CGI TMP Memory Wall

[Pauln6]

I'm doing my own little movie edit of TMP and I was planning on adding my own version of the Memory Wall scene. Nothing too fancy, just Kirk and Rand attempting to follow Spock and being forced to retreat.

I am hoping to do long shots with a CGI background and some dialogue cribbed from the comic version as a guide and use the test footage and stills of Nimoy and Shatner for some brief close ups (with Grace's face edited inside Spock's suit). Off Camera dialogue will be used as much as possible to minimise the need to synthesise any Deepfaked dialogue.

Is anyone aware of any existing fan created CGI for the memory wall? It would be really helpful not to have to start from scratch.

 

[scifieric]

Nice idea. But no, I've not seen any recreations of the Memory Wall from ST:TMP at all.

 

[Pauln6]

Nice idea. But no, I've not seen any recreations of the Memory Wall from ST:TMP at all.

I haven't seen anything yet either. It's a fairly basic landscape with flashing lights. I can add two tiny spacesuits fairly easily. I just have no digital artistic experience and a lack of imagination as to where to start.

I'm working on the digital avatar for Rand now. I have stitched together the Enterprise in the background from the scene with Spock leaving and returning to get enough of the ship to paste a red spacesuit in the middle. My first attempt will just be to paste Rand's face inside the spacesuit and just rinse and repeat until her dialogue is done. If I can get that to look OK I will try to add some movement to the ship behind and maybe some movement to her spacesuit. I suppose a CGI Enterprise in the background would mean spending less time sorting out manual movement of the ship but I can probably manage.

As far as the Memory Wall goes, I think I will do the close ups and what I can jazzing up the existing footage. Then I can see how much extra wide shot footage I need to fit in the remaining dialogue and some music.

 

[Pauln6]

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This is my early storyboard for the spacewalk scene. I've managed to space out the placeholder dialogue in my working copy but I'm not sure how to export different tracks on subclips.

The Rand digital Deepfake is a bit luminous. I'd like to try and make her more dull before finishing her onscreen dialogue.

 

[publiusr]

What you may try is a pseudo-documentary.

There was a Bryce CGI heavy film called Planetary Traveler which had a nice ethereal feeling

 

[Pauln6]

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This is the working draft, tweaked version of the airlock scene. I think I might need to shunt some of the dialogue so it's harder to see Kirk's lips aren't moving.

Two scenes left. One where Kirk and Rand use their tricorder to track Spock (which tips off Ilia) and then the slightly varied scene where Kirk finds unconscious Spock, tweaked so that it takes place in the Memory Wall chamber with Kirk in his original space suit.

 

[Atolm]

Aces! I like this project

 

[Pauln6]

Still working on the Memory Wall footage. I have to combine 600+ frames which is made trickier by the fact that the cameras move differently in both scenes.

I think I might be able to flip the existing memory wall background into which I can paste a still of Rand with an animated face again. If I'm really ambitious, I can take images of Kirk exiting the airlock and paste him moving in the background. This should give me a cut scene that I can use to stitch Spock's entrance and Kirk's entrance together.

 

[publiusr]

I have wondered if V’ger might have left a small part of itself behind... even if the bulk of it vanished.

 

[Pauln6]

I have wondered if V’ger might have left a small part of itself behind... even if the bulk of it vanished.

My YouTube page has some comic book stories I did, set after TMP. I mashed together various franchises just for a laugh and one of them involved reincarnating Decker and Ilia and turning them into religious icons. Mind you, I still have the final story to write.

 

[publiusr]

I think that Manta and Moray type pair were to be along with Khan in STII by some accounts

 

[Pauln6]

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I got bored of trying to paste Rand in the second half and thought I'd have a go at plotting. The aspect ratio came out wrong for the Memory Wall but my laptop crashed and ate my draft files so this will have serve as the Wip example. I can update the file when I can be bothered. A minute of footage is enough to add some dialogue and I can lead nicely into the additional SLV scene. I might do either a close up of the tricorder or add some dialogue to stress that the tricorder tips off V'Ger unlike Spock, who is using no sensors and only voice recording.

I think the IT issues are what will kill the project. The voice duplication software has come up with a Python error I don't understand. Still, I can keep going on the visual files for now.

The image of Rand in the middle is a placeholder for timing. Hopefully I can get some movement to it by doing another CGI Rand face reaction and Kirk moving in the background.

 

[137th Gebirg]

IIRC the Marvel comic book adaptation has several scenes at the wall that could at least give you some inspiration.

 

[Pauln6]

IIRC the Marvel comic book adaptation has several scenes at the wall that could at least give you some inspiration.

Yes, I have those! If I can get the voice imitation software to work, the plan is to use a variation of the dialogue from there.

 

[Pauln6]

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First attempt at the CGI Rand for this scene I slowed her down fractionally but I think she still needs a few more frames as I feel it cuts away too quickly. The flicker on her face is annoying - I'm finding it quite hard to blend the Deepfake into the CGI avatar successfully. Plus the camera was very shaky so I had to work a bit to keep the background steady in relation to her image. Pasting Rand into the Kirk section with Shatner's wire work is really hard and sooooo boring. There are 600 frames and because the camera moves, Rand ends up wobbling all over the place. I think I might leave her as mostly still at least until the camera starts rotating since the focus will be on Shatner anyway. I donlt think I am going to last for 600 frames otherwise.

Still, in principle the scene fits in quite well. It comes in at around a minute and the music track turns sinister when it cuts to Ilia again. I just had to cut out the. "But.." so that it didn't sound like a direct continuation of the scene before the Memory Wall insert.

The Ilia scene then cuts to Spock's journey nicely, and then I will just need to work on relocating the scene when Kirk finds Spock. The scene itself should be easy to relocate by just pasting some Memory Wall over the Enterprise and voila we have a second aperture to an inner chamber. The tricky bit is Kirk's space suit. I was quite lucky to get a high definition still of Spock to work with. For Kirk I'm probably going to have to lift him from the airlock scene, which will be horrible. No need for a Rand close up this time so I can just give her an off-screen line, most likely just the exclamation, "Captain!" from Miri just as Spock tumbles through. The rest of the dialogue, such as it is, looks fine.

 

[Pauln6]

Update to this project! I noticed a few errors which I have now fixed. It didn't turn out too badly. Still a fair bit to do.

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