Proper views of STXI ships

[Timo]

Here's a question that might best be placed in the Art Forum, but would probably have the least odds of getting the "right" answer there...

A year after STXI premiered, all sorts of artwork on the starships of that movie is circulating the net. However, none of it seems to be accurately describing those starships - instead, there are very detailed, very convincing, but always subtly wrong works there to confuse us.

Is there some sort of public access already to the actual ships used in the movie - proper three-views of the final CGI models, with accurate detail and dimensions, rather than preliminary models or best guesses by fans? A book, a website? Are there any happy owners of such works in this forum?

I'm putting my faith on the people of this particular sub-forum because we are the ones the most likely to tell a forgery from the real deal, by observing the placement of the intercooler tubes or the orientation of the plasma cannon hatches...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[sojourner]

^yea, I wouldn't post it that way in the fan art forum. It sounds slightly insulting to the many fine artists in there that have put alot of time into recreating the models from the movie.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Nothing's been released that I know of. Only concept art.

I also want to see STXI set plans (I even tried to find some of the San Fernando Valley brewery online! ) and close-ups of the USS Kelvin bridge stations, as well as that Franz Joseph-style saucer cutaway. I loved seeing QWERTY keyboards on the Enterprise bridge perimeter stations in the "Art of the Movie" book - I've wanted to see a QWERTY in Star Trek for about two decades!

 

[Timo]

^yea, I wouldn't post it that way in the fan art forum. It sounds slightly insulting to the many fine artists in there that have put alot of time into recreating the models from the movie.

The thing is, they were always bound to fail. Art as such is fine and well, but nobody "recreating" the ships could ever succeed. At most, an artistic impression could be created, and that's specifically what I'm not looking for.

Really, in that pursuit, the enthusiastic artists are The Enemy. Just have a look at the Light Works posters: an absolutely gorgeous USS Newton, with the engine nacelle aft ends mounted upside down...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[shipfisher]

It does seem that "official" orthos of trekships were more readily available from previous incarnations of the trek franchise. I've been waiting in vain for proper views of the nutrek ships and shuttlecraft as well.

I wonder if a more proprietary attitude towards free release of such images has been adopted by those involved in producing nutrek.

 

[Dukhat]

I do know that Tobias Richter has created multi-view orthos of every Starfleet ship from the movie (sans Kobayashi Maru), and I can tell you that if someone told me they were the CGI models used in the film, I would have believed them. I know this, because I have his orthos. To my knowledge, the only thing he got wrong is that he put a rollbar on the Mayflower model when the movie version didn't have one (although I'm guessing he used the inaccurate drawing of the Mayflower/Defiant from the Art of the Film book).

 

[F. King Daniel]

^Got any links to them?

 

[shipfisher]

Try here: http://www.shipschematics.net/startrek/new_02_12_2010.php

Tobias Richter's versions of the nutrek ships are most certainly the best out there, "unofficial" though they may be.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Thanks!

 

[Timo]

That's what I'm talking about, yeah... Look at that Newton, let go a happy little sigh, and then take a look at the iconic aft view of the same ship banking away from spacedock. The engine aft ends are upside down, with the indentation on top even though the real ship has it on the bottom side.

I'm thankful there's at least that little telltale. Otherwise I might start believing that the dimensions are accurate, too, and that there's the correct number of phaser banks there.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

I will say the classifications are wrong: There's no way the 800-crewed, 457m long Kelvin is a scout, and the Newton (seemingly based on the old Yamato-class battlecruiser from the old Klingon Academy videogame is surely a battlecruiser.

 

[Timo]

OTOH, I say the Kelvin is only about 250 meters long and basically just a Hermes with a pod and a shorter neck - and has a crew of "ah hundred" lucky survivors plus "ah hundred and a half" unfortunate dead.

The Newton, though, certainly qualifies as a battle cruiser. Although I think there's an even better computer game alter ego for her: the Proxima class of Legacy/SFB fame. Just replace the mammoth engines with two modern ones each, and the half saucer with a full one...

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Proxima_class

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

You're right, the Promixa is closer to the Newton.

The Kelvin is h00ge, though

 

[ProwlAlpha]

I agree, the classifications are way off. I say the Armstrong and the Mayflower are more Light Cruisers, with the Newton being a battleship and the Kelvin an destroyer or a colonial destroyer (colonial transport + destroyer capabilities)

 

[F. King Daniel]

I hope Richter releases more views of his "final" Kelvin and 2009 Enterprise models, as seen on the 2011 Ships of the Line calender - he's much improved the texturing and detail, and even got the odd window rows on the Kelvin saucer rim right.

 

[Avon]

so you want proper drawings, but they can't be drawn by an artist?

 

[Irishman]

so you want proper drawings, but they can't be drawn by an artist?

What he means is that the artists that create the drawings have to be using the original art files from the film.

 

[Dukhat]

While the Shipschematics site does have the orthos of the Newton, Armstrong, and Mayflower as I said, the links to the Enterprise and Kelvin are not the same as what I have. I actually have the Kelvin ortho that matches the rest of the ships, and the Enterprise ortho is the actual CGI model Tobias used.

Also, I don't know if anyone ever posted it, but I do know that one of the official Star Trek magazines (Communicator?) showed a side view of the actual Enterprise CGI model from the film. It was a small pic, but official nonetheless. Unfortunately I didn't buy the magazine, but I remember seeing the pic.

 

[USS Mariner]

To be honest, unless one of the three people working on the film that carried over from the old "crew" were to release "unofficial" orthos ala DrexFiles, you're never going to get an official release like in the past.

That ain't how JJ runs things.

 

[Timo]

So you want proper drawings, but they can't be drawn by an artist?

They can, if the artist can eyeball the exact dimensions and detail from movie screencaps. Which is patently impossible.

The correct dimensions and detail can only be transformed into drawn orthos by tracing from the original art. And tracing isn't what an artist does. So yeah, an artist might create the drawings, but not in the role of artist - only in the role of tracer. A fireman or an astronomer could do that as well as (or better than) an artist.

Here's hoping for a "Deep Hard Drive" emerging and spilling the goods eventually...

Timo Saloniemi