What I saw was merely a retrospective about early televised science fiction in general. The program showed that clip to illustrate the "frugal" budget. I have not found the clip itself, but here is a publicity photo from the show (circa 1949) and I think centered in the shot is the prop in question. I somewhat resembles early mics that used springs to suspend the "pickup" element in the center of an open "ring". But looking closely, one can see the components are merely drawn and/or painted.
While I'm not too great at doing interior work, I have wanted to do a retro conn with toggle switches, gauges and dials for sometime now. This is my current progress, and I can already see tweaks that will have to be made. Because I tend to think of these alternate worlds as tv shows as well, I've kept the crew to six, because that's what I think, for the most part, could reliably be squeezed in each week on a thirty minute show. Though not always. Because the crew is so small, and keeping with my primary influence (Rocky Jones), there is no captain's chair. The captain sits on the right side. Now, I will probably still make a retro captains chair because I think it would look cool, but I don't see one being on the 1955 Enterprise. For fun I applied the usual grain and blur to get a feel for how it might've looked back then. The set is constructed of plywood, and I think i may have to play with the textures as even though it's subtle, you can still see the grain a little more than I like. A little further back without blur and grain fx.
I'm gonna dig up this thread because it's really inspired me recently for a similar project! I also wanted to poke Lensman for any updates on these deliciously retro vessels. Also, Lensman, what kind of effects are you using to make your pictures retro?
Sorry, no updates. As for making my pictures look retro....sorry, but there's no "do this, then do that" guide to it. I look at multiple examples of what I'm trying to emulate, then play around with different things in Photoshop. If you're talking about these black and white pictures, it starts with lighting in the 3D program, then playing around with contrast, brightness, blur and Photoshop's absolutely shitty "film grain" filter to add some "texture" to these otherwise boring models. Wish i could give you a better roadmap, but literally every step of the process is just "I wonder what would happen if.....", button pushing and seeing if feels like something authentic to the time. Whether I've succeeded or not is really up to each person viewing the stuff. Thanks, like a lot of people I'm in a bad place right now, and am overworked on top of that. So I don't really have much energy to do....well much of anything really, outside of work and keeping my shit together. Although I did manage to do a couple of new vintage non-Trek sci-fi covers, which I'll post here shortly.
Yeah, your main focus should be to take care of yourself. The BBS will be there when you're ready again ;-)
Sorry to hear it, mate and back at ya. It's taken months to get to a point where I can do some art, so that's helping a little to take my mind off things. Thanks guys. I haven't really been active here for a couple of months, and haven't had the time or energy to create anything. So the little bit of art I've done has helped take my mind off things for a bit.
So far the crap is winning. As evidenced by the date of my last post in this forum, the creativity just hasn't been happening. Anyway...Here's a couple of old images from this particular universe that, for some reason, I never posted. K-7 with astronauts for scale And the beginnings of a cutaway that I was tinkering with.
My fellow depresseez who deal with this call it the "monster academy". Formally teaching our brains to hate us more efficiently. Events this year have turned into a train wreck... which is good .... right? (jk)
Yup, with all that has happened over the last year and a half, sometimes creativity takes the hit. Felt that way myself recently. Hope you are doing well, and when you're ready, we see more on this thread.
I feel you man. I've discovered that working in Stud.io takes the edge off. Working with Lego, digital or real, really eases my mind. The added bonus of Stud.io, though, is that their Brickdesigner program makes it very easy to design (in whatever program you fancy) and import your own bricks, and to then actually make them behave as bricks in the program.
Sounds about right. It has been a tough year, and I know I'm not the only one. I wish that brought me some degree of solace, but alas.... Not sure how I'm feeling these days. Thanks and glad you enjoy my work. The last year has left me feeling....less enthused...about my body of work. I hesitate to say even that as it runs the risk of coming off like fishing for compliments, but it's just how I feel these days. Thanks! Looking at the model, I see things I'd like to modify or add, but am mixed on how much to deviate from what tv shows of the 50's were doing. Thanks! Sorry to hear it. I hope you get to a better place yourself. Sounds cool. Have you posted any images here in the forum or DA? I'd like to check 'em out..