The 'power tube thing' (or whatever it's official name was), was an actual forced perspective set piece behind the grill work, not a rendering. It shifts angles when you see it during the engineering scenes and is shown on the TOS set diagrams/wall hang reference used at the time.nitpickerYou're right, I'm thinking of the Warp Core from TMP, there's a fp matte painting on the floor.
Forgive the pendantry, but what you're referring to isn't a matte painting, but rather just a painting. A matte painting is used as part of an optical effect, where the painting is on glass with voids in it for live action to be composited in during post production. You're describing a painted backdrop that's right there on the set.![]()
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I think it is so cool that it has been faithfully recreated in this new Engineering set-