Good stuff, @The Lensman.
All My Enterprises....
- Thread starter The Lensman
- Start date
A giant weapon ship, last relic of a forgotten war, has destroyed the planets of the Gamma V System and is making it's way to Earth. Piloted by the robotic servants of a long dead species, and following apocalyptic orders given centuries ago, they move from system to system destroying worlds with cold and calculating efficiency. Can the ships of the United Nations Space Force stop them before they destroy the Earth?!
From your description, I gather this doomsday machine is not an automated robot, but an asteroid sized weapon piloted by (presumably humanoid looking) robots, maybe something akin to the Xilians from "Monster Zero"? Does the beam look like the shower-like stream of the maser cannons we saw in various kaiju films, or would it appear more gaseous like Godzilla's atomic breath?
I must say you really caught the essence of something built for a tokusatsu production! Now I'm curious as to the look of the bridge interior for your UNSF ship!
Glorious....
A giant weapon ship, last relic of a forgotten war, has destroyed the planets of the Gamma V System and is making it's way to Earth. Piloted by the robotic servants of a long dead species, and following apocalyptic orders given centuries ago, they move from system to system destroying worlds with cold and calculating efficiency. Can the ships of the United Nations Space Force stop them before they destroy the Earth?!
Spoiler Alert:
I'm guessing that means it looks like something from the 60's? Either way, thanks mate!
Thanks Bill! Hey, I saw recently you said you used to be a regular on Trekweb, so was I back in the day. Still use the same sig and everything (that sig must be over twenty years old!) Did you use a handle over there?
Yep!
And yep!
Thanks! Part of the fun / challenge of this particular Trek, is trying to make them look like models, and to keep to what maneuvers they would've actually done. While I like the smaller ship that's flying upwards to avoid the Doomsday Machine, that particular angle is a bit indulgent as most likely, it would've just turned left horizontally. I usually try to make whatever I'm working on as authentic as possible, but that angle just looked cooler.
The original version of my Doomsday Machine had sphere's near the maw, at all the points of a compass rose, with the bumble bee texture and radar dishes out of one of the Gamera movies. The spheres / radar dishes were angled inward, and would've emitted beams to connect with the beam from the main emitter, Death Star style. But that version, for some reason, was a major memory hog and was actually crashing my program. I've never seen anything like it. That this model did that, but not the Kirbyprise was surprising. So I ditched the sphere's because no matter how many I kept, it was crashing the program. In the end, this is closer in shape to the actual Doomsday Machine.
This is a damn cool thread
Thanks guys!
Finally did up a pic to show the Rocketprises at their correct sizes relative to each other. There's a little figure in front of the neck of each ship to show how big a person is relative to the ship.
Last edited:
Continuing my run of doing some much needed and long overdue tweaking of older stuff.....made some modifications to the UNSF-1701
The maser canon retracts into the secondary hull so that it has that bullet look to keep it looking streamlined when "flying".
Now that is something that I wish more people would do. I might not have the dish enclosed for other..refit-centric projects, but having a partial maw that acts like Iron Mans floating emitter blades would be cool
Now that should be an Enterprise evolution chart.
Designed some fighter ships!
UNSF cruisers carry a wing of three fighters. The 1701 has received the newest model to help in it's fight against the Doomsday Machine.
Technically, it is if you start at the bottom and work your up. That's the order in which they were all created
Hmmm.....interesting point about the reg number. Part of me wouldn't mind changing it, but then I remember that it's supposed to be the Russian Enterprise with a Pike and Number One on board. Well, at least I think so, mainly because I created the Gagarin as part of a poster featuring those two.
UNSF cruisers carry a wing of three fighters. The 1701 has received the newest model to help in it's fight against the Doomsday Machine.
Technically, it is if you start at the bottom and work your up. That's the order in which they were all created
Russians love to build big chunky stuff, not exactly pretty, not the finest finish but simple, brute-ish and they stuff keeps working forever, Gagarin just looks like that, you could change the registry to 1961, that is the year he became the first man in orbit.
Hmmm.....interesting point about the reg number. Part of me wouldn't mind changing it, but then I remember that it's supposed to be the Russian Enterprise with a Pike and Number One on board. Well, at least I think so, mainly because I created the Gagarin as part of a poster featuring those two.
Its your universe.
Those fighters resemble a real Soviet aircraft a little..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-15
Those fighters resemble a real Soviet aircraft a little..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-15
Careful now. You're getting all fancy with that depth of field stuff!
Careful now. You're getting all fancy with that depth of field stuff!
