posted
Oops, thought I was posting this in ships/tech. Can it get moved over?
I didn't see mention of it anywhere, here so in case anybody is interested, Andy Probert is at last updating his website with a lot of new stuff on TMP (mostly placemarks, but two new sections are already up on the TMP ENT cargo deck and the vulcan shuttle.)
There are tidbits of interest that show how Probert thought the cargo bay and engineering fit into the ship, though he does not name the 'designer' who proposed a 30 foot+ tall window in the side of the engineering hull.
-------------------- Achievement is its own reward; pride obscures it.
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Great stuff. It's nice to get a little insight into the cargo bay's design, I never even noticed that big door before. Also good to get a little insight into the lifeboat arrangements.
posted
Seeing that cargo bay stuff again reminds me of one of my big complaints with the Trek TV shows, inasmuch as they're go on for years and yet we'll NEVER see some parts of the ships. For example, in seven years the 1701-D main shuttlebay was NEVER shown (yes, I show we saw a teensy bit of it in Cause and Effect). Instead, we get dozens of forgettable matte shots of alien planets and so forth. I'd much rather see a new area of the ship than yet another alien city du jour.
-------------------- "Well, I mean, it's generally understood that, of all of the people in the world, Mike Nelson is the best." -- ULTRA MAGNUS, steadfast in curmudgeon
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
I don't really see how it could be pulled off, though, not in a way that would make me personally happy. Matte paintings would leave me cold.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Sol System: I don't really see how it could be pulled off, though, not in a way that would make me personally happy. Matte paintings would leave me cold.
Matte paintings are no more bothersome to me than any other visual effects shot. They're no faker than a phaser beam or a viewscreen. I'm glad they did the cargo deck mattes in TMP for that reason.
-------------------- "Well, I mean, it's generally understood that, of all of the people in the world, Mike Nelson is the best." -- ULTRA MAGNUS, steadfast in curmudgeon
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Wow, that first pic on the sketching of the Vulcan shuttle shows lines similar to the Romulan Warbird...
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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-------------------- joH'a' 'oH wIj DevwI' jIH DIchDaq Hutlh pagh (some days it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps in the morning) The Woozle!
Registered: Nov 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Sol System: I don't really see how it could be pulled off, though, not in a way that would make me personally happy. Matte paintings would leave me cold.
Depends on if the shot is well-laid out during the live-action and if the painter has time to refine it. There are a lot of bad paintings in TMP, but I think most of that is time related, since most of the stuff primary Trek matte painter Matt Yuricich painted for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS is nearly undetectible.
The painting that most blow me away is the side view of the Enterprise top dish and nacelle as Spock's shuttle does the flipover prior to docking. I had no idea that was a painting until reading about it from artist Rocco Gioffre (think it was Cinefex 11 or 12, whichever one talks about DreamQuest's formation.) Apparently they couldn't hold depth of field on the miniature for that shot, so he painted it. I guess they did a multiplane kind of thing, since there is apparent perspective change or at least a bit of movement on the nacelle as the shot goes on.
I think the TMP cargo deck would have benefitted from a large miniature ... the painted foreground aspects (2nd floor walkway and lift tube) looked BAD in the theatre and even worse on LD/DVD. They could have incorporated lighting effects further back in the shuttle bay part to liven things up as well.
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Wow. The development of the long-range shuttle is quite interesting. Loks like he intended it to be much more TOS-ish in the beginning. The two first sketches almost look like they have been made by Matt Jefferies.
-------------------- Bernd Schneider
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Pretty neat stuff! I didn't realize that the Vulcan shuttle was so mauve! The optical composition process sure changed the color of the vehicle and almost made it look tan or sandy brown.
Registered: Jun 2003
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