CGI'd Data looks like Lores head from Datalore

If Data's appearance is limited to a dream, the problem of funky de-aging could've been avoided by simply allowing Data to appear older and chalking it up to dream symbolism. Maybe something like: Picard feels guilty about Data's death, so he's imagining Data the way he would look if he were still alive.

 

The irony is that, if Data had lived, he would've been an easy character to recast once Spiner aged out of the role, since you could just have said that he decided to experiment with a new face and voice and altered his outward appearance the same way Lal altered hers from her "blank" state. Maybe he could've decided to establish more of his own identity distinct from Noonien Soong.

But of course, the obvious point of bringing Data back here is nostalgia and wanting to see Spiner in the role again.

 

For a dream, yes, or just use massive amounts of fog and plenty of glowing. Nobody would suspect a thing.

 

Aside from the collar being a bit high at the front, he looks great in the profile shot, at least looking at it on a phone screen. Not much different from movie era. Same when you see him from a distance as Picard approaches. Maybe they could have hid Spiner’s age better with camera angles and long shots (or maybe they will for all we know)?

 

I'm glad Brent Spiner is coming back as Data.I'm interested to find more about his role will be in the Picard series.

 

Dreams, flashbacks, holodeck

 

I would actually like to Data, Lore and B4 all together somehow.

 

If they were, I'm pretty sure they'd all be arguing & annoying each other all the time.
DATA: Spot, you are a good cat.
LORE: You, Spot, will be part of my grand plan to destroy the Federation.
B4: Is that you, Commander, with the furry face?

 

So basically Ed, Edd n Eddy

 

Okay this needs to be a new Trek CBS one-man series. Star Trek: Me, Myself and I starring Brent Spiner as every member of the Soong android family.

 

What I don't understand is, why didn't they just use de-aging CGI for Data's face instead of using makeup? It would've looked so much better.

 

Probably because it's not something you can "just" do -- it takes a lot of meticulous frame-by-frame work by very talented CG artists and is thus probably quite expensive and time-consuming, which is why we've only seen it done in blockbuster movies with huge budgets, and why it looks bad when they're rushed and have to cut corners (e.g. Superman's mustache erasure in Justice League). Try to do something like that without the time, money, and skill to get it right and it'll look far worse than practical makeup.

 

Oh alright. I figured Picard had a pretty big budget.

 

making it look decent is definitely time consuming, but it's not just mega budget stuff, I did it for someones small film, but it falls into the category of touch-ups, I can see where Digital work has been done on the footage shown so far, but rushed. People associate this kind of work only with big budget films, and that's a terrible shame, Digital touch-up work is extremely common and most people don't even notice it, how things are prepared and shot play heavily into it. I did a small film(roughly 30 minute film) where an Actor was re-prising a role that he had previously played in a TV Series), 20 years had passed, and he was playing a Character who does not age, it was not a mandate that I do touch-up work on him, but I thought it would be in interesting example of touch-up work, doing it on something that has not budget, The Actor had his hair dyed, his beard were dyed, and he had basic makeup, there wasn't anything wrong with his appearance per say, but I did it anyway, and I was surprised it turned out as well as it did because I was pressed for time, I don't notice it much when looking at it, I really only notice when comparing before and after shots

 

That is de-aging CGI. It just isn't very good.

 

Multiplicity?

 

Time makes all the difference in the World when it comes to these VFX, and most of the time there really is no Time. The Workload also has an effect on things, and Shows like this are quite heavy, there is a whole list of shots that have to be done, and only so much time in which to do it all, and even then there are "Priority" lists, the demands made on VFX Artists are greater than ever, but Audience's are also more spoiled than ever, if something does not look like it cost at least 100 Million Dollars to make, then people generally don't want to look at it, Audiences in general take things for granted, and often understandably, because ignorance is bliss, the most the average Joe knows is that there was someone doing work with at a computer, but they don't think or really even care about the process and all that it entailed. the average joe would mess his pants at the thought of how much damn breakfast for a big name actor might cost(very slight exaggeration)

 

I'm thinking this is one theme of the new series -- Picard is not handling retirement well and he wants back in Starfleet.

 

I hope not, because that's just Kirk all over again. If anything, I get the sense it's the reverse, that he's happy to be out and gets reluctantly dragged back in.

 

There's a reason why the season is only ten episodes long.