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"TNG" Remastered
- Thread starter Picard Alpha
- Start date
Looks good. Which meshes did you use?
I am doing something like that myself. I started with "Yesterday's Enterprise", since I always wanted to see the spacebattle updated and the Enterprise-D being badly damaged.
I am using rather low poly meshes for the shots (which can be found at BCfiles.com). But they are more than sufficient.
Keep up the good work! Cannot wait to see the complete episode SFX reel.
I am doing something like that myself. I started with "Yesterday's Enterprise", since I always wanted to see the spacebattle updated and the Enterprise-D being badly damaged.
I am using rather low poly meshes for the shots (which can be found at BCfiles.com). But they are more than sufficient.
Keep up the good work! Cannot wait to see the complete episode SFX reel.
doubleohfive
Fleet Admiral
I just watched the remastered episode in it's entirety. A couple of things I noticed:
1) The shuttle at the beginning of the episode is clearly a mesh of the later "Magellan" class shuttles they introduced in season 4 or 5.... while the interior is clearly still that of the first season shuttle. Admittedly, a minor nitpick but still a choice I find curious.
2) While I understand the desire to "update" the episode to a 16x9 widescreen presentation, the fact of the matter is the show was not shot that way. It's painfully obvious in many shots that it was shot for a 4x3 ratio when actor's heads are chopped off arbitrarily in extreme close-ups, or when there just isn't enough head room in others.
3) I don't know if it's my computer or YouTube, but the video stalled a lot, and was choppy throughout. I had to pause and play several times throughout the viewing, and all this was after I'd let the entire video buffer through. If the final rendered video you posted there was really big, it might be worthwhile to render a smaller version if only for ease of playback.
4) I must also admit that I'm finding myself in agreement with what Squiggy was saying earlier in this thread. I understand there was a time crunch of sorts here, however I also feel that recreating the same stock shots of the Enterprise cruising along is a bit half-hearted. Certainly, as someone who knows precisely zilch when it comes to 3D CGI modeling, I can't really criticize this too much, but being that the whole point of this outing was to remaster and improve the episode's visual effects, this struck me as oddly self-defeating in a way ... more of a "Look! See what I can do??" rather than a "Wow, that looks so much better than what they actually did in 1988/1989." Just my humble opinion though.
5) As someone who also works in television, I know a LOT of producers who niggle over logic and details in their shows, so bear with me when I point out that it is extraordinarily jarring to watch the Enterprise fly off in one direction (screen right) only to then appear zooming off in (what I assume is a continuation of that same, previous movement) the opposite direction (screen left). This happens at least twice in the show. Again, not knowing much about CGI rendering and such, my initial, gut reaction was simply "How hard would it be to simply mirror that same shot so the direction matches up?" I realize this is NOT a professional production and that it was all a labor of love, but it's the kind of thing the OCD asshole Trekkies will cling to and all point out, and it's also something that's pretty easily fixed too.
6) I don't know what you used as your source for the remaining, live-action footage nor do I know what color-correcting process you used, but several shots (most of them, in fact) wound up looking like semi-crisp transfers from a VHS tape. Some colors are washed out while others bleed over and the brightness is turned waaaaaay up. The episode looks markedly different from the DVD because of this, and not always in a good way.
7) As a quick aside, I never noticed before how after the Borg intruder tosses the security ensign across the room and he slams in to the wall and is very clearly injured pretty badly, neither Picard, Geordi or Worf do anything to help the poor guy.
That's obviously a gripe with the writers and the production team, but still something I found somewhat amusing.
8) Just before the first conference scene ends, the beginning of a Q-flash can be heard. Obviously this was the beginning of the little gag where Q taunts Picard while superimposed over the computer screen, I'm just curious as to why it was cut? And if it was going to be cut, why the Q flash sound effect is still there?
10) The first conference scene ends when Worf calls Picard to tell him (and us) that the Borg ship has (already) locked a tractor beam on to the ship. Yet when we cut to the exterior scene, we see it actually happening when presumably, it had happened while our crew were in conference. Now, certainly I'm willing to suspend my sense of logic on that kind of thing or take it as an editor taking liberties, etc. That said, it's the kind of thing that the OCD nerds are going to gripe about.
