Star Trek: The Doomsday Machine - Special Edition Screencaps

I need to amend my earlier comments above. After watching again, and after having re-watched the original (because you inspired me to do so - yes, I'm a little obsessed), I realized two things: first, you are staying consistent with the original in not showing the PK's beam hitting the Enterprise; and second, the way the Enterprise is flying through the asteroid field, dodging and weaving, makes perfect sense because it's fleeing for its life (so to speak). This point is made all the more clear by that one simple shot you have of the PK just plowing through the debris and sucking in the asteroids instead of going around them. I stand corrected.

So ..., [Emily Litella]Never Mind.[/Emily Litella]

And I'd like to add ..., [Oliver Twist]Please suh, I want some mo'. [/Oliver Twist]

I'm all about the channeling fictional characters today, I guess.

Happy Holidays!!!

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone--positive and critical. I'm not going to repost it here but SpockBoy has even gone so far as to compile a video critique of my work so far, for which I'm (a) immensly grateful and (b) devoting time to study and reflect upon.

Now, I'm not saying that comments require video analysis to be noticed!! But I am saying that I do read and think about everything that you guys take the time to post, and I really, really do appreciate the feedback. Thank you! And happy new year!

 

Linky brokey... Vimeo states "the file has been deleted and unavailable". Intentional. Prof, or just a little FUBAR?

Q2

 

Nope, I just noticed that and messaged SpockBoy about it--it looks like Vimeo is being overzealous again about deleting anything that has to do with fan-based Star Trek remastering efforts (you may recall that a few months ago they wiped out everything I posted at Vimeo, forcing me to relocate to YouTube). In the meantime I've edited the blog post to point to an earlier version he posted, but don't be surprised if that suddenly disappears, too!

Edited to add: NOPE! It was Paul who deleted the video. He's a stickler for making sure credit is given where credit is due and he got the name of one of the Star Trek composers wrong on the music used in the video. I'll post the updated link when it's available later this evening... and hopefully, a little something extra along with the update.

 

The link is fixed.

Before signing off for the night, I wanted to respond to TrekkieMonster's comment about wanting to see the Enterprise struck by the antiproton beam: basically, I did too! For only 66 frames of film there was a lot going on during this little sequence, and unfortunately there just wasn't enough time to do it the way I'd like to do it. If you want to read a detailed explanation of my rationale behind the way I did it the way you see it now, you can read my blog entry accompanying the final version of act II, scene 2.

Your parting eye candy of the day:

 

I think his corrections improve your renders immensely. (not that they didn't look really good before )

 

I'm kind of leaning that way myself. Fortunately, if I do decide to make many of the changes he suggested, some of them are easily done with nothing more than post-production color, contrast and saturation tweaking in Adobe After Effects or Premiere Pro... no need to go back and re-render months of work done so far.

 

I've been a little motivationally-challenged for a few days now, so I'm taking a little break to work on something that's going to have to be tackled anyway when I get to act III. Here's an amuse bouche for you.



I haven't touched the Jefferies or the hangar deck models since I finished them in 2007, and they still need texture and lighting tweaks. This is a raw image with no modifications to the models or the 2007 lighting setup--consider this a starting point.

 

OMG, these are amazing images. Much better than what they did on the remastered TOS episode. I love the new design of the doomsday machine. Somehow, you got it just right.

 

Thanks. But truthfully, I think CBS Digital did a fine job considering the ridiculous time crunch they were under. I have it a lot easier--no deadline (after four years I've finally given up on predicting when I'll finish ) and no constraints to make everything slavishly adhere to the original canon 100%.

 

If I didn't know better, I could've sworn that was a physical model. Can't wait to see the Jefferies in action.

 

Fantastic.

 

I'm not sure how to say this. I think you're being much too modest. It's your design that's so good, especially. It isn;t like your version has a million girders that would take forever to put together. While the maw of the original design looked great, the outside isn't very good. It's the great drama that keeps you hooked on the show. Maybe they were afraid to touch the iconic design in the CGI. On another thread someone thinks a film I think looks retro wonderful and nifty and cool and fun isn't good enough. Maybe I'm young, semi-attractive and stupid.

But I'm also a professional artist and a modest dramatist. What makes your doomsday machine look so great is the design. You modified the original concept in a way that isn't complicated, but takes a crooked ice cream cone and makes is deadly and strangely alien.

You know, I'm very forgiving. I take art over budget. Nothing needs to be perfect to be fun and worthwhile. I'll take fun old films over boring, over-produced new stuff any day.

In my very humble opinion, your doomsday machine is simply better. The hanger bay I can see would take more time, and no one should compare that if the cgi people had no time to do their cgi for the remastered version. But your hanger bay still awesome and your doomsday machine is still better.

 

Well, thanks (blush). You get a cookie.

 

Ooh, cookie for everyone! That looks fantastic!

 

Thanks, but I wind up erasing cookies every day.

You don't happen to have any double fudge brownies, do you?

 

Great work! That is a good name for that shuttle.

 

OH YEAH! That was a great change it looks so much more realistic! The greys do not look so washed out.

 

^^^ I agree, which is why you see much a more lively and saturated image on that second test render of the Jefferies shuttlecraft vs. the first. Fortunately, many of the effects I've already rendered were done with multi-layered Photoshop frames where I can discretely tweak multiple channels (e.g., I can mess with the contrast without affecting color diffusion). That will make it easier to go back and make post-processing adjustments without having to re-render entire scenes.

Sarvek, what else could I name her? Without the genius of Matt Jefferies, Star Trek would probably have looked very, VERY different... this is my little way of saying thanks to the genius creative mind behind the look and feel of the best science fiction franchise in history. And yes, I'm going to make darn sure that the Jefferies nomenclature is clearly visible when I get to the Act III finale (quick show of hands from anyone who was able to read what the CBS Digital shuttle was named?!)