What is a snave and lien?
- Thread starter JJohnson
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GodThingFormerly
A Different Kind of Asshole
I know you can't pass up a chance to rag on ILM, but the vector graphics displays in the film were created by Evans & Sutherland, not ILM. According to the IMDb (always a dubious source), "Snave" was the nickname of E&S digital starfield programmer Steve McAllister. Considering Trek's long history of in-jokes on displays and consoles, I would tend to believe it.
GodThingFormerly
A Different Kind of Asshole
^ Ah. I stand suitably corrected.
TGT
TGT
trevanian
Rear Admiral
I thought E&S was a manufacturer, not a creative entity. E&S display gear is what Abel spent his money on getting built for TMP.
The E&S digistar planetarium system was photographed for the title sequence in TWOK, but ILM's Scott Farrar did the photographing, at a planetarium in Utah I think. I assumed the E&S credit was akin to 'monitor supplied by proton' or 'mona lisa painted by leonardo dicraprio.'
You're probably right that it was people at ILM using the E&S computer to do the tactical displays; the way the end credits are reproduced on various websites, it looks misleading and makes it look like the wireframes were done by Visual Concepts Engineering, which handled "additional animation" on TWOK.
VCE was founded by Peter Kuran, who split from ILM after finishing work on Empire Strikes Back. The Wikipedia article credits VCE with the phaser beams, the new transporter effect, the light show when Spock takes the lid off the reactor, and the blowing sand overlays for the Ceti Alpha V scenes, and mentions nothing of the wire work. (The article, in turn, cites a 1982 piece for American Cinematographer written by ILM's Jim Veilleux.)
When you watch the actual credits as they appear in the movie, it becomes pretty obvious that the machines were provided by E&S, but the four animators who worked them (including one Steve McAllister) were all working for ILM.
So I take it all back. Yes, yes, for the love of God, yes, The God Thing, it was those pea-brained, shit-eating, bottom-feeding iodine-deficient bastards at Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic who were responsible for this travesty upon the screen. Out, out damned spot!
VCE was founded by Peter Kuran, who split from ILM after finishing work on Empire Strikes Back. The Wikipedia article credits VCE with the phaser beams, the new transporter effect, the light show when Spock takes the lid off the reactor, and the blowing sand overlays for the Ceti Alpha V scenes, and mentions nothing of the wire work. (The article, in turn, cites a 1982 piece for American Cinematographer written by ILM's Jim Veilleux.)
When you watch the actual credits as they appear in the movie, it becomes pretty obvious that the machines were provided by E&S, but the four animators who worked them (including one Steve McAllister) were all working for ILM.
So I take it all back. Yes, yes, for the love of God, yes, The God Thing, it was those pea-brained, shit-eating, bottom-feeding iodine-deficient bastards at Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic who were responsible for this travesty upon the screen. Out, out damned spot!
So I take it all back. Yes, yes, for the love of God, yes, The God Thing, it was those pea-brained, shit-eating, bottom-feeding iodine-deficient bastards at Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic who were responsible for this travesty upon the screen. Out, out damned spot!
That is an excellent God Thing! Now do Brando!
(It was the "iodine deficient" that put you over--that's good TGT invectivatin' right there.)
trevanian
Rear Admiral
You're probably right that it was people at ILM using the E&S computer to do the tactical displays; the way the end credits are reproduced on various websites, it looks misleading and makes it look like the wireframes were done by Visual Concepts Engineering, which handled "additional animation" on TWOK.
VCE was founded by Peter Kuran, who split from ILM after finishing work on Empire Strikes Back. The Wikipedia article credits VCE with the phaser beams, the new transporter effect, the light show when Spock takes the lid off the reactor, and the blowing sand overlays for the Ceti Alpha V scenes, and mentions nothing of the wire work. (The article, in turn, cites a 1982 piece for American Cinematographer written by ILM's Jim Veilleux.)
When you watch the actual credits as they appear in the movie, it becomes pretty obvious that the machines were provided by E&S, but the four animators who worked them (including one Steve McAllister) were all working for ILM.
So I take it all back. Yes, yes, for the love of God, yes, The God Thing, it was those pea-brained, shit-eating, bottom-feeding iodine-deficient bastards at Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic who were responsible for this travesty upon the screen. Out, out damned spot!
I don't have the AC piece anymore, but that sounds right. The old CFQ on TWOK has a sidebar on Kuran's work that jives with what you wrote exactly. Kuran did the phaser and beamup stuff on TFF as well, and the mining tool beams in TUC. Always thought it was strange that Ferren, who did the best beamup effect ever with the Jessup meltdowns in ALTERED STATES, farmed out the beamouts in TFF to somebody else. That was the one thing I thought would look really sophisticated and different, so much for my thoughts.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
So when somebody puts a lien on a property, are they actually removing you from it?
trevanian
Rear Admiral
I'm the guy with Ric Astley's head on the pretender-to-the-throneBond's body for my monicker, of course it is silly!
Snave is also Evans spelled backwards.
I can't believe I didn't notice that. 
If we extropolate those numbers to latitude and longitude, we can track down Neil Evans.
...whoever Neil Evans is.
...whoever Neil Evans is.
Maybe he's the "Evans" in Evans & Sutherland.
ETA: Maybe not; Wikipedia says E&S was founded by David Evans and Ivan Sutherland.
ETA (2): Oh, this is interesting... Pixar's Ed Catmull was one of the animators at Lucasfilm who worked on the Genesis tape, which was of course rendered using E&S computers. Catmull was also a student of Sutherland's at the University of Utah, and was an early E&S employee.
ETA: Maybe not; Wikipedia says E&S was founded by David Evans and Ivan Sutherland.
ETA (2): Oh, this is interesting... Pixar's Ed Catmull was one of the animators at Lucasfilm who worked on the Genesis tape, which was of course rendered using E&S computers. Catmull was also a student of Sutherland's at the University of Utah, and was an early E&S employee.
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