Firebird's Sketch of the Week Series

[Firebird]

Holy heck, I love this! Both the concept, but also your drawing! Teal and orange/beige go so well together. Now I want someone to recreate this as a 3D set as well!

If I had the skills, I'd model it myself... plus a few other things I've been wanting to see realized from other EVA-Trek episodes I've written. Sadly, I'm confined to the sketchbook!

 

[Cyfa]

Drawing 483 / 2024 Artwork 16: My fully-realized version of a Galaxy-class Cetacean Ops lab aboard the USS Nerv on EVA-Trek, which features a bunch in this week's new episode (https://archiveofourown.org/works/53157028). Credit to @Mr. Phreez for the Cetacean Ops department logo that I reused here!

~ Another awesome Cetacean Ops realisation! Brilliant work, @Firebird

 

[Mr. Phraust]

Drawing 483 / 2024 Artwork 16: My fully-realized version of a Galaxy-class Cetacean Ops lab aboard the USS Nerv on EVA-Trek, which features a bunch in this week's new episode (https://archiveofourown.org/works/53157028). Credit to @Mr. Phreez for the Cetacean Ops department logo that I reused here!

This originated with an observation I had in Mr. Phreez's interiors thread that the art directors for Lower Decks repurposed their main engineering backgrounds for cetacean ops. It's one of many brilliant callbacks to Berman-era production Trek design.

Thus, for my concept, I followed that same design ethos and took a budget-conscious whack at what Richard James and Herman Zimmerman might've done if we ever saw Cetacean Ops on TNG.

This looks great! I love the idea you have of reusing Engineering. It makes perfect sense to as the floor was already recessed on the actual set. It would have been so easy to do this.

And seeing the Cetacean Ops Logo I designed on those walls looks really cool! Thanks for the credit, and I'm glad you liked it enough to use it. I'm very proud of that design.

Looks great. I love the color scheme, the layout, everything.

If I had the skills, I'd model it myself... plus a few other things I've been wanting to see realized from other EVA-Trek episodes I've written. Sadly, I'm confined to the sketchbook!

If I wasn't currently modeling my version I would love to collaborate on this with you. I'm jumping the gun - but this idea is simply wonderful!

 

[Firebird]

If I wasn't currently modeling my version I would love to collaborate on this with you. I'm jumping the gun - but this idea is simply wonderful!

If you ever get the itch to try to work this up yourself, you've got my wholehearted support already!

 

[Mr. Phraust]

This originated with an observation I had in Mr. Phreez's interiors thread that the art directors for Lower Decks repurposed their main engineering backgrounds for cetacean ops. It's one of many brilliant callbacks to Berman-era production Trek design.

I’m not sure, but I always felt that Lower Decks technically uses “sets.” I’m pretty sure this ship is 3D modeled with some cartoon style shaders thrown on. If this is the case the cetaceans ops set might literally be a redress of their engineering set.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Drawing 483 / 2024 Artwork 16: My fully-realized version of a Galaxy-class Cetacean Ops lab aboard the USS Nerv on EVA-Trek, which features a bunch in this week's new episode (https://archiveofourown.org/works/53157028). Credit to @Mr. Phreez for the Cetacean Ops department logo that I reused here!

This originated with an observation I had in Mr. Phreez's interiors thread that the art directors for Lower Decks repurposed their main engineering backgrounds for cetacean ops. It's one of many brilliant callbacks to Berman-era production Trek design.

Thus, for my concept, I followed that same design ethos and took a budget-conscious whack at what Richard James and Herman Zimmerman might've done if we ever saw Cetacean Ops on TNG.

I love your concept, but I see one practical real-world obstacle: they would have to dismantle the warp core set piece in order for it to work. The core was never ejected on TNG; the four times they ejected the core on Voyager, they always carefully framed their shots in engineering to hide the fact that they didn't actually remove it. So there was either a financial or logistical barrier to tearing down and rebuilding that part of the set (I'm also thinking of how they didn't even bother disguising the TNG warp core in Star Trek VI). The only time they did actually do this in the Berman era was in Insurrection. I guess that movie budget — and the fact that they could just pack and hold it for the next film instead of having to re-erect it next week — helped.

 

[Firebird]

I love your concept, but I see one practical real-world obstacle: they would have to dismantle the warp core set piece in order for it to work. The core was never ejected on TNG; the four times they ejected the core on Voyager, they always carefully framed their shots in engineering to hide the fact that they didn't actually remove it. So there was either a financial or logistical barrier to tearing down and rebuilding that part of the set (I'm also thinking of how they didn't even bother disguising the TNG warp core in Star Trek VI). The only time they did actually do this in the Berman era was in Insurrection. I guess that movie budget — and the fact that they could just pack and hold it for the next film instead of having to re-erect it next week — helped.

Obviously, it’s a more than a bit of a cheat on my part to assume they had the capability to treat the warp core as a “wild” set element, but why let the beauty of a thing be spoiled by practicality, eh?

