movie, these may look a bit different. The main elements are still there, but a bit different.

Common/Waiting Area: 


Passenger Dorms: These were mostly from the series, as the rooms were never shown in the movie.


Infirmary:  Also taken from the series, mostly from the Pilot episode, except for the chair. I still have to add those medical instruments and stuff, but for one that just hired their resident medic, they sure do have lots of medical equipment ready. Hmmm.

 

Next up: Wing section, including shuttles and landing gear

This is awesome! I am amazed at how detailed this is and can't wait till it's finished and available for purchase!

Wow!!! You've made so much progress! It looks great too! Can't wait to see the final ship model!!

How's it going? any new developments?

UPDATE:

I've been working on the shuttles, which only appeared in the movie undocked/flying, along with some scenes of its interiors, for a total of about 10 seconds. Great!

So I followed its size and shape from the blueprints, which look just fine relative to main ship. But when compared to people scale, it looks small. The screen grab from Miranda makes me wonder how they can get people in there. (Take special note of the size of the hatch and the cockpit.) But I thought maybe it's just parallax. So I took another screen shot, the one from the docks, added a perspective-corrected overlay of the shuttle, and still turns out, as Inara puts it, "small-ish".


The interior shots show a much taller hatch, a higher ceiling, and a wider and flatter cockpit with shorter windows. So either the interiors are really larger than the exterior, or they have the tech to shrink people down to hobbit size.


After much debate with myself, I decided to keep to my original objective of fitting the interiors, resulting in significant changes, including uneven floor and walls. Well, everything fits except for the cargo area ceiling, which I had to raise because I needed the characters to be able to at least stand. Hence for the shuttle, it won't do to load both exterior and interior at the same time. Anyway, you don't really need to load both to render either one.

Exterior: Follows the blueprint's size and shape, with details from the series. Added landing gears (posable and can be hidden), which are never shown on the film/series, but I think is needed to support the nose. The wings are retractable, and the hatch can be opened/closed. Shuttle exterior detailing is practically finished, and is ready for texturing.




Interior of Shuttle #1 (aka Inara's shuttle): 
Cockpit: I think the set designers got a little lazy here, especially for the dashboard. After all, it's got a screen time of less than 5 seconds. Still, I followed the movie version (with modifications to fit it inside the shuttle), but I think the series version is better. So I might add elements from the series later.



Cargo Area: This has to be the most elaborately decorated room in the entire ship, and its polycount is getting a bit higher than I'd like. Now, I'm all for HD models, especially for main or foreground objects, but I find it overkill for background objects which may just be obscured or blurred with DoF. So I deliberately toned down the object details (e.g. folds/pleats on the drapes) in order to reduce polycount. This should be fun (or nightmare) texturing though.
 







Interior of Shuttle #2:
I haven't really started on Shuttle #2, but it's just a barebones Shuttle #1
-  they should share similar cockpit
-  take down all the drapes and decors; remove the bed and couch
-  replace with some  crates, props and junk.
-  et voilà, instant Shuttle #2

Now, time for that long overdue Wing section!

The spaceship is beautiful; I cannot deny that. But for me, man, the interior is rock solid! I love all the details you are adding to the space, enough to build a story as the crew flies through the galaxy. I cannot wait for you to release this, man. I will buy it on the first day!

UPDATE:

I was finally able to work on the Wing section, which includes the wing engines, the shuttle bay, and landing gear. Not much issues encountered, except for the landing gear. Somehow, I can't for the life of me figure out how to fit the landing gears inside the Housing without eating up part of the Cargo Bay. Looking at screen grabs from the movie, I'm not sure if it'll even fit.





Anyway, here's the completed mesh for the ship exterior (mostly untextured):




And some profile views, showing various model details:




At this level of detail, I'm currently running at almost 255K vertices. I don't know if that's going to be an issue later on (e.g. for load and render times), but if it is, I might consider including a lower-poly lite version, sacrificing the small details but suitable for non-close up renders.