11) The first volley of torpedoes against the Borg cube explode but the residual sparks flying off really belie the sense of scale and very painfully suggest that these are not gigantic space ships. Slow the explosions down so there will be an appropriate sense of scale.
12) Finally (and I might be alone here) but I think chopping the last scene with Picard and Guinan in half is a mistake. The scene was fine as it was originally broadcast, with the appropriate combination of ominousness. I get the desire to make it 'more dark' but it's already a pretty dark episode as is.
All these things aside, it was fun to re-watch and I enjoyed viewing it tremendously. With a little more time and a little more work it would be spectacular.
1) The shuttle at the beginning of the episode is clearly a mesh of the later "Magellan" class shuttles they introduced in season 4 or 5.... while the interior is clearly still that of the first season shuttle. Admittedly, a minor nitpick but still a choice I find curious.
2) While I understand the desire to "update" the episode to a 16x9 widescreen presentation, the fact of the matter is the show was not shot that way. It's painfully obvious in many shots that it was shot for a 4x3 ratio when actor's heads are chopped off arbitrarily in extreme close-ups, or when there just isn't enough head room in others.
3) I don't know if it's my computer or YouTube, but the video stalled a lot, and was choppy throughout. I had to pause and play several times throughout the viewing, and all this was after I'd let the entire video buffer through. If the final rendered video you posted there was really big, it might be worthwhile to render a smaller version if only for ease of playback.
4) I must also admit that I'm finding myself in agreement with what Squiggy was saying earlier in this thread. I understand there was a time crunch of sorts here, however I also feel that recreating the same stock shots of the Enterprise cruising along is a bit half-hearted. Certainly, as someone who knows precisely zilch when it comes to 3D CGI modeling, I can't really criticize this too much, but being that the whole point of this outing was to remaster and improve the episode's visual effects, this struck me as oddly self-defeating in a way ... more of a "Look! See what I can do??" rather than a "Wow, that looks so much better than what they actually did in 1988/1989." Just my humble opinion though.
5) As someone who also works in television, I know a LOT of producers who niggle over logic and details in their shows, so bear with me when I point out that it is extraordinarily jarring to watch the Enterprise fly off in one direction (screen right) only to then appear zooming off in (what I assume is a continuation of that same, previous movement) the opposite direction (screen left). This happens at least twice in the show. Again, not knowing much about CGI rendering and such, my initial, gut reaction was simply "How hard would it be to simply mirror that same shot so the direction matches up?" I realize this is NOT a professional production and that it was all a labor of love, but it's the kind of thing the OCD asshole Trekkies will cling to and all point out, and it's also something that's pretty easily fixed too.
6) I don't know what you used as your source for the remaining, live-action footage nor do I know what color-correcting process you used, but several shots (most of them, in fact) wound up looking like semi-crisp transfers from a VHS tape. Some colors are washed out while others bleed over and the brightness is turned waaaaaay up. The episode looks markedly different from the DVD because of this, and not always in a good way.
7) As a quick aside, I never noticed before how after the Borg intruder tosses the security ensign across the room and he slams in to the wall and is very clearly injured pretty badly, neither Picard, Geordi or Worf do anything to help the poor guy.
That's obviously a gripe with the writers and the production team, but still something I found somewhat amusing.8) Just before the first conference scene ends, the beginning of a Q-flash can be heard. Obviously this was the beginning of the little gag where Q taunts Picard while superimposed over the computer screen, I'm just curious as to why it was cut? And if it was going to be cut, why the Q flash sound effect is still there?
10) The first conference scene ends when Worf calls Picard to tell him (and us) that the Borg ship has (already) locked a tractor beam on to the ship. Yet when we cut to the exterior scene, we see it actually happening when presumably, it had happened while our crew were in conference. Now, certainly I'm willing to suspend my sense of logic on that kind of thing or take it as an editor taking liberties, etc. That said, it's the kind of thing that the OCD nerds are going to gripe about.
