First the golden cowboy, now acting in the shadows of an Oscar. You're going up in the world mate! Congrats!

And as for the video, very cool. I'm not sure what the programs you use are capable of, but if you could add scorch marks to ship as the beams sweep across it, that would really add a touch of realism.

Thanks guys for the well wishes and suggestions.

Regarding the combat - that is a good point about discoloring the hull. I am working on ways to do that. I am also looking at a proper explosion for when the torpedo careens in on the engines. The bump on the clouds is intentional but I am going to play with the way it is applied. It is a rather sloppy back door approach but right now I am not sure how to do it better.

Some small electric sparks in the open hull would be fine also, if it's possible...

Scorch marks and electric sparks. This is going to be interesting (read difficult). Although you did do a very nice explosion. Just look at the skill you have that Walken doesn't!

I can use a "particle system" to make sparks. It is much the same as the fire and smoke. The scorch will likely be a second mesh that holds an image of scorch. It can slowly becoming more visible over the hull plating mesh. With alpha see-through beyond the black discoloration of scorch it should appear to be happening on the hull. We will see.

Thanks for all your secrets

No it sounds entirely doable now that you put it that way - Not that I'm saying I could do it.

I knew Kenneth that you could do it.
As for me, I have Blender right in front of me and I'm completely blocked!!! I keep reading the manual and still I am in a shock state.

And a doctor like you can learn anything, Capt. Julian Bashir!

It's the genetically altered brain.

That's what I thought!
Just like my Genetically Altered Fingers! Now if I could get my ears and brain to be as fast as them, It would be really the top of it!

On second thought it would be best to put the original hull texture and a second hull texture with scorch on the same ship mesh. If you just animate the level each contributes to color you will see the scorch appear over time as texture scorch takes over from texture original.

Blender takes time and here is a link to one of the good places to start with it.
http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

Thank you so much Kenneth!
I'll check that out.

There really is a lot of good stuff on the web if you want to learn one of these programs. Believe me I know.

Yes, I've been wandering around a bit and found a few tutorials to read. I guess I need to take the time to experiment.

just a test on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/ohtgv8Zp9R4

Just in time for the holidays - we can now blow things up. It needs work
but there is progress here. Sorry to say the nice explode features here
seam to be incompatible with a particle systems. The particle system
does the fire and smoke. There are a few more things
to try but here is where I am at this point.

Looks very nice, I like that guided missile/torpedo how deviously hits the weakest part of ship...

- Working to upgrade the planet model in each of the Cardassian clips that will make up the final video.

looking forward, I must admit of all your videos Cardies was the best IMO

I am learning techniques that can be used to upgrade to the beta versions of earlier videos.

While I am working on the cards video it is a good time to update the sharepoint ingame .png for the card_starbase_ii.

I love it Is that your mesh KoB?

The mesh was available online and has been adapted to your model files as well as into your Card video. It took a lot of reworking but the original was by Joerg Gerlach.

I think you did master work with lightning. Enigmatic ambient with nice photon bounces on metal hull.

Crewman Illuminatiprimus reporting for duty

Salutes

I offered my services in another thread for voice acting and writing and have been pointed in this direction. I started to read through the thread (all 23 pages of it...) but then decided it might be more productive to look at the more recent posts and ask for a status and next steps. Kenneth - are you still looking for a voice for the cards? If so what is the agreed text? Happy to do some demos if you let me know how to get them to you. I currently only have a basic microphone and recording facilities but if you like what I do then I can shell out for a better mic and some better software.

You also mentioned the Dominion intro - is the text for that decided yet?

What we have so far, an alpha version, is found on the Youtube channel called StarTrekSupremacy1. As you can hear Blaze has done a professional job of it. He does have some high end gear. It is Happytrek that does our audio edits so send any submission to him.

The Cardassians lines are currently:

All hail Cardassia!

Methods are not important. The Obsidian Order and the Cardassian military are efficient tools. Use them to full advantage.

Exploit the worlds you conquer. Their resources bring victory.

When we are victorious, and we will be victorious, we will write history.

If you would like to take a shot at writing lines please do so for any of the major races.

Great - will do some examples and if I'm what you're looking for can happily upgrade to something that produces better audio (currently I only have a cheap mic for skyping). I'll have a think about the lines for the other races, but I'm slightly loathe to turn up late to the party and start suggesting redos to everyone else's hard work!

We do have a few years on you but do not let us discourage you. I started out with no experience with 3D computer graphics and now I am doing models and animation for the game on a high end work station. Part of what sustains the long term users here is finding a new skill they want to learn. We expect that the early work will be amateurish but encourage it to promote long-term assets to the project. Finding a need in our game and developing a skill is really up to you.

Happy holidays from the collective.

Although I MUST say, I really like the entire Captain Archer Enterprise Warp sequence in the Federation video. It's really amazing. I think I liked the rest too, but I keep picturing the smooth exit from orbit and the jump it makes.

Could you possibly send me a copy of the station image with transparencies added, Kenneth? If I try added transparencies in Irfanview I end up with an image with some stray pixels and jagged edges.

Hey MOE, I just noticed. Where's the Santa Hat MOE?

Thanks for reminding me!