All that effort to refit the Excelsior, and nobody in Spacedock thought to update the ship’s OS? Beautiful work as always, Donny!
Mike shared that he was most likely looking at a Star Trek III trading card when he made these graphics!
He was working on TUC and TNG simultaneously. Said there was about a 12 week period where he and Denise did not have a day off at all.
A big thank you to Mike Okuda for rising above and making those moments in the film extra special. When you think about the fact that the visual effects are done after principal photography, it’s a minor miracle when on-set graphics even somewhat resemble the screen version of the ship. For all I know, the decision to modify the Excelsior filming miniature may have been not have been made until after that graphic was made. For the purposes of the film, the graphic that he produced was more than adequate, and really drove home the sense that that was a very different (and more advanced) vessel when it was the same set. I am going to say Okuda knocked it out if the park on that one.
This photo makes me think that it'd be advantageous to have a right handed helmsman and a left-handed navigator. Otherwise, you'd be reaching over to the other side of your console a lot. Brilliant work as always, Donny! It'll be interesting to compare and contrast with your revisions. I wonder if they were working on the first edition of the ST Chronology around that time as well.
Set the Excelsior bridge on hold for several weeks due to just being burnt out on bridges, but picked it up this weekend in order to finish it and get it out of my system So, without further ado, here are the final renders of the Excelsior bridge as seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The only non-canon bits are adding "Helm" and "Nav" labels to the helm consoles, and the conjectured lower graphics on those consoles as well.
Really great job Donny. I never noticed the details on those back blue door before. Do they get shown in the movie very well? Now, throw a bunch of lame Poser characters in it!
Yes, it looks absolutely fantastic. I must say, I had no idea those two doorways on either side of the ship graphic (master systems display?) were behind Sulu. I don't recall ever seeing those doors in TUC. Although, upon reviewing the screencaps of VOY "Flashback," it looks like they were visible in the background in that episode, at least (FWIW, given that they had to make some compromises when they rebuilt the set).
I fortunately have very good behind-the-scenes schematics and photos of those aft doors, which is how I was able to depict them here so accurately. We don't get a good look at them in TUC at all, and while I can't share the references I have for legal reasons, I can share this glimpse we see of the doors in the film:
Wow that's phenomenal work on the Excelsior bridge, @Donny! Edit: Oh I see what you mean by the "Helm" label being non-canon. Was there supposed to be a row of white buttons or switches above the helm sliders' red labels/indicators? https://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tuchd/tuchd0089.jpg
Absolutely gorgeous!! The attention to detail is mesmerizing as always, and your lighting rig is amazing.
It's always like a little Christmas morning whenever you deliver the final renders of one of your sets, Donny. The Excelsior has never looked better!
@Donny - I found this clip that might help with the Excelsior's helm console. Not sure if you've seen this before. Look at 1min 01sec and you can see more of what the helm console has and there does not appear to be a lower graphic? on the console... Youtube video Gkmnq32Fh8s
Those doors look really awkward to get through, with a bit sticking out on one side, and a slope on the bottom side of the other! Is it just because of the angle that we're looking at them, or are they actually quite narrow?