11) The first volley of torpedoes against the Borg cube explode but the residual sparks flying off really belie the sense of scale and very painfully suggest that these are not gigantic space ships. Slow the explosions down so there will be an appropriate sense of scale.
12) Finally (and I might be alone here) but I think chopping the last scene with Picard and Guinan in half is a mistake. The scene was fine as it was originally broadcast, with the appropriate combination of ominousness. I get the desire to make it 'more dark' but it's already a pretty dark episode as is.
All these things aside, it was fun to re-watch and I enjoyed viewing it tremendously. With a little more time and a little more work it would be spectacular.
I just watched the remastered episode in it's entirety. A couple of things I noticed:
1) The shuttle at the beginning of the episode is clearly a mesh of the later "Magellan" class shuttles they introduced in season 4 or 5.... while the interior is clearly still that of the first season shuttle. Admittedly, a minor nitpick but still a choice I find curious.
2) While I understand the desire to "update" the episode to a 16x9 widescreen presentation, the fact of the matter is the show was not shot that way. It's painfully obvious in many shots that it was shot for a 4x3 ratio when actor's heads are chopped off arbitrarily in extreme close-ups, or when there just isn't enough head room in others.
3) I don't know if it's my computer or YouTube, but the video stalled a lot, and was choppy throughout. I had to pause and play several times throughout the viewing, and all this was after I'd let the entire video buffer through. If the final rendered video you posted there was really big, it might be worthwhile to render a smaller version if only for ease of playback.
4) I must also admit that I'm finding myself in agreement with what Squiggy was saying earlier in this thread. I understand there was a time crunch of sorts here, however I also feel that recreating the same stock shots of the Enterprise cruising along is a bit half-hearted. Certainly, as someone who knows precisely zilch when it comes to 3D CGI modeling, I can't really criticize this too much, but being that the whole point of this outing was to remaster and improve the episode's visual effects, this struck me as oddly self-defeating in a way ... more of a "Look! See what I can do??" rather than a "Wow, that looks so much better than what they actually did in 1988/1989." Just my humble opinion though.
5) As someone who also works in television, I know a LOT of producers who niggle over logic and details in their shows, so bear with me when I point out that it is extraordinarily jarring to watch the Enterprise fly off in one direction (screen right) only to then appear zooming off in (what I assume is a continuation of that same, previous movement) the opposite direction (screen left). This happens at least twice in the show. Again, not knowing much about CGI rendering and such, my initial, gut reaction was simply "How hard would it be to simply mirror that same shot so the direction matches up?" I realize this is NOT a professional production and that it was all a labor of love, but it's the kind of thing the OCD asshole Trekkies will cling to and all point out, and it's also something that's pretty easily fixed too.
6) I don't know what you used as your source for the remaining, live-action footage nor do I know what color-correcting process you used, but several shots (most of them, in fact) wound up looking like semi-crisp transfers from a VHS tape. Some colors are washed out while others bleed over and the brightness is turned waaaaaay up. The episode looks markedly different from the DVD because of this, and not always in a good way.
7) As a quick aside, I never noticed before how after the Borg intruder tosses the security ensign across the room and he slams in to the wall and is very clearly injured pretty badly, neither Picard, Geordi or Worf do anything to help the poor guy.
8) Just before the first conference scene ends, the beginning of a Q-flash can be heard. Obviously this was the beginning of the little gag where Q taunts Picard while superimposed over the computer screen, I'm just curious as to why it was cut? And if it was going to be cut, why the Q flash sound effect is still there?
10) The first conference scene ends when Worf calls Picard to tell him (and us) that the Borg ship has (already) locked a tractor beam on to the ship. Yet when we cut to the exterior scene, we see it actually happening when presumably, it had happened while our crew were in conference. Now, certainly I'm willing to suspend my sense of logic on that kind of thing or take it as an editor taking liberties, etc. That said, it's the kind of thing that the OCD nerds are going to gripe about.
11) The first volley of torpedoes against the Borg cube explode but the residual sparks flying off really belie the sense of scale and very painfully suggest that these are not gigantic space ships. Slow the explosions down so there will be an appropriate sense of scale.
