Just as the header asks, "Who wants a free TARDIS console?" Well, I'm sure the Doctor would. Get it? "Who" wants a free TARDIS console? "Who" as in "Doctor Who"? Ahem, er, yes, well... As some of you may know, I uploaded a free face pose (.fc2) file turning Capsces' "Boris" for Michael figure into Davros, creator of the Daleks. I'm pleasantly surprised how popular it's been, over 350 downloads, considering what an ugly puss he has. Those numbers give me the impression that users might like some other Poser items. To accompany the face pose for Davros, I am currently modeling his life-support chair. I had put that project aside because I could never get it to render worth a darn within Poser. Last week I purchased UV Mapper Pro from Steve Cox, processed my WIP with his utility and rendered the chair with both its sharp edges and smooth surfaces within Poser 4. Now that I can achieve the look I want, I have started to add the last components. I don't know when I will complete it, but when I do, I will offer it to the Poser community, for free, of course. I see that one one can already download a Dalek, a TARDIS, K-9, Tom Baker's scarf, even a sonic screwdriver. It seems the next logical item would be the famous hexagonal console with the glass column. My question to you, the fans, is which console should I model? One can reasonably debate that the production crew constantly altered the prop through the years, that there was no single design. True, various knobs, dials and readouts were constantly added or removed each series, but one can divide the eras into five major chassis, the so-called original, starting with "An Unearthly Child" and used through the earlier Tom Baker series. Then came the vintage wooden "writing pedestal" debuted in the "Mask of Mandragura". That prop and set was damaged so we returned to the classic motif, though it was a new prop (but suffering from a rush assembly). With the "Five Doctors" the console entered the early PC era with three video monitors and countless keyboards. Some fans endearingly call it the "blinking mushroom of death!" This one remained for the rest of the show's run. Last was the once used "steampunk" Victorian engine displayed in the controversial Fox tele-movie. With respect, don't say, "Build all five!" I'm rather new to the concept of content provider, so vote for the console you desire the most. Later, I might attempt to build others. You can help in this endeavor besides simply voting. If any of you can provide me with links to images or, better yet, diagrams of the TARDIS' consoles and control rooms, that would help a great deal. I have been able to construct my Davros chair using the plans printed within the children's book "The Doctor Who Technical Manual" but I know they simplified things. In fact, some the vectors did not align between the right and left sides, so I had to average them. I'm sure the Baker era "classic" console suffers similar innaccuracies. A little disclaimer, whatever I do construct, I'm not going to become so anal as to be precise to the final millimeter. You will not want to construct a life-size prop from my wireframes. However, I do want to be reasonably faithful to the concept. I will appreciate your feedback. Sincerely, Bill

hmm..got to see the 'actual' version in a sci-fi show in the 80's..the buttons were all off of old selectrics and punch card machines..;) I've seen a render or two here of the Tardis inner room..the only one I remember I swear had some sort of pistons going up and down in the center, but I haven't seen the show in 20 years..;) Make whatever works for you..I was considering the same, but I think you have the better chops..;) go for it..and we'll take whatever you come up with..

You are correct, every version except for the "writing desk" had a transparent cylinder that "bobbed" up and down as the TARDIS traveled through the "temporal vortex". The first one that William Hartnell operated had various transulcent and shiny gizmos that slowly rotated. By the time of Tom Baker's era, the "budget" console had three tinted flourescent tubes linked by plastic rings and disks within the column. The "blinking mushroom of death" used transparent plastic spires illuminated from below the column within the console. The "Fox" console, if nothing else, had a beautifully elegant column. It had two separate upper and lower sections, the upper part supported by huge cross sectioned iron girders. Er, that was not the elegant part. What looked interesting was the way a ring of glowing rods interlocked like fingers with the other section, constantly opening and closing as the TARDIS traveled through time. The "bobbing" column is a signature element of the console. It is the one part I will make sure CAN be morphed for animation. Sincerely, Bill

Sounds interesting...I think I'd like one.

Okay, Cedarwolf, but do you have a preference? Do you want: the Hartnell "classic" ...or... the Victorian "writing desk" ...or... Tom Baker's "budget" classic ...or... the "Five Doctors" "blinking mushroom of death" ...or... the Fox movie "steampunk" version? Sincerely, Bill

Tom Baker WAS the Doctor. The classic in all it's "Lost in Space" glory works for me.

