"Decker's Revenge"
Star Trek: The Doomsday Machine - Special Edition Screencaps
- Thread starter Professor Moriarty
- Start date
"Decker's Revenge"
Hi Woulfe!
Ah yes, that shot.
The overall strategy here was to recreate in LightWave the Arriflex 35mm camera that cinematographer Jerry Finnerman used back in 1967. If I could duplicate this camera in LightWave, then all I would have to do is position a simple rectangle at the appropriate spot to act as my "viewscreen", project an image of the asteroids whizzing by onto its surface as an animated surface texture, and then "film" the viewscreen in LIghtWave as the LightWave camera pivoted in perfect synchronization with the 1967 meatspace camera. Then it would just be a simple (but tedious) matter of rotoscoping Bill Shatner in front of the LightWaved viewscreen, and finally, layering my masked viewscreen (with a transparent, animated, Shatner-shaped "hole" in it) on top of the original live action footage. Piece of cake!
Unfortunately, analyzing a scene to find the three-dimensional reference points that recreate the position and movement of a meatspace camera in 3-D cyberspace is tricky stuff. It works pretty good when the real world camera being reconstructed in cyberspace is stationary XYZ-wise and is only pivoting on one of its axes. Unfortunately, Finnerman apparently didn't quite keep the camera locked down while it was pivoting to track William Shatner, which gave my motion tracking software fits. Fortunately, a friend of mine in the UK has a copy of Andersson Technologies SynthEyes, which does an excellent job of dealing with imperfect camera setups like this. You should have seen the keyframe instructions that thing spit out--literally EVERY frame of that short sequence had to be keyframed--there was not one pair of adjoining frames where the camera didn't shake, wobble or otherwise do something other than just smoothly transit along one axis of rotation!
Ah yes, that shot.
The overall strategy here was to recreate in LightWave the Arriflex 35mm camera that cinematographer Jerry Finnerman used back in 1967. If I could duplicate this camera in LightWave, then all I would have to do is position a simple rectangle at the appropriate spot to act as my "viewscreen", project an image of the asteroids whizzing by onto its surface as an animated surface texture, and then "film" the viewscreen in LIghtWave as the LightWave camera pivoted in perfect synchronization with the 1967 meatspace camera. Then it would just be a simple (but tedious) matter of rotoscoping Bill Shatner in front of the LightWaved viewscreen, and finally, layering my masked viewscreen (with a transparent, animated, Shatner-shaped "hole" in it) on top of the original live action footage. Piece of cake!
Unfortunately, analyzing a scene to find the three-dimensional reference points that recreate the position and movement of a meatspace camera in 3-D cyberspace is tricky stuff. It works pretty good when the real world camera being reconstructed in cyberspace is stationary XYZ-wise and is only pivoting on one of its axes. Unfortunately, Finnerman apparently didn't quite keep the camera locked down while it was pivoting to track William Shatner, which gave my motion tracking software fits. Fortunately, a friend of mine in the UK has a copy of Andersson Technologies SynthEyes, which does an excellent job of dealing with imperfect camera setups like this. You should have seen the keyframe instructions that thing spit out--literally EVERY frame of that short sequence had to be keyframed--there was not one pair of adjoining frames where the camera didn't shake, wobble or otherwise do something other than just smoothly transit along one axis of rotation!
On another topic, Prof, those are the most bad ass looking phasers I think I've ever seen coming from the Big E in your AV. 
Wait until you see them animated. 
Meanwhile... embiggened version.
Meanwhile... embiggened version.
Holy crap, that is an awesome image. You couldn't be persuaded to make a wallpaper sized one, could you?
You couldn't be persuaded to make a wallpaper sized one, could you? 
I agree - could you make a wallpaper size out of it?
Ahh, that's what is great about filmmaking =).
I'll have to see it animated. It reads a little flame-thrower in the still.Wait until you see them animated.
