Paul Dobson
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martocticvs.bsky.social
Paul Dobson
@martocticvs.bsky.social
740 followers 170 following 330 posts
Engineer, modeller. Sometimes I render things

Tools: C4D, Redshift, Substance 3D

Likely to be posting about #3dart, #SciFi, #3dModeling, #NavalHistory, #Space, #StarTrek art

https://www.artstation.com/martocticvs
http://www.youtube.com/@MartocticvsCG
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Paul Dobson
steillustrates.bsky.social
Getting into Star Trek Enterprise again and hitting the heartbreak of there being nothing more after season 4 - are the books any good does anyone know? #startrekenterprise
December 27, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
andrealuck.bsky.social
1/n

2 NEW epic images of Phobos over Mars just released by @esa.int Mars Express

This view is especially striking, with Phobos between the Tharsis volcanoes and Noctis Labyrinthus–Valles Marineris

Full resolution 300MP(!) & info on: flic.kr/p/2rMW4so
Credit: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin/AndreaLuck CC BY 🧪🔭
A wide view of the planet Mars fills the frame, shown as a curved, rust-colored world against black space. The bottom edge fades into darkness, marking the planet’s night side, while the upper portion is brightly lit by sunlight. Near the right side are three large, round volcanic mountains of the Tharsis region, each with a wide circular base and a darker central caldera, resembling shallow craters pressed into the surface. North of these volcanoes, stretching almost vertically across the upper right half of the planet, lies Noctis Labyrinthus and Valles Marineris: an immense system of deep canyons and fractured terrain that appears as pale, branching scars and cracks, partly softened by hazy, cloud-like atmospheric features. Near the center of the image, positioned between the volcanoes and the canyon system, a small dark oval appears against Mars’s surface. This is Phobos, one of Mars’s satellites. Its tiny size stands out sharply against the vast scale of the planet below.
December 21, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
drnereide.bsky.social
Admire this fantastic pic, dominated by the diffuse blue light of the M78 nebula.

Igor Chekalin, by processing the raw data for the original image uncovered in ESO's archives, claimed first prize in the ESO's Hidden Treasures 2010 contest with his final work.

➡️ www.eso.org/public/news/...

🔭 🧪 1/9
Picture a deep dark sky, where a vast, intense deep-blue cloud with two main luminous lobes stands out. Right in the middle two sharp white stars shine, throwing their light onto the dust around them so everything turns that soft milky blue. A wide, dark dusty streak runs diagonally from the top-left corner down to the bottom-right, cutting the view in two and blocking the stars behind it.Down near the lower-right edge there’s a sudden bright patch shaped like an open fan, glowing pale pink and white – that’s McNeil’s Nebula, almost like someone suddenly turned on a light inside the cloud. Close by, thin pink curls and little streaks shoot out, the trails left by brand-new stars still buried in their dusty cocoons. Here and there faint warm red spots flicker against all the cool blue, giving the whole thing a quiet, living feeling, like watching a nursery where stars are just waking up.
December 7, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
technouveau.bsky.social
WIP
October 22, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
misterwilde.bsky.social
Enough with the warp jumps. #llap #action #b3d #phaser #galor #cardassians #enterprise #tng #battle #fanart #3dart #startrek #ds9 #dominion
November 10, 2025 at 11:11 AM
martocticvs.bsky.social
And finally, at long last... Bird of Prey modelling is complete*!

Last element to add was the rear ramp, roughly as seen at the end of The Search for Spock. As this was not part of the model, some minor changes were needed.