Yeah, I was formally introduced to "Doctor Who" with episode 1 of "Robot", Tom Baker's debut. Like one's first automobile, a "Whovian" usually has an affinity for the first Doctor he or she sees. So, yeah, I can relate. Ironically, viewers never saw the interior of the TARDIS during Baker's first season, er, I mean "series" as they say on the BBC. Sincerely, Bill

Er, steampunk? I never saw the movie...didn't know there was one. I live in a rather rural area and just got satelite tv a few months ago. Previously we were restricted to one main channel and PBS because we live in the bottom of a valley. When I was in the Navy in the early seventies I remember being stationed in Naples and getting to see the Doctor five times a day in five different languages...that was very cool. Baker is the Dr. I remember best, but any version you want to produce, I'll be thrilled to have.

I was a viewer and a fan from Day One, but Baker was the definitive Doctor. I'd be happy for any version of the console, but what I'd like most of all is a posable Dalek. :)

Okay, CedarWolf, since you enjoy Baker the most (I assume you mean Tom as opposed to Colin Baker, the 6th Doctor), I'll mark you down for the "budget" classic. There's not that much difference between it and Hartnell's console, mainly an issue of quality. The Fox movie originally aired in the mid '90s with Paul McGann (the surgeon from Alien 3) as the Doctor. Most fans liked his portrayal, but they were less than satisfied with the overall story. Usual complaints have been things like "too Earthbound", "too Americanized", etc. Sincerely, Bill

Sam, there IS a posable Dalek. Ther has been for some time. Xonost adapted James Murphy's excellant Dalek mesh into a Poser character file. It can rotate its dome, raise and lower its eyestalk as well as its plunger arm and gun stick. It's only problem has been Poser's smoothing function, trying to shade the "skirt" as if it were a rounded cylindar as opposed to segmented slats. However, this past weekend, I used UV Mapper Pro to split certain vertices and now it looks great! I want to contavt Xonost and see if he will let me provide the updated OBJ file to Poser users. Just check the new UV Mapper forum and find the thread I started. There you can see the "before" and "after" shots. Sincerely, Bill

I have seen that, Bill. It's cool as all hell. :) Hope you get permission from Xonost. I'll be as happy as a big bag of very happy things. :D

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1595880

Well, fudge! I pointed you in the wrong direction, SamTherapy. The thread was right here in the Poser forum. The one in the UV Mapper forum displayed my efforts with James Murphy's B9. Attached is the proper link. Sincerely, Bill

Here's some interesting info from the BBC: The original TARDIS was allegedly borrowed from the BBC series 'Dixon of Dock Green' and used (with many different paint jobs and refinements) right up to the Tom Baker story 'The Seeds of Doom'. After many years of abuse it fell apart, nearly injuring Elizabeth Sladen. The second was commisioned and used to the end of season 17, and the third box was used from Season 18 until the end of season 22. 'The Trial of a Timelord' saw the fourth incarnation which lasted right to the end of the series in 1989. The BBC made several replicas over the years for promotional use, one of which can often be seen in sitting quietly in a prop store at Television Centre. There have been several different versions of the Doctor's console room. The original version was used up to and including 'Pyramids of Mars' (with the exception of a slightly different set used in 'The Time Monster' which proved unpopular and was not used again). The console itself was only used up until 'Inferno' when the Doctor removed it from the TARDIS, trying to avoid blocks on his movement imposed by the Time Lords. 'The Claws of Axos' saw a new console, used until halfway through Tom Baker's time as the Doctor. A wooden, Jules Verne-style console room was used in Season 14. This was not re-used for the following season after it became badly damaged in storage. The old console room was used once again until 'The King's Demons', by which time the console had become battered beyond repair. A new console was commissioned for 'The Five Doctors' and this was used until the show's cancellation. Finally, of course, there was the spectacularly Gothic affair that featured in the TV Movie. However, a recent rumour alleges special effects designers have been spotted measuring police boxes... but sadly it is just a rumour.

