Between that magazine, and @Rekkert's choice of that presentation style, it's how I imagine Trek sets *should* be presented. It's great to see @Donny 's fantastic take on it. dJE
This is exactly why I was inspired to generate this bridge. I too have always seen it kind of a drab, colorless set. But one day I was kinda drifting aimlessly trying to decide what I wanted to do for my next project, and was going over images of the TFF bridge and noticed how much colored lighting the set has. There's the blue coming from the top of the viewscreen that gives off a violet hue as it gradates down towards the floor. There's the blue-violet lighting that fills the upper bridge dome, and the gold tint to the light panels underneath the upper soffits: And the beige and red padding throughout: It's not as colorless as one remembers. It's kind of like The Cage bridge. It feels kinda samey grey until you look closer and notice the hints of green and purple lighting throughout the set you never saw before. As soon as I noticed all the little details I hadn't before that I was like "Ima do it". Plus I wanted to finally finish my TUC bridge but felt going back and making sure I get a solid groundwork laid by generating an accurate TFF bridge was prudent.
Final screenshots! Unfortunately, I've been having a hell of a time with Unreal today. I started creating the video of the bridge this morning and ran into crashes for the first time since I started the project, even with real-time ray-tracing disabled. So I put the video on hold, re-installed Unreal and took final renders. I tried to at least turn on ray-tracing for the screenshots, but was faced with more crashes and slow-down. So, I unfortunately have to present these renders with sub-par reflections. Not that many of you would notice. But it is what it is. I'm still super pleased with how this bridge turned out, and am happy to present the final renders now so I can move onto the TUC Enterprise-A bridge in the coming days. Oh, and I should note. Anywhere you see a monitor that's "blank", it's because it was blank during bridge scenes where the Enterprise was in normal operation, which start with the scenes when Chekov is in command through Sybok's speech about the Great Barrier. Many were visible as blank screens in blurry background images or behind the scenes shots during these scenes in the movie.
Looks gorgeous! Interesting points about the lighting too - I think there's a small change that would alter how people perceive this bridge, and that's simply painting the doors a different colour. They went back to TOS red for the next film and it had a big impact.
1. This is amazing work, thank you. One of the few threads I follow. 2. Regarding the beige/gray discussion upthread -- as someone who never noticed anything of what is discussed here (see CRT "screens," different turbolift placements between the two films) -- though the sets might seem less drab than people remembered, the people remember them as essentially drab because they essentially are drab. Which is ok by me, who has a new, beige bedroom with nothing on the walls! Love it. What gets me is there is a lot of lighting that I think would be inconvenient for an actual work environment. Light-up panels down bu your feet, that would often be in your eyes as you looked around the bridge? Ideally I think you want the light source up and behind. It's a very attractive set, though.
Amazing work on this as always. I never noticed they hadn't put anything on those stations before, but given that they're auxiliary and mission ops, not having something in those wouldn't be crucial. It may be perceived as bland, but like the TMP bridge before it, there are a lot of moving parts that don't make it as simple as it looks.
The lighting is very TNG. I wonder what it would look like if lit like TWOK? (Whistles nonchalantly.)
After reviewing my batch of screenshots this morning, I realized that they're far too pedestrian. So this morning I quickly set up some new cameras to get a few more artfully considered shots.
Holy Riddler's Lair Camera Angles, Batman! Seriously, though, these photos definitely show some interesting angles that I REALLY wish the production crew might have experimented with to make the cinematography look more innovative.
This is one that's begging to be lit for Red Alert and have some unfortunate crewman tumbling across the bridge while Sulu and Chekov grip the sides of their console for dear life.
Noticing just how much colour there is on this bridge has given me a new appreciation for this set. Those renders make it seem like a very pleasant place to spend your working day
Variants are coming. My goal currently is to generate the TFF and TUC bridges first (Enterprise-As and Excelsior). The Enterprise-B will require a ton of new LCARS work (as all the monitors were CRTs and fully animated in that film, and had more green in their color pallete as well) so I might save that one when the inspiration really hits. LCARS work is the big time sink of these projects. I'm thankful I already had half the work done for the TFF bridge due to my work on the TUC bridge a couple years ago. Anyway, once I'm done with the A's and the Excelsior, I want to explore at least two bridge varaints 1) U.S.S. Endeavour: a Connie (not a refit, but built as the refit design) midway between TFF and TUC. Think TFF with more decals and fire extinguishers and such. 2) TBD Miranda: A Miranda bridge of this era, again between TFF and TUC. One turbolift flanked by two "auxiliary" consoles like the TWOK Reliant, the consoles designed to match the aesthetic of the era. Color schemes of both tbd. I'd also like to explore some other bridge variants of the era of a completely different layout, but my plans of those are still incubating. However, as always, these are just plans for now. Since I'm at the whims of the ebb and flow of my motivation, and my penchant for completing screen-accurate versions first, who knows if I'll actually get around to either.
The idea for the Endeavour sounds as what the TUC bridge might’ve looked like if Paramount cut down the set design budget and said they could only afford detailing & set dressing but a full repaint was out of the question.
That’s a fair assessment, yes! I was originally going to do a “Enterprise-A between the two films” take, but feel I should just do another ship altogether to avoid confusion and to branch out from mostly depicting the Enterprises.