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Better Living Through CGI

They look like murky, badly lit models and don't move very well. Let's face it, they were state of the art in 1969, but less so in 1980, 90 or 2000.

I'm not talking about state-of-the-art, I'm talking about what looks better on the screen. For me, the original effects put CBS Digital's to shame.
 
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Much of the aesthetic discontinuity is in the new effects looking like something from a 2000s console video game, and not looking like practical effects.

TOS did not look like a video game.

Lost in Space did not look like a video game.

2001: A Space Odyssey did not look like a video game.

Planet of the Apes did not look like a video game.

Whether a TV show or a high-budget feature film, no science fiction produced at that time ever looked like a Playstation 2 game. It just doesn't fit!

For comparison, the redone effects in TNG-R actually look like a cleaned-up version of something from the time in which it was made.

TMP-DE has a couple shots that stick out, but you could tell they were at least trying for a similar, period-accurate visual style to the original.

Not so with TOS-R!

Kor
 
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There simply is no case where the 21st century FX aren't better than the originals. It's simply a question of taste that you can argue, or perhaps choices made with composition.

If it's just a question of taste, then there is no objective standard for "better." They may look better for you, they look worse to me. Are the Beach Boys records better in stereo or mono? Is Coke better with sugar or corn syrup? As much as some would like to, there is no way for either side to "win" an argument on that kind of question.
 
How about all of the little things that COULD have been fixed (in 12 minutes) but weren't?
14minutes-1.png

:)Spockboy
Excuse my poor vision, but what needs to be fixed on this one?
 
Actually they are, the lighting, composition, compositing, clarity, motion are all better. The detailing was often very understated and I feel some of the models were left somewhat less detailed as an attempt to keep it similar to a 60s produced tone they were trying to achieve. Even a slightly less than perfectly detailed CGI model is better than the original FX, where a shuttle might look as if it were flying on a string or the analog compositing left it looking murky, or the matte was off. So yes the FX are always better.
Beat that dead horse.
 
What bugs me most about the new effects is how they don't always sync up with what is said or implied in dialog (some of The Doomsday Machine). Also, in many episodes, the weekly credits at the top of act one were positioned strategically. For example, the titles for Spock's Brain were placed so as to be below the Enterprise. It was consciously placed in the lower right so as to not cover the model.

However, in TOS-R, the credits were always placed where they were originally, but new effects weren't always recreated faithfully, and now, for example, the titles for Spock's Brain cover the new shot of the Enterprise saucer, which, in the new version, takes up the formerly empty lower right portion of the screen. They slavishly stuck to the credit positions, but not the composition of the shots. Had they moved the titles for this episode to the upper left, then the strange placement would make sense. However, it doesn't because the footage isn't coordinated. The same thing happened in The Tholian Web and other episodes. Granted, this is something only someone who has watched the series too often would notice, but it is obvious that the credits were consciously placed in certain positions in some episodes to accommodate the spaceship shots. It would have been nice for that to have been noticed and respected in the new versions,

For the most part, I just watch my laserdiscs anyway.
 
The cg effects sync well to me, I've enjoyed the new look of scenes through every episode. Especially those many episodes from the pretty terrible third season, which were hard to watch.
 
Much of the aesthetic discontinuity is in the new effects looking like something from a 2000s console video game, and not looking like practical effects.

Its so painfully CG, not even passing for a physical model, let alone trying to make a fictional ship seem like a large construction moving in space.

TOS did not look like a video game.

Lost in Space did not look like a video game.

2001: A Space Odyssey did not look like a video game.

Planet of the Apes did not look like a video game.

All true. While there were some occasional dodgy wire work from the Lydeckers on the Irwin Allen productions, the larger, detailed miniatures still played as real--part of the physical world, instead of flat, astoundingly artificial CG elements as seen in TOS-R

TMP-DE has a couple shots that stick out, but you could tell they were at least trying for a similar, period-accurate visual style to the original.

That is true; San Francisco can be a bit too apparent, but some of the new space shots were trying to capture the original look--as a result, it does not constantly take you out of the seamless experience, reminding you that something has been force fit into older work. TOS-R and the Star Wars Special Editions suffer from this terrible lack of accuracy, artistry and sense.
 
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I enjoyed watching Remastered Trek when it debuted (made it exciting to watch classic Trek again, because it was new and different). I still do. Some of the FX shots were excellent. Others were "cartooney". But I can accept their flaws, just as I could accept the flaws in the original miniature and optical effects. The inconsistency between the various versions of the Enterprise (first pilot,. second pilot, production, etc) shown within a single episode was always bothersome, and something I was happy to see fixed. Same with being able to see the Klingon ship in pre-season 3 eps. No more overuse of the same Galileo shuttlecraft FX, e.g. to depict the starbase shuttle Loki stole in LTBYLB. Nice little touches like the fact that they used the second pilot E in Mirror Mirror to depict the ISS Enterprise. Or how at least one of the Klingon ships in the Enterprise Incident had Romulan BOP markings. Love all that. The CGI effects were a treat to Trek geeks like me. Just one fan's opinion.
 
I generally prefer the originals but "Amok Time" has some nice additions. I like the extreme close-up of the Enterprise as she flies past he camera--a CGI-recreation of something seen only in TAS--and the planet-side scenes were cool.
 
Its so painfully CG, not even passing for a physical model, let alone trying to make a fictional ship seem like a large construction moving in space.



All true. While there were some occasional dodgy wire work from the Lydeckers on the Irwin Allen productions, the larger, detailed miniatures still played as real--part of the physical world, instead of flat, astoundingly artificial CG elements as seen in TOS-R



That is true; San Francisco can be a bit too apparent, but some of the new space shots were trying to capture the original look--as a result, it does not constantly take you out of the seamless experience, reminding you that something has been force fit into older work. TOS-R and the Star Wars Special Editions suffer from this terrible lack of accuracy, artistry and sense.
The second model is good they can do close up with it and it withstand the uprezzing of my 4k tv.
http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-uss-enterprise-ncc-1701-1701-a-appreciation-thread.279269/page-5

Yeah sure, the original were better..:rolleyes:
waL9yUs.jpg

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kYknEgJ.jpg

This certainly looks like a real, solid object.
 
I generally prefer the originals but "Amok Time" has some nice additions.
There was one addition to "Amok Time" that I absolutely hated -- replacing footage of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy walking to the ceremony site with a CGI long shot just to tie it in with TSFS. When you're actually omitting footage of the real-life actors, you've gone too far.

I like the extreme close-up of the Enterprise as she flies past he camera--a CGI-recreation of something seen only in TAS--and the planet-side scenes were cool.
I hated the extreme close-ups of the Enterprise, too. Pointless, bad composition, and didn't give you any sense of scale.
 
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