 

[Firebird]

Been a bit of a busy week with EVA-Trek revisions and IRL things, so there was only time for a single drawing. Though, I must admit, ever since my daily 100 Kanojo series, I've been somewhat lacking for motivation to draw lately. Probably expect one or two drawings a week at least until I post the final EVA-Trek episode at the end of March.

Which reminds me, I need to carve out some time to storyboard some key scenes of the finale over the next couple months. I really could use a full writers' room and art department at Studio Firebird. I dunno how the hell I've made it this far solo!

Drawing 484 / 2024 Artwork 17: Ataru Moroboshi from Urusei Yatsura, a particular favorite series amongst the Star Trek art department in the 90's.

As a post-script, I realized that today marks the third anniversary of my fateful decision to pick up my pencils and start drawing again. That first sketch (see the first page of this thread) may have sucked, but I can truly say that it changed my life, and in some ways saved my life. The last three years have given me a gigantic boost in creativity and productivity: nearly 500 illustrations drawn, and 26 teleplays written - the equivalent of 300,000 words over almost 2,000 final draft pages. With any luck, I'll keep this going for another three years, perhaps ten years (at least).

 

[Sgt_G]

You say your artwork changed your life ... well, I can say it added a bit of cheer to our lives.

 

[Firebird]

You say your artwork changed your life ... well, I can say it added a bit of cheer to our lives.

That makes it all worth it, my friend.

 

[Santaman]

You've improved a hell of a lot over time, not only the drawings themselves but yout colouring too, has improved VERY much.

 

[Firebird]

Finally feeling like I'm bouncing back a bit from my illustration burnout, so I was able to get in a couple drawings this week!

Drawing 485 / 2024 Artwork 18: Madoka Ayukawa from Kimagure Orange Road

Drawing 486 / 2024 Artwork 19: Kyoko Otonashi from Maison Ikkoku

Additionally, I did a fun little thing yesterday where I created TNG-style title card screencaps for each episode of EVA-Trek I've released thus far. It was more than a bit of a pain to find a shot from TNG or Eva that could work... then do it twenty-one times, but I think it came out nicely in the end! Here's a sample of my favorites:

 

[Santaman]

Nice work. The one is funny.

 

[Cyfa]

I have to agree with the esteemed @Santaman : Madoka Ayukaw's is funny! And she's got cool hair, too.

I like the title cards. "Good Grief" has tickled me - I'm imagining a lot of eye-rolling

 

[Firebird]

I like the title cards. "Good Grief" has tickled me - I'm imagining a lot of eye-rolling

Maybe not a lot of eye-rolling, but a good amount of bar fights, espionage, Quark, and Garak being Garak. It was actually one of my favorite episodes to write thus far: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47134405

 

[Firebird]

I've had a bit of a long and annoying week, which may give some context as to why I did one of these illustrations as a way to blow off some steam...

Drawing 487 / 2024 Artwork 20: The Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Put behind spoilers for those who are averse to blood, however silly the moment in context is.

Spoiler: TIS BUT A SCRATCH!

Drawing 488 / 2024 Artwork 21: Commander Jack Ransom, first officer of the USS Cerritos.

Moving from the art department at Studio Firebird to the writer's room, work has been going full speed ahead on revising and locking down the final scripts of the series. Here's a look at my working copy of the finale's shooting script, which has so far gone through one round of the full revision color page rainbow. Yes, I'm enough of a dork to print hardcopies of my working scripts in the right colors.

The PDF clocks in at one-hundred and sixty-three pages! It's officially the longest script I've ever written. And, if I'm being shamelessly honest, I think it's my best writing, too. Super excited to release this one on March 29th!

 

[Santaman]

Nice work! It's just a fleshwound!

 

[Firebird]

Nice work! It's just a fleshwound!

 

[Sgt_G]

Drawing 488 / 2024 Artwork 21: Commander Jack Ransom, first officer of the USS Cerritos.

"Wait a minute. I can't make a full house with only four cards."

 

[Firebird]

Busy, busy week as ever at Studio Firebird! Found some time for a few illustrations, got final revisions done for the last episodes of EVA-Trek, and even edited together several soundtrack suites for the finale. I tell ya, once I post the last episode at the end of March, I think I'm gonna take a vacation...

Drawing 489 / 2024 Artwork 22: Ginpachi Sakata in the upcoming anime adaption of 3-nen Z-gumi Ginpachi-sensei, a spinoff of Gintama.

Drawing 490 / 2024 Artwork 23: Yuki Itose from A Sign of Affection, which is becoming one of my favorite romance anime series.

Drawing 491 / 2024 Artwork 24: Snack Basue's Akemi. This show started off a little weird in its first episode, but since then, it's turned into a delightfully bizarre and hilarious time each week.

EVA-Trek Episode 22, "Have it All": Stardate 49212.9: Tensions between Kaworu and Kiel come to a head as the young pilot re-evaluates his mission. Only three more episodes to go after this!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53848330