Contest: ENTER September 2024 Art Challenge -- Alphanumeric Soup

[Starscape]

Welcome to the 230th Trek BBS Fan Art Forum Challenge!

September’s theme — as voted by the community here — is called “Alphanumeric Soup” and the challenge is described as …

Alphanumeric Soup
The Star Trek universe is littered with initialisms and acronyms for devices, technology and organisations: GNDN, UESPA, ODN, EPS, PADD, DS9, DTI, MACO. Take your favoutite(s) and use them as inspiration for your piece of art. Alternatively, you could coin your own initialism or take one from the modern day and show us how, in the future, it might become the GOAT.

How could I have forgotten to include in the above decription the most prolific initialism in all of Star Trek... LCARS!!


The Rules

• the artwork you submit should be created during the month of the challenge
• only one final image can be submitted (although it may contain multiple views)
• your final entry should be posted in this thread (although dedicated WIP threads are appreciated)

The winner gets to sport the golden “Fan Art Challenge Winner” badge on their profile for the following month and has the honor of hosting the next challenge. By the way, be sure to help decide on next month’s theme here.

You have until Tuesday, October 1st to share your final entry in this thread. As usual, if you have any questions or if you need more time, just let us know in this thread.

Looking forward to seeing your art. Have Fun!

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

How could I have forgotten to include in the above decription the most prolific initialism in all of Star Trek... LCARS!!

Let's Create A Respectable Starfleet

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

For reference:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Abbreviations

 

[B.J.]

For reference:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Abbreviations

The text of the link is right, but the link itself is broken. Here's a corrected one:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Abbreviations

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Thanks, I think I put the title and the link in each other's boxes.

 

[Cyfa]

Here's my Alphanumeric Soup: SMD with a side order of PADD & LCARS

 

[Starscape]

Nicely rendered, @Cyfa, very 3-dimensional.

Has anyone else got an entry in the works and needs more time? I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get something done, myself.

 

[B.J.]

Quite literally had a last second idea, and put this together in the last hour or so!

In case anyone's unfamiliar, "FOD" (Foreign Object Damage / Foreign Object Debris) is a big issue in aerospace, and in production lines and in hangars, there are FOD bins all over the place.

 

[Starscape]

I'll give any stragglers a few more days, until the end of the weekend, and aim to put the voting up on Monday, 7 October.

Someone, please, give me a virtual prod if I don't.

 

[Cyfa]

Will do!

 

[Michael]

Sorry for not responding earlier. Yes, still working on a last minute idea, as per usual. Very thankful for the extra time.

Love the offerings so far!

 

[Michael]

I once again apologize for taking so long. I underestimated how time-intensive it would be to realize my idea. But oh well, here’s what I’ve got: An animated journey through the various logos / emblems / flags for the United Federation of Planets / UFP. I took some artistic license (i.e. cheated) here or there to make this flow better, but otherwise these are basically all the main versions of the emblem that appeared throughout the franchise (minus the versions seen in the Kelvin timeline). This and this article from Ex Astris Scientia were instrumental in figuring this out.

 

[Cyfa]

Wow, @Michael, that looks amazing!

 

[Michael]

Thank you so much, @Cyfa! This was so much fun to do and something I wanted to create for a while, although I wish it wouldn’t have taken almost an entire week’s worth of work to finish.

It was interesting to figure out the various ways in which the emblem had appeared in Trek. I wonder, for instance, what the significance of the three larger stars is that feature prominently on some of them (perhaps Earth, Vulcan and Andoria?) and why they are not featuring on more. And I loved realizing that there’s the hint of a Starfleet delta hidden in the laurel wreath for the UFP emblem seen on Discovery and Strange New Worlds (the second one on this list). And this also gave me a lot of appreciation for the minimalist future UFP emblem from the 32nd century we saw on Discovery, because that one does a good job communicating that this is centuries removed from the last time we saw the emblem and that some of its meaning might have been lost to time and only remaining as vestiges.

 

[B.J.]

@Michael, what program did you use to animate this?

 

[Michael]

@Michael, what program did you use to animate this?

Created the illustrations in Adobe Illustrator, animated them in After Effects and did the GIF conversion and final touches in Photoshop. The original MP4 out of After Effects obviously runs much smoother than the GIF allows, but I think it’s a satisfying compromise.

 

[Starscape]

Amazing work everyone!

The voting thread is now live...
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/september-2024-art-challenge-alphanumeric-soup-please-vote.317744/