Animated nuTrek concept art

Discussion in 'Future of Trek' started by F. King Daniel, Mar 6, 2013.

  1. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2008
    Location:
    A type 13 planet in it's final stage
  2. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2011
    Location:
    astral plane
    I hate to be critical, but what we see here is the easy part. The hard part is getting the characters right. And we don't see any of that, here.

    Those vague tiny featureless renders of Kirk, Spock, and some red shirt dwarfed by the Big Alien Things don't count.

    Furthermore, the unrealistic proportions of the characters that we can discern don't impress me at all; quite the opposite, actually. I can only hope that the character drawings here are thumbnail placeholders in lieu of actual character drawings to be inserted once it's figured out exactly how to draw them (e.g., regard a faceless Spock).

    Unfortunately, in Green Lantern, the character style is to render people with exaggerated proportions, and these sketches seem to suggest that the treatment might go in that direction, too. That sort of character style works in GL, but I have grave doubts about it working in Star Trek.

    Consequently, I'm unimpressed, and actually concerned.
     
  3. bullethead

    bullethead Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2008
    I really love what I'm seeing. The second space piece, with all the planets, really gives me a Duck Dodgers (the newer show from a few years back) vibe, which is great.

    The lack of realistic proportions doesn't bother me, because I'm used to that sort of thing from years of watching cartoons and anime. As long as the final designs weren't given Tron Uprising proportions, people would get over it.
     
  4. RAMA

    RAMA Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 1999
    Location:
    USA
    True this is the easy part, but sign me up!

    RAMA
     
  5. RAMA

    RAMA Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 1999
    Location:
    USA
    It's general concept art for an artists' personal enjoyment (albeit a professional one), relax.

    Considering what it IS and not worrying about what it is not without the context of a series, I have to say the concept art is doing what TAS did not: utilize it's format to show just about anything without regard for the budget of live action. Limitations of the early 70s kept them from actually doing what they stated they wanted to do. Success.

    RAMA
     
  6. Galileo7

    Galileo7 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2010
    Location:
    usa
    Agree.:techman:
     
  7. Bry_Sinclair

    Bry_Sinclair Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2009
    Location:
    Scotland
    The only one I can say I really like is the one featuring the orbital city platforms, a very cool design. The rest I'm pretty much 'meh' about.
     
  8. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2001
    Location:
    Ferguson, Missouri, USA
    This kinda belongs in the Fan Art forum, IMO. It's nice and all, but it's still essentially someone's personal art gallery.
     
  9. Kelso

    Kelso Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 3, 2001
    Location:
    On the destruct button until the last minute!
    The easy part? You guys must be some talented motherfuckers.

    Anyway, I'd watch the hell out of this.
     
  10. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2005
    Location:
    Real Gone
    That's like a mega horta there.
     
  11. Herkimer Jitty

    Herkimer Jitty Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2008
    Location:
    Dayglow, New California Republic
    Great colors, lighting. Love the wall-to-wall retro look.

    Haters gonna hate.
     
  12. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 1999
    Location:
    Tatoinne
    I'm sure planets and spaceships could be rendered beautifully. My main concern is how humanoid characters would be portrayed. The Clone Wars look takes some getting used to, but would a more cartoony, less realistic look be better?

    I'm still hoping for live-action. Why not an animated series and live-action at the same time? They'd be on different channels and focus on different audiences, no need to worry about cannibalizing the audience.
     
  13. bullethead

    bullethead Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2008
    Money, probably. There's pretty much no way to get a really good looking Star Trek show out there without spending at least $1 million per episode (probably $2 million, if SGU was anything to go by) for live action. Greenscreening won't save any money, because you're shoving the costs of set building to the CGI guys, who have to build everything from scratch, then try to render it in photorealistic quality, which isn't cheap.

    Animation is expensive too - there was a recent interview with the producer of Green Lantern: TAS where he pointed out that CGI costs a chunk of money, limiting what you can make. But you can stretch that budget a lot further because you're not making everything look as real as possible.
     
  14. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2011
    Location:
    astral plane
    While it's really impossible to know without having something concrete to make the comparisons, I suspect I'd probably be happier with a Clone Wars style take on the characters than a Green Lantern style take.

    In TCW and GL character animation, the human proportions are exaggerated. In GL, it's wildly exaggerated (probably too much; hence, my concerns). In TCW, it's significantly less exaggerated overall, but there's nevertheless still hyper-narrowing of facial features, hyper-broad chests (just less so than in GL), etc.

    It's also definitely worth pointing out that TCW character style has been used successfully to adapt live action material, while the GL character style has been used—and arguably less successfully—to adapt comic book material.

    Filmation, on the other hand, opted for (ETA: in the case of the males) perfectly proportioned, though still idealized and simplified, characters.

    ETA: However, the females on TAS, particularly Uhura, were usually drawn with Barbie-esque proportions, including a long slender neck and oversized head. If I have any major complaint in the way that the characters were realized in TAS, it would be in that manner of depicting the women.

    If I were the producers, I'd do test footage of as many different character styles as possible, preferably with the actual actors' voices. ETA: One way to accomplish that would be to render a few select scenes of the films in the various styles, assuming they would in fact use the film actors.
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2013
  15. bbailey861

    bbailey861 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2009
    Location:
    Kingston, ON Canada
    All I need is a date and a time set so I can tune in....
     
  16. Mirror Sulu

    Mirror Sulu Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2013
    Location:
    N. Ireland
    Don't like the animation for Green Lantern: The Animated Series, so I wouldn't like it for a new Trek series either. Something closer to the earlier Star Wars: Clone Wars show would be preferred.
     
  17. Hartzilla2007

    Hartzilla2007 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2006
    Location:
    Star Trekkin Across the universe.
    Then you better hope whoever does it has a metric s@#t ton of money.
     
  18. Peach Wookiee

    Peach Wookiee Cuddly Mod of Doom Moderator

    Joined:
    May 12, 2001
    Location:
    Peach Wookiee
    That concept art is amazing! I'd give this a chance. :)
     
  19. General_Phoenix

    General_Phoenix Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Apr 23, 2006
    Location:
    Bespin
    Those orbital cities (?) remind me of something off of a Boston album cover.
     
  20. baxart

    baxart Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2006
    I'll second the YES PLEASE! Animation is the way to go for a new series IMO.