Visual Effects in Discovery

[Galaxy]

One area where I expected Disco to blow me away is with regards to the visual effects, unfortunately this is one area where I feel the show has been a bit disappointing in my opinion.

Compare 2017s Battle of the Binary Stars:

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With the DS9's Battle to retake DS9, made in 1997

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Yes, Discovery uses a much higher polygon count (although I think DS9 used physical models for the main ships in the foreground here) and the fire balls look much better, but all in all I think the DS9 scene seems to be so much better. Part of Discos's problem are the lens flares everywhere here. But also the composing of the shots seems lackluster. Those two Galaxy class starships swooping in during the DS9 battle, Disco really does not have anything as enticing imo.

Is it just my opinion, or do others see this as well? Maybe I was just expecting something closer to a modern feature film, which would be unfair.

 

[eltel99uk]

OK I'll bite. For these two examples, I think the sheer number of ships in DS9 helps make it look better in absolute terms. If I were to spend ages looking at quality of special effects in detail and try not to let the sheer scale of the battles influence me I think I might go either way, but perhaps sticking with your conclusion that the improvement in 20 years appears non-existent to negative.

However, I think DSC has used more of its special effects budget on other stuff - I'll admit it's been a while since I watched a lot of DS9 but my memories are that "lots of the cash seemed to be saved for a few big scenes" whereas DSC uses it routinely to make bridge scenes, the away missions etc look far better than anything we saw on DS9.

 

[Noname Given]

One area where I expected Disco to blow me away is with regards to the visual effects, unfortunately this is one area where I feel the show has been a bit disappointing in my opinion.

Compare 2017s Battle of the Binary Stars:

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With the DS9's Battle to retake DS9, made in 1997

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Yes, Discovery uses a much higher polygon count (although I think DS9 used physical models for the main ships in the foreground here) and the fire balls look much better, but all in all I think the DS9 scene seems to be so much better. Part of Discos's problem are the lens flares everywhere here. But also the composing of the shots seems lackluster. Those two Galaxy class starships swooping in during the DS9 battle, Disco really does not have anything as enticing imo.

Is it just my opinion, or do others see this as well? Maybe I was just expecting something closer to a modern feature film, which would be unfair.

Both are feature film quality level for their respective 'day'. They both seem fairly comparable in that respect; but where ST: D has improved (because of the tech) is that the overall composition of shots is more seamless (IE there's no apparent backdrop where you can easily tell on image is rephotographed on others; the overall light is more natural, the ship movements more fluid; and they have a wider range of movement, etc. Plus the better looking hull hits/explosions.

Could they load up the scene with A LOT more ships, etc? Yes, they could have - but they're going what works for their story. It's the 23rd century. Starfleet doesn't have as big a Fleet in the 23rd as it does in the 24th, etc. In the DS9 sequence they ARE at war, expecting a fight, and have a clear objective (take back DS9)

In ST: D's case they are calling in all ships in the vicinity and hoping to AVOID conflict (hoping a show of force is enough.) Again, they are doing a scene that serves their story.

I think BOTH scenes work and are good.

 

[NaughtyTrekkie]

I liked DS9, VOY and ENT more because we could perfectly see the starships and their action.

In DIS everything is too dark and fast

 

[cultcross]

I've really enjoyed Discovery's establishing shots of the ship and space backgrounds, I think they're beautiful and often very eye catching.

 

[Gepard]

As far as the quality of the images goes, DSC looks shockingly cheap. They've got bright colors and bloom and lens flares all over the images, but at base most of the CG models are very simple, the texturing basic, and the shaders unconvincing. The wacky lighting and very short establishing shots help cover for it, so I can only assume the last-minute change of VFX vendors left very little time to nail down a look, resulting in Pixamondo cooking up a style that covers up how slapdash the whole thing is. And now we're stuck with it, because that's what the client approved.

 

[ITDUDE]

STD definitely is more advanced. It just has this filter enabled that kinda washes everything out. Everything is kinda blurry/over saturated, can't really describe it. Photoshop/film buffs chime in here. It also doesn't help that we are seeing this in HD (1080p) resolution only. If/when 4K blu-rays and/or 4k streaming with HDR comes out we'll be able to see much more detail in each scene and appreciate it more. Also with 8k TVs what will be starting to come out by EOY, I hope we'll see STD in 8k quality before too long (does anyone know if it's been confirmed if they film in in 8k, or is it standard 4k?)