NEXT: Rigging and texturing, and hopefully, release. Just allow me a little time for coffee break.

Wow, that is one hell of a complex model you got going there. I just imagined rigging this thing in daz studio and my eye started twitching. I hope rigging in blender is a lot easier, though I imagine it is. Just the ease of the viewport navigation in blender would make it easier. I have only really done modeling in blender, and UV mapping. Never really dove into blender rigging and such things yet. 

UPDATE:

Apologies for the short and delayed update. Was feeling a little bit under the weather lately.

Anyways, here she is in Daz, all rigged up and awaiting a paint job. Hope I get the textures right.
I'm using DS 4.20+. Should I target Daz2025? Heard there're some differences, like rendered image might not look the same, maybe too light or shiny or something. Is this correct?



I've decided to split it into multiple objects (including the 2 parented shuttles). Don't know if it helps in loading in Daz, but I figured, if I do encounter issues with loading the whole shebang, at least I'd have the option to load it in bite-sized chunks.
ERC actions include:
- Wing engine pivot
- Cargo doors open
- Bomb bay doors open
- Shuttle launch position
- Shuttle airlock/hatch open
- Shuttle wings unfold
- Main/Shuttle landing gears deploy/stow
- Gravity rotor rotate
- Reactor vents open/close



Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go grab my paintbrush and start painting.

Wow!! Can't wait to see it completed, you're doing a fantstic job! 

Great details and attention to accuracy in the modelling.  Very impressive work.  

TEASER: Daz render #1

https://www.renderhub.com/gallery/79884/serenity-teaser-1

TEASER: Daz render #2

https://www.renderhub.com/gallery/80343/serenity-teaser-2

TEASER: Daz render #3

https://www.renderhub.com/gallery/80883/serenity-teaser-3

She's out!
https://www.renderhub.com/loner02/mal-s-boat

Maybe I can get my holiday break now.

Are the interiors included with the model of mal-s-boat?

TEASER: Daz render #4

https://www.renderhub.com/gallery/85337/serenity-teaser-4

Cargo Bay is out!
https://www.renderhub.com/loner02/mal-s-boat-cargo-bay

This is an early release package, for those who can not wait. Looking at you, Luxe Muse.
Anyways, the package will be updated to include the missing props as soon as they're available.

I know, I've lots of crates to add.
I'm trying to make it as close as possible to the movie. But can anybody tell me what those encircled things are?

I know this is more than a bit late, but I thought I'd comment on your airlocks to the shuttles issue, if it's still an issue. 

It seems to me that an airlock is an unnecessary addition when you consider the purpose of the connection. The shuttle is designed to travel from the ship to a planet or to an orbital, so it doesn't need an airlock, just a hatch. The same applies to the Firefly, as those ports aren't for EVA, but only for access to shuttles when they're docked. There would be hardware/software to ensure a positive lock/seal and minimal gap between the two doors, which would be, essentially, a mini airlock only to account for the small amount of vacuum that was present at docking/undocking - you'd have to pump air in or out to make or break the seal so to speak. When you consider that the back of the cargo hold is one big hatch, it all makes sense. 

IIRC, they EVA via a smaller actual airlock elsewhere in the ship in the one episode that they had to go outside in for some reason, though it could have happened more than once. 

@Dareshiranu
Thanks for your comment.
I agree with you that's it should only be a small air-sealed gap between the double doors (shuttle hatch and ship hatch). In fact, that's what happened on the series (episode: Out of Gas).

The thing is, the ship docking bay (and thus the shuttle hatch) does not line up with the catwalk hatch. The wings would be at the level of the cargo hold if such is the case. So there has to be a path (airlock or not) from the catwalk hatch up to the shuttle hatch. Way too different from what is shown from the picture above.