12) Finally (and I might be alone here) but I think chopping the last scene with Picard and Guinan in half is a mistake. The scene was fine as it was originally broadcast, with the appropriate combination of ominousness. I get the desire to make it 'more dark' but it's already a pretty dark episode as is.
All these things aside, it was fun to re-watch and I enjoyed viewing it tremendously. With a little more time and a little more work it would be spectacular.
Yikes, from that glaringly terrible review, I clearly shouldn't have taken this project on. I get it guys, it sucked, lets leave this alone and pretend like I never did it, ok? Clearly I should stay retired from producing fan films, that much is even more clear to me now than before. This project for me, was to partially test to see if I still had the ability to produce fan films, and I'm glad this failed epically. I aim to please the audience, not piss them off to the point of critiquing like you did. Star Trek: Encarta was a home for me for 10 years, but it's clear I need to stop living in the past, I clearly am no longer capable of creating believable special visual effects that are up to par with the times... I really don't feel like taking the time to respond to all of your points, because you're probably right about all of them. Again sorry for creating this project, my skin just isn't as thick as it used to be, that much is clear as well. I don't get what your talking about with the ship flying in different directions, and I re-did the "stock" shots because I wanted it to truly feel as close to the original as possible, if I had created all new shots you'd be just as pissed off about not staying true to the original. With the overwhelming consensus of email, comments, and this forum about the project sucking, I've deleted the content from my video channel entirely. For myself, and the few that enjoyed the video, I'm glad you had a good time watching it, and a special thanks to my old Encarta fans from over the years. Good day, Star Trek.
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Yikes, Dude, Im really really sorry for my initial comments, again, I tried to be critical and I probably failed, im sorry about that.
doubleohfive on the other hand was far more critical and fair in his statements and I ultimately agree with him.
It has teething problems. From doing digital animation for 3 years at University, there's one thing i've learnt is that nothing is a one take wonder. You redo it, you tweak things, you improve upon them. Like I said, its teething problems but nothing ridiculously major and everyone here (me included) would love to see you improve upon what youve done, hell, im sure half of us here would be willing to help you.
For gods sakes, don't shut yourself away and cry over it, the very reason why were writing mini essays is not because we hate it, but because we like it and want to help you improve it. Remove the whole episode if you must, but please, I implore you to put up a compilation of all the effects shots you've done, i've seen and made myself much much worse in my time, you've done a good job. The only thing everyone is saying is that you can turn a good job into a great one.
doubleohfive on the other hand was far more critical and fair in his statements and I ultimately agree with him.
It has teething problems. From doing digital animation for 3 years at University, there's one thing i've learnt is that nothing is a one take wonder. You redo it, you tweak things, you improve upon them. Like I said, its teething problems but nothing ridiculously major and everyone here (me included) would love to see you improve upon what youve done, hell, im sure half of us here would be willing to help you.
For gods sakes, don't shut yourself away and cry over it, the very reason why were writing mini essays is not because we hate it, but because we like it and want to help you improve it. Remove the whole episode if you must, but please, I implore you to put up a compilation of all the effects shots you've done, i've seen and made myself much much worse in my time, you've done a good job. The only thing everyone is saying is that you can turn a good job into a great one.
I understand where you're coming from, and if the situation was reversed, I'd probably have said the same things. Have you seen me counter what anyone said? Didn't think so...At this point putting up an "effects reel" of what I did is really just beating a dead horse over the head. I've heard enough to realize I shouldn't touch Star Trek effects again, and this project was clearly a mistake and waste of time. I've admitted my defeat sir, why drag it out any further? If you want to critique more of my work, I encourage you to rip apart Encarta IV: Dark Hope.
Nooooooooooooooooooo. Pleeease, I beg you, continue with it. This is something I wanted to see ever since the early '00s, and from the preview pics you did an awesome job. Seriously, you said you were doing this for yourself, so even if nobody appreciated it you should continue - but some people *are* really appreciating, so do yourself and those others the favor and continue.
