Yeah the shot where you see the enterprise before the walkway appears - looks too bright and blown out, the original had much more appropriate, moody lighting. The others on that article look excellent though. Let's hope these are just pre-production images and not the final ones.
I always have my TV set to the more subdued/warm "cinema" color mode anyway, so on my setup it won't look so overly bright. Kor
If anyone is interested in seeing at lease one matte painting that has surfaced, the shot of the crew emerging from the hull is shown here. Apparently the editors grabbed the an earlier draft of the the painting, and that explains why it looks so horrible in the original cut of the film. https://beforesandafters.com/2020/1...motion-picture-inside-the-art-visual-effects/
I have that book, but I'm waiting for the 4K DC before properly reading it. Can't wait for a TMP binge!
It is how I saw it ever since I'd seen the film as a child, I don't believe it defines the time gap. There must have been some breathing room of tales told non-Federation related. When Bones returned to the Enterprise, there was some sense time had passed since TOS and returning was shocking... as if it wasn't easy for Starfleet to find the good Doctor.
That matte painting definitely looks better than the bulbous oddity that ended up in the original release of the movie. I also like it better than the 2001 CG rendering. Kor
The perspective is messed up in the shot that ended up in the movie, making it look like the saucer has been twisted out of shape: https://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tmp2/tmphd2528.jpg Kor
If I look side-by-side at the new painting and the one in the movie, I can see the fix that was attempted, and it helps, but not enough. The difference is just widening the slope of the saucer so it's brought forward in the perspective, and you can't see around it to the back half of the flat part of the saucer. You can even see where it was painted over in the new matte. I'd be curious to just match the on-set footage with the CG model, since presumably, the hull-segment they built was the right shape and size, but I imagine that was the first thing the DE team tried way back when, and it still didn't look great just because of the angle, so they went for an all-CG shot.
I never really noticed the problems with that matte painting, but this one right after always stood out to me: https://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tmp2/tmphd2534.jpg The 1701 on the hull is way too high and the whole thing curves up too steeply.
If hindsight is 20/20, the team has PLENTY of opportunities to get this right. Let me list the ways. 1. All the major changes involving what the Director's Edition did are already in place. No pre-planning or conceptualizing is needed. They'll simply be redoing the effects they did before only with modern tech. 2. The 'Theatrical Cut' has been released on 4K and so many review sites have commented on it. This is important because the last update of the Director's Edition focused on that one shot of the Enterprise leaving drydock and how the detail and quality will look way better. 3. The 4K Director's Edition will be released on the Paramount streaming service first, which means if there are ANY flaws in the film that shouldn't be there, the team can take care of it before it hits physical release. This couldn't be more solid.
Yep. Unless a forced perspective painting is photographed from the intended angle, it doesn't work. Warner Bros. Movieworld in Australia has an alleyway with a forced perspective backdrop and a purpose-built pole, where you are supposed to rest your camera for the perfect shot. But you see people taking selfies from all angles, wondering why the illusion fails.
Mike Matessino of the TMP-DE Team, currently recreating the DE in 4K for "Paramount+", recently told TMP Appreciation Society FB page: "The problem is the angle of the shadows on the principals forced the bridge dome into one specific spot that made it impossible to do a painting that matched the small section of full-size hull that they were walking on -- as it was filmed -- without the entire orientation of the saucer looking off." and... "You want to know what Bob Wise disliked more than the misalignment of the painting and the lighting? It was the fact that it was shot from the starboard side. He literally said, 'I don't know what we were thinking' when we first looked at it and pointed out that it's a 'right-to-left' movie from the time the Enterprise is introduced. And if you look at the whole movie, he was absolutely correct. So this one crossing of the 180-degree line really bothered him and the change was as much motivated by that as anything else."
I wonder why they just didn't take a photograph of the model at the time from the proper perspective? Why even bother with a matte?