Daren Dochterman's Phase II work

[ST-One]

In his latest blog entry he gives us a VFX-reel for the Phase II episode 'To serve all my days'. These shots are from the 'a night in 1969' edition of the episode.

I have only seen the originally release version thus far, and I really must say that, while some of the shots look quite good (lighting and render-quality) his camera-work and starship-movements are really wonky... I use Lightwave (the 3D-programme Dochterman uses) myself and the problems he has with his camera swaying like a drunken sailor all over the scene look all too familiar to me.
IMO he should have shown a little more restraint in the way he animated the ships as well - especially the Klingons but the Enterprise also.

http://blog.darendoc.com/?p=565

So while those shots aren't altogether that bad (and the episode itself is good enough to compensate for the CGI) he really should have a look at what other 'amature'-CG-artists (I know, he is actually a professional industry concept artist) can do with the TOS-style (our own Dennis and Professor Moriarty are among the first who come to mind).

 

[Maurice]

Color me unimpressed. The weapons are all slow motion even compared to actual TOS effects, and the ship and camera movement is atrocious.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It looks fine to me. That's a nice model of the Enterprise, too.

I like the big fuzzy red and blue stars.

Our effects in Exeter are intended to imitate, with some specificity, not just the designs but the effects of TOS. That's not the standard by which to judge other work, for several reasons, and I think Daren's footage has a lot more depth and detail to it than ours.

 

[ST-One]

It looks fine to me. That's a nice model of the Enterprise, too.

I like the big fuzzy red and blue stars.

Our effects in Exeter are intended to imitate, with some specificity, not just the designs but the effects of TOS. That's not the standard by which to judge other work, for several reasons, and I think Daren's footage has a lot more depth and detail to it than ours.

Yes, his models are very good, that is true.
And I too liked the TOS-ish star-field.
But his animation (the motion paths; you see his camera sway around the key-frames, and some of the Klingons' movements aren't much better) sucks, to be quite frank.
And, given the context of the episode, I think he should have restricted himself to the same style you use(d) for Exeter.

 

[Michael]

I have to agree with ST-One, while the model work and the starfield effects look awesome, the camera movements and the ship maneuvers (especially the Klingon battlecruiser) look very clunky and not TOS-y at all. Which as Dochterman states was more or less the goal – to make it look like an episode from 1969.

 

[Shaw]

This is exactly why I took a stab at building CG models and animating them a few years ago. After watching Dennis' work in Exeter I didn't think I had enough background to appreciate what really went into this type of effort. So based on my short experience, I've come to the conclusion that we should temper our criticism considering the Herculean task that some of these artist have accomplished (specially those who build their own models, which some people aren't doing any more).

That having been said, I can recall my first reaction to the effects of this episode, which was generally positive after In Harms Way (where the ships darted about so fast that it pulled me out of the story the first time I saw it). Now, after seeing part 1 of Blood and Fire, I can see that the effects of To Serve All My Days went too far in the other direction and (what we've seen of) Blood and Fire is the best balance.

Now, from strictly a model building point of view, I like Dennis' Exeter better than Dochterman's Enterprise, and I like Dennis' Phase II Enterprise better than Dochterman's version as well (from what we've seen of both so far).

But if things seemed too sluggish in To Serve All My Days, I'd be willing to bet that it was a direct reaction to all the criticism that the effects got after In Harms Way.

 

[ST-One]

This is exactly why I took a stab at building CG models and animating them a few years ago. After watching Dennis' work in Exeter I didn't think I had enough background to appreciate what really went into this type of effort. So based on my short experience, I've come to the conclusion that we should temper our criticism considering the Herculean task that some of these artist have accomplished (specially those who build their own models, which some people aren't doing any more).

I agree. It's quite a task he accomplished with that episode.
But, IMO, it's still less than what he set out to do.
He managed to keep the TOS style very much intact in his own version of the 'Doomsday Machine':

http://betafive.com/wordpress/?page_id=85

That having been said, I can recall my first reaction to the effects of this episode, which was generally positive after In Harms Way (where the ships darted about so fast that it pulled me out of the story the first time I saw it). Now, after seeing part 1 of Blood and Fire, I can see that the effects of To Serve All My Days went too far in the other direction and (what we've seen of) Blood and Fire is the best balance.

Now, from strictly a model building point of view, I like Dennis' Exeter better than Dochterman's Enterprise, and I like Dennis' Phase II Enterprise better than Dochterman's version as well (from what we've seen of both so far).

But if things seemed too sluggish in To Serve All My Days, I'd be willing to bet that it was a direct reaction to all the criticism that the effects got after In Harms Way.

Yeah, Drexler and Dochterman are both big fans of TOS (they both don't like Star Trek) but when they are given the chance to create something that should be in keeping with that particular style, they both went clearly over the top (Drexler obviously more so than Dochterman ).

 

[Professor Moriarty]

I think Daren's work looks like exactly what he set out to accomplish--it looks like VFX footage from a lost 1969 episode of Star Trek. It's not the look that I'm going for with my never-ending "Doomsday" project, and in a way it's not what Dennis accomplished with Starship Exeter. But, FWIW, I think it looks just fine.

 

[Trekwatcher]

Strong work as usual. His Doomsday work was second to none!

 

[Gepard]

Color me unimpressed. The weapons are all slow motion even compared to actual TOS effects, and the ship and camera movement is atrocious.

His lighting is fantastic, though. Just look at the inside of that shuttlebay!

The camera and ship animation from the first half of that reel looks fine, too; it's only when he starts trying to have them do things that it's problematic. His lighting captures "plastic model" so well, though, that I wonder if maybe he was trying to animate the hsips in a way that would suggest a small model, and it just didn't translate.

 

[USS Mariner]

Ick. Just ick.

 

[ST-One]

Color me unimpressed. The weapons are all slow motion even compared to actual TOS effects, and the ship and camera movement is atrocious.

His lighting is fantastic, though. Just look at the inside of that shuttlebay!

Yeah, those shots look fantastic. Like they were actually done in the forced-perspective minature. Very fitting.

The camera and ship animation from the first half of that reel looks fine, too; it's only when he starts trying to have them do things that it's problematic. His lighting captures "plastic model" so well, though, that I wonder if maybe he was trying to animate the hsips in a way that would suggest a small model, and it just didn't translate.

His lighting is very good throughout these shots.

 

[Maurice]

But they don't look like 60s shots. The are ways to rig your camera to simulate that, and he's not got it down. The other thing is that TOS would do dramatic fast flybys and he hardly does any. Frankly, seeing both the ships lumbering around each other like that makes everything seem smaller than the old TOS effects. His flat ended energy beams are BSG (78) not TOS. Do your homework!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The phaser effects in Exeter, BTW, are added as animations in something like AfterEffects (I don't know what program). I tried and tried but never could get Lightwave ray-beams to look nearly rotoscoped or animated enough to feel TOS.

Some of the other energy effects - the Tressaurian ships dissolving and the Tholian weapon - are based on Lightwave elements but heavily manipulated in post-processing.

 

[Praetor]

While I agree with ST-One, NCC-1701, and others who've said this work is in some ways underwhelming, I have to also agree with this:

I think Daren's work looks like exactly what he set out to accomplish--it looks like VFX footage from a lost 1969 episode of Star Trek. It's not the look that I'm going for with my never-ending "Doomsday" project, and in a way it's not what Dennis accomplished with Starship Exeter. But, FWIW, I think it looks just fine.

It's just a different way of approaching it.