Also, I'd like to throw my vote in for an image from Wolf 359 as well - and it's completely possible to do it with existing or easily-modified meshes, without buggering up continuity.

Other things I'd like to see:
TOS ships, including Enterprise, Bird of Prey, Botany Bay, and D7. How about recreating some famous scenes (from different angles) from Space Seed, Enterprise Incident, Trouble with Tribbles, Doomsday Machine (!), The Ultimate Computer, Balance of Terror, Tholian Web, etc.

Movie era ships: Refit Enterprise (shouldn't you have one from ST:TMP Director's cut?), Excelsior, Oberth, Ktinga. Also recreated scenes from movies.

Battle scenes: Please, however, maintain realistic distances between ships. Don't show them firing at 100 yards as on TV. Maybe it's best to show only one ship firing, or on fire, or beat up after a battle. Only battle with realistically close ships is Enterprise vs Reliant from STII.

Ships flying in formation: Perhaps emphasizing the differences in size and era (sort of like seeing a small sailing ship in the foreground and a wall of steel formed by the hull of Titanic in the background) For example, a Constitution class ship flying in formation with a Sovereign. A rationalization for such a combination could celebration of Starfleet Day or maybe the Starfleet Museum.

Ships from the Animated Series (robot cargo ship, USS Huron), Franz Joseph's Starfleet Technical Manual, or the barely seen (in Spacedock in STIII) ship design for Star Trek: Phase II.

Background: A big ringed planet, asteroids, inside spacedock, ship yard. Please don't show big ships in the atmosphere.

Unusual angles of well known ships: Ships are rarely shown from below and to the side.

A ship named USS Okazaki (my last name)

Simply put, I wanted to do something different. Something that has never been done with Star Trek ships before. I was in a bookstore looking through photography books, looking at all the wonderful, artistic pictures and I thought 'why hasn't anyone ever portrayed science fiction this way?' Where was the black and white and creative use of color and blur and other staples of inventive photography? It's always about getting the right exposure and making the shot look cool and that's it. Mind you, I LIKE that sort of thing, but after consuming it for 25 years and producing it for 9 I wanted to try a new approach.

So the idea behind the 2002 calendar was that the Federation hired the best photographers in the 24th century (maybe they're from National Geographic) and asked them to photograph the ships of the line through their lens.

So, for the first time, the images are NOT about the ships, but about the photograph. I wanted to portray pictures of the ships as artwork, not just the same old picture of a ship with neat lighting.

To be fair, Rob warned that not everyone would take to the idea, and that there are a lot of people out there who WANT normal pictures of spaceships against black backgrounds... but he agreed it would be fun to try something different.

Not all of them are a success. No one seems to like the Defiant image, and I admit that was one is a dud. I really like the bold shapes and study in contrast that the Unicomplex and Utopia P. shots employ, but few others do. On the other hand, what I find interesting (and gratifying) is that, of the other images, everyone has a different favorite. Some love the workbee shot, others hate it. Some prefer the Klingon burning up and and (believe it or not) a few people have picked the blurry, attacking Romulan ship as their favorite image! This simply reflects the very subjective artistic tastes that each individual has, and I am proud of the diversity we achieved. In the 2001 calendar, everyone picks the same 2 or 3 images as their favorite - in this one it's way across the board. I don't know exactly what that says, but I like it.

I also see that people were disappointed that the calendar was square this time and not the wide format of 2001. No one should blame Pocket for this - it was my decision, since I felt that the square format was better for the kinds of images we were showing (it's closer to the 35mm aspect ratio we usually see photographs in - rarely do you go to a photo gallery where all the pictures are widescreen).

Happily, these people will be glad to know that the 2003 calendar does go back to the horizontal format. The scenic nature of the images will work better this way. It all depends on what works best for the pictures. For a calendar of Workbees, I would choose square. For the Galactica, it would have to be wide.

The vast majority of people I've shown the calendar to seem to enjoy it, but I've read a lot of reviews online (especially at Amazon) from people who really hate it. While I want to please the audience this calendar is meant for, at the same time it's hard for me to give creedence to comments like 'the black and white picture would have been better in color' and 'the long exposure shot would have been better without the streaks.' It makes me a little sad that some folks won't allow themselves to view these things they love in a slightly different light.

I'll go into more detail about the 2003 calendar and book in another message.

I'd like to salute you in advance for preparing Starship Spotter, which promises to give realistic ship information from people who actually do the shows. The focus of fans here is on the correct CG models, ship sizes and related information.

The same applies to any calendars you might be working on: the most exciting thing we can get is new information, visual or not. This means clear, never-before-seen views of famous ships, and any clear views of ships that are not as famous.

I'm sure that even the casual fans would appreciate such images, because seeing this kind of unusual vessels will make them value what they got, and kindle their interest in further publications with starship images. Of course, you also need to balance it out with more familiar stuff for commercial purposes.

One other suggestion:

Find out if you can acquire EdenFX's Defiant model that was built off the studio model for "The Changing Face of Evil". The one you're using now was built completely unofficially as an intern's practice assignment, with reference to the inaccurate model kit, and was adopted by the late Digital Muse, now EdenFX, for "Sacrifice of Angels" and later episodes only because

a) the old CG Defiant (by VisionArt) couldn't be converted into LightWave

b) so many other ships had to be built that it was decided that this practice model was good enough for the time being.

Best Regards.

[ September 08, 2001: Message edited by: Jim Phelps ]

However, the way Mojo described the calender, I think I'm going to have to check it out. It seems like an interesting take, something more artistic than usual. Sounds interesting.

