Trust me, if I ever get to the point of being close to professional, it will be a long time from now, and you guys will have seen all the steps between then and now.
For now, this is definitely just for fun.
My Star Trek Green Screen Effects Demos
- Thread starter Admiral Archer
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Trust me, if I ever get to the point of being close to professional, it will be a long time from now, and you guys will have seen all the steps between then and now.
For now, this is definitely just for fun.
New effects test, this time a short clip featuring the refit USS Enterprise from the movies and one of the four-nacelle USS Excelsior pototypes flying through space together. I wanted to make sure the prototype Excelsior was still a lot bigger than the Enterprise, in spite of the fact that my Enterprise model is practically ten times the size of my Excelsior model. LOL
May I offer you a tip? The trick to making things looks in correct perspective is to not get close to the models unless the ship is supposed to be right up near the "camera". I suspect you scaled down the image of the refit. If so, if you do another shot like this I would suggest getting further away from the background ship so the perspective on it is flatter and it well feel farther away.
Thanks for the tip!
In regards to the background model being shot further away, that is a great idea! However, in regards to the close-up ship, the problem lies in the fact that the Eaglemoss ships are really small (Especially the Excelsior prototype, which I would guess was only a little over an inch wide at its widest point) and so to get any sense of scale when compared to models that are much larger, you have to get really close up, which then almost defeats the purpose when it gets all blurry. I ordered a much smaller refit Enterprise model, so I might try to redo this shot. PS: I can see why they didn't use this particular Excelsior prototype, it's almost impossible to film from almost any angle.
Why not just reverse the composition and put the smaller model in the background since you can't get any DOF (Depth of Field) on something that small?Thanks for the tip!
PS: I can see why they didn't use this particular Excelsior prototype, it's almost impossible to film from almost any angle.
I guess the easiest answer would be that I wanted to give a sense of scale, to make it obvious that the Excelsior was a much bigger ship than the Enterprise, at least in-universe. If I had put the Excelsior as the background ship, it would have appeared much less impressive, more like the Antares from "Charlie X" or the USS Grissom from Star Trek III. I wanted there to be a definite size comparison. Unfortunately, that proved to be a bit more difficult than I originally anticipated...
UPDATE: New effects test. I'm experimenting with lighting the engines of unlit starship models in Adobe After Effects. The effect is amazing on the Ambassador class seen here, not so much on the Excelsior prototype. But hey, I'm sure I'll get better at this with time.
Hey all, I know it's been over a year since my last post on this thread, and I'll gladly start a new thread if it is necessary to do so. That being said, I just did my first new green screen test since my last post! It's another attempt at bringing the prototype USS Excelsior designed by Nilo Rodis to the screen, and this time I tried my best to get the sense of scale right with the Enterprise. Here it is if anyone is interested!
Nice work.
I thought they were great, the most recent was probably the best for me. I definitely get a TOS vibe from the clips in certain moments. Hope that doesn't sound like a diss, it's not meant that way
Not at all! A lot of my clips remind me of TOS, if not the original run of Doctor Who. I'm just glad that people get a kick out of seeing my stuff! I certainly enjoy making it, that's for sure.
More green screen effects tests! Yay!
This time I returned to the tried and true attempt to film the ship moving in video, as opposed to just taking still images and moving the ship in editing. Tell me if it worked!
This time I returned to the tried and true attempt to film the ship moving in video, as opposed to just taking still images and moving the ship in editing. Tell me if it worked!
Okay, so I may have bitten off more than I can chew... LOL
In honor of the 40th anniversary of the very first Star Trek movie (and my favorite!) I decided to attempt what for years I had assumed to be impossible - recreating the dizzying opening pass of the Klingon Battlecruisers. In my video there is only one ship, and there is no V'Ger cloud, but the shot is fairly similar in layout. I did, however, cheat: being unable to do the whole shot in one take, I elected to take two takes of the shot, one as it is approaching the camera, and one as it is flying away from the camera, and splicing the two takes together to make one long take. The result is , erm, unintentionally...interesting: it works sort of, but the shadows switch directions! In hindsight, I realize my mistake: I moved the direction the ship was facing rather than the position of the camera. Still, take this as an early attempt, as I will probably be revisiting this shot in the future!
OMG I'm glad you mentioned Doctor Who in another post, because I really felt like I was watching a Doctor Who or Blakes 7 episode here. The way the model is off scale and shakes as you pull back brought back so many feels of watching those shows in the 80's.
Awww...I love it when I hear comments like this! Yeah, my favorite Doctor is Tom Baker, so I get where you're coming from. And I'm honored that my little effects tests are capable of bringing up warm fuzzy memories of a simpler time. That definitely outweighs any feeling on my part that these effects could have been done better. I kinda wish I knew more about Doctor Who, so I could do like an old school Doctor Who fan film, where these effects would fit in just fine. Out of curiosity, what is Blakes 7? I've heard of it but I have no idea what it is. Anyway, thanks for the kind words!
Oh my, you never heard of Blakes 7? It's an amazing BBC sci fi series which ran from 1978 - 1981. It was about a group of bickering freedom fighters led by Blake who travel in an advanced AI run spaceship called The Liberator and fight the Federation, a totalitarian government.
It's BBC cheap but amazingly written and acted. The characters are mostly outstanding and the real strength of the series. It was created by Terry Nation who wrote every episode of the first year and many of the second before departing for America. There are lots of cast changes and main characters actually die along the way. It's a combination of The Dirty Dozen, Star Trek, Star Wars, Robin Hood and so on.
Seek it out, watch it in order, avoid spoilers and enjoy! It's my favorite UK SF series.,
It's BBC cheap but amazingly written and acted. The characters are mostly outstanding and the real strength of the series. It was created by Terry Nation who wrote every episode of the first year and many of the second before departing for America. There are lots of cast changes and main characters actually die along the way. It's a combination of The Dirty Dozen, Star Trek, Star Wars, Robin Hood and so on.
Seek it out, watch it in order, avoid spoilers and enjoy! It's my favorite UK SF series.,
'78 to '81, eh? Sounds like its right in the sweet spot of sci-fi for my tastes. I always say the best Sci-Fi in television or film media was created during the late 70's and early 80s. I'll have to check it out for sure!
If you like that era of UK sci fi then try to find it. It's worth the effort
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