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- 30 Mar 2008
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Ah, constructive comments, thank you.
The Excelsior is a very distinctive ship. Personally I don't like the design much, it just isn't balanced the way I'd like. The saucer is too small, the secondary hull too long, the pylons and nacelles to long and spindly, it reminds me of a sailing ship seen out of the water - seeing the full depth of a hull looks unnatural because we're used to only seeing a ship to the waterline. Another part of the problem with the Excelsior is that it should have been a much bigger ship, but they scaled it down for the films as being too unbelievable (the opposite problem of the JJprise).
But it is all of these features that make an Excelsior an Excelsior. Because the base design doesn't necessarily flow right and it only looks "right" because that is how we expect an Excelsior to look, making small changes often don't work, and making big changes takes away from the Excelsior look.
It is a tough balancing act to "refit" a ship so that it retains the essence of the original but looks new and improved. In some respects the artists who made the Constitution refit had it easy as there hadn't been any other Starfleet design shown at that point - the refit therefore was acceptable, even though it is virtually a completely different ship. I think that if they had the task to refit the Constitution today it would have to look more like the original because it can't look like other designs.
Anyway, to your specific comments:
All in all, it took a lot of work to find a balance that I was content with (although not necessarily happy). The only reason I'm not still working on finding a better balance is because she looks positively evil from the upper forward quarter.
The Excelsior is a very distinctive ship. Personally I don't like the design much, it just isn't balanced the way I'd like. The saucer is too small, the secondary hull too long, the pylons and nacelles to long and spindly, it reminds me of a sailing ship seen out of the water - seeing the full depth of a hull looks unnatural because we're used to only seeing a ship to the waterline. Another part of the problem with the Excelsior is that it should have been a much bigger ship, but they scaled it down for the films as being too unbelievable (the opposite problem of the JJprise).
But it is all of these features that make an Excelsior an Excelsior. Because the base design doesn't necessarily flow right and it only looks "right" because that is how we expect an Excelsior to look, making small changes often don't work, and making big changes takes away from the Excelsior look.
It is a tough balancing act to "refit" a ship so that it retains the essence of the original but looks new and improved. In some respects the artists who made the Constitution refit had it easy as there hadn't been any other Starfleet design shown at that point - the refit therefore was acceptable, even though it is virtually a completely different ship. I think that if they had the task to refit the Constitution today it would have to look more like the original because it can't look like other designs.
Anyway, to your specific comments:
You have hit the nail firmly on the head. The neck and pylons are the key to giving the Excelsior the streamlined look. Unfortunately, the neck and pylons are also key to the Excelsior look. Doh! So I compromised. If you look at the side by side comparison picture from 15th September, you can see that I've actually lowered the saucer quite dramatically. In reality there is hardly any neck left, it's just how I've reshaped the neck-hull interface that gives the illusion of a substantial neck. As for the pylons, the original pylons just had to go because they did not go with the almost organic look. I started off by recreating them but having the attachment point on the hull itself and then sweeping them back. Unfortunately this then contributed to the tall "sailing ship" look and in order to balance it better I had to space them out a little. Again, it's not by much, but because of how the pylon blends into the hull instead of a lump above the hull, it appears very different.have given thought to maybe shortening the neck and the nacelle pylons? It would move the saucer and nacelles closer to the main body and achieve the "slipstream" look your going for.
All in all, it took a lot of work to find a balance that I was content with (although not necessarily happy). The only reason I'm not still working on finding a better balance is because she looks positively evil from the upper forward quarter.