Charting the Crucible

[David cgc]

This picture was inspired by a shot in early season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, where Galactica emerges from behind a cloud in a nebula, looking for all the world like a seaship emerging from a fogbank. I decided some time ago that the movie-era Enterprise would be a perfect ship for my own take on the shot, given that it's my favorite spaceship and that it's long, sleek profile means it'd fit well in the aspect ratio I normally use.

The nebula background (and foreground) was a composite of four photos of clouds I've taken over the years (and anyone who's ever seen me while I'm holding a camera can tell you that I photograph a lot of clouds), colored, mixed, and generally fussed with in Photoshop. I did a good deal of fiddling with the bloom and fog depth effects on the ship as well, until I was happy with them. I quite like the colors in this picture, and it's one of my new favorites. And any day I can look at a picture and think "new favorite" is a good day.

As for the narrative of the image, all I can say is, it's not from The Wrath of Khan. It's a nice, peaceful image of the starship Enterprise exploring another, completely unrelated nebula. I know it looks like the nebula from The Wrath of Khan but, well, it's not. Because I said so.

Image

 

[Michael]

Just one word: Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Wingsley]

Great work! Maybe the Big E was dodging a more heavily armed Klingon patrol.

It would be neat to see the TOS Big E in a similar fashion.

 

[Gepard]

Wow. Beautifully done; lovely lighting on the ship--it really feels like a solid object.

Is it just me, or are there faux optical compositing lines around the ship and the front layer of clouds?

 

[David cgc]

No, those are entirely legitimate digital compositing lines around the front cloud.

It took some doing to matte in the cloud without getting a black edge of what used to be sky. Even once I'd pulled that out, I found that the thick, full feel of the cloud completely broke with the thin, wispy clouds I used in the background. I didn't really have a more suitable cloud, and didn't want to render a 3D one for time and aesthetic reasons, and the composition didn't work if I took it out all together, so I make it fit more with the background by giving it some of the same color variation. It still wasn't perfect, but it served its purpose of framing the ship.

However, this intentionally vintage style idea (and you aren't the only one who's said it) sounds good, and doesn't make it seem like I cut any corners. I think I'll say that in the future if anyone asks.

 

[Gepard]

^Heh.

Looking at it again, I'm even more floored by how real the ship looks, and not just generally "solid" but like a '70s or '80's era filmed image of the miniature. Do you have a breakdown of the lighting setup you could post by any chance?

 

[asdf1]

Beauiful, just beautiful. Can you make any more? Different ships, different nebulas, etc.

 

[David cgc]

Do you have a breakdown of the lighting setup you could post by any chance?

I think that feeling of solidity came out in Photoshop. The lighting was pretty basic, all told. The model's rig, along with a small white area light at about ten o'clock for the rim light, a large red area light high and past the model, and a bluish area light behind and below the camera.

Turning layers on and off, it seems that the CGI went away with the top layer, which was duplicate of the merged image, with film grain applied and the levels adjusted so the whole ship was almost entirely black, and then reduced it to 50% opacity.

I think I might post a resized version of the Photoshop file later, considering the interest in the post-production process this has been getting.

Beauiful, just beautiful. Can you make any more? Different ships, different nebulas, etc.

Sure, plenty. Check here and here for the big ones.

 

[Gepard]

^Good info; thanks. I would have sworn there was an ambient occlusion pass in there somewhere, but I guess that just goes to show what an efficient rig and good post-processing can do for you.

I think I might post a resized version of the Photoshop file later, considering the interest in the post-production process this has been getting.

That would be most welcomed.

 

[David cgc]

Oh, yeah, I forgot: I turned on radiosity for the render. That's where the occlusion look came from. I'm still not used to radiosity being something that adds minutes instead of hours to render times.

Here is a zip file with small versions of the final image as well as the source images. Have fun, folks!

 

[Gepard]

Oh, yeah, I forgot: I turned on radiosity for the render. That's where the occlusion look came from.

Radiosity just to handle bounces, or radiosity with a light-emitting backdrop for fill illumination?

I'm still not used to radiosity being something that adds minutes instead of hours to render times.

Yeah. I just upgraded computers, and am still getting used to radiosity images that took 20 or 30 minutes on my old machine taking one and a half minutes now. Go multithreading! ]

EDIT: Oh, and thanks for the ZIP file!

 

[David cgc]

Oh, yeah, I forgot: I turned on radiosity for the render. That's where the occlusion look came from.

Radiosity just to handle bounces, or radiosity with a light-emitting backdrop for fill illumination?

Just bounces, no backdrop. The area lights took care of filling up the scene lighting. I was a little surprised by how much light it added in, though I suppose the Enterprise has a very complex shape with lots of places where light can catch and reflect. I've chalked up my difficulty nailing down the Star Trek look to generally using the wide-angle lens that Lightwave defaults with, but the lack of light reflect off different parts of the model might've been part of it, too.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

David, are you sure you didn't snip this from "lost footage" from ILM from WoK?

 

[backstept]

wow that's really cool

you should post this over at 3dscifi.com
they love the enterprise over there
haha

 

[David cgc]

I bet they would, but I think five forums to post my pictures is my limit.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

Bloody Heck -- That's gorgeous...

Cheers & Thanks ~
-CM-