The Creation Process of the TCS Tiger’s Claw
I had taken a long break from 3D modeling due to several reasons (getting married was the biggest though!) but I finally got a chance to spend some time on my computer to start a new project. I thought the perfect candidate would be the old familiar friend, the Bengal Class Carrier from Wing Commander I. It took me a long while but not nearly as long as I could have spent on it. Technically speaking, its still not done but its about as done as I’ll ever get it. I started out using the simplified blue prints from publication “Claw Marks” which came with the Wing Commander I game. Claw Marks was one of the neatest game manuals I ever read as a kid, with useful tidbits and fictional history and anecdotes sprinkled throughout its hallowed pages.
Stage 1 – Basic Shape
I started out with a basic box form for the hull. Modelling and shaping the box into the basic form.
I apologize for the lighting scheme in the first picture, I didn’t quite have my setup right. I still don’t have a lighting scene that I’m 100% satisfied with. I guess I’ll work on that more in the future. Later on I did find an ambient setting that worked fairly well at some angles. Anyway, back to the modeling process. This is the first time I’ve ever really documented my creation process. Usually I just start a project and don’t ever save any test renders until I’m pretty much finished with it. Now before I go much further I have to point out that my time at www.scifi-meshes.com really did a lot to enhance and improve my creation process. By viewing the amazing work of other talented artists like Howie Day and CoolHand_Luke and others I found inspiration to take my modeling up to another level. I’m still not anywhere near the talent of those artists but I have definitely improved from where I was previously.
Ok, back to the story again. As you can see I started with a basic form. What I did with the Clawmarks diagrams was I created two planes and then mapped the side diagram to one and the up/down diagram to the other and then stacked them convexly. Using this I was able to mold my shapes from the side and from the top. Its the most scientific method I could think of to model this correctly. Unfortunately, I found that not everything matched up between the two diagrams. I can’t think of exactly what didn’t match up right now but there were a couple of minor things that I couldn’t get to correspond to the two diagrams.
A little bit later in the process, most of the basic form of the Carrier is here. At this point the shape is about as correct as I can make it.
The basic form of the Tiger’s Claw is fairly easy. Its mostly boxy (thanks to the limited technology available to the original designers of the Wing Commander I ships). I personally like the boxy look to a spaceship but that’s just a personal opinion. I definitely feel that the ships from Wing Commander I were the best designs from the entire series. A little bit of history here, in Wing Commander 2 the ship designs got a lot less blocky due to the more advanced designing technology that created the sprites for the game but when Wing Commander 3 came out, the designs once again reverted to a much more boxey appearance. This was not because of the design software but a conscious decision to help ease the load on the actual game engine since the engine actually used 3d Models.
Stage 2 – Details
After molding the basic form of the Tiger’s Claw I decided to start adding details. It was in the details that I began taking my artistic liberty. There have been many meshes of the Tiger’s Claw over the past decade, mine was not much different at this point from anyone else’s. In the details and “greebling” I was going to make mine consciously different while retaining the same unique
I modelled a new laser turet that hopefully adhered to the basic design of the models in Wing Commander I.
basic form of the Bengal Class Carrier. I modelled a twin laser turret to place at the indicated points aboard the Carrier. Slowly, it began to take its current shape. Since I didn’t have any detailed pictures of the laser turrets from Wing Commander I I had to pretty much design it from scratch. All I had to work with was the basic vector outline from the Claw Mark’s spec sheet. I kept the bubble or spherical design with twin small laser barrels protruding forward. I included a glass viewing portal because I was unsure as to whether the turrets on the capital ships were actually manned or part of some sort of computerized defense grid. Perhaps someone could confirm that? The little wing thingies (I guess it looks sort of like a Tie Fighter panel) on the sides are merely there to support the center axle between them that allows the turret to rotate 180 degrees vertically while the base features a full 360 degree twisting action. Probably not my best design ever but I’ve definitely done worse.
After adding the turrets to the Claw, I needed to add the flight deck and Hangar bay. I also added some rear girders to the back section for structural integrity. This element borrows some design decisions from the New Battlestar Galactica series. The side vent tubes feature prominently on both sides. Although you can’t probably see it from this angle, I have not added the underside to the bridge as indicated in the diagrams yet. I did add that later though when the model was nearing completion.
Basic Claw Model with Side Launching tubes, turrets and rear girder installed.
Again, at this point it still very much resembles the original Tiger’s Claw although the rear section does look quite a bit different from the model we all know and love from the original Wing Commander. Its still a very big and very blocky looking ship…in other words, still beautiful. 
Now look at the pieces I added to the flight deck. The biggest additions was the forward observation decks that look straight down the runway. I thought it added a little bit to the otherwise barren straight shoot into the hangar bay. I also added some side stations along each “wall” however I later took these out based on feedback from friends at www.scifi-meshes.com and also because I found them distracting and unnecessary.
A lot more detail here, some cutouts for detail, more work around the conning tower.
Next I finished adding the rest of the turrets and many more details. Notice the turret cluster in the rear, straight from the diagrams. The addition of three circular venting ports between them and the forward/rear turret is new. The back deck of lights is new. Two large escape pods on each side of the Claw has been added. A few other details have been added and some section have been removed. I cut out little sections of the bottom side of the runway to add some definition and add more exposed girders. The side decks on the runway are still here in this picture but would later be removed. I hadn’t mentioned this before but I am using an ambient light setup combined with a cartoon type render. I found the cartoon render to be especially appealing since I had always thought that Wing Commander I played a lot like an interactive cartoon. The film strips were all definitely reminders of TV cartoon animation and the ship designs seemed to follow suit with their bright colors and bold boxy lines.
I was now starting to enter the end game of my Bengal design. Lots of details now went in. I finally installed the engines in the back, put some decks on the wings and created some forward firing torpedo tubes underneath them.
The Bengal Carrier nearing completion as a 3d Mesh.
I finally removed the side decks on the runway to keep it cleaner. Cut away sections of the wings to expose more girders as well as on the forward “mini” wings near the mid section. I added some deck lighting and the turrets to the under arms of the carrier and fleshed those out a bit further. At this point the ship is looking pretty complete at least as far as the basic mesh goes.
I’m not exactly sure how much time I’ve spent on the carrier at this point, probably about 4 hours would be my guess but that’s just an estimate. It might be less or it might be more. I also modelled the interior of the hangar bay which is not visible from the screenshots that I have. What’s really about the girders and for the interior of the Hangar bay is the duplicate function. You can design a well detailed girder or support structure and duplicate in a line to make the entire area look fleshed out in full detail. Time now to move on to the texturing piece of the mesh.
Stage 3 – Texturing
The Bengal Class Carrier with basic textures assigned and rendered in a cartoon filter.
Finally it was time to add the textures. I’ve never been particularly good at textures and I didn’t do that great at this one. I did however improve a little bit. The cartoon filter helps but my textures for this ship was also cartoonish on purpose. I again wanted to recreate the look of Wing Commander I, which probably in some ways is pretty much an oxymoron since I designed the mesh with a modern look. I know, I don’t always make sense. Anyway, this is pretty much it. I leave with a final shot from the rear of the Carrier.
Final Shot of my Bengal Class Carrier with the five rear engines glowing. Ready for Action, sir!
