My weird hobby is making comics with action figures (www.toyboxcomix.com). Sometimes I feature Star Trek. I have gotten some good TOS sets from http://aftdownloads.co.uk/. I've built the sickbay, transporter room, and bridge from there. They're a bit rough, but that kinda suits me. I was wondering if anyone knows of clean, printable diorama-style backdrops for other Star Trek settings. Specifically, I'd like Enterprise-D sets to go with my Galoob TNG figures and I'd like a clean version of the Guardian of Forever. Papercraft sets like the above are good, but flat images are more ideal because of the space required to store 3D sets. I always pay attention to terms of use on things I use. Free-to-use art is best, of course, but I'm willing to pay for printable art or physical backdrops if they suit my needs.
You'd think so, but I haven't been able to find any. I was hoping that someone in the art community might know of something or have personally created something that would work. My art skills are, sadly, negligible.
I will do some digging because I certainly have seen them around, especially with custom action figures. You may ask @Therin of Andor as he does a lot of action figure customs, and discussed a FB page for it. That might be of benefit. Are their specific backgrounds you are wanting?
Well, anything that I can stand action figures in front of and it look reasonably okay. Basically, head on views of areas of the interior of the Enterprise-D. For instance, the back wall (science stations) of the bridge. Engineering/warp core area. A view of sickbay. And a full-frontal, unobstructed view of the Guardian of Forever.
If simple 2D background images are okey for you, I'd gladly render out specific shots of my 3D Enterprise-D interiors for you, matching the camera angle to what you need. I only have the bridge and transporter room done though.
My favourite is Vasquez Rocks, which came with the "Big Bang Theory" cosplay boxed set! I have used it for numerous tableaux of action figures. Mork and Trek by Ian McLean, on Flickr I have also just searched Trek pictures online. Filmation's TAS backgrounds are very effective, such as the Guardian of Forever from "Yesteryear". Just print them out. Yesteryear Guardian group by Ian McLean, on Flickr Landing party to ShiKahr on Vulcan by Ian McLean, on Flickr A commercial TNG game board was pretty cool: Bolian Starfleet officer, Dr Selar of Vulcan, Mendon the Benzite by Ian McLean, on Flickr The recent Mego 8" boxed sets have included a Mirror Universe transporter room and bridge, the Bewitched lounge room, and I Dream of Jeannie's bottle... McFarlane figures and a custom Andorian by Ian McLean, on Flickr
The POV is too far back for it to be ideal. Ideally, the “camera” would be between the pillar and the Guardian, so the action figures could interact with the Guardian conversationally.
I went through the Guardian scenes of "City" and that shot wasn't in it. I grabbed a couple of usable screenshots, but not when the Guardian is lit. I really like that photo because the Guardian is lit, but it's sadly low-resolution.
Publicity photos are not always from the episodes themselves, but higher quality stills for magazine spreads for promotion of the product.