The idea behind this book is to show you the things Star Trek has talked about, or implied, but never actually put on the screen. Things like Wolf 359, Voyager sinking into the ice *after* the snow crash, the Enterprise flying through a comet in "Balance of Terror," the Doomsday Machine tearing up the planet being visited by the Constellation's crew... and more.

As far as everyone's beloved Wolf 359, I'm planning to make that part of a special, giant chapter that will detail the history of the Borg (as seen on Trek), going from the mission of the Raven, to the events of "Q Who" up to Voyager's crushing blow to them in "Endgame."

In regards to new ships, I know that everyone would like to see a beautiful model for each and every starship that has been even mentioned in Star Trek history. As much as I would love to do this, I'm sure you all realize that I could easily blow the entire budget (and schedule) of the project just making ship models. While new ships will certainly have to be made, the bulk of the rendering will be of ships that already exist (mind you this library is nothing to sneeze at).

If anyone out there is an experienced 3D modeller and has a ready-for-primetime portfolio AND would like to contribute ship models for use free of charge (or at least very cheap) in this project, by all means contact me! I'll be happy to include each and every ship in this book if I can get the models :-)

Keep in mind that unless a script specifically tells us what the name of a ship is and we can clearly see the name in the episode, we don't change the name or numbers on the hull...

1. I haven't got the 2002 calendar in Australia yet... so I can not comment on the calendar - but from what you've described it sounds... intruiging!

2. Your BOOK sounds EXCITING! I think you have a GREAT place here to find out about every CANON Trek vehicle/ship that has been. And quite a few - including myself would love to pass on our collective information - it's what we do ;o) Pity my computer isn't big enough to support some nice 3d software - otherwise I'd LOVE to be able to contribute meshes etc. Stick around - cause we'll all give you the known info on ALL the canon ships though!

3. What would *I* love to see in the 2003 Calendar!?! HMMMM! Well - I agree ships on a black background is getting a bit passe! ;o) The atmosphere shots are interesting - I'm curious as to how you can include ships like the big D in the atmosphere!?!

Some ideas though??

here goes:

Extreme close ups of ships... as if you were looking out a window like Voyager's mess hall or the flight deck lounge watching the Delta flyer leave on a mission!?! This could also be extended to space stations... we never EVER get to see the stations - even DS9 close up - and I mean REAL close up... but at the same time seeing some other ship coming into dock... or just seeing the station from a different angle. I liked how we saw inside Starbase 375's hanger bay at the start of Season 6 DS9.

Ummm... hmmmm. You just HAVE to get a new ship(s) in there. Ambassador would be a world-wide favourite. Some sort of group of ships or orbit of ships from the Ambassador era. There are a few ships to choose from: (Yes all or a lot of them would take a LONG time)

Ambassador
Cheyenne
New Orleans
Olympic

I'd love to see NICE close up pictures of the sabre and/or the steamrunner and/or the NORWAY!

I also love the idea about more real-perspective battles - over large distances that you couldn't show on TV.

I've also been thinking if we ever see Earth again - I haven't seen Endgame - oh and WATCH THE SPOILERS... should we be beginning to see the start of 'Atlantis' being terraformed as mentioned in "Family" and as seen in the okudagram in The Continuing Mission...

I have a nice idea... several engineers in suits (environmental ones ) out repairing the deflector dish of a Steamrunner class while in orbit of a extremely large and class k planet. The perspective of the 'camera' allows you to see the rest of the steamrunner's hull behind the engineers - illuminated by the systems sun! We don't have to see any faces - just a mirror reflection of the section of the deflector they're working on the planet and the expanse of stars! Ahhhh nice shot! ;o) More extreme close-ups though!?!

Ohh ohhhh and a Ferengi Marauder thrown in for good measure. Maybe a scene from "The Price"!?! Like the Marauder - the E-D with the pod leaving for the Barzan wormhole + the ferengi shuttle leaving for the wormhole + the planet and of course the Barzan wormhole - and maybe a few of the other ships involved in the negotiations - near-by. An antares ship or something.

Ohhhh Ohhhhh a rag tag fleet of Marquis ships nearing the planetary hide-aways in the badlands... We'd see Bajoran vessels and smaller Fed ships like the various fighters/maquis ships and even shuttles and runabouts! a rag-tag fleet of smaller vessels... even a tug!

Anyway - it's nice to have you as an active member Mojo! Does Rob Bonchune SP? Lurk or post here!?!

P.S. I don't know about the 2002 calendar - but have you proofread your ship labelling this time around - no more 1701-D's + other ships!?!

Andrew

P.P.S. How about a scene from the Romulan v Klingon Battle of Klak D'Kel Bracht!?!

or the Cardassian/Klingon skirmishes at the Britekka Nebula!?! (older ships in both of these 'battles'.

AndrewR

P.P.P.S.

To get less ship and space scenes - remember you could take some pointers from the Voyager opening credits - which are nice - utilising gaseous anomalies and planetry rings etc.

AndrewR

P.P.P.P.S.

Something with the Crystalline Entity attacking a less advanced ship!?!

ANDREWR

P.P.P.P.P.S.

What about the Romulan attack on the Earth outposts in "The Balance of Terror" we never saw that.

AndrewR

[ September 11, 2001: Message edited by: AndrewR ]

quote:

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If anyone out there is an experienced 3D modeller ..... I'll be happy to include each and every ship in this book if I can get the models :-)

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