Thanks, Daverj! That reads like I wasn't too far off the mark with my assessment. Well, according to that article, I guess we actually have just 4 console designs as opposed to 5. The classic console brought back for series 15 just looked so ramshackled that I assumed it was a "cost effective" copy of the earlier one. So, I guess we have: the "classic" the "Jules Verne" writing pedestal the "blinking mushroom of death" (I love that description!) and the "steampunk" gothic console So far the votes seem in favor of the "classic". But let's wait for some more opinions. Sincerely, Bill

Put me down for the "Clasic" version too sing Tom Baker was the Doctor for 7 years it's the most recognised of all the consoles

Yippee! Finally someone is going to make this item. I was going to try, but I'm not good a modeling at all unless it's made up entirely of primitives. Since I came into the Doctor Who scene with the Tom Baker episodes, I'll vote for the one he used. I still laugh at the version in one of the later episodes where the Doctor (which one was it, I forget) hit his fist on the console and the red ball popped off the lever. Melanie

My vote goes to the original one:

And here are the other ones:

you know... I must be one of the few that likes the Steampunk console... ah well lol I vote for the Jules Verne first, then the Blinking Mushroom of Death.. now...if you could just figure out a Time Station Control Room (Neverland - Big Finish Audio starring the sadly cheated MGann....)

Actually, I have no real issues with the "steampunk"gothic console when considered on its own. I can only assume the producers of the Fox film wanted to project a "Wellsian" (as in H. G. Wells) atmosphere to the decor. The secondary control room with the "Jules Verne" writing pedestal certainly had a 19th century look to it and despite the variety of outfits the Doctor has worn, many fans tend to associate him with the Victorian or Edwardian eras. It's just that the movie set differed so radically from the series that most fans found it hard to accept. I suspect if I had been introduced to "Doctor Who" via the Fox movie and only later saw the earlier series, I might have thought how "rinky dink" the canon sets and props appeared. Khai? Don't get me wrong. Your vote is just as valid, but so far the consensus seems to be in favor of the "classic" console. I'll wait another day or two allowing more people to vote before I commit to any design. Sincerely, Bill P.S. Daverj, thanks for the images! Now readers have visual aids to help them decide.

What's the URL for where those lovely graphics were found, and does anyone know if there's ever been any of the characters from the series done as P4 characters, and where might they be found? For me, they'd have to be free, but it'd be nice to know that someone, somewhere actually made them.

Forgive me if I sound like I'm tooting my own horn (I had a breakfast burrito for breakfast.), but I recently supplied a face pose file (.fc2) to recreate Davros's features. The downside is that one needs to own both Michael and Capsces' "Boris". Sometime during 2000 Cobalt displayed some images of his 4th Doctor using (surprisingly) the Poser 4 male (aka "Dork")! I don't think he ever made his character available to the public, though. Recently, he posted an image depicting the 1st and 8th Doctors shaking hands. They may have been Michael based, but again, he has not offered these characters to the general populace. Xanxost at www.fantasy3d.com "Poser-ized" James Murphy's Mark IV Dalek model into a Poser character (.cr2). I can't track him (or her) down, but the Poser figure, fortunately, IS still available. Tegan_drwho, who looks a little like Janet Fielding herself, has adapted Michael and Victoria to resemble several different Whovian characters. It won't hurt to ask if she's willing to share the .fc2 files. I'm sure Little Dragon can supply more detailed information complete with links. Sincerely, Bill

One of my long-time ambitions has been to create Poser images of all of the eight Doctors and as many of their companions as I could manage, but I've never gotten around to doing it. This thread is really inspiring me to give it a try. It seems like a huge project. Maybe one day I'll give it a try. Someone a short while back (sorry, I forget who) uploaded a Tom Baker scarf to the free stuff and it's in my Poser props, but I haven't actually tried to use it yet. A nice flaired, multicolored coat for the 6th Doctor (Colin Baker) would be great. Any clothes makers out there willing to give that one a try? Melanie

The console pics came from: http://www.doctorwhoworld.org.uk/gallery.html And there is a pic there of the Steampunk console too. The small insert pics of the first doctor that I stuck into that first console pic came from episode summaries at Outpost Gallifrey: http://www.gallifreyone.com/epguide.php

