Cool CGI visuals from Axanar

[Romulan_spy]

Robert Meyer Burnett who was to be the director on Axanar, posted some great videos of some of the CGI visuals that they were worked on before the lawsuit shut the project down.

I have to say the visuals look amazing. The space battles would have been fantastic. I feel like Robert Meyer Burnett really understands what makes a great Star Trek space battle.

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[Maurice]

I remember this coming up when RMB first released these shots, which overdo the camera rolling.

Slooow moootion tooorpeeeedooos.

 

[Romulan_spy]

View attachment 17812

I remember this coming up when RMB first released these shots, which overdo the camera rolling.

Slooow moootion tooorpeeeedooos.

I think RMB mentions in one of the videos that he prefers camera rolling to the shaky cam approach. Considering that I hate the shaky cam, I'll gladly take some camera rolling.

I will say that the sequence where the Ares slices off one of the warp nacelles on the Klingon ship, grabs it with a tractor beam to then throw it into the other Klingon ships which explodes, igniting the plasma which destroys the first Klingon ship, would have been spectacular. I know RMB admits that maybe he was going a little too fanboy with that sequence, but it still would have been awesome to see on screen. It would have added some coolness and newness to battles instead oft the usual blasting with weapons and explosions. And, I like the idea of ships getting creative with the environment.

 

[Maurice]

Shaky cam v. "spinning" isn't an either or.

The whole thing is pretty fanboy. The nacelle thing is basically a riff on the Galactica battle with the Pegasus' flight pod.

All these released effects suffer from slow-mo. Nothing moves as fast as it ought in order to pump up the energy. It all feels a tad lethargic, regardless of how pretty the rendering is.

 

[publiusr]

If the live action was about an old Klingon who was to face his end anyway, then everything would jive.

The effects work is lovely

 

[Maurice]

Huh?

 

[Therin of Andor]

'Cos True Trek is always about space battles.

 

[Romulan_spy]

'Cos True Trek is always about space battles.

No, but a nice space battle doesn't hurt.

 

[GeorgeKirk]

I honestly like some of the things they were trying to do with the VFX like more Newtonian physics and treating space as a true 3-dimensional area and not the "space lake" that most productions have in the past. But if the project ever gets made (an extremely remote prospect) it would be made without Tobias Richter or a professional director to design the shots. At best, we'll get amateur-level work by someone who's good at making CGI models but bad at visual storytelling.

 

[Noname Given]

'Cos True Trek is always about space battles.

So true. Alec and even RMB seem MORE excited about the visuals then the ACTUAL story they're (supposedly) wanting to tell - and the 'final approved shooting script circa 2015-2016 is available and shows just how much of a TRUE TURD their story was.

ALL the above videos just talk about their excitement over visuals -- the story seems to be an afterthought.
^^^
Pretty funny when you consider all the AXANAR supporters lay into the fact that (in their opinion) all the current live action Trek is about 'the visuals' with 'no story'.

Oh the hypocrisy...

 

[GeorgeKirk]

Pretty funny when you consider all the AXANAR supporters lay into the fact that (in their opinion) all the current live action Trek is about 'the visuals' with 'no story'.

Oh the hypocrisy...

But it's okay when they do it because they're honoring Gene's vision (meaning that the nacelles on the Starfleet ships are more TOS-like).

Of course, if anyone ever makes a fanfilm that actually aligns with Gene's vision they couldn't put on YouTube because it would consist of the Captain character speechifying directly into camera about Gene Roddenberry's philosophy of life while a full-on porno happens in the background.

 

[fireproof78]

So true. Alec and even RMB seem MORE excited about the visuals then the ACTUAL story they're (supposedly) wanting to tell - and the 'final approved shooting script circa 2015-2016 is available and shows just how much of a TRUE TURD their story was.

ALL the above videos just talk about their excitement over visuals -- the story seems to be an afterthought.
^^^
Pretty funny when you consider all the AXANAR supporters lay into the fact that (in their opinion) all the current live action Trek is about 'the visuals' with 'no story'.

Oh the hypocrisy...

It's just playing in the sandbox with their spaceships. Which, is fine by me. In my opinion, Axanar had a lot of potential for both the battles and few details of a story we had. But, the difficulty simply lies in the fact that it was overblown, money wasting, vanity project that sullies some interesting designs and visuals.

 

[publiusr]

Huh?

My thought was that, if the action was a bit slow to you— having it tied to something funerial might be appropriate.

 

[dub]

Stunning visuals, and the Klingon hymn. Wow.

Edited just to say this...I don't know all of the ins and outs of the drama surrounding Axanar, but this guy is a freakin hero regardless:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Tobias_Richter

 

[fireproof78]

Stunning visuals, and the Klingon hymn. Wow.

Edited just to say this...I don't know all of the ins and outs of the drama surrounding Axanar, but this guy is a freakin hero regardless:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Tobias_Richter

Tobias does great work and the dumpster fire that is Axanar is unfortunate if only because professionals who did good work got associated with a ridiculous scheme.

 

[Maurice]

I draw the line somewhat short of "hero". He's a fine CGI artist.

 

[Therin of Andor]

... while a full-on porno happens in the background.

Or "Pretty Maids All in a Row".

 

[Sgt_G]

'Cos True Trek is always about space battles.

Yeah, I know what you're saying. BUT! If you're going to have space battles, at least make them worth watching.

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[XCV330]

It looks stupid. Star Trek always puts their ships in close formation rediculously because of film constraints (yet Midway, the 76 film, showed how to do a battle where the main ships in a naval engagement are never in the same shot). But these Klingon cruisers are closer together than Napoleonic soldiers. You could basically go 10 pin bowling with them. Why have beam weapons and torpedos if you're going to shoot with your hulls ten feet apart. Just put on suits and go club each other like cavemen.


(about the close formation battles, Star Trek gets a pass sometimes, like TWOK as that was a purposeful surprise attack, and then all the sensor issues in the nebula. Likewise TUC due to the nature of the engagement. Hmm.. Meyer gets it right both times)

 

[Firebird]

(yet Midway, the 76 film, showed how to do a battle where the main ships in a naval engagement are never in the same shot)

IIRC, all of the battle sequences are taken from film shot during the war in actual engagements, or from movies like Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. They shot very few VFX sequences, if any.