Look CLOSELY! "Khan" ships are transparent!

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I've been watching "Khan" a lot lately. I first noticed when the Enterprise is sneaking behind the Reliant in the Mutara Nebula, the clouds can be seen through the ship. So I watched the first confrontation between the Enterprise and Khan, and if you look closely, the stars are visible through the ship as well. I wonder why this is.

 

[wahwahkits]

And at the end you can see stars through the Genesis planet!!
I'd say this was due to the movie being produced on a low budget. Overall though I'd say the special effects are pretty good.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I agree. I still love the effects.

Just wanted to point it out.

Hey' it's no worse than seeing the garbage mattes in the Star Wars films

 

[Timo]

I thought the reason these ships were so transparent in ye olden days was exactly because that alleviated the issue of garbage mattes, by making the mattes more transparent as well?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

probably

 

[GNDN]

Matte transparency issues are often talked about by ILM compositors. There was a fine line between opacity of the matte vs. matte lines surrounding the ships and objects that was constantly being played with during optical compositing. This was one of the major challenges of the Hoth scenes in ESB due to the bright white backgrounds that the snowspeeders flew in front of, and was one of the many subtle corrections made for the first special edition.

 

[BriGuy]

I've watched TWOK scores of times. I never noticed such issues. Got any screenshots that show what's being talked about?

 

[Maurice]

You can see a star through the Enterprise as it pulls away from the Genesis planet at the end.

GNDN has it basically right. ILM found that printing at less than 100% opacity helped blend matte shots together, especially in shots where the backgrounds weren't black.

 

[David cgc]

The one I always spot is in the surprise attack. At one point, the Reliant banks in from the left of the screen then flies a close approach over the camera. You can see the stars through the grill of the warp engine. TrekCore doesn't have a cap of the precise moment, though.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

The most noticeable is after Kirk orders full tsp in the nebula. When the Enterprise rises up behind the Reliant.

 

[Maurice]

^^^Some of that is intentional...they wanted it to look like there was nebula material between the ships. It's a cheat, but it works.

 

[Amaris]

The most noticeable is after Kirk orders full tsp in the nebula. When the Enterprise rises up behind the Reliant.

Oh man, I still love that shot!

 

[Kirby]

I've seen this movie dozens of times and never really noticed... Weird.

 

[Indysolo]

When the Enterprise rises up behind the Reliant you can see the blue deflector dish through the Reliant.

Neil

 

[Finn]

More pictures!!! I'm not going to dig out my TWOK DVD.


pretty please with a cherry on the top....?

 

[Cyke101]

You can see a star through the Enterprise as it pulls away from the Genesis planet at the end.

I remember watching the movie as a kid in 1990 on VHS and noticing that very same star

I can't recall other such examples in TWOK, but frankly, in these types of discussions one example is enough to prove the thread.

 

[Devon]

At the beginning when the Reliant is heading to Ceti Alpha you can see the planet just BARELY show through the ship. I liken it to making the Reliant something like 95% Opaque against the backdrop.

 

[KarmicCurse]

I always thought the nebula gas was supposed to be in front of the ships, like seeing them through a fog.