Scaling Analyses
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:30 pm
As mentioned in the Neo-Volumetrics thread, I've been playing with Google SketchUp quite a bit. It is pretty easy to use and play with, though I haven't really been using it for its intended purpose (hence the volumetrics-related stuff).
The other day, in a fit of masochism, I decided to play around with a very good DS9 model and a Defiant model to see how they might match up, and ended up throwing in other models as well. (FYI, I'm favoring about 1300m, though the Galaxy docking scenes don't work out perfectly. However, they don't work out under most scenarios.) Lately I've been fiddling around with trying to reconstruct the "Rise" torpedo shot in 3-D as well (went pretty well, might I add).
But it only recently dawned on me that SketchUp might enable some extra maneuvers in regards to another old project I started but never got anywhere with, and which existed as a topic long ago among you gents. I refer to the old conversations on Star Wars ship scales.
Chances are, of course, that with TCW the majority of incidents will simply make use of the official scaling numbers. That is, one wouldn't be able to scale an ISD based on OT film evidence, because there would be a blockage when it came to the scaling of the Tantive IV, which will probably scale out to the official size. (RotS gave two possibilities for scaling Tantive IV, but I'm not aware of anyone posting results on such scalings.)
But what were the primary thoughts from way back when that SketchUp might be able to help with?
Just to give a sense of what I've done so far, I found a few ISDs and a pretty good Falcon and tried sticking the Falcon on the back of the ISD. Using a window transparency, I then try to make the SketchUp view match the film image, if at all possible.
In the case of that particular shot, I either can't get them to match precisely or can't find a precise ISD model . . . I imagine the truth is a mixture of the two, probably mostly the latter, though depending on lens choices the former may also be true. However, roughly speaking, I would guesstimate the Falcon length in that shot to be in the proper 2.175% ISD length range that others have found (e.g. if 35m Falcon, then 1609m ISD). However, more analysis is required.
Are there any other particular shots of interest? I imagine that trying to scale the Falcon in the DS1 bay would be interesting . . . preliminary estimates from past efforts were showing a small Falcon. I'd bet trying to confirm the Tantive IV to ISD scaling would be good, as well.
Thoughts?
The other day, in a fit of masochism, I decided to play around with a very good DS9 model and a Defiant model to see how they might match up, and ended up throwing in other models as well. (FYI, I'm favoring about 1300m, though the Galaxy docking scenes don't work out perfectly. However, they don't work out under most scenarios.) Lately I've been fiddling around with trying to reconstruct the "Rise" torpedo shot in 3-D as well (went pretty well, might I add).
But it only recently dawned on me that SketchUp might enable some extra maneuvers in regards to another old project I started but never got anywhere with, and which existed as a topic long ago among you gents. I refer to the old conversations on Star Wars ship scales.
Chances are, of course, that with TCW the majority of incidents will simply make use of the official scaling numbers. That is, one wouldn't be able to scale an ISD based on OT film evidence, because there would be a blockage when it came to the scaling of the Tantive IV, which will probably scale out to the official size. (RotS gave two possibilities for scaling Tantive IV, but I'm not aware of anyone posting results on such scalings.)
But what were the primary thoughts from way back when that SketchUp might be able to help with?
Just to give a sense of what I've done so far, I found a few ISDs and a pretty good Falcon and tried sticking the Falcon on the back of the ISD. Using a window transparency, I then try to make the SketchUp view match the film image, if at all possible.
In the case of that particular shot, I either can't get them to match precisely or can't find a precise ISD model . . . I imagine the truth is a mixture of the two, probably mostly the latter, though depending on lens choices the former may also be true. However, roughly speaking, I would guesstimate the Falcon length in that shot to be in the proper 2.175% ISD length range that others have found (e.g. if 35m Falcon, then 1609m ISD). However, more analysis is required.
Are there any other particular shots of interest? I imagine that trying to scale the Falcon in the DS1 bay would be interesting . . . preliminary estimates from past efforts were showing a small Falcon. I'd bet trying to confirm the Tantive IV to ISD scaling would be good, as well.
Thoughts?