#1 mystery..help..

[RobertScorpio]

I know I asked this question some time back on another board but I didn't get an answer that really satisfied my question..here goes..

HOW did they make the star field effects on TOS. Making a star field that doesn't move? I got that figured out. But how did they give the impression that the stars, layers of stars, were moving?

And it really gets me how they did it in DOOMSDAY when they showed profile shots of the Enterprise/Doomday and the stars were going...sideways!!!!...

Does anyone know how they did this effect with mid 1960s FX??

As for TNG's opening sequence of moving stars? I still think some of TOS's better starfields are better looking than the early TNG attempts. You could tell the TNG starfield during the end credits was a loop (you can see it twitch when it starts over)..but I could never see the looping start over with TOS stars...help here if you can..


Rob
Scorpio

 

[Carpe Occasio]

I know I asked this question some time back on another board but I didn't get an answer that really satisfied my question..here goes..

HOW did they make the star field effects on TOS. Making a star field that doesn't move? I got that figured out. But how did they give the impression that the stars, layers of stars, were moving?

And it really gets me how they did it in DOOMSDAY when they showed profile shots of the Enterprise/Doomday and the stars were going...sideways!!!!...

Does anyone know how they did this effect with mid 1960s FX??

As for TNG's opening sequence of moving stars? I still think some of TOS's better starfields are better looking than the early TNG attempts. You could tell the TNG starfield during the end credits was a loop (you can see it twitch when it starts over)..but I could never see the looping start over with TOS stars...help here if you can..


Rob
Scorpio

Optical matte. Different layers of starfields moving at different speeds optically superimposed over one another (traveling matte photography).

 

[RobertScorpio]

I know I asked this question some time back on another board but I didn't get an answer that really satisfied my question..here goes..

HOW did they make the star field effects on TOS. Making a star field that doesn't move? I got that figured out. But how did they give the impression that the stars, layers of stars, were moving?

And it really gets me how they did it in DOOMSDAY when they showed profile shots of the Enterprise/Doomday and the stars were going...sideways!!!!...

Does anyone know how they did this effect with mid 1960s FX??

As for TNG's opening sequence of moving stars? I still think some of TOS's better starfields are better looking than the early TNG attempts. You could tell the TNG starfield during the end credits was a loop (you can see it twitch when it starts over)..but I could never see the looping start over with TOS stars...help here if you can..


Rob
Scorpio

Optical matte. Different layers of starfields moving at different speeds optically superimposed over one another (traveling matte photography).

Carpeoccasio, I am so naive I have no idea what that means...to put it simply..How did they actually make those little dots that look like stars...were they actual lights?? Yeah, I know, its a stupid question..

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Carpe Occasio]

I know I asked this question some time back on another board but I didn't get an answer that really satisfied my question..here goes..

HOW did they make the star field effects on TOS. Making a star field that doesn't move? I got that figured out. But how did they give the impression that the stars, layers of stars, were moving?

And it really gets me how they did it in DOOMSDAY when they showed profile shots of the Enterprise/Doomday and the stars were going...sideways!!!!...

Does anyone know how they did this effect with mid 1960s FX??

As for TNG's opening sequence of moving stars? I still think some of TOS's better starfields are better looking than the early TNG attempts. You could tell the TNG starfield during the end credits was a loop (you can see it twitch when it starts over)..but I could never see the looping start over with TOS stars...help here if you can..


Rob
Scorpio

Optical matte. Different layers of starfields moving at different speeds optically superimposed over one another (traveling matte photography).

Carpeoccasio, I am so naive I have no idea what that means...to put it simply..How did they actually make those little dots that look like stars...were they actual lights?? Yeah, I know, its a stupid question..

Rob
Scorpio

I don't know exactly, but stars would be filmed (either lights against a black background or drawings) several times at different speeds. Then those different pieces of film would be combined optically into one to produce the starfield. Of course thats a simple matte. Adding the Enterprise makes for a much more complex setup using positive and negative mattes to combine foreground and background without anything showing through.

Check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluescreen

 

[Therin of Andor]

How did they actually make those little dots that look like stars...were they actual lights??

There are numerous techniques. The starfield behind the Genesis Project Proposal tape in ST II was created by using computer-corrected actual starfleld maps (from a planetarium) so that the constellations would be as we would see them from a mythical planet called Keti Bandar in Epsilon Indi (see the article in "Cinefex" magazine). The "Big Dipper" constellaton is thus distorted and has an extra star in it: our own sun!

In TNG, when you see stars moving outside the ship's windows, it's little squares of silver metal, glued to a black-draped drum on a post, which is slowly rotating. When the stars must stay still, they just stop the drum's motor. The glint of the stars comes from reflections of the studio lights. Even though the stars are square!

When TNG first started, Bjo Trimble was allowed to collect all kinds of scraps from the set of "Encounter at Farpoint" (bits of carpet, balsa wood, artificial leaves, glittery concrete "rocks", rubbery floor tile, wiring, nails, etc) and make up charity-fundraising items she called "A Baggie Full of Star Trek". I bought the two versions, "Baggie A" and "Baggie B", in a charity auction. The item described in the annotated contents list as "a star from outer space" is a little (quarter-inch square) piece of heavy-gauge aluminum sheeting.