I'll PM you my YT username once I've created an account... ...I never got around to it...
I'll PM you my YT username once I've created an account... ...I never got around to it...
Wow, Picard Alpha, overreact much? 
Seriously, doubleohfive just gave you an honest review of what you've done. And I think he's right about pretty much everything he mentions. But I don't see why you seem to think that he hates it. If it wasn't honest opinions you were looking for, why create this thread in the first place?
Sorry, but I don't get you.
Seriously, doubleohfive just gave you an honest review of what you've done. And I think he's right about pretty much everything he mentions. But I don't see why you seem to think that he hates it. If it wasn't honest opinions you were looking for, why create this thread in the first place?
Sorry, but I don't get you.
Suit yourself.
doubleohfive
Fleet Admiral
I just watched the remastered episode in it's entirety. A couple of things I noticed:
1) The shuttle at the beginning of the episode is clearly a mesh of the later "Magellan" class shuttles they introduced in season 4 or 5.... while the interior is clearly still that of the first season shuttle. Admittedly, a minor nitpick but still a choice I find curious.
2) While I understand the desire to "update" the episode to a 16x9 widescreen presentation, the fact of the matter is the show was not shot that way. It's painfully obvious in many shots that it was shot for a 4x3 ratio when actor's heads are chopped off arbitrarily in extreme close-ups, or when there just isn't enough head room in others.
3) I don't know if it's my computer or YouTube, but the video stalled a lot, and was choppy throughout. I had to pause and play several times throughout the viewing, and all this was after I'd let the entire video buffer through. If the final rendered video you posted there was really big, it might be worthwhile to render a smaller version if only for ease of playback.
4) I must also admit that I'm finding myself in agreement with what Squiggy was saying earlier in this thread. I understand there was a time crunch of sorts here, however I also feel that recreating the same stock shots of the Enterprise cruising along is a bit half-hearted. Certainly, as someone who knows precisely zilch when it comes to 3D CGI modeling, I can't really criticize this too much, but being that the whole point of this outing was to remaster and improve the episode's visual effects, this struck me as oddly self-defeating in a way ... more of a "Look! See what I can do??" rather than a "Wow, that looks so much better than what they actually did in 1988/1989." Just my humble opinion though.
5) As someone who also works in television, I know a LOT of producers who niggle over logic and details in their shows, so bear with me when I point out that it is extraordinarily jarring to watch the Enterprise fly off in one direction (screen right) only to then appear zooming off in (what I assume is a continuation of that same, previous movement) the opposite direction (screen left). This happens at least twice in the show. Again, not knowing much about CGI rendering and such, my initial, gut reaction was simply "How hard would it be to simply mirror that same shot so the direction matches up?" I realize this is NOT a professional production and that it was all a labor of love, but it's the kind of thing the OCD asshole Trekkies will cling to and all point out, and it's also something that's pretty easily fixed too.
6) I don't know what you used as your source for the remaining, live-action footage nor do I know what color-correcting process you used, but several shots (most of them, in fact) wound up looking like semi-crisp transfers from a VHS tape. Some colors are washed out while others bleed over and the brightness is turned waaaaaay up. The episode looks markedly different from the DVD because of this, and not always in a good way.
7) As a quick aside, I never noticed before how after the Borg intruder tosses the security ensign across the room and he slams in to the wall and is very clearly injured pretty badly, neither Picard, Geordi or Worf do anything to help the poor guy.
8) Just before the first conference scene ends, the beginning of a Q-flash can be heard. Obviously this was the beginning of the little gag where Q taunts Picard while superimposed over the computer screen, I'm just curious as to why it was cut? And if it was going to be cut, why the Q flash sound effect is still there?
10) The first conference scene ends when Worf calls Picard to tell him (and us) that the Borg ship has (already) locked a tractor beam on to the ship. Yet when we cut to the exterior scene, we see it actually happening when presumably, it had happened while our crew were in conference. Now, certainly I'm willing to suspend my sense of logic on that kind of thing or take it as an editor taking liberties, etc. That said, it's the kind of thing that the OCD nerds are going to gripe about.