Since no one has stated any preferences since the 7th, I'm going to assume the people who were going to "vote" have done so. Of course, threads get "buried" so darned quickly in the Poser forum, it's hard to gather unbiased data. A "sticky" that would have remained on the first page would have garnered more feedback, but alas, we don't have that option. It seems the majority of you want the classic console. Even though it was technically a second prop built for "Claws of Axos", I consider that one used by Pertwee, Baker and to some extent, Davison, as being the "classic" as well. True, there were slight differences, but not nearly as radical as those fomd on the "writing pedestal", the "blinking mushroom of death" or the "steampunk gothic" console. With that in mind, I've attached a WIP image. This is just the basic shape with no components yet added. Except for the cavity for the Time Rotor (which I "Booleaned"), I created the entire thing by extruding and indenting faces from a single six-sided cylinder. Obviously, I can not use this technique with the levers, switches and buttons. Those I will model separtely and "glue" them to the console's surface. BTW, this is a TrueSpace rendering, not Poser. However, as a quick test, I did import an earlier WIP into Poser after I cycled it through UV Mapper. let me know if you think I should change anything. Sincerely, Bill

Perfect! :) Melanie

Looks Great, Bill, looking forward to seeing your progress on this! Regards- Lemurtek

I kinda' got sidetracked with chores , so I didn't really model anything today. I did try importing the model into Poser, but as I feared, it interpreted the Time Rotor's "well" as a hole in the geometry and "plugged" the darned thing! Fortunately, that was only because I ignored TrueSpace's request to triangulate the model. I tried again, this time answering "yes" before loading it into UV Mapper to split the vertices. From the stippled ground plane, you can tell this is a Poser render asnd it isn't trying to smooth edges that it shouldn't. Yet, the "well" has a softly curving inner surface. Hopefully the controls will look just as decent when I add them. Sincerely, Bill

Attached Link: http://www.mzzkiti.com/Console-1.AVI

For anyone curious, I modeled the Time Rotor, loosely based upon the Baker design, last night and felt compelled to animate it. CAUTION! This clip is 1.7 megabytes. It's just a 2 second (60 frame) cycle, but I notched the compression quality bar to "best". Also, it looks better if you set your player to "repeat". Enjoy! Sincerely, Bill

For those of you who don't want to "fight" with a large download, here's a still shot depicting the Time Rotor at its highest elevation. Sincerely, Bill

Lookin' good Bill! Regards- Lemurtek

Hmm, so I've gone from "Looks great" to merely "Lookin' good." So, that's the way it is, eh, Lemur'?! ;-) Please, I meant that as a joke. I realize you didn't want to simply repeat yourself. On a more prgmatic note, I started modeling the console's details yesterday. Oy, I can see this will take a while. I've yet to finish the first of the six panels. I am trying to keep the poly' count reasonably low. For instance, I'm modeling any illuminated indicators as trapezoidal polyhedrons (slanted cubes) as opposed to hemispheres. Argh! Why couldn't the Doctor have visited the Enterprise-D and adopted the touch sensitive screen technology it used?! Then I could have just created a texture map for each panel. Actually, Chris Sutor modeled a version like that some time ago. Sincerely, Bill

Heh, sorry about the unintedned demotion, Bill! :) Yeah, the devil is in the details, so they say. Does Truespace has displacement maps? I know in Lightwave you animate your displacement map, and save the resultant modified object. Regards- Lemurtek

Alas, no, TrueSpace, even the latest version, 6.6, does not have displacement tools. There is a free plug-in from some Japanes site, but I've never got it to work. Actually, your query has reminded me that UV Mapper Pro can displace an object's actual geometry based upon grayscale images, but one must have a high poly-count to start and it must be triangulated. What I am doing at the moment may be slower, but I have tighter control and the mesh will be far "cleaner". Still, I appreciate the input! Sincerely, Bill

What? No sound on the AVI? hehehe It looks good, great, and cool. And remember, a lot of the controls are repeated, so you shouldn't have to model all that many to fill the panels. Keep up the good work.