UPDATE:

The challenge in making the cargo bay props look right is due to the following:
- as background objects, they don't get plenty of screen time (hence, no decent reference images)
- most are obscured behind other objects
- some are placed in dark corners or dim lighting, so it's difficult to get the details
- props arrangement varies with the scene; so a crate can be in one position in one scene, and in another position in another
- many look like luggage of various shapes and sizes, but there are also unique items



So anyway, after adding my own interpretation and filling in plenty of blanks, here's what I have for the starboard-side props. I haven't started with the port-side props yet, but I think they a bit more challenging.



Btw, seeing that the cargo props are taking more time than I expected, I'm putting the flying mule on backburner, so I can continue working on the rest of the ship after this.

UPDATE:

First, apologies for another delay. Had to take care of some personal matters that demanded my immediate attention.

Anyways, here are the port-side props. If you notice that some look similar to the props on the other side, well, they do. It would seem that movie set designers reuse/reposition the props depending on what camera angles the scenes require, so as to make it look like they have more cargo than what is actually on the floor. Plus, a lot look like regular luggage, not very scifi-y (except perhaps for one). If you prefer a more futuristic cargo like that of Enterprise or Rocinante, please feel free to replace them with your own props, but I'm not sure if it'd fit Serenity's rag-tag look. 

 
I'll just import them into Daz, texture them, then they'll be ready for release.

The creation of this incredible model has been a journey - thanks for allowing us to come along!

I'm pretty sure I recognize the contraption in the left screen capture. In my career as an aircraft maintenance technician working on "heavy metal", we used similar carts to provide lighting to the undersides of aircraft. Our carts were similar except instead of 2 light tubes, ours had 6 or 8.  They had thick, heavy duty all weather chords for power, and we would wrap them around the frame just as in your image.    They also had a similar cage around the tubes. Aside from the number of tubes (hey, in the future things are far more efficient, right?),  our lights were angled up slightly. 

Cargo Bay has been updated!
https://www.renderhub.com/loner02/mal-s-boat-cargo-bay .

If you've purchased before, please redownload the package.
And as usual, if there are bugs, missing items, etc., please inform me so I could fix it asap.
Thanks and enjoy!

Next: Bridge or Mess Hall, I'm still deciding which.

Wow. I just found this less than 24 hours ago, looking at your Cosplay stuff. Huge fan of the show. Have the TV series DVD's and the Movie. it turned out last night was payday so I bought the Cargo hold as a test. Lots of missing textures, but I expected that as they are in the Exterior package, It was more to check the light and will it render "out of the box" as they say and we are partway through the first render and it's looking good. No extra lighting or anything required so Space Cowboys and cowgirls, let's go play.

I just bought the main exterior and the light in the first render was coming through the cargo door way. With the  hull there, the illumination is less, but more realistic.
What space image did you use for the external promo images?

Moving forward and I'll looking forward to more interiors. As humble suggestion would be some "go to" poses so a simple click gets the character to the correct area within the ship with their feet on the floor as a starting point for posing.

Wonderful, I just got back and say the cargo hold was updated. 

Sorry, may be OOT.
To Firefly fans, what's with the recent socmed buzz on Firefly? Just a little concerned if this will make my project more significant or more obsolete. Anyone who can shed light on the matter?

Anyways, Bridge detailing is ongoing. So many panels and gizmos and switches, most of which have no identifiable functions. But since they're there in the first place, got to make sure they are there, or else the ship may crash, again... 

REQUEST for suggestions/assistance:

While doing detailing on the Bridge, I found the need to have better images for the bridge console/monitors. I only have DVD quality screenshots, such as below, and hi-res images would make better textures, especially for close-up renders.
- Anybody know where I can find hi-res images for these screens, maybe from a UHD source? Or maybe you have better screenshots and willing to share?
- If not, I'm looking at AI image enhancer, which I know there are plenty, but I'm not that well versed in AI tools. So can anybody suggest a good tool? Just an enhancer, not a generator, as I'd like as much as possible to remain true to the actual screens.

Not on you, but my only real design problem with the Firefly is not having a useable ramp when using the landing gear. It just doesn't make sense.



