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Description

Ported to OBJ (finally!!!) from the fantastic low-poly model created by Atrahasis for the Starfleet Command (SFC) series of video games. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. NO MODEL DOWNLOAD.

Maestro, some appropriate music please! (YouTube link)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SKHV-…

Back when Star Wars first hit movie theaters in 1977, it caused such a major impact on the media industry on both sides of the big screen that its echoes are still resounding today. Of course, whenever one of the studios has a big hit movie, many of the others both big and small immediately try to duplicate their success. Battlestar Galactica was one of the better things to come out of that, for example, and the Alien franchise might not have ever gotten off the ground had it not been for the success of Star Wars. Most of the time it was crud like Starcrash, but mostly it was a lot of mundane but still somewhat interesting stuff such as Battle Beyond the Stars, The Ice Pirates and so on. One of the more notable attempts to cash in on the success of Star Wars back then was Disney's The Black Hole. It seemingly had everything going for it. Great spaceship design, in particular the long-lost stellar explorer USS Cygnus as pictured above. It had robots -- oh, did it have robots (!), and some of them, in particular V.I.N.C.E.N.T. and Maximillian, still rank as some of the best sci-fi robots yet to hit the silver screen. It had a fantastic soundtrack composed by John Barry, who's better known for all his work with the James Bond franchise. It had an all-star cast, featuring the likes of Anthony Perkins (Psycho), Yvette Mimeux (The Time Machine), Ernest Borgnine (McHale's Navy, Airwolf), Roddy McDowell (voicing V.I.N.C.E.N.T.), Slim Pickens (voicing B.O.B.), and so on. It even had a crazed villain in the form of Dr. Reinhardt as wonderfully portrayed by the great Maximillian Schell (Judgement at Nuremburg). It had special effects to rival Star Wars itself. It was also Disney's first ever movie with openly mature themes, given its dark plot, and the first time you ever heard Disney characters use profanity (for which it got Disney's first-ever PG rating). It even had an interesting plot that was part Poseideon Adventure and part Ten Little Indians, both wrapped in a gothic sci-fi envelope to boot. What it didn't have was a consistent tone, heroic characters who connected with the audience and thus came across as uninteresting and dull, with way too much of the robots and their antics and not enough of both the other characters and its rather dark plot. It also had an ending that was ... well ... uhhhmmm ... it has to be seen to be believed. Like David Lynch's version of Dune that would come out some years later, the best way to describe The Black Hole is as a fascinating mess. You need to watch it at least once from start to finish because the visual spectacle alone that it serves you is worth it, believe me, but once you're done you probably won't want to watch it again. Disney spent a ton of money making it, it promptly bombed at the box office (it eventually cleared its cost but it took a while), and it would be a long time before Disney ever attempted anything like it again. Of course decades later they bought the Star Wars franchise from George Lucas, so there's you ironic twist ending to this particular tale.

Many years ago Atrahasis did a wonderful low-poly CG model of The Black Hole's main starship, the lost stellar explorer USS Cygnus, and I've finally been able to port it after multiple failed efforts over the past few years. This model is so good that most folks can't tell it's low poly until you get up close. Of course there's better Cygnus CG models out there now with all the ultra-high poly wonderfulness most young pups expect these day, but Atra's Cygnus works just fine for me. It's a fitting testament to a Western sci-fi classic that might have been a great movie were it not for its flaws, but still ended up being a very interesting one all the same.

If you want to port this yourself ... well ... you figure it out. If you can't or are too lazy, there are other Cygnus CG models out there. Knock yourself out.

Description

Ported to OBJ (finally!!!) from the fantastic low-poly model created by Atrahasis for the Starfleet Command (SFC) series of video games. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. NO MODEL DOWNLOAD.

Maestro, some appropriate music please! (YouTube link)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SKHV-…

Back when Star Wars first hit movie theaters in 1977, it caused such a major impact on the media industry on both sides of the big screen that its echoes are still resounding today. Of course, whenever one of the studios has a big hit movie, many of the others both big and small immediately try to duplicate their success. Battlestar Galactica was one of the better things to come out of that, for example, and the Alien franchise might not have ever gotten off the ground had it not been for the success of Star Wars. Most of the time it was crud like Starcrash, but mostly it was a lot of mundane but still somewhat interesting stuff such as Battle Beyond the Stars, The Ice Pirates and so on. One of the more notable attempts to cash in on the success of Star Wars back then was Disney's The Black Hole. It seemingly had everything going for it. Great spaceship design, in particular the long-lost stellar explorer USS Cygnus as pictured above. It had robots -- oh, did it have robots (!), and some of them, in particular V.I.N.C.E.N.T. and Maximillian, still rank as some of the best sci-fi robots yet to hit the silver screen. It had a fantastic soundtrack composed by John Barry, who's better known for all his work with the James Bond franchise. It had an all-star cast, featuring the likes of Anthony Perkins (Psycho), Yvette Mimeux (The Time Machine), Ernest Borgnine (McHale's Navy, Airwolf), Roddy McDowell (voicing V.I.N.C.E.N.T.), Slim Pickens (voicing B.O.B.), and so on. It even had a crazed villain in the form of Dr. Reinhardt as wonderfully portrayed by the great Maximillian Schell (Judgement at Nuremburg). It had special effects to rival Star Wars itself. It was also Disney's first ever movie with openly mature themes, given its dark plot, and the first time you ever heard Disney characters use profanity (for which it got Disney's first-ever PG rating). It even had an interesting plot that was part Poseideon Adventure and part Ten Little Indians, both wrapped in a gothic sci-fi envelope to boot. What it didn't have was a consistent tone, heroic characters who connected with the audience and thus came across as uninteresting and dull, with way too much of the robots and their antics and not enough of both the other characters and its rather dark plot. It also had an ending that was ... well ... uhhhmmm ... it has to be seen to be believed. Like David Lynch's version of Dune that would come out some years later, the best way to describe The Black Hole is as a fascinating mess. You need to watch it at least once from start to finish because the visual spectacle alone that it serves you is worth it, believe me, but once you're done you probably won't want to watch it again. Disney spent a ton of money making it, it promptly bombed at the box office (it eventually cleared its cost but it took a while), and it would be a long time before Disney ever attempted anything like it again. Of course decades later they bought the Star Wars franchise from George Lucas, so there's you ironic twist ending to this particular tale.

Many years ago Atrahasis did a wonderful low-poly CG model of The Black Hole's main starship, the lost stellar explorer USS Cygnus, and I've finally been able to port it after multiple failed efforts over the past few years. This model is so good that most folks can't tell it's low poly until you get up close. Of course there's better Cygnus CG models out there now with all the ultra-high poly wonderfulness most young pups expect these day, but Atra's Cygnus works just fine for me. It's a fitting testament to a Western sci-fi classic that might have been a great movie were it not for its flaws, but still ended up being a very interesting one all the same.

If you want to port this yourself ... well ... you figure it out. If you can't or are too lazy, there are other Cygnus CG models out there. Knock yourself out.