Originally had it with 2 sections, but added a third to reduce the angle.
Bird of Prey with rear ramp extended - 2-section iteration Closeup of the Bird of Prey's rear ramp - 2-section iteration Tighter closeup of the Bird of Prey's rear ramp plus interior details - these are matched as close as I can to the live action set that was comped into the model footage at the end of The Search for Spock. Bird of Prey's rear ramp extended - 3-section iteration. This is the final form, giving a more comfortable slope angle for the ramp.
November 4, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
robear.bsky.social
An excellent #StarTrek Steamrunner class model and warp effect animation from Japetus Productions - I once did some renders with his Saber class, he is nailing these updates of First Contact ships www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQXi...
Star Trek: Steamrunner class- U.S.S. Appalachia responds to a distress call...
YouTube video by Japetus Productions
www.youtube.com
October 23, 2025 at 2:16 AM
martocticvs.bsky.social
So now the Klingon Bird of Prey's landing gear is fully complete. Working out the mechanism for the hatches turned out to be a lot harder than I expected! Very little room left to work with!

Forward ramp also finished. This was included on the studio model, but never seen on screen.

#StarTrek 🖖🖖
WIP render of the Klingon Bird of Prey extending its landing gear. Viewed from underneath, the feet still folded up just emerging from the gear bays. WIP render of the Klingon Bird of Prey, landed. View from ground level astern. WIP render of the Klingon Bird of Prey's main access ramp, which opens facing forwards. This version of the ramp was included on the original studio model, but never seen on screen.
October 22, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
esa.int
Congestion and pollution in Earth orbit is quickly getting worse. We need to be able to quantify how our behaviour will impact the orbital environment in the future...
Sounding the alarm: ESA introduces space environment ‘health index’
The congestion and pollution of Earth orbit is quickly getting worse. We need to be able to quantify how our behaviour impacts the orbital environment in the future. To this end, the European Space Ag...
www.esa.int
October 22, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
robear.bsky.social
Little bit more progress on the rear hull of the Miranda class. This is the total surface area that I need for my planned render- just have to detail the crap out of it (and do an equally detailed rollbar going overhead.
A 3D render of the rear top section of a Miranda class ship from Star Trek. Some parts are very detailed, with modeled panel lines. Other parts have no details at all. There are no textures yet, just solid colors.
October 11, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
misterwilde.bsky.social
And there it is.
youtu.be/ltrNTAGIRaM
#startrek #warp #vfx #b3d #tng #tmp #fanart #3dart #art #noAI #enterprise #enterprise-e #sovereign #llap #trek #3d #wip #animation
October 8, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
howieeday.bsky.social
Lots of updates - Timing adjustments, Sparks and flame improvements, I added more debris, and debris/shield interactions, as well as adding Romulan Disruptor fire and SOUNDS! I'm quite happy with how this ended up looking.
September 24, 2025 at 3:26 PM
martocticvs.bsky.social
Bird of Prey feet detail is basically complete now... a few more elements of the landing gear structure to flesh out inside the gear bays... landing ramps to do as well yet. Getting there!

Qa'pla!

🖖🖖

#StarTrek #Klingon #TNG #DS9 #Feet
WIP render of the Klingon Bird of Prey's landing feet WIP render of the Klingon Bird of Prey landed
September 24, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
robear.bsky.social
Asking for a friend... anyone ever seen nice high res versions of any of these photos of the large Jem'hadar fighter studio model from Star Trek Deep Space 9? This image is from a ~20 year old auction, but presumably they were not the only copies. @portalrealm.bsky.social
A photo of an assortment of photographs of the large Jem'hadar fighter studio model from Deep Space 9
September 19, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
diogovincenzi.bsky.social
Trying out Embergen www.artstation.com/artwork/eRyVB3 #startrek #llap #starship #scifi #ussatlantis #vfx
USS Atlantis flying through explosion, Diogo Vincenzi
Started to learn Embergen and this was the result of some experimentation of having my ship fly through an explosion. My models are too heavy to sim with so I built a basic shell around it to act as m...
www.artstation.com
September 16, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
howieeday.bsky.social
Star Trek short shot Update: Tons of improvements on this one - added sparks, debris, flame, tuned the animation, and a bunch of other stuff. Making progress, my estimate is about 80% done with the visuals! (Low sample WIP)
September 14, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
robear.bsky.social
Render of my old realtime Zerg Hydralisk model from a few years ago, based mostly on the version from the original #StarCraft. #fanart #3d
A 3D render of the Zerg Hydralisk from StarCraft on a gradient background. The Hydralisk is an odd alien with a stance somewhat like a displaying cobra, with a long slug-like tail, large belly scales, an oddly low Gigeresque ribcage, a muscular humanoid torso with large arms ending in scythe-like single claws, and a long neck covered in brown stripey triangular overhanging carapace, with a somewhat human skull-like shiny brown face with inner and outer mandibles with sharp teeth.
September 13, 2025 at 3:57 PM
martocticvs.bsky.social
With the main modelling basically finished on the Bird of Prey, I turned attention to the landing gear. Refs for this are few and of poor quality, but I decided in advance I would only do it if I could find a way to make it work and fit inside the ship. So... here is Iteration #10!