Just used a plane and metal grill shader and threw a g8 character in for reference. 

UPDATE:

Thought i need to make a quick update.

The Bridge is crazy detailed! With so many switches, buttons, wires, leds, monitors, etc., I'm not even halfway done.
I could perhaps cheat on the details by using textures and bump/normal maps (a technique used by game developers for background objects), but no way that would pass closeup scrutiny. In fact, some of the objects (e.g. console and dashboard) require "real geometry" to be realistic.


Which lead me to my other concern: texture for the console screens. I did a little experiment, using actual screenshots from the movie as textures, even though they're a bit blurry. For normal scenes, I think it's workable for the smaller screens, unless you set focus specifically on the screens. For the bigger screens, I can derive the textures from the blueprints.

Image below shows a Blender render (mostly untextured and in low light to show screen emissives) and wireframe of the Bridge.


Now, i've to go rush the rest of the Bridge.  

Just re-watched the movie & series.

I wonder why you're trying to fit the interiors into the model.  Wouldn't it be easier to create a set of separate interior sets (after all, that's how filming happens)?.  It would make a lot easier for purchasers also - trying to position cameras and characters inside the body of the main model can be a lot of effort when going for an interior image.

UPDATE:

Halfway thru detailing, pilot side done, captain's side next.
I may have overcooked it a bit though, it's running mid to high-poly. I just want to make sure it'll look good/realistic even for closeup renders (but maybe not for extreme closeups). I may have to split the bridge into multiple objects just to be safe.


As for those pesky screens, I think they're coming along just fine. As stated in an earlier post, I'm going to make the 'big screens' user-customizable, i.e. we can choose which preset image to post on which display, and even use a custom image.


All the pilot-side needs now are Wash's dinosaur toys.

UPDATE:

IMHO, modeling modern and sleek bridge, such as that of the Enterprise, seem a tad easier than Serenity's. No loose wires. No mismatch instruments slapped together for no apparent reason. No panels that looked diy'd by Wash or Kaylee. But then again, such is the charm of Serenity. She's not a ship that you blow up to smithereens when the situation calls for it. Rusty and dusty she may be, she's home!

So I beg forgiveness from y'all if I simplify the bridge a little here and there, just to keep stuff manageable. I'm quite certain I won't be able to finish if I let my OCD complete all those nitty-gritty details.

 
After the captain's side of the bridge (shown above), I'll be finalizing some of the remaining details. Then it's off the Daz, finally!

Just to clarify my intentions:

Comparing the movie and TV versions with regards to the overhead panel.


I can add an overhead panel as below, must be high enough as not to obstruct the pilot's view, but low enough to be reachable when standing up.

FIRST LOOK:

At a (yet) empty Bridge. Still working on texturing the pilot/captain-side instruments and panels.
Daz render. No postwork. Except for adding a deathstar on the horizon.


The backrow wall and panels are more or less finished though. A little dark maybe, like an airplane cockpit at night, but i think that's how it should be. We can always add some daz lights if needed.


Hope to finish the rest of the Bridge in a couple of weeks or so.

FIRST LOOK:

At the pilot's side of the Bridge. Took a while texturing, had to make sure it looks good enough.
Daz render. No postwork.

FIRST LOOK:

At the captain's side of the Bridge.
Daz render. No postwork.

Bridge is out!
https://www.renderhub.com/loner02/mal-s-boat-bridge

It's a way smaller room than cargo bay but quite a bit more complex. The base cargo bay has about 50K vertices, while the bridge clocks in at greater than 300K! 

Again, just the base package. A separate free addon for optional items will be made available, which includes:
- An overhead panel (from TV version, not seen in movie version)
- Crate props
- Wash's dinosaur toys


Like the Flying Mule, these are currently in the backburner, so I can proceed with the next section of the ship.

UP NEXT: Care for some strawberries?

Continuing this on a new thread, as this is getting a bit long already.