On Hartnell's console, that would be true. However, this one is leaning towards Baker's console. You're probably thinking, "In that case, Bill; you're only making it harder for yourself." Because I will model more unique parts and panels, yes, that is true. But the parts I can "clone" for Hartnell's console are levers and knobs, parts I would feel compelled to "rig" for animation. Frankly, I'm not that skilled, yet. Only one obvious lever (I think there are two others, but "low profile") is mounted on Baker's console, the one with the red ball that opens the TARDIS' doors. I think I can create an adequate morph for that (along with the elevating cylinder). This is definitely a learning experience. Sincerely, Bill

Just a "heads up", gang. I probably will not have the opportunity to "detail" the console this weekend or the next. On the 23rd through 25th, I am to assist with the reloaction of our data entry team across town. I knew that was coming. What I did NOT expect was for one of our mid-range computers (AS/400) to suffer a disk crash yesterday. The company did not see it as needed to provide any form of data protection for this particular system, so I receive the, ahem, "opportunity" to restore the entire system from backup tapes, from the licensed internal code all the way to the latest saved changes. This will take anywhere from 24 to 36 hours. ...joy... Sincerely, Bill

Wow, what a nice surprise! :) Anyway, hope it all goes well for you, you probably don't want to here all the horror stories about my attempts with tape backup, do you? :) Good luck, and we'll see ya on the other side! Regards- Lemurtek

Thankfully, the system restore did not take as long as I feared. Thus I had some time today to model the details for one of that console panels. You may recognize the Gallifrey Recall indicator. Heh, I kept my poly-count frugally low with the console frame, but I can see the count going through the roof when these panels are complete. I think the tally for this one section was roughly 1100. I completed another panel last week so I'm a third of the way through. Sincerely, Bill

Looking great! Melanie

Outstanding, Bill! (Is outstanding better than great? :) I believe the good Doctor will be proud! Regards- Lemurtek

The good Doctor will be proud? Which one? I seem to remember one first Doctor wasn't too keen on the "upgrades" the fifth had made during the "Five Doctors". ;-) Or was that the second Doctor complaining about what the third had done during the "Three Doctors"? :- Seriously, thanks for the moral support. It really means a lot. In retrospect, I need not worry about the poly-count, at least not yet. Posette "weighs in" at a little over 16,000 polygons. That's "feather-weight" compared to the Mil' figures. If I can keep the count to an averaged 1,000 per panel, the entire object should have fewer polys than a standard P4 figure. I'll need to recount the console's and the Time Rotor's faces to be sure. In summary, it shouldn't be too bad a resource "hog". Sincerely, Bill

Oh, I meant to ask, does anyone know upon which panel the "Time to Time" locator socket was mounted? I do remember in "The Ribos Operation" it appeared as a simple hole in a panel. I plan to "fake" it with a "washer" type disk. That way I won't need to function a Boolean delete. Models saved as .OBJ do not "like" Boolean functions and will "see" them as holes in the geometry. I had no choice with the "well" for the Time Rotor, but vertices were added to link its rim with other polygons. Funny how one does not consider these issues when one works exclusively within one application. However, when one decides to export, watch out! Sincerely, Bill

Booleans in general can be a real pain, they almost always require clean-up to avoid problems. Yeah, working in multiple apps can be a real education in itself! Regards- Lemurtek

that is looking great!

Bill, there's an easy way to fix the bool prob of ts to poser... look for a toll called Compose... it runs as a Java app that can convert ts3 / 4 cobs to Obj... been testing in a coupla days now and it's very very good... not got the link handy tho :( sorry details from the 'about' Compose 1.1 by John R. Wind - June 1999

Attached Link: http://www.tir.com/~johnwind/Compose11.zip

Compose is a handy tool, every serious Poser creator should have it. Got lots of useful features above and beyond converting .cob. See the link for download. Regards- Lemurtek

Whatever happened to this Project?

Simply put, my real life job (serving as an AS/400 systems engineer) interfered. I use to have co-workers with whom I shared pager and call duty, but those individuals left the organization some time ago. No one else has my experience with those systems, so I handle all cases. I placed this project upon the back burner when things got hectic. When vocational conditions calm, I will resume. Sincerely, Bill

Attached Link: http://www.lostin3d.com/

Fair enough. LOL! Just be sure you let us know when the heat's off so we can preassure you for the freebies again.