News Brent Spiner Returned for "Picard" (and you could do the CGI better in 15 minutes, we get it)

Admittedly, I am very much a nit picker. and I'm very disappointed by the VFX Job done on Data for Picard. Now I've seen people say "Brent's Back in makeup and Costume, that should be enough for Fans" and on a general level it is, but some Fans are not aware of how much of a cheat this is, it's a cheat because the VFX that were done were not the best that could be done, not by a long shot, and people tend to insist that it was the best that could be done, or that there is only so much that can be done to de-age a 70 year old man without a Marvel Budget.

I'm merely an Amateur Visual Effects Artist/Make-up Artist, but despite being on Amateur level, it's the mindest of VFX and Makeup that I analyze things with. if I did not have that mindset, I would probably more easily accept what was delivered to Fans/CBS All Access Customers. but the truth is, it's not hard to make improvements, at least not on the level a lot of people would believe. this is a very quick and very rough look at "In-Progress" improving deaging, on Brent Spiner, this is in no way meant as a disrespect to Brent, he did his Job and did it masterfully, it's the VFX people(or someone calling shots) that has failed to deliver the goods, or not cared enough to put in actual effort. FX of all types have long been a part of Star Trek, since the first Star Trek film, and TNG onward, Trek has been setting standards for VFX(In TV Series Format) and there is a lack of it in regard to the Deaging, this is very rough, but it demonstrates how doable some seemingly elaborate FX are, with no money, and a few hours.

 

But did you enjoy the dreams? And as the joke goes....your special effects are laaame...

 

Oh I enjoyed the secenes. VFX in Progress

 

It's a good try. But his face and neck never looked that thin. Try to reduce the effect.

The hairline looks good however.

 

it's a bit thin, still fine tuning that.

 

did they use this set of B4 for Picard?

 

Well...juding from the expression on the face in both pictures I´d say yes

 

Was that STTE?

 

oh i had no doubt in my mind that it at least came from the same mold, not just the expression on the face, but literally the surface texture, hair, eyebrows everything. in the past, Data related props like this always got updated and freshened up, the quality improved, this literally looked to me like a nearly 2 decade old Latex Prop that's been well preserved. so my thought was they didn't spend money on creating a new set from scratch or even casting from original molds, but literally took what was on Display and put it in the drawer

 

Just me or did Datas FC/DS9 uniform look like a cheap Ebay knock off rather than the real deal?

 

Seemed ok to me. Perhaps a little ill-fitting, but not cheap.

 

It looked fine.

 

I think to the untrained eye, it's the same Uniform, the design is certainly the same, but I felt that it looked a bit on the cosplay side, like maybe it's a differnt Fabric, it looks a bit lose fitting, and it might very well be not so tight specifically for Brent's Comfort

 

Well, besides anything else, they couldn't cast a new mould from Spiner to look like NEM-era Data/B4, and the original mould may no longer exist (or, at least, be available to them).

 

Did they retcon B4's origin in Picard? Nemesis treats him as an early prototype, modified by Remans with a data port. But in Picard he's called "an inferior copy" implying he's a Reman creation.

 

early prototype = inferior copy

 

B4's head looked more like Data than Data himself. ;-)

 

That probably has more to do with the fact that they're using modern cameras for this show, that are much less forgiving than they were 20 years ago. I've seen some of these costumes up close at exhibitions and they can be surprisingly shoddy (especially the old red movie uniforms) this one looked authentic to me.
Incidentally; good quality cosplay uniforms are generally *better* than most of the screen used stuff precisely because it needs to last and hold up to close inspection. The production costumes didn't have that requirement.

 

Data's uniform in comparison:

Picard:



First Contact:



Nemesis:

 

I think it's due to the fact that on the original screen costumes the gray area has strongly embroidered "pleats", and is made from a very thick material where the uniform they used in PIC is from a much thinner material that can't take the deep padded stitching