Is it going to be a big CGI film???

[JuanBolio]

seigezunt said:
No CGI characters, please. They still SCREAM "hey look at me, I'm the non-live action guy! Say hi to cartoony me, sticking out like a sore thumb!!!"

Really? I tend to think that live-action aliens scream "HEY! Look at me, I'm a human in heavy make-up!"

The humanoid form is unlikely to have evolved anywhere else.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

JuanBolio said:

seigezunt said:No CGI characters, please. They still SCREAM "hey look at me, I'm the non-live action guy! Say hi to cartoony me, sticking out like a sore thumb!!!"

Really? I tend to think that live-action aliens scream "HEY! Look at me, I'm a human in heavy make-up!"

The humanoid form is unlikely to have evolved anywhere else.

Depends on what you mean by "humanoid form."

I'm going to totally bypass the whole "created versus evolved" concept and simply assume that, regardless of HOW you get there, physical features tend to be the ones that make the most practical sense. In other words, whether you believe that an organism is designed or evolved, its features still will meet certain "functional requirements." Even if, in some cases, we can't see it.

Now, if you're dealing with an organism that needs to be very flexible... able to climb, to walk, to operate devices, to be able to use sound and vision to identify not just direction but also range and movement... and if you're trying to come up with the most efficient way of accomplishing each of those requirements SIMULTANEOUSLY, I think that it's fairly likely that the bipedal hominid structure would be fairly common.

Other things might vary, though... eating through a proboscis from the chest rather than through the head... breathing in different ways ("air gills" maybe?), the head being nothing but a sensory organ (with the brain protected inside the ribcage)... just for examples.

But the basic 2 arms, 2 legs, sensory head on top, bendy-waisted upright structure concept seems to me like it would be pretty common, though I'm sure not totally universal.

I DO tend to agree that "men with rubber foreheads" is not going to be nearly as common in reality as we see it on Trek, though.

 

[seigezunt]

JuanBolio said:

seigezunt said:
No CGI characters, please. They still SCREAM "hey look at me, I'm the non-live action guy! Say hi to cartoony me, sticking out like a sore thumb!!!"

Really? I tend to think that live-action aliens scream "HEY! Look at me, I'm a human in heavy make-up!"

The humanoid form is unlikely to have evolved anywhere else.

This is fiction, remember?

And I'm fine with seeing Lt. Arex, et. al., but only if the whole feature is animated. CGI just isn't seamless enough yet. It probably won't be long, but let them learn on something other than my Trek movie, dammit!

 

[Holytomato]

:insert Lord of the Rings Reference Here:

Gollum, anyone?

:insert Van Helsing Reference Here:

Helsing Werewolf, anyone?

Give me C G I! :thumbsup:

 

[seigezunt]

Holytomato said:
:insert Lord of the Rings Reference Here:

Gollum, anyone?

:insert Van Helsing Reference Here:

Helsing Werewolf, anyone?

Give me C G I! :thumbsup:

I think Gollum only worked because of the darker feel of LOTR. I don't think a CGI char would blend in as well with the brighter lights/sharper edges of a starship. IMHO.

 

[Holytomato]

So M'Ress and Arex are going to be riding on the outside of the Enterprise?

*Sweet* :thumbsup:

 

[Cary L. Brown]

I would LOVE to see Arex (or more appropriately, one or more members of his species, Edoans) in a Trek film or series. And there's no question but that CGI is the best, perhaps SOLE, way to do this.

The modeling would be easy. The facial animation and arm-motion animations would be easy.

The walk cycle would be damned difficult to work out, though... and I'd hate to be the guy who had to make THAT look real.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Cary L. Brown said:
The walk cycle would be damned difficult to work out, though... and I'd hate to be the guy who had to make THAT look real.

Already achieved on VOY with Species 8472. (And when they returned they were disguised as bipeds!)

 

[trevanian]

jon1701 said:
I have complete faith in ILM.

I rewatched Galaxy Quest the other day, and the FX in that movie were pretty much spot on. The film is what, five or six years old? You wouldnt think it.

The elevator scene when you see the NSEA PROTECTOR in the dock gave me chills. There is a real sense of scale in that shot. To be honest, I'm not sure if they used CGI or models, but those guys are the best in the business.

Bill George, a longtime modelmaker and art director at ILM, supervised GQ at ILM. He has been a firm believer in using miniatures when they are appropriate (either due to close views or when involving interaction with other elements), so a lot of GQ used physical miniatures (I think the only ships that are CG are shuttles.)

I think GQ and SPACE COWBOYS are ILM at the very top of their game. Both were predominantly miniature fx shows, where CG was used to embellish the in-camera shooting.