Designing New Aliens/Worlds: Moving Beyond Forehead Ridges

Pretty excited about the CGI potential for aliens-- even on a low budget if they hire the right artists they could do amazing, weird stuff:

Andrew Thomas Huang:


Tobias Gremmler:


Julius Horsthuis:
http://www.julius-horsthuis.com/

My point is that CGI is more than just high pixel count and "realism". Creating immersive worlds requires genuine imagination/creativity. I hope they can rise to the occasion.

 

Buget is the big issue here. I agree you can do some really cool stuff.

 

Can do a lot with cgi these days

 

CGI is still a budget buster. It can be cheaper, but its still eats into the budget. It really depends on how much they are willing to spend on the budget.

 

I'd prefer them going down the puppet/animatronic route rather than CGI, as it can sometimes feel quite disjointed when blended with real life locations and characters--as well as facing the problem of becoming dated.

 

Puppets on a tv budget look silly.

 

Apparently there was a search for VFX artists wwith experience in motion tracking and CGI. I'd expect more CGI characters.

 

FarScape did it spectacularly. Rygel and Pilot were both far more engaging and interesting than most of the VOY and ENT characters, with such good performances that I forgot they were puppets most of the time.

 

Here's the thing-- the production values of ANY show will eventually look dated. Early CGI looks especially bad because the art form was totally new (not just because they had limited technology).

Farscape is actually a great example of visually compelling and diverse aliens. Whatever other limitations the show had, that always stood out.

I guess my main point is that whether it's CGI or puppets or cardboard/crayons I really hope that they put some genuine creativity/artistry into it. I know that sounds kind of obvious, but in each of the other shows there are both great and painful examples. What will make it timeless is NOT the pixel count, but what they do with the pixels.

 

Completely agree. I was a huge fan of Farscape and I never saw Pilot and Rygel as anything other than the characters they appeared to be on the screen. Even more incredible was that Pilot was voiced by the same guy who played Crais. I'd also add the Asgardians in the Stargate universe.

Puppets can work really well. There's a stage musical called Avenue Q where half the cast are puppets. They don't conceal the puppeteers neither. They stay on stage and provide the voices for the characters. Some of the puppeteers play two parts as well, with two puppets. I've seen the show four times and there's one scene with Kate and Lucy - two characters voiced by the same puppeteer and every time I see it I FORGET that I'm listening to the same person playing both parts.

CGI is also a great tool as long as you don't go anywhere near the uncanny valley and the technology now exists for good and believable CGI characters. I was one of the few people that liked the Star Wars prequels but one of my least favourite moments is the scene in the Geonosis Gladiator Arena. Because the creatures didn't feel real. However, The Force Awakens has loads of completely believeable CGI characters. And even going back a few years, look at Avatar. They look amazing!

 

How could I forget about the Asgardians?!?!?! Loved those little guys

 

I thought they looked silly too.

 

The Abrams movies didn't have any major CGI character so I don't think Discovery should bother either.

 

A number of TV shows have successfully incorporated CGI characters in significant ways -- Stargate Universe, Grimm, The Flash, Supergirl. The level of technology and talent is to the point where it can be done reasonably well even on a TV budget. Supergirl's J'onn J'onzz in particular is remarkably well-done, a digital replacement of the actor's face that looks so lifelike I thought it was a prosthetic effect until I saw a behind-the-scenes video.

I do recall reading a news item saying that Discovery will be using that kind of digital facial enhancement on at least some of its aliens. Really, in this day and age it would be surprising if they didn't use that technique, given how commonplace it's become. Although I assume that they'd use prosthetics for some aliens and digital enhancement for others, or a mix of both, depending on the particular species.

 

Farscape had compelling and diverse aliens but they had an extremely limited range of emotional expression.

 

Which isn't necessarily unrealistic, since a lot of animal species don't have much in the way of facial expression, relying more on scent, body language, the positioning of fur and feathers, etc. to convey mood or attitude. I mean, heck, if we want to get away from anthropomorphic aliens, then it's probably good to have aliens that don't have humanlike facial expressions.

 

They were already doing more CGI characters by the end of Enterprise. The two Xindi races and Gorn, specifically. If the budget's similar, we'll probably see even more Discovery.

 

Also a Tholian in the same 2-parter that featured the Gorn. Earlier than that, we had the title aliens in "Silent Enemy" (whom I revisited in my novel A Choice of Futures, and which are somehow called the Elachi in Star Trek Online even though they have no voices), the Wraith in "Rogue Planet," the web organism in "Vox Sola," and digital Klingon targs in "Sleeping Dogs" and "Affliction."

 

Yeah Tholians were in that one. "In a Mirror , Darkly". I liked the look myself, I was rather sad they did not update the look from the 1960's. I feel it missed many chances to just admit "it was a 1960's tv show guys"