2011 SotL Calendar
- Thread starter EmperorKalan
- Start date
ST-One
Vice Admiral
Ditto.
Ditto.
Double Ditto
^ Triple Ditto.
And tobiasrichter I would not worry to much about your artistic choices, as others here seem to be doing. I thought both images were nothing short of spectacular. Being a long-time student of astronomy, I noticed the discrepancies almost immediately. But to be frank, I didn't care and found that none of them distracted me from the beauty and majesty of the images. Star Trek has always been more about ideas and exploring the human condition than scientific accuracy. If the powers-that-be felt that pure science was paramount than we would have lost more than a few fantastic Trek stories over the years. We also wouldn't have gotten the completely inaccurate black hole/red matter plot from the last movie or Khan's world being laid to waste by an exploding planet either. But why quibble when the story makes up for most of the stretches in believability.
Astronomer Phil Plait actually hosted a discussion at Comic Con on this very subject. Check it out... Abusing Science.
This is about art and imagination. The science and the astronomy should follow that function and not its own. As the artist, you should always make the universe yours.
And tobiasrichter I would not worry to much about your artistic choices, as others here seem to be doing. I thought both images were nothing short of spectacular. Being a long-time student of astronomy, I noticed the discrepancies almost immediately. But to be frank, I didn't care and found that none of them distracted me from the beauty and majesty of the images. Star Trek has always been more about ideas and exploring the human condition than scientific accuracy. If the powers-that-be felt that pure science was paramount than we would have lost more than a few fantastic Trek stories over the years. We also wouldn't have gotten the completely inaccurate black hole/red matter plot from the last movie or Khan's world being laid to waste by an exploding planet either. But why quibble when the story makes up for most of the stretches in believability.
Astronomer Phil Plait actually hosted a discussion at Comic Con on this very subject. Check it out... Abusing Science.
This is about art and imagination. The science and the astronomy should follow that function and not its own. As the artist, you should always make the universe yours.
We wouldn't have gotten a lot of Star Trek if they'd gotten too wrapped up in scientific accuracy and plausibility. 
No problems with Red Matter, protomatter, subspace or the Genesis device, but major problems with supernovae that don't act like supernovae at all.
Or, in this case, when something well known like Earth, Moon and Sun are placed in impossible constellations.
But understand me right, that's not really a problem, it's just a nitpick.
Or, in this case, when something well known like Earth, Moon and Sun are placed in impossible constellations.
But understand me right, that's not really a problem, it's just a nitpick.Same dope the guy who invented "dilithium crystals" was doing.
Yeah, how is red matter any worse than protomatter? Or thalarons? Or metaphasic fountain-of-youth radiation? Or the Nexus? Or trilithium? Or...
Mind doing one more PM, please?
Thank You for the PM
Wow. Tough room. But that's OK – I've been an illustrator and designer for a long time – decades in fact – so I have a pretty thick skin. And the one thing I learned a long time ago is that you can't please everybody – just stay true to your vision.
I'm the guy who did the "kitbash" pic, and I accept that description proudly. I loved it in DS9 when the actual model kit kit-bashed ships first appeared as background ships. This image is my homage to that time when off-the-shelf FX solutions included taking common plastic kits and making something familiar yet unique with them.
I set out to flesh out the WOK era universe a bit, since that had my favorite Enterprise design, the refit. Everything shown from that era was always a version of Enterprise, Reliant, Excelsior or Grissom. All terrific ships, IMO. But what would/could kitbashes of those ships look like? DS9 used ships from all the different Treks – I stuck to WOK only to keep things more unified. I also wanted to do a battle scene, because those were the ship scenes that most excited me as a fan.
My key ship was the John Glenn. I wanted to create a ship using my favorite forms, while not just moving things around haphazardly. My concept for the ship was that it was a Corvette – a fast, heavily armed ship with it's primary function being defense, not exploration. In my original layout, that ship filled the page with the other ships being simply part of the background. But Doug suggested that those background ship deserved a more significant role in the image, so they became more prominent. But even in this final version, they were fill-in ships for the battle scene, ships that I could use that weren't simply Constitutions or Mirandas or Oberths. Does the Sun Tzu or Valley Forge set new design standards for Star Trek? Absolutely not. Nor were they intended to.
My hope is that the majority of fans can get some type of pleasure from my effort. If it's not your cup of tea, that's cool – I totally get it. But I don't apologize for it, either.
To the other artists in this thread – Tobias and deg – my hat is off to you both. I'm proud to have my small contribution included in this work with so many amazingly talented artists like yourselves.
Don Hillenbrand
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Wait... did he say "tough room"? 
He has no idea.
But I for one love your work Don and the kitbash was awesome. You just keep on doing what you are doing and I will keep on buying.
He has no idea.But I for one love your work Don and the kitbash was awesome. You just keep on doing what you are doing and I will keep on buying.
