"Polaris"

Discussion in 'Fan Productions' started by Admiral Buzzkill, Jan 7, 2009.

  1. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Why would it not be an exterior view of the galaxy?
     
  2. Vektor

    Vektor Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Dennis, are you planning to do any color filtering on the planet-side scenes to reflect the color of the sun? Just curious.
     
  3. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    We have a colorist who will give the planet a unique look.
     
  4. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    Just for giggles, here are some of the props we had on location.

    [​IMG]

    The silvery material on the displays of the hand scanner (center bottom) and the dark stuff inside the "hand-held interociter" (upper left) are only there for shots when the devices are "off". They pop off the reveal greenscreen material beneath allowing us to superimpose readouts onto them.
     
  5. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    DS9Sega is right - we have an excellent colorist, Gina Lockhart, who will be working with the planet footage as well as everything else to give us the best look possible. We actually have shot in several locations which will require post work in order to give them a more unified appearence as part of the same landscape.

    The image I posted uptopic is just an early "concept" approximation of the look that we're going for.
     
  6. Gepard

    Gepard Vice Admiral Admiral

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    This gets me all tingly in my pants.
     
  7. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I suspected as such.

    The compositing process looks great, at this resolution anyway, and I really love the galaxy, especially its cloudiness. The first live action reference for comparison that came to my mind was the galaxy rise over an alien ocean in Carl Sagan's Cosmos, at the end of Episode 9, and what you have here is the potential for something far superior.

    Besides color, how much of the galaxy is visible through the planet's daytime sky, and how that depiction is reconciled with the apparent level of sunlight striking the surface of the planet, are the main issues I have, that will affect how convincing the final image is.
     
  8. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Well, what I said along with the initial posting of the image was:

    ...which I thought should have been sufficient to indicate that this is conceptual stuff as opposed to a fully-rendered frame from a final film (which we're nowhere near. We're just getting ready to shoot the location).

    This picture has served to spur our internal conversation about how to design the sky such that it's not confusing when viewed from various angles - if you've got significant unfamiliar celestial objects dominating certain areas of the horizon, for example, then when you cut to reverse angles where these things aren't visible you risk giving the impression that the planet has more than one sky.

    I think if we work really hard we may achieve the level of plausibility of planet imagery from Forbidden Planet or Trek TOS, but we're not going to accomplish Avatar. :lol:
     
  9. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    The script calls for visiting a planet just outside a galaxy, and such a vast luminous object's gonna show up night or day.

    And Dennis is right that "conceptual" is just that. This was a simple test of a photo of the location and the type of sky background we were discussing based on the script. That it raised questions within the production (matting issues, continuity, angles, etc.) means it's doing it's job. :)

    Well, as long as you consider that a GOOD reaction. ;)
     
  10. MikeH92467

    MikeH92467 Admiral Admiral

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    Well, I can certainly say that without knowing any of the context it's a very interesting shot. To this day I hardly ever consciously notice an exotic star field or sky color, but I believe those kinds of touches are vital.
     
  11. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I take it, then, that you are not shooting in 3D....
     
  12. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Oh, we do everything in 3D. For some reason it only shows up in 2D in the video.

    I don't hear this kind of thing nearly enough.
     
  13. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Need to talk to Christopher on that one. ;)
     
  14. xortex

    xortex Commodore Commodore

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    If it looks right, it is right. So far, none of Christopher's books have looked right to me.
    O.k, since I'm here. Do you guys have any intention of pitching or selling this to t.v.?
     
  15. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The more troublesome and unavoidably true sister of that statement is "If it looks wrong, it doesn't matter whether it's right or not."
     
  16. USS Intrepid

    USS Intrepid Commodore Commodore

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    How exactly is a book supposed to look?
     
  17. xortex

    xortex Commodore Commodore

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    I can see your not a writer but a story for a book should look like a composit for a skyline and that picture works for me already. but I do feel what seems right is just as if not more troubling than what is right.
     
  18. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    Why, praytell?

    Xortex, I'd like to reply to your comment, but the first sentence of your post is a nonsensical jumble.
     
  19. Gepard

    Gepard Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Read and understand
    . Especially the photocomposite image of the Andromeda Galaxy in Earth's night sky on page 2.

    ETA: There was another thread, in the Stargate forum I think, where this also got discussed in regards to the McKay/Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge and if we would see the Milky Way from the outside like they did in the show. The answer was "not that clearly" similar reasons, but I can't locate the thread in question.
     
  20. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That's nice.

    But, in the first place, if hyperrealism is important to the Polaris team, I suggest they draft a professional astronomer who knows more about starlight than just the inverse square law, that there are dust clouds, and "common sense."

    And in the second place, as I said just upthread, Carl Sagan was comfortable showing a bona fide galaxy rise (of the Milky Way, over an alien ocean) in Cosmos, and he was a professional astronomer. If the depiction he endorsed was totally bogus, then that would be noteworthy.