The still was lifted from a now-discarded take where I forgot to turn on motion blur in the camera, which somewhat evens out the jaggies in the phaser particle beams. When animated with motion blur turned on, it still looks like a particle beam, but not quite so flamethrowerey 
Hi Woulfe!
Ah yes, that shot.
The overall strategy here was to recreate in LightWave the Arriflex 35mm camera that cinematographer Jerry Finnerman used back in 1967. If I could duplicate this camera in LightWave, then all I would have to do is position a simple rectangle at the appropriate spot to act as my "viewscreen", project an image of the asteroids whizzing by onto its surface as an animated surface texture, and then "film" the viewscreen in LIghtWave as the LightWave camera pivoted in perfect synchronization with the 1967 meatspace camera. Then it would just be a simple (but tedious) matter of rotoscoping Bill Shatner in front of the LightWaved viewscreen, and finally, layering my masked viewscreen (with a transparent, animated, Shatner-shaped "hole" in it) on top of the original live action footage. Piece of cake!
Unfortunately, analyzing a scene to find the three-dimensional reference points that recreate the position and movement of a meatspace camera in 3-D cyberspace is tricky stuff. It works pretty good when the real world camera being reconstructed in cyberspace is stationary XYZ-wise and is only pivoting on one of its axes. Unfortunately, Finnerman apparently didn't quite keep the camera locked down while it was pivoting to track William Shatner, which gave my motion tracking software fits. Fortunately, a friend of mine in the UK has a copy of Andersson Technologies SynthEyes, which does an excellent job of dealing with imperfect camera setups like this. You should have seen the keyframe instructions that thing spit out--literally EVERY frame of that short sequence had to be keyframed--there was not one pair of adjoining frames where the camera didn't shake, wobble or otherwise do something other than just smoothly transit along one axis of rotation!
Oy vey, sounds very tedious....
AND YOU GET TO DO IT AGAIN for later in the same episode.
- W -
* However it's nice to know it can be done *
Oh please, the end of Act IV is light-years in the distance
Please don't say that. 
But seriously, so far the work has been lush, intricately detailed and beautifully rendered. Every update is a treat. And because of that, it is really hard to be patient and calm with that much anticipation brewing under the surface.
But seriously, so far the work has been lush, intricately detailed and beautifully rendered. Every update is a treat. And because of that, it is really hard to be patient and calm with that much anticipation brewing under the surface.
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Well, I guess that's one vote in the hated it column. Oh well, can't please everyone.
Oh well, can't please everyone.
I really must learn to express myself better.
The first few seconds, I sat at my workstation cheering, then I dimly realized the music sounded repetitive. Then I was certain. Then I had time to double-check my findings. Then I yawned. Then I got a glass of juice. Then I drank it. Then I went out to cut the grass. Then I came back and made sure the music and phaser fire were still repeating. Then I started laughing.
Seriously, Perfessor ... it was both funny and well done. And it finally proved that even phaser fire must be taken in moderation.
Now erase the check from the "hated" column and put it in the "loved" column where it belongs. Don't worry, you have plenty of time before the Enterprise stops firing its phasers.
The first few seconds, I sat at my workstation cheering, then I dimly realized the music sounded repetitive. Then I was certain. Then I had time to double-check my findings. Then I yawned. Then I got a glass of juice. Then I drank it. Then I went out to cut the grass. Then I came back and made sure the music and phaser fire were still repeating. Then I started laughing.
Seriously, Perfessor ... it was both funny and well done. And it finally proved that even phaser fire must be taken in moderation.
Now erase the check from the "hated" column and put it in the "loved" column where it belongs. Don't worry, you have plenty of time before the Enterprise stops firing its phasers.
I thought the effects were great too, but they did seem a little strange with the music. Is that how it sounded originally? I never noticed that before. It would be totally perfect if maybe the phaser sound changed a little each time it fired, or the durations weren't all the same. The glowing effect with the actual beams was perfect. It looked very powerful, for once.
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