Strange New Worlds - CGI Effects

[Dar70]

Though keep in mind, VOY, DS9 and even ENT had way, WAY less vfx shots than any of the new shows - it's easy to spot some shoddy cgi when there are a hundred shots per episode, and dozens of them were made extremely rushed to meet a deadline. Old Trek often had only one or two new vfx shots per episode.

Also, back then they were strategically hiding their models - backlight, viewed from afar, steady camera. Modern cgi often has the camera swirling around and going from wide shots to super close.

It's the same reason the dinosaurs in the original Jurassic Park still look better than in the new ones : Hiding them in the dark of the night, obscured by rain, and mixed with actual models. The newest Jurassic World has vastly superior vfx. Theoretically. But they're shown too much & too close, so that the seams suddenly become visible. I feel somewhat similar here. Not dunking on Trek specifically. I think a lot of modern vfx has that problem. But also we're just getting a shit-ton more cgi and just become used to it.

Yup. That is the biggest problem. They cram the scenes way to much nowadays. The Avengers films, transformers films etc. Are also good examples of this.

 

[Tuskin38]

The Orville built a physical model of the ship, apparently mainly to be able to see how the real object looked in various kinds of environmental lighting and to use that as a reference for some of the CG.

Yeah, it was also used for shots of the ship flying flying by, not doing any fancy flying. Panning shots and such.

 

[Mudd]

Yeah, it was also used for shots of the ship flying flying by, not doing any fancy flying. Panning shots and such.

So I understood, but some of the CG artists have indicated otherwise. One seemed a bit miffed about the, uh, misunderstanding based on early publicity for the series.

It'd be cool if it really is true, though.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

It's the same reason the dinosaurs in the original Jurassic Park still look better than in the new ones : Hiding them in the dark of the night, obscured by rain, and mixed with actual models. The newest Jurassic World has vastly superior vfx. Theoretically. But they're shown too much & too close, so that the seams suddenly become visible. I feel somewhat similar here. Not dunking on Trek specifically. I think a lot of modern vfx has that problem. But also we're just getting a shit-ton more cgi and just become used to it.

What made the original JURASSIC PARK hold up and more convincing than the new ones is that the VFX team studied actual animals to get an understanding of momentum, skin folding, etc. I got to hear them speak at the re-release screening at Lucasfilms. They understood the physics of movement. And it was paired with animatronics to further sell them.

The stuff in the new ones just look like a video game. It lacks weight and mass. It feels artificial far more than the original film. To me, at least.

That said my biggest issue on the newer TREK shows is that it's too damn dark. Turn up the lights so we can see the purdy ships!