CBS CGI porn please... the best shots!

[Plum]

Hi,
Sorry I don't have any images, but I was thinking about how the CBS CGI team creating the new FX for Star Trek have brought us more than a few wonderful images that really stand out. Though there's lots of room to critique, and some have done so quite well (Warped9 included) even these critics have had their spine shiver every now and then. When the Fesarious loomed over Enterprise, when the Botany Bay was abandoned, the place of Cunid Kalife on Vulcan, phaser shots into a force field near engineering, the wrecked Constellation, reversing out of the space amoeba, firing phasers, the Antares.

What shots made you go mmm.

And remember, this thread is nothing without pics.

 

[Skippy 2k]

Here are a few I liked, well several... Didn't post the new pic from Charlie X given the thread on it but it looks great! Pics from startrek.com and trekmovie.com.

A shot of the shuttle approacing, apparently cut for syndication:

The Updated matte of Janus IV:

The Castle from Catspaw:

Vulcan, loved how they included the city from TAS in the distance:

Wink of an Eye, new city matte. Very nice:

Even though looking back today I still remember seeing this ep when I was young and thinking how cool it was seeing the Ent flying thru the clouds:

Klingon Fleet......:

Loved this night Starbase 11 shot:

Here are a few of the desktops I made using the StarTrek.com format:








(pretty sure I made these both,
plus I didn't see them on trek.com)





Anyway, I like the Remastered Trek for the most part. The Space shots vary sometimes but I don't think I've seen any of the new/updated mattes I haven't liked. I think when the DVD's come out I will have to upgrade to an HD player.

 

[WalkinMan]

Beautiful!!! Thx. I loved how last week the Enterprise and Exeter were shown together, very nice!

 

[A beaker full of death]

Skippy 2k said:

A shot of the shuttle approacing, apparently cut for syndication:

Wow. Awfully cartoony.

 

[sbk1234]

I don't have any pics, but anything that they just couldn't do back in the 60s, but we've wanted to see makes it worthwhile to me.
Amok time is probably my favorite, showing the arena and city in the background. Also, the shuttle landing in Journey to Babel: great stuff.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

A beaker full of death said:

Skippy 2k said:

A shot of the shuttle approacing, apparently cut for syndication:

Wow. Awfully cartoony.

The original was worse - oh, I'm sorry, there was no original in this case. I was thinking of all of the other original photography of the shuttle in space, which ranged from not-completely-embarrassing to downright bad.

 

[A beaker full of death]

^ and a cartoon is so much better.

 

[Plum]

Well, I see a cartoony style going on too. I think this is purposeful.

Juxtaposing between a 1960s show and dead real CGI would not mix. I'd said this even before these shows came out. It seems clear they muted realism in favour of a more stylized look.

Sometimes I think they go too far (or not far enough), sometimes they hit the mix just right. I can certainly see where some would have wanted a dead real look, like ST:TMP for example. Really show the battleship hull and detail of the big e, make the photons and such realistic.

I suspect there will always be a camp that wanted realism over the style the CBS team went with. Personally, I think they made the right choice though I wouldn't go too far in that direction.

 

[Joker]

It'd be wise to look at the shot in motion, as it was intended to be viewed, rather than as a still frame removed from its context, before judging its effectiveness.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Plum said:
I suspect there will always be a camp that wanted realism over the style the CBS team went with. Personally, I think they made the right choice though I wouldn't go too far in that direction.

I agree. The original effects don't look realistic, and even if Paramount was willing to invest the resources in that kind of realism juxtaposing it with the low-budget and unrealistic live action would be awful.

 

[Joker]

UWC Defiance said:
I agree. The original effects don't look realistic, and even if Paramount was willing to invest the resources in that kind of realism juxtaposing it with the low-budget and unrealistic live action would be awful.

The live-action footage always looked pretty reasonable to me. Athstetically different from what we're used to, but not necessarily cheap.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Of course - "low budget" is not a synonym for "bad" nor is "realistic" equivalent to "good."

The designs were generally excellent, but that's different from realistic - and design on the show was definitely dictated by the limited budget allotted to sets and costumes.

 

[Joker]

Fair enough, I think we're on the same page.

 

[gastrof]

A beaker full of death said:

Skippy 2k said:

A shot of the shuttle approacing, apparently cut for syndication:

Wow. Awfully cartoony.

Actually, if you look at the shot from WINK OF AN EYE shown above, it too looks cartoony.

The guy standing behiind Kirk does NOT look right, and even Kirk himself looks somewhat drawn or painted, not like a photgraph.

I think the comment made above that 'the still shots don't do the moving video justice' is a valid one.

 

[nx1701g]

A beaker full of death said:

Skippy 2k said:

A shot of the shuttle approacing, apparently cut for syndication:

Wow. Awfully cartoony.

I personally think it looks like a painting.

 

[Plum]

^^^
... interesting you say it's rather like a painting, some shots made me think of old paintings of the enterprise. Those James Blish books from my youth, for example.

The shot of the Fesarius looming over enterprise was the first time I went, "wow, it's like a painting".

 

[Gertch]

Skippy 2k said:

Even though looking back today I still remember seeing this ep when I was young and thinking how cool it was seeing the Ent flying thru the clouds:

I remember thinking how cool that was.

Here is a live shot to compare it to. Of course the altitude is different.

More at http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/06/one-day-in-space-photos.html .

 

[Therin of Andor]

Gertch said:
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/06/one-day-in-space-photos.html

Nah! Too cartoony.

 

[Who_Trek]

They're all cool. Have to say I was annoyed by them changing the episodes to them them better (TOS SHOULD look dated!), but I LOVE the new effects. The one of the rock bridge on Vulcn, and the Ent. floating above the clouds -- wow!

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Is there a website that has all the new shots with comparisons to the originals. I have to admit that I haven't been keeping up with remastered but I love what they've been doing from what I've seen.