Wow, that's really fantastic. You've just made my evening. Never seen any of the TOS films in HD, that sequence looks so much better.
Right up there with my favourite scenes in all of the franchise, and for the subject of this thread.
So what was the best single special effects shot in the 10
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Wow, that's really fantastic. You've just made my evening. Never seen any of the TOS films in HD, that sequence looks so much better.
Right up there with my favourite scenes in all of the franchise, and for the subject of this thread.
Sadly, a lot of the effects established in TMP got watered down over time in the remaining five TOS films.
Photon torpedoes: Their spirey, blazing fury was partially maintained in TWOK. Then they were reduced to a hand drawn animation in TSFS. No need for them in TVH. TFF, it just looked like a generic white fireball. And in my favorite of the films, TUC, photon torpedoes ended up looking like simple "blaster bolts.". ?!? *}^~€~*}%%]+\*.^%>]+!!! (That's why, in my CG projects, my torpedoes are influenced by TMP.). The TMP effect did get a brief revisit in Generations, so props to that movie.
Phasers: Looked great in TWOK, especially since that was the premiere of that effect in the Trek films. The only other time we saw shipboard beam weapon effects in any of the other TOS films was the Bird of Prey in TSFS. Enterprise never fired phasers again in any of those films.
Warp entry/exit: Again, best in TMP. Got progressively worse after the first warp entry in TWOK. Looked extremely generic in TVH and TFF.
It's almost as if the FX teams just got lazy, even though I'm sure it mostly has to do with budget.
Photon torpedoes: Their spirey, blazing fury was partially maintained in TWOK. Then they were reduced to a hand drawn animation in TSFS. No need for them in TVH. TFF, it just looked like a generic white fireball. And in my favorite of the films, TUC, photon torpedoes ended up looking like simple "blaster bolts.". ?!? *}^~€~*}%%]+\*.^%>]+!!! (That's why, in my CG projects, my torpedoes are influenced by TMP.). The TMP effect did get a brief revisit in Generations, so props to that movie.
Phasers: Looked great in TWOK, especially since that was the premiere of that effect in the Trek films. The only other time we saw shipboard beam weapon effects in any of the other TOS films was the Bird of Prey in TSFS. Enterprise never fired phasers again in any of those films.
Warp entry/exit: Again, best in TMP. Got progressively worse after the first warp entry in TWOK. Looked extremely generic in TVH and TFF.
It's almost as if the FX teams just got lazy, even though I'm sure it mostly has to do with budget.
Totally agree - I thought all the going to warp effects after TWOK were crap. I guess TMP made a big deal out of it, and it just wasn't seen as a big thing after that, which is a shame.
Aye. And TWOK was actually the catalyst into the crap warp effects. The first time the ship goes into warp in TWOK...gorgeous. Simpler, yet still fairly faithful to TMP's effect. The escape from Mutara Nebula is when the warp effect started getting.....lazy.
The producers could've benefitted from the simple wisdom of Quagmire as C-3PO in "It's A Trap!" (had it been made back then)
"Ummm.... Some of us still consider traveling to be an occasion!".
I think I have a new favorite, the Klingon BOP landing on Vulcan. Very clever in how they used the lights to "tie" the ship to the ground. I imagine the ground and ship were filmed as seperate elements, but the relatively simple trick with the lights fool you into thinking it's really landing on the ground, brilliant. ILM were really on their game in this one. And the BOP is such a lovely design. I have an unbuilt AMT kit of it, really want to build it sometime soon.
I actually hated the TWOK redo of the TMP warp effect. It looked sloppy. And, yes, the rest of the warp shots were a budgetary cheat. On TMP they streaked the model by moving the camera with the shutter open. Henceforth, the warp drive "trails" were airbrushed artwork overlaid onto shots of the ships zooming by.
Aye. And TWOK was actually the catalyst into the crap warp effects. The first time the ship goes into warp in TWOK...gorgeous. Simpler, yet still fairly faithful to TMP's effect. The escape from Mutara Nebula is when the warp effect started getting.....lazy.
I was going to add that to my original post, but I was at work and doing it on the sly - again, totally agree. I like the initial 'go Sulu' bit - that still had the right elements to it, but after that it was just 3 stripes that were far too big and thick, which seemed to stick with the subsequent movies, right up to TUC.
For the airbrush trail, I assume you're talking about this: http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=43&page=4.
But TWOK also had at least one "shutter streak" shot, too: http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=34&page=4. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison, but was that some of the reused TMP footage (I'd assume it was)?
Aye. And TWOK was actually the catalyst into the crap warp effects. The first time the ship goes into warp in TWOK...gorgeous. Simpler, yet still fairly faithful to TMP's effect. The escape from Mutara Nebula is when the warp effect started getting.....lazy.
I was going to add that to my original post, but I was at work and doing it on the sly - again, totally agree. I like the initial 'go Sulu' bit - that still had the right elements to it, but after that it was just 3 stripes that were far too big and thick, which seemed to stick with the subsequent movies, right up to TUC.
I think the initial use of it in escaping the genesis explosion was cool and it added a dramatic element to the scene. They obviously couldnt show the ship from the back escaping because you had to have reliant in the shot so I think the new angle was necessary.
After that I agree though the effect didn't look nearly as good after TWOK.
I like this shot where the Enterprise arrives at Regula I:
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/twokhd/twokhd0558.jpg
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/twokhd/twokhd0559.jpg
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/twokhd/twokhd0558.jpg
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/twokhd/twokhd0559.jpg
I always really liked that one, too. It's a great view of the ship.
Aye. And TWOK was actually the catalyst into the crap warp effects. The first time the ship goes into warp in TWOK...gorgeous. Simpler, yet still fairly faithful to TMP's effect. The escape from Mutara Nebula is when the warp effect started getting.....lazy.
I was going to add that to my original post, but I was at work and doing it on the sly - again, totally agree. I like the initial 'go Sulu' bit - that still had the right elements to it, but after that it was just 3 stripes that were far too big and thick, which seemed to stick with the subsequent movies, right up to TUC.
I think the initial use of it in escaping the genesis explosion was cool and it added a dramatic element to the scene. They obviously couldnt show the ship from the back escaping because you had to have reliant in the shot so I think the new angle was necessary.
After that I agree though the effect didn't look nearly as good after TWOK.
Yes, the shot of the Enterprise initially warping away from the Genesis blast was much better looking than any warp shots that followed it. (It certainly looked better than when she warped away from Spacedock in STIII, with the Excelsior in short-lived pursuit.)
(back to TWOK) Even in the subsequent shots showing the Enterprise getting further and further away from the blast, those shots already started looking lazy.
Yeah I prefer the shot of the torpedo approaching from underneath too, nice angle, though the blast through the saucer still looks decent.
One of if not my favourite shot from the dry dock sequence, Kirk's looking up in anticipation of seeing his ship again, the music starts to build and Kirk and the audience are teased with this beauty shot hidden behind the various bits of structure of the dock. Love it.
I considered picking a TMP drydock scene, but I've never liked how Earth in the background turned out.