 

[GeekUSACarl]

Though ds9 still looks pretty good today, disco imho looks better. That being said I didn't need the effects to get better. My biggest complaint has been the pacing of the space battles.

 

[Hythlodeus]

I honestly don't care. pew-pew-laser scenes are not why I watch Star Trek and I'm not into ship porn either

 

[Jinn]

I honestly don't care. pew-pew-laser scenes are not why I watch Star Trek and I'm not into ship porn either

I'm into ship porn, but only ship bondage porn, so this isn't really for me. Maybe they'll get... creative with the Palace ship.

 

[Hey Missy]

Discovery always puts this freaky purple/blue filter on top of every exterior shot, and then they turn up the contrast 100% and add in a blur effect. Nothing ever looks "natural". I don't know if this was a directorial choice or what.
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/File:ISS_Charon.jpg

 

[F. King Daniel]

Discovery's visuals are very colourful and stylised. I like them. The older visuals are stylised too but differently, with a lot more light than you'd ever see on ships flying so far from stars.

 

[Boomer359]

Discovery is definitely going for a completely different look. Besides the weird blue filter that everything seems to get, there appears to be a real push to limit lighting sources to things that are actually or plausibly present around the ships.

There are no fully-lit hulls from some unseen, ever present white-light source in the middle of deep space. The ships either light themselves from spots or are lit by a nearby star or planet. That, along with the motion blur and shakey cam they use to give it a more gun-cam/field documentary feel, ends up making everything a little hard to see.

It's not a quality issue; it's an artistic direction. And I like it.

That said, I wish they'd give us at least one beam phaser from a ship.

 

[XCV330]

I like the visuals. Space is actually dark in them unless they are near a star. I wish they wouldn't have ships a few hundred yards from each other blasting away like its the Napoleonic wars but the visuals demand it, and that's not going to change, unfortunately.

 

[Longinus]

I actually mostly like the overly saturated space in Discovery. What I don't like is that the space shots are often very dark and show only very short glimpses. It is hard to see anything properly, and there is no continuity of motion.

I also think some of the ship textures are not that great, and look like they're from a computer game. Reboot films obviously had much better ship textures, but so did TMP, and that was almost forty years ago! Fed ships in Binary Stars looked particularly computer gamey.

Apart the light effect, Europa could be a STO model.

 

[Hey Missy]

That said, I wish they'd give us at least one beam phaser from a ship.

Not in this day and age, it has to be pew-pew phasers, a single phaser beam might put the audience immediately to sleep.

 

[lawman]

FWIW I'd say both scenes exemplify what I think of as the annoying Star Wars-ification of Trek, with lots of close-quarters space combat, phaser bursts rather than beams, sound and big fiery explosions in space, and utter disregard of the actual power of the weapons involved (not to mention the existence of shields) in favor of whatever looks cool and dramatic.

That said, I think the DS9 version does offer better ship designs, and clearer angles and lighting... whereas the DSC version technically looks more "realistic," simply because of CGI improvements.

 

[Boomer359]

Not in this day and age, it has to be pew-pew phasers, a single phaser beam might put the audience immediately to sleep.

Honestly, I'm really surprised we haven't seen one yet, if only so Discovery can poach the sound effect from one of the other series.

 

[Jarvisimo]

I think when I watch Discovery I'm thinking it's quite like the colours of Mass Effect - purple-blue tones and fire yellows and orange-browns.

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Heck, the overall design too...

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Although that's not a bad thing per se....

 

[lawman]

...It also doesn't help that we are seeing this in HD (1080p) resolution only. If/when 4K blu-rays and/or 4k streaming with HDR comes out we'll be able to see much more detail in each scene and appreciate it more. Also with 8k TVs what will be starting to come out by EOY, I hope we'll see STD in 8k quality before too long (does anyone know if it's been confirmed if they film in in 8k, or is it standard 4k?)

Yikes, obviously you're a fan of bleeding-edge home theater tech! For my money, I'm inclined to believe the analyses I've read saying that at optimum viewing distances, the average human eye literally cannot distinguish a 1080p image from a 4k image, and the whole thing is more about marketing than actual improvements to the viewing experience.