A Star trek CGI series

[RegFan]

I like the idea of a Trek CGI series. CGI characters often fall into the uncanny valley but the technology is advanced enough to make the characters realistic enough.

[jefferiestubes8]

Flake wrote:

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How about a CGI series for the kids (6-13) about RED SQUAD, the elite Starfleet Academy cadets?

See:
Star Trek Kids Cartoon


I was.

interested in checking out Marvel's Starfleet Academy series of 19 issues starting in December 1996 just to get a feel for what could be possible with a animated or live action series that was discussed in a few different threads on Future of Trek.
I know you guys did not recommend it but I'll give it a shot.

Cadets are cadets. Elite or not. Flake no thanks. Not really interested in the junk story filler & character development that goes along with the academy and youth.

[jefferiestubes8]

If a series were to happen do you think we'd see older characters return with the original actors doing their voices as a cameo or even a 2 or 3 episode story arc?

Do you think that attempting to have any live-action element from greenscreen would be cool or just distracting from a all-CG Trek series?
It would not actually be easier to scan the face, neck, and shoulders of a Trek actor for example LeVar Burton. to build a CG model, and then texture and make life-like their face.

[jefferiestubes8]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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See:
Star Trek Kids Cartoon


I was.

Cadets are cadets. Elite or not. Flake no thanks. Not really interested in the junk story filler & character development that goes along with the academy and youth.

ALthough rethinking this since most adults aren't willing to shell out money to see CGI humans for a whole story such as a CGI Trek movie like


but a Star Trek; Starfleet Academy CGI TV series aimed at kids 6-13 wouldn't really be competing for the cinema and could co-exist with the next couple of feature films with live actors.

[Lynx]

I'm all for it if the animations are good and the stories are good too. Just think of the possibilities! We can have all our favorite characters in any story, no problems with actors who can't participate for different reasons.

[jefferiestubes8]

Lynx wrote:

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Just think of the possibilities! We can have all our favorite characters in any story,

It would probably be best to start a show with a ship and half a dozen new principle characters.
Cameos of older characters are really dependent on a story that can bring them in.

Just because you have access to all of Star Trek's characters doesn't mean you use them all.
An audience would be totally confused.

Of course if you wanted to have Data or 'The Doctor' EMH Mark IV it would be pretty cool as they aren't human and could easily be in a wider year range of when a show is set.
And those two actors may even be willing to do the voice performances if the budget allowed.
[And we would also get a thin faced
Data like TNGs first few seasons.]

[jefferiestubes8]

BrownShatner wrote:

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Star Trek Elite Force is an older game based on the Quake 3 engine. So that doesn't even reflect what can be done with modern video game technology, much less production-quality CGI.

Cary L. Brown mentioned 3 years ago:

Cary L. Brown wrote:

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New Trek will be done on virtual sets, with real actors being motion captured and their voices being recorded... then using their captured motion and voices to "drive" CGI characters and voices.

Less than ten years, folks... less than ten years... and this will be an absolute reality.

The Iron Man 2 videogame used motion capture and keyframes for the in-game cinematic (IGC)

Pendulum provided about 20 minutes of in-game cinematics using a realtime engine, as well as a pre-rendered trailer, which is also being used as a prologue intro.

They used a modified version of the Unreal engine.
regarding the IGC's and trailer:

...we chose to go with mo-cap for obvious reasons, but there was a slew of robots flying around in the cinematics and major fight scenes, so we let our animators create those characters with keyframe animation.

there is a
from the May 1 issue of Post magazine.

With a motion capture and a realtime engine a low-cost Trek CGI series can be done and look good enough and not look like marionette bobble-heads like SW:The Clone Wars TV series does.

[AviTrek]

Clone Wars could look more realistic if Lucas wanted it to. The look of Clone Wars was an artistic decision. The danger with the psuedo-realistic look is that you run into the uncanny valley. Until CGI can render humans perfectly, it can be easier for humans to accept obvious cartoons than a CGI that looks 99% right but off enough to bother them.

[Captain T'Anyel]

I would agree only if cgi were used in addition to live actors so we could have interaction with alien creatures (ala LOTR), for example, but not as a replacement for live performances. One of the reason why TAS didn't last I think is because folks wanted the real deal not animated versions of them. IMHO

[AviTrek]

Just read this story on making a Pixar film. An average frame can take 7 hours to render on a server farm. A computer game engine renders 30+ frames/second on a desktop PC. Despite how good you think a computer game engine is, as long as there is that much of a difference in complexity a video rendered in a game engine will always look like a game.

[jefferiestubes8]

AviTrek wrote:

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Clone Wars could look more realistic if Lucas wanted it to. The look of Clone Wars was an artistic decision. The danger with the psuedo-realistic look is that you run into the uncanny valley.

AviTrek wrote:

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Despite how good you think a computer game engine is, as long as there is that much of a difference in complexity a video rendered in a game engine will always look like a game.

AviTrek that is my point. I will not discount the importance of using motion capture but that data can be used like I mentioned above.

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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Resident Evil Degeneration in this behind-the-scenes video about the MoCap

We don't need the visual quality of a Trek CGI animated series to look like Wall-E or Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen or even Resident Evil Degeneration.
Does anyone even know how long it took to create the TOS-R CGI visual effects from CBS Digital? Specifically render time and what type of software/renderfarm they were using?

We need something visually 'good enough' to be able to get new Star Trek stories animated.

Captain T'Anyel wrote:

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I would agree only if cgi were used in addition to live actors so we could have interaction with alien creatures (ala LOTR),

This would get a lot more costly as you don't just have costumes, makeup, props, but pieces of sets to create before the greenscreen just like how Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) was made.

I'm talking completely animated CGI. They would only need to cast for voices, not visual appearance of the actors.


I think by using a in-game engine like 'a modified version' of the Unreal engine that Iron Man 2's 20 minutes of in-game cinematics [see the link at 2:08in] used it could be enough. It would be a psuedo-realistic look they they can even stylize further.
SW:The Clone Wars tv series costs $2 million an episode. This would obviously cost much less. The longer the series ran the better R.O.I. the CG models that are created would be.
Surely finding what the true audience would be and how to target this show and what channel it would be on are much harder initially as well as the crew/ship/stardate of the series and then little things like Who should voice the USS Enterprises computers? .

They even could possibly possbily have Startrek.com & iTunes sell subscriptions as original series download
essentially making it a fan paid-for production.