11) The first volley of torpedoes against the Borg cube explode but the residual sparks flying off really belie the sense of scale and very painfully suggest that these are not gigantic space ships. Slow the explosions down so there will be an appropriate sense of scale.
12) Finally (and I might be alone here) but I think chopping the last scene with Picard and Guinan in half is a mistake. The scene was fine as it was originally broadcast, with the appropriate combination of ominousness. I get the desire to make it 'more dark' but it's already a pretty dark episode as is.
All these things aside, it was fun to re-watch and I enjoyed viewing it tremendously. With a little more time and a little more work it would be spectacular.
Yikes, from that glaringly terrible review, I clearly shouldn't have taken this project on. I get it guys, it sucked, lets leave this alone and pretend like I never did it, ok? Clearly I should stay retired from producing fan films, that much is even more clear to me now than before. This project for me, was to partially test to see if I still had the ability to produce fan films, and I'm glad this failed epically. I aim to please the audience, not piss them off to the point of critiquing like you did. Star Trek: Encarta was a home for me for 10 years, but it's clear I need to stop living in the past, I clearly am no longer capable of creating believable special visual effects that are up to par with the times... I really don't feel like taking the time to respond to all of your points, because you're probably right about all of them. Again sorry for creating this project,
Dude, calm down. All I did was list the minor issues I had. There's no reason to go off the deep end here and feel sorry for yourself. At no point did I ever say that you "failed epically" or that "it sucked" or even that I'm "pissed off."
You think?
One of the last things I mentioned in my previous post here was that you open yourself up to critique when you do something like this. None of my points that I mentioned were done so with ill will or to cause you to feel like you failed. I didn't hurl any insults, I didn't set out to make you feel bad. The items on my list are there as constructive criticisms of your project, which, if you read all the way through to the end, I closed my post praising you for.
I'm not going to get on my hands and knees and apologize here -- you're overreacting to a viewer's response to your video. Likewise, the last thing needed is passive aggressive "I'm sorry I created this!" crap.
In one new effects shot, the Enterprise swoops off from the left of the screen to the right. In the immediately following shot, it's now flying by from the right side of the screen toward the left. It's common sense, it's visual continuity.
1) I'm not pissed off. At least, not by the project itself. What pisses me off are people who take any kind of critical perspective as a personal attack against them.
Now, in fairness, I could understand if perhaps the rushed nature of my critiques had come across as arrogant or superior sounding, and if they did please understand that that was never my intention. But stomping off and saying "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" is no way to resolve this kind of thing.
2) Thank you for explaining your choice in re-creating the stock footage of the Enterprise. That makes a lot of sense to me, and it's something I hadn't considered earlier when I watched the episode, nor when I typed up my comments. Why couldn't the rest of your reply to me be as level-headed?
3) Don't assume you know how I would react to hypothetical editing choices you didn't make. Thanks.
Oh for crying out loud. Overreact much?
Thanks to everyone though who came to my defense here.
This is a dumb comment. To be blunt. All anybody has done is provide constructive criticism on your project, which everyone has seemed to enjoy on the whole. I know I did. Nobody said never touch Trek again. In fact I'd like for you to continue and do another classic episode. You're taking any criticism of your work as a personal attack, which just isn't the case. You did a fine job melding the new SFX within the episode. Is there room for improvement? I suppose. Can I do better? Absolutely not. We all realize you did it for fun and because you're a Trek fan like the rest of us. There was no need to delete the video off YouTube. I bet there are a lot more people anxious to look at a classic TNG episode with a slight twist.
I just watched the remastered episode in it's entirety. A couple of things I noticed:
1) The shuttle at the beginning of the episode is clearly a mesh of the later "Magellan" class shuttles they introduced in season 4 or 5.... while the interior is clearly still that of the first season shuttle. Admittedly, a minor nitpick but still a choice I find curious.
2) While I understand the desire to "update" the episode to a 16x9 widescreen presentation, the fact of the matter is the show was not shot that way. It's painfully obvious in many shots that it was shot for a 4x3 ratio when actor's heads are chopped off arbitrarily in extreme close-ups, or when there just isn't enough head room in others.
