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Birth of Discovery

Above is the design evolution of my Discovery-class vessel. It's been a long road getting from the top of that image to the bottom, but it has been a trip. However, this image shows a lot of the things I have learned about designing good Star Trek ships.

The First design, the Type 1, is the earliest full image I did of the ship outside of shape studies. From it, you cant ell I had little understanding of balance, organization, and proportions. Also, I had not yet discovered Gene Roddenberry's rules for Star Trek starships so the notorious three Nacelle design (loved by some, hated by others) had made it's way into the ship.

The Second design showed steady improvement. The ship took on a lengthier appearance and the saucer began to take form as a rounded and smooth structure. However, the bulky engineering section and odd angles on the saucer gave the ship less than appealing appearance and the design was moved over. (Though elements of this design have merit and may find their way into a Carrier design down the road)

The Third was the last hand drawing of the ship I did. The ship was again lengthened and given a more smooth transition from saucer to engineering section. Some of the elements of this ship (particularly the window arangement on the engineering section) were physically attractive but not logical.

Fox-Class WIP

The Fox-Class is my new WIP and a side project to the ongoing work on the Discovery-Class.   Designed as a fast attack compliment to the Discovery, the Fox has a total of nine decks and stands approximately 290m long and 40m tall.  

The idea with this design was to combine a few elements from a number of ships as well as create an original shape and feel.  I wanted to take the interesting designs and shapes seen in Star Trek: First Contact exemplified by the Saber, Norway, and Steamrunner Class ships and combine them into a future tense ship that served similar roles to these ships.  

The most difficult part on this design was deciding which elements to bring together to create a a well thought out combination.  The original concept did not have the pylons connecting the rear engineering section to the warp nacelles, and the flair from the bottom of the engineering hull to its flattened position was much more pronounced and created a sharper aft portion.  I chose instead to go with a broader aft portion (to provide space for torpedo launchers) and added the pylons to give the ship a more sturdy and bird-like, winged feel.  

The same color pallets, armor textures, and stylings from the Discovery were used in order to give the ship a connection to the future tense era.  In addition, the orthos style sheet used on the Discovery was again used in hopes of connecting the two designs.   

"Designing Star Trek - Introduction"

Some of you have asked me, "How the hell do you do that?" in response to my work.  I promise you, we who are good at adobe illustrator are not freaks or special.  Everyone has the potential to be a great designer it just takes practice.  However, sometimes its a little daunting to figure out a place to start.  You sit down at a piece of paper with pencil in hand, a fantastic concept in your head, and a few test sketches, throws of crumpled pieces of paper, and frustrated sighs later you find yourself in a defeated mindset, move pass the design, and go back to your routine.

I won't lie to you, it is daunting.  Designing, especially the whole long process, can be a multiple month long process of work or an overnight success (The Discovery is 8 months of work with multiple revisions - The future uniforms are a days work with no revisions afterwards).  The trick is to stick with it no matter how short of a project or long of a project it is.

My intention in this series is to discuss the design process for everything from starships to storylines, uniforms to naming works.  There will (hopefully) be guest appearances by fellow artist and designers who will talk about what they have learned and how they work. This isn't an attempt to boast my own skills or try to prove I'm a teacher, it is to provide you with a chance to see how I work (if you care at all).  

Comments are there for you to ask questions.  Ask them!  I will try to respond promptly though between art, school, and research, I may be a bit slow on the uptake.  If you have a particular topic you want covered, e-mail me or message me on DeviantArt.   If you have a problem.  Let me know.  I'm not here to be a teacher, I'm here as a friend helping some good artist learn how I do my work.  

Cheers and welcome to "Designing Star Trek"

Crews in 2400

One of my more personally entertaining and enjoyable projects.   Given how many times Starfleet updated its uniforms between 2350 and 2380, I felt why not have another update in 2400.  These uniforms are my take on that.  So what exactly inspired them?

Well, as with many Star Trek fans, I deplored the future tense uniforms we saw in a number of Star Trek episodes, TNG's "All Good Things..." and VOY's "Endgame."  I always felt the uniforms, in conjunction with the makeup aged characters, completed this "rest home" atmosphere Starfleet seemed to be trying to project.  The uniforms overabundance of color accented by the weak black "line" that marked the older uniforms transition from black to department color lacked the sharp and crisp military style of the DS9/VOY jumpsuits as well as the late DS9/First Contact uniforms.  

In response, I inverted the top stylings of the future tense uniforms and gave them the uniform "jacket" feel of the late DS9/First Contact uniforms.  For the dress uniforms, I pulled from dress stylings first shown the TNG movies series but gave them a sleeker, and less braided look, moving to a tuxedo styling with gold finishings for the officers and the classic white for the enlisted men.  

The Marine variations (for both duty and dress) were inspired by the colors worn by the United States Marine Corps, who have always been said to have the finest dress uniforms in the United States Armed Forces and arguably the world - I tend to agree.  The blue used in this uniform is a hue closer to navy to tie it in closer to the darker uniforms of the Naval officers.  

The jumpsuit variations and pilot's uniforms were all inspired by uniforms worn by military men in similar lines of duty today,  modified and edited to conform to Star Trek look and feel.

The shading and shape template was made originally in Adobe Illustrator though the shading and overall outline is intended to be nearly identical to the uniform drawings provided by artists for Star Trek: The Magazine.  

The Discovery

Designed as a next generation deep space explorer designed to replace the aging Galaxy-Class and supplement the paltry Sovereign-Class, the Discovery-Class is the next generation "jack-of-all-trades" for Starfleet.  In service during the early 25th century, the ship travels the far reaches of our galaxy and our neighboring galaxies thanks to it's benamite based quantum slipstream drive.  The flagship of the federation, she represents the rebirth of the noble exploratory directive of starfleet.  When commissioned, chief designer Josheua Samuelson remarked, "I've given wings to my children, in hopes they go where I only dreamed..."  

My First and longest running design project.  As the video showed in my last post, it was a long road getting from there to here.  Countless concept pieces, shape studies, revisions, and man hours later I developed the ship you see above.  The most notable change came when the ship was modified with a slipstream deflector which gave the hull a much more rounded look as well as the galaxy-sovereign pylon design hybrid.  Both of these changes gave the ship the excelsior feel I was going for.  

One of the most critical aspects of designing a ship of this size is to make sure you get your scale right.  I find it easier to get the right look going and from their determine how large your ship is.  Some prefer to work the other ways.  I just find that a more artistic approach to a realistic design (as was done with the galaxy-class) produces a much more satisfying and appealing piece.   

One of the most critical decisions made with the ship was to go with a markedly light color scheme compared to the Sovereign-Class which had a very dark brushed aluminum/steel feel to her.  In reviewing my options, I considered the blue stylings of the Galaxy and Excelsior but instead went for a grey-ish metal look that we saw with Galaxy on screen.  

Tribute to the Discovery Class

Some of you may be familiar with my Discovery-Class Design.  It has gained a little popularity among Star Trek fans and I made the following video as a tribute to those who have followed it's progress from conception to its final realization.  I will be posting images of the design progress and commentary as part of my "How to Design a Starship" Segment.  

Keep your eyes open.