🖖🖖

#StarTrek
September 13, 2025 at 1:26 PM
martocticvs.bsky.social
For a Bird of Prey to represent HMS Bounty from The Voyage Home, you have to add this stupid extra thing to the bottom of the hull. It blocks the hatches the landing gear and access ramps come out from...

This was visible on every shot of the model in TVH. But thankfully never seen again! 🖖🖖
WIP render of the Klingon Bird of Prey. View from underneath, slightly forward. Looking at the stupid extra lump added to the bottom of the model for Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home WIP render of the Klingon Bird of Prey. View from underneath, slightly aft. Looking at the stupid extra lump added to the bottom of the model for Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home
August 23, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
thomasthecat.bsky.social
Using AI for concept art is like: “I want to come up with something no-one has ever seen before, so I’m going to use this machine that can only regurgitate existing stuff after blending it into a lumpy paste.”
brunodias.bsky.social Bruno Dias @brunodias.bsky.social · Aug 23
The "using AI to generate concept art early in the process to quickly iterate ideas" thing is so absurd to me because like. You don't know what concept art is. You don't know what concept art *does*.
August 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM
martocticvs.bsky.social
Here are a few more renders of how the Bird of Prey is looking right now...

Does anyone know when the extra panels were added to the top of the wing, between the 'pyramid' and the raised ridge? I'm thinking maybe for Generations, but maybe it was earlier, when they were removing the.. 1/2 🧵
WIP render of the Klingon Bird of Prey. View from above and behind. Wings in attack position WIP render of the Klingon Bird of Prey. View from below and behind. Wings in cruise position. WIP render of the Klingon Bird of Prey. View from the starboard beam. Wings in attack position. WIP render of the Klingon Bird of Prey. Closeup view of the extra panels that were added to the studio model either for Star Trek 6 or Star Trek Generations, between the 'pyramid' and the raised ridge separating the main wing panels from the previously plain rear inboard area. The panels were added to the top surface only.
August 19, 2025 at 6:31 PM
martocticvs.bsky.social
#Klingon Bird of Prey progress! First detail pass modelling finally complete! Still some alternate version stuff to add, maybe try the landing gear too...

Feels like a milestone has been reached!

#StarTrek #BirdofPrey #LLAP #IDIC
Klingon Bird of Prey WIP model render, from port bow. Wings in Cruise configuration. Klingon Bird of Prey WIP model render. View from ahead and below, wings in landing configuration. Klingon Bird of Prey WIP model render. View from above starboard bow. Wings in cruise configuration. Klingon Bird of Prey WIP model render. View from port wing. Wings in attack configuration. Closeup on port disruptor cannon.
August 15, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
skylargrayson.bsky.social
Your daily dose of cosmic perspective… 🔭🧪
August 14, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
portalrealm.bsky.social
For some amazing renders of this ship by Lewis Niven, see his artstation page
www.artstation.com/artwork/QK8W...
August 12, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Paul Dobson
portalrealm.bsky.social
Fan animation by Lewis Niven - a recreation of the opening shots of "The Return of The Archons" in CGI whilst keeping the look and feel of the original
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR8g...
Modern CGI Meets Classic Star Trek TOS
YouTube video by Lewis Niven
www.youtube.com
August 11, 2025 at 2:14 PM