Well I will be damn! It is silver! My eyes are going! I thought it was the same color as the hull itself. This adds a new light on her!!
Thanks dude. Thanks dude. I suspect it to be (yet) another case of what looks cool for drama's sake winning out over "reality," as it is science-fiction. However, there are plenty of particles to possibly charge in space eh. Either way, IMO, my own shot would be nowhere near as, interesting, dramatic, or pretty w/out the beams being visible. Real life is often boring to look at when juxtaposed with what's possible in the realm of science-fiction. Still just a color thing for me eh. Don't care for it, love silver, thus the choice was obvious for me. deg
An homage(s) to the days of "gettin' green" drivin' on lower Wacker Drive here in Chicago (underground street in the city used to be lit with all green lights), and crusin' the galaxy lookin' for the green girls. Ah my Marta... More comin'... deg It's only a model. - Patsy, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Plus, just going back and looking at the eps. (once) again while doing further research for my next shots, it clearly shows Capt. Christopher in the cockpit and a bright slightly blue-ish light comes over his face once the TB hits him. He even drops his visor to account for it's brightness. That's enough for me to easily bear out my choice eh. Well, there you go then. Thanks dude. deg
Far be it from me to tell Michaelangelo how to draw. Again, this tractor beam would exist in a oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, when the big E grabbed Capt. Christopher. I agree with your decision. But going back to the episodes, as you suggest, if you think of Space Seed, there was no visible beam holding onto the Botany Bay. In space, I think the rules are different. I still contend TNG et.al. got lazy with this one. The easy way out graphically is to make the tractor beam glow. The tough animation is to make the tractored object buck and twist under the beam, showing its influence without making it visible. It's a moot point, anyway. By now in the Trek Universe, tractor beams glow. The Vulcan beams glowed in Enterprise, as have all other ones except for TOS. It's just a pet peeve of mine.
I grieve with thee, Outpost4. But maybe we can resolve this for future Trek incarnations. For a tractor beam to work, it'd be necessary to know exactly the position and orientation of the object being tractored. I suggest a "phased array" panel of laser diodes that scan the target continuously to monitor it's distance, orientation, spin, etc. The actual tractor emitter (a source of gravitons?) probably doesn't glow at all. So when a tractor beam "locks" on a target, the lasers play over its surface, causing bright areas around both the emitter and target. Then the graviton source activates, making the target buck probably less than a second later until the tractor beam computers are satisfied that the target is under control. In an atmosphere, the rays may even be visible, depending on conditions, but in space there's nothing to diffuse the beam, so it's mostly invisible unless the target has a lot of dust and debris on it that gets caught up in the beam and pulled toward the emitter. Why use visible light lasers? I imagine the space between the emitter and target would be dangerous to fly through. You also don't want someone moving through the beam and confusing the array computers. So keeping the light in a spectrum most species and machines can see is important for safety reasons. As a pilot, you'd recognize that the space between a bright, flickering blue light source, and the object it's shining on should be avoided. In high-traffic areas, there might even be safety protocols for spraying a little vapor or chaff into the beam's path in space so that actively piloted shuttles are more likely to avoid the turbulent region. So future tractor beam effects should be a bit more subtle in most cases than they were in TNG; more like TOS, but careful productions might provide subtle variations for different conditions.
Plus, it just looks cool IMO. Science-Fiction boys, science-fiction. Still, I do like my science-fiction to have some basis in plausible fact too. Nice call on that dude. deg
That looks sweet! Deg your ports (ships have ports not windows dammit!!) are by far the best I have seen on any incarnation of any SciFi ship I ever seen, bar none. Excellent job on those. I also like the attention to detail. like adding the running lights to the aft of the nacelles. I do diagree with you on the dish though, and while I would not advocate something bright and coppery, I do think a more subtle approach would work. Something similar to the "copper ring" on the PH's upper plating. Just a bit of an overlay to add a bit of warm color to an area dominated by cool colors. i am simpathetic to personal color choices though: any TOS ship I ever make will be firing blue phasers.
Damn-it Jim, I'm a porthole, not a window! Thanks dude, glad you like her. I'm workin' on a WNMHGB The Great Barrier shot now, a Sling-Shot around Sol shot, a bunch of TOS.5 universe TIY F-104 encounter shots, and oh the list goes on and on... Oh, and the dish is stayin' just as is, damn-it. deg
TOS'ers know this one eh... (Not to compete with Tallguy's excellent WNMHGB shot, we just happen to be thinkin' of the same shot of late it seems. ) deg It's only a model. - Patsy, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Nice one. someday we need to have all the TOS Enterprises from the 3d Artists here in one wallpaper to see how they compare to eachother.
Thanks gents. Another... A simple, yet (IMO) effective and beautiful framed shot of E... deg It's only a model. - Patsy, Monty Python and the Holy Grail