The Art of Voyager

[Richard Baker]

Voyage was the first Trek to interchange a CGI with the filiming model- one easy way to tell is the row of windows at the stern below the hangar deck platform are lighted with the CGI ship and unlit in the model (they could not get the bulbs in that section)
The NX was the first all CGI ship- no physical model was made. They could do things with it that would be impossible with a model- from filming dynamic turns to battle damage.
The "Year of Hell" Voyager wsa CGI also.

 

[Gary7]

Funny. That shape reminds me of something...

 

[ST-One]

1. Moving warp nacelles: This is something we've never seen before on any other starship. And I don't like it. It doesn't make any sense. And when the nacelles move "upward", the ship looks almost 'boat-like' to me. This was such a gimmick element... blah. When they're fixed in the horizontal position, it looks fine... again, not very aggressive.

The moving/'vectoring'? warp-nacelles are probably a reaction to the fact that the warp-drive damages subspace (as stated in TNG)...

Incidentally, was this the last Star Trek series that used a large scale model? At what point in the series did they switch to CGI? Did they reuse a lot of older model footage, even up through the last episodes?

I think some time in season three they started using a CG-version of the Voyager.
But stock-footage was used till the end.

 

[Richard Baker]

I think they used the CGI version throughout the series-

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Studio_models_(VOY)

VOY Season 1
Intrepid-class

The original studio model was designed by series production designer Richard D. James and senior illustrator Rick Sternbach. The photographic miniature was built by Tony Meininger and photographed under the supervision of visual effects producer Dan Curry. A CGI model of the ship were also used for some computer-generated visual effects by Santa Barbara Studios, Digital Muse, and Foundation Imaging. The model appeared in DS9: "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" as the USS Bellerophon. For further details, see Intrepid-class

 

[Praetor]

I'm reasonably sure that they didn't start using the CGI model until 'Swarm' in season three, and then it wasn't until season four IIRC that it was used the majority of the time, still intercut with stock shots of the physical model.

Regarding the folding nacelles, I'm pretty sure Mr. Sternbach has said that from the get-go the producers wanted something on the ship to move. I believe that the finally approved design lacked a moving element, so he reworked it to have moving nacelles, and then thought of using it to explain how the ship could go to high warp without damaging subspace. Surely, there must be many solutions to this or all others ships would have had them...

 

[Richard Baker]

It is simple to find out when they started using CGI. If the rear-most stern windows are lit it is the computer version. The studio model only unlit windows there.

 

[lennier1]

Still better than the interim nacelles where the outer grills on the blue sections swept forward (supposedly to cool the warp coils or something like that).

 

[Richard Baker]

I am glad they dropped the moving nacelles with other new designs. for me it sort of ruins the scale when you have parts flapping around like the KBoP.

 

[miraclefan]

I'm reasonably sure that they didn't start using the CGI model until 'Swarm' in season three, and then it wasn't until season four IIRC that it was used the majority of the time, still intercut with stock shots of the physical model.

Regarding the folding nacelles, I'm pretty sure Mr. Sternbach has said that from the get-go the producers wanted something on the ship to move. I believe that the finally approved design lacked a moving element, so he reworked it to have moving nacelles, and then thought of using it to explain how the ship could go to high warp without damaging subspace. Surely, there must be many solutions to this or all others ships would have had them...

Dang suits! Always getting thar hands involved in tangs they jus dont unterstand!

 

[Praetor]

I'm reasonably sure that they didn't start using the CGI model until 'Swarm' in season three, and then it wasn't until season four IIRC that it was used the majority of the time, still intercut with stock shots of the physical model.

Regarding the folding nacelles, I'm pretty sure Mr. Sternbach has said that from the get-go the producers wanted something on the ship to move. I believe that the finally approved design lacked a moving element, so he reworked it to have moving nacelles, and then thought of using it to explain how the ship could go to high warp without damaging subspace. Surely, there must be many solutions to this or all others ships would have had them...

Dang suits! Always getting thar hands involved in tangs they jus dont unterstand!

 

[Rick Sternbach]

I'm reasonably sure that they didn't start using the CGI model until 'Swarm' in season three, and then it wasn't until season four IIRC that it was used the majority of the time, still intercut with stock shots of the physical model.

Regarding the folding nacelles, I'm pretty sure Mr. Sternbach has said that from the get-go the producers wanted something on the ship to move. I believe that the finally approved design lacked a moving element, so he reworked it to have moving nacelles, and then thought of using it to explain how the ship could go to high warp without damaging subspace. Surely, there must be many solutions to this or all others ships would have had them...

The producers were given a number of different parts that could have moved, and they settled on the nacelles/pylons. The final design always had movement of something related to the nacelles; we just didn't know exactly what. Along the last part of the design work to refine the hinged pylon, we in the art department probably did rationalize the damaged-subspace bit out loud, but nobody talked about that aspect at all afterwards. Ah well.

Rick
www.spacemodelsystems.com

 

[Praetor]

Thanks for clarifying, Mr. S. I feel a little smarter already.