Star Trek: The Motion Picture on DVD

[Joker]

The suits were totally redone, because everyone hated the previous suits, which some people referred to as the "Sparklets" suits because of their water-cooler looking helmets. They were reportedly hot and uncomfortable and not well ventilated.

Strange, since Koenig related a story about the spacesuits from TWOK, which I believe are a reuse of the suits from TMP, needing air pumped into them via a hose between takes due to a lack of any kind of ventilation.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Strange, since Koenig related a story about the spacesuits from TWOK, which I believe are a reuse of the suits from TMP, needing air pumped into them via a hose between takes due to a lack of any kind of ventilation.

Not so strange. They were rejigged again for ST II. Maybe some of the ventilation was lost in that revamp? The new TMP suits were better than the first ones, but not necessarily comfortable.

 

[Timby]

- Even so, the DE will probably show up on Blu-Ray soon. Assuming they still have the digital files of the new effects (and there's no reason not to), then those files could simply be re-rendered at the higher resolution.

You really, really don't understand digital imaging.

Sharpline Arts didn't create the Director's Edition CG at film-like resolutions, scale the shots down and then print them for the DVD. That would have been the smart thing to do, as it would have future-proofed the work and made it usable for a theatrical or high-definition re-release down the line, but it's not what was done.

Sharpline merely rendered the CG at NTSC resolution, and that was that. No 2K or 4K masters, nothing of the sort. As I understand it, it's impossible to release the Director's Edition in a high-definition format. To do so would be roughly analogous to taking a 200-pixel by 500-pixel, 72dpi image created for the Web, and then blowing that up to an 11"x17", 300dpi image suitable for high-quality print. It just doesn't work that way. The new effects would have to essentially be re-created from scratch.

 

[Tallguy]

As of a year (and a half?) ago the Sharpline guys said that all of the data was there, it would just need to be re-rendered. So, not nothing, but not from scratch either. I don't see Paramount ponying up the dough though. Daren Dochterman isn't that tough to get hold of, someone should ask him.

 

[Timby]

As of a year (and a half?) ago the Sharpline guys said that all of the data was there, it would just need to be re-rendered. So, not nothing, but not from scratch either. I don't see Paramount ponying up the dough though. Daren Dochterman isn't that tough to get hold of, someone should ask him.

I'd need someone like TGT to back me up here, but I'm pretty sure it's the other way around -- at the onset of the project, there was discussion about doing the new effects in HD resolutions and then downsampling them for the DVD, but the added expenses were deemed prohibitive, so all the work was simply done at video resolutions ... meaning there's nothing to actually re-render, because what's there is all there is.

 

[Maurice]

I think you guys are talking at cross purposes here. If Sharpline had the source data files (3D models, scripts, textures) they could render the shots at hi-def. That's what i think is being suggested, not rezzing up the old image data.

 

[Tallguy]

I think you guys are talking at cross purposes here. If Sharpline had the source data files (3D models, scripts, textures) they could render the shots at hi-def. That's what i think is being suggested, not rezzing up the old image data.

Yes, that's what I meant. Thank you.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

I'd need someone like TGT to back me up here, but I'm pretty sure it's the other way around -- at the onset of the project, there was discussion about doing the new effects in HD resolutions and then downsampling them for the DVD, but the added expenses were deemed prohibitive, so all the work was simply done at video resolutions ... meaning there's nothing to actually re-render, because what's there is all there is.

There was no discussion, because the DE was produced by Sharpline Arts for Paramount Home Entertainment and HD mastering circa 1998 (when the contract would have been signed) was still strictly the purview of the Motion Picture Division. Besides, only a fraction of the $500,000 paid by PHE to Sharpline to produce the DE along with three documentaries apparently ended up where it was supposed to, so Fein et al spending additional money for Foundation Imaging to render 2K/4K resolution CGI in order to future-proof the DE was absolutely beyond the realm of possibility.

TGT

 

[ST-One]

As of a year (and a half?) ago the Sharpline guys said that all of the data was there, it would just need to be re-rendered. So, not nothing, but not from scratch either. I don't see Paramount ponying up the dough though. Daren Dochterman isn't that tough to get hold of, someone should ask him.

I'd need someone like TGT to back me up here, but I'm pretty sure it's the other way around -- at the onset of the project, there was discussion about doing the new effects in HD resolutions and then downsampling them for the DVD, but the added expenses were deemed prohibitive, so all the work was simply done at video resolutions ... meaning there's nothing to actually re-render, because what's there is all there is.

The Lightwave-files still exist (according to Dochterman).
And since the newest version of Lightwave can still read those 10 years old files, they can just load them into Layout, adjust and change what's necessary (maybe set-up a new light-rig and change to one of the newer cameras) set the render-output to the resolution you want/need and just hit F10.