Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
The remastering process continues--I've gotten through about half of Scene 2, up to the point where we get the first shot of the Guibert flying into the Utopia Planitia shipyards. I've mentioned that the exterior shots need a lot of work and I wasn't exaggerating--I've got the new scene set up, with the runabout flying past the camera, and I'm filling in the new background detail. About that--along with making sure all the ships are in proper scale, I've taken the time to find new models of some of the starships we saw in drydock, and to re-texture the ones I have, so that overall the scene will look better...and so far the results are FANTASTIC. I'm working on the last one now--swapping out Ed Giddings' version of the Sovereign-class ship with Paul Trenkler's for the close passes, though Ed's will still play the less-detailed background ships. Let me just say, Paul did a FANTASTIC job with his Sovereign, as did Daniel Broadway with his upgraded textures. I'm hopeful to have the Sovereign finished up tonight or tomorrow, at which point I'll be able to start churning out the flythrough of the Utopia Planitia shipyards. Stay tuned!
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Another before-and-after between the original cut and the new one. True, there's less square feet in the new version of the cockpit, but the shots are coming out MUCH better than the originals ever could have. The editing is snappier this time too--the original version followed by 2008-era workflow, where one line pretty much equaled one cut. The nice thing about working with modern tools (including Ken Kawashima's batch Poser script and AfterEffects) is that it's FAR easier to have multiple angles of the same lines, which in turn allows me a lot more freedom in when to change shots. The toughest part to this process is figuring out where a simple cut will do, versus where to use more elaborate shot blocking (i.e. rack focus, a zoom, a pan, and so forth).
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Before and after--first glimpse at the new remastered version of Scene 2, with an all-new cockpit and (even though it's not visible in these shots) a brand-new Voyager PADD, made by "Crazy Canadian" and available over at SketchFab. Now that production is finally underway on the new version of the scene...hopefully we'll make progress fast!
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And just like that...the first remastered set is done! Built to exacting specifications, as accurate as humanly possible to the actual filming set, based on screenshots from TrekCore and blueprints courtesy of Red General. I decided to forego the graphics tape that they had in "Timescape" and just stick with the DS9 configuration, but honestly I don't think we'd miss it. Now the next challenge is to touch up all the animations for Scene 2 to account for the dimensions of this version of the set, versus the older one...but that's an easy challenge compared to re-building the set! Still a lot of work to be done for Scene 2 itself, new background plates and character animations to be done, plus of course we'll have to completely re-build and re-render the Utopia Planitia flythrough, but when it's all said and done it'll be worth it!
#StarTrekIVRemastered
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Getting there! Transporter is fully modeled and textured now (you wouldn't believe how hard it was to make that ambience map on the wall look like it was backed by a bunch of fluorescent tubes like the actual set was, but the result was WELL worth it). Upper display on the corner workstation is fixed, and lots of other small details are present now (the "notch" in the walls by the rear and side doors, for instance, or the small keypads everywhere). All that's left is to do the interface panel between the pilot and copilot, the shutters on the side windows (in progress now in another scene), and the lights above the corner workstations.
(A note about that last: this was something that I only noticed was present day before yesterday, but it's true: in a few select episodes, the camera was shooting "up" into that corner, and you can see that there's actually a light built into the set there; obviously we can see that corner is illuminated in multiple episodes, but I always thought it was a non-permanent light--I spotted it in screenshots from "Valiant," "Penumbra," and "Non Sequitor"--a shot in "Accession" shows that it wasn't added until after the runabout cockpit was rebuilt, and in a lot of episodes the light is just off, making that corner too dark to see anything)
It's one of those tiny little details that you wouldn't notice until you really start looking, but mine is going to have the corner lights and they WILL be illuminated. Gotta love the details!
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HUGE progress on this--still need to add the grab bars on the transporter, but other than that I think the physical modeling is pretty much done. I do think the upper display on the corner workstation is tilted too far toward the pilot, but I'll fix that later. ALMOST ready to start using this beauty!!!
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Made a LOT of progress yesterday, some of these LCARS panels are textured and some of them are modeled (the "dashboard" has the black glass surface modeled, but the bottom keyboard and the middle and bottom sections of the corner workstation are textured), but still, this set is coming together VERY nicely. If you're wondering the runabout LCARS textures are courtesy of David Kleist (also known as Deif), and they look TERRIFIC on this new and improved set. I still have to model the black glass for the three remaining keyboards, and then mirror this to the starboard side, but after that it's just light cleanup work. I still haven't quite decided if I want to add the TNG-specific touches or not (leaning against it for now), but that's a decision for another time. I've already used this partial build to start blocking shots for the revised Poser version of the scene, looks like there will be a few challenges to this one since this set is narrower than the one I've been using (I'll post a side-by-side comparison once this set is finished so you can see how radically different in proportion they really were), and Reyf's pacing will have to be a more back-and-forth affair than it was before--but on the other hand some of the other shots I did with the original version of the set will not only look better now, they'll be easier to block.
So all in all, it's definitely time and effort well-spent.
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Fixed that pesky issue with the forward arch, and now working more on the flight consoles. The ones we saw on TV had a slight slope to them towards the operator, but it was only a few degrees, and since that introduces a level of complexity that I don't have enough Excedrin to handle, I'm making all of mine flat, level with the floor. It's an acceptable compromise to my mind given that the cockpit will only be seen once (maybe twice depending on how I round out the epilogue sequence).
(It also doesn't hurt that the official replicas of the TNG corridors for "These Are the Voyages" and the 1701-D bridge for Picard season 3 were as shoddy as they were...sorry but as glad as I was to see them again, they only superficially resembled the real ones...I figure if the pros can get away with that, I can tweak this to make it a touch easier to build)
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One other thing I've been doing in the background is continuing to tweak the recreated TNG-style opening. The latest thing was to add some bright streaks to the fast-flyby shots, which I always interpreted as showing the Enterprise at warp (this also evokes the DS9 opening sequence, when the runabout flies close to the camera and the glow of the warp engines overpowers the image). It looks TERRIFIC when you see it in motion. I'm still tweaking the "to boldly go" animation (as I call it) that accompanies Patrick Stewart's narration, but for the moment I've been able to resist the urge to re-create the solar system flythrough (though I BADLY want to).
The runabout cockpit is coming along nicely--I've got the corner workstations in place, and now realistically all that's left is to start filling in a bunch of the small details I've been overlooking and perfect the lighting. I can hardly wait to put this new version of the set into use, in part because unlike the old version, this new one is built exactly like the real standing set was (meaning, wild walls) and will not only LOOK better, but will also be easier to shoot with.
I've also managed to get hold of some proper "runabout cockpit" chairs, which fit much better than the shuttlecraft chairs I had been using. All in all things are really looking up for the remastered version of Scene 2!
#StarTrekIVRemastered
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Not bad for a day's work. Got the aft consoles modeled, and now working on the forward flight consoles. Something's clearly up with the geometry of the left-right arches, since the one at the front of the cockpit isn't lining up with the front-back one, but that'll keep for now. Now that the basic structure is together, I'm sorely tempted to start re-working the animations for Scene 2 to work with the new version of the set, even if I'll have to redo the background plates once the set is finished. Decisions, decisions!
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Guests, gaffes, and good times--that's what you'll find here! I'm a freelance graphic designer, video creator, and podcaster that enjoys a lot of different topics, and this is the one place where I can bring them all together. We do a little bit of everything here, including gaming, technology, current events, and even the occasional podcast episode (sometimes live!). If you like what you see, feel free to like and subscribe!
All of my work is dedicated to the memory of Jessica Lee Faulkner (1985-2004). RIP Jessie.