LOL! Well that wasn't really the intent, just a benefit of it that I really didn't notice until you pointed it out. For this project, as well as the "Star Trek 1955" one, I approach these as screencaps as opposed to art....if that makes sense. So in the above picture, the fighters are being composited in to a shot of the larger ship during a flyby. The larger ship is magnified (Hence the larger film grain) and is blurrier for that reason. Well that and it's moving faster than the fighters and passing them up. Essentially I'm trying to create the dodgy compositing techniques due to the limitations of the day, hence the black outlines around the fighters.
I recently picked up a blu ray of the original "Mothra" and was trying to emulate some of the dodgy compositing that had both black and blue outlines, but couldn't get the blue to look as accurately "bad" as I wanted. Maybe next time.
Ultimately the goal is trying to be as faithful and as believable to the time as possible. So that if you were scrolling through screencaps of various 60's sci-fi Japanese films you'd pass right by it and never notice anything out of place. That's how I know when I've done a book cover right (I've got a shit ton of old book cover images saved). Whether I've succeeded or not depends on the viewer and their knowledge of these old films.
I do wonder.....is anyone interested in seeing this "universe" without all the post production work to make it look like a 60's film?
Last edited:
YES! Although, as you have already intuited, part of the appeal and charm of your work is the deliberate (I hesitate to use the word, but you know what I mean) “simplification” of the compositions. But I for one would love to get some clearer views of what you’ve created.
I suspected that was your goal. the observably thick black border of the "optical matte" was the "cincher" for the "intent" for me.
I'm trying to recall how often Toho used optical mattes in the 50s. Obviously, effects like "atomic breath" and "maser cannon beams" were matted, but in those cases, I think they were simply double exposed without needing the "stencil" to blot out the background. Even as early as "Gojira", Toho employed "mattes" to combined human scaled foregrounds with the costumed performer destroying a miniature cityscape in the background. But for "flight" sequences, be it in an atmosphere or in space, didn't the studio rely upon "in camera" footage? It's literally been decades since I saw "The Mysterians", so I honestly can't remember at the moment.
And, yes, I'll enjoy any variations you'd like to present!
Thanks! I'll post something without much "film" effect soon. Thinking about it though, I recall that one reason I do that is that my models lack all the "fiddly bits" that all the really cool models these days have. I think things like film grain, etc, sorta distract from the fact that my modeling skills ain't nothin' to write home about. I swear if I ever get around to upgrading this piece of shit computer, I'd love to animate a scene in that classic Toho style.
You got it right Redfern! The flight sequences, especially in "Battle In Outer Space" were done "in camera" with miniatures, while scenes in the Kaiju films that had humans in foreground with monster in background used compositing. In "Battle In Outer Space", the larger enemy craft were not significantly larger than the fighters so that the models could all be filmed together. In my universe, the 1701 is much larger than the fighters and required compositing in order for the scale to be accurate. Hence why the fighters have the black outline, but the 1701 doesn't when she's by herself.
I do have to say that I wish I had a pilot model as I really wanted to do a closeup of the cockpit. I also dislike the dark cockpit, but this rig doesn't do transparent without a crash here and there. I may have to redo that image and photoshop a clearer cockpit. Especially now that it's starting to bug me.
Also, while I own "Battle In Outer Space" I can't seem to get my hands on a copy of "The Mysterians".
Will try to post something this weekend. I've had an epic scene with multiple fighters and starships flying at the camera stuck in my head for a few days.
In many ways
I shiver with antici...
...pation!
In certain aspects your work shares the aesthetics of The Rocky Hooror Picture Show so I hope you’ll appreciate the sentiment:Will try to post something this weekend. I've had an epic scene with multiple fighters and starships flying at the camera stuck in my head for a few days.
I shiver with antici...
...pation!
LOL! Well, I got sidetracked from the original plan, but hopefully this image will hold you over.
The Electroprise and funny you should mention it.....I had that ship up next to do some much needed tweaks. Went ahead and made some changes, and planned to do a "remastered" version of the "Doomsday Robot" cover since there are things about that cover that bother me. Anyway, not an ortho, but here's the updated version of the X-47 (Electroprise). Will post an ortho shortly.
So pulpy I can almost feel the wood fibers.
I LOVE IT!
I LOVE IT!
Epically cool. I love the United Nations Space Force and the Soviet cruiser.I
Finally did up a pic to show the Rocketprises at their correct sizes relative to each other. There's a little figure in front of the neck of each ship to show how big a person is relative to the ship.
Similar threads
