A Star trek CGI series

Discussion in 'Future of Trek' started by Admiral Pike, Jun 4, 2009.

?

CGI Star Trek

  1. Yes

    59 vote(s)
    76.6%
  2. No

    18 vote(s)
    23.4%
  1. RegFan

    RegFan Commodore Commodore

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    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.
     
  2. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    Starfleet Academy series

    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.
     
  3. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    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.
     
  4. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    Re: Starfleet Academy series

    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.
     
  5. Lynx

    Lynx Vice Admiral Admiral

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    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. :bolian:
     
  6. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    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.]
     
  7. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    Cary L. Brown
    mentioned 3 years ago:
    The Iron Man 2 videogame used motion capture and keyframes for the in-game cinematic (IGC)
    They used a modified version of the Unreal engine.
    regarding the IGC's and trailer:
    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.
     
  8. AviTrek

    AviTrek Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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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. 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.
     
  9. Captain T'Anyel

    Captain T'Anyel Ensign Newbie

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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), 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
     
  10. AviTrek

    AviTrek Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    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.
     
  11. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    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.
    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.

    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.
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2010