3) I don't know if it's my computer or YouTube, but the video stalled a lot, and was choppy throughout. I had to pause and play several times throughout the viewing, and all this was after I'd let the entire video buffer through. If the final rendered video you posted there was really big, it might be worthwhile to render a smaller version if only for ease of playback.
4) I must also admit that I'm finding myself in agreement with what Squiggy was saying earlier in this thread. I understand there was a time crunch of sorts here, however I also feel that recreating the same stock shots of the Enterprise cruising along is a bit half-hearted. Certainly, as someone who knows precisely zilch when it comes to 3D CGI modeling, I can't really criticize this too much, but being that the whole point of this outing was to remaster and improve the episode's visual effects, this struck me as oddly self-defeating in a way ... more of a "Look! See what I can do??" rather than a "Wow, that looks so much better than what they actually did in 1988/1989." Just my humble opinion though.
5) As someone who also works in television, I know a LOT of producers who niggle over logic and details in their shows, so bear with me when I point out that it is extraordinarily jarring to watch the Enterprise fly off in one direction (screen right) only to then appear zooming off in (what I assume is a continuation of that same, previous movement) the opposite direction (screen left). This happens at least twice in the show. Again, not knowing much about CGI rendering and such, my initial, gut reaction was simply "How hard would it be to simply mirror that same shot so the direction matches up?" I realize this is NOT a professional production and that it was all a labor of love, but it's the kind of thing the OCD asshole Trekkies will cling to and all point out, and it's also something that's pretty easily fixed too.
6) I don't know what you used as your source for the remaining, live-action footage nor do I know what color-correcting process you used, but several shots (most of them, in fact) wound up looking like semi-crisp transfers from a VHS tape. Some colors are washed out while others bleed over and the brightness is turned waaaaaay up. The episode looks markedly different from the DVD because of this, and not always in a good way.
7) As a quick aside, I never noticed before how after the Borg intruder tosses the security ensign across the room and he slams in to the wall and is very clearly injured pretty badly, neither Picard, Geordi or Worf do anything to help the poor guy.
8) Just before the first conference scene ends, the beginning of a Q-flash can be heard. Obviously this was the beginning of the little gag where Q taunts Picard while superimposed over the computer screen, I'm just curious as to why it was cut? And if it was going to be cut, why the Q flash sound effect is still there?
10) The first conference scene ends when Worf calls Picard to tell him (and us) that the Borg ship has (already) locked a tractor beam on to the ship. Yet when we cut to the exterior scene, we see it actually happening when presumably, it had happened while our crew were in conference. Now, certainly I'm willing to suspend my sense of logic on that kind of thing or take it as an editor taking liberties, etc. That said, it's the kind of thing that the OCD nerds are going to gripe about.
11) The first volley of torpedoes against the Borg cube explode but the residual sparks flying off really belie the sense of scale and very painfully suggest that these are not gigantic space ships. Slow the explosions down so there will be an appropriate sense of scale.
12) Finally (and I might be alone here) but I think chopping the last scene with Picard and Guinan in half is a mistake. The scene was fine as it was originally broadcast, with the appropriate combination of ominousness. I get the desire to make it 'more dark' but it's already a pretty dark episode as is.
All these things aside, it was fun to re-watch and I enjoyed viewing it tremendously. With a little more time and a little more work it would be spectacular.
Yikes, from that glaringly terrible review, I clearly shouldn't have taken this project on. I get it guys, it sucked, lets leave this alone and pretend like I never did it, ok? Clearly I should stay retired from producing fan films, that much is even more clear to me now than before. This project for me, was to partially test to see if I still had the ability to produce fan films, and I'm glad this failed epically. I aim to please the audience, not piss them off to the point of critiquing like you did. Star Trek: Encarta was a home for me for 10 years, but it's clear I need to stop living in the past, I clearly am no longer capable of creating believable special visual effects that are up to par with the times... I really don't feel like taking the time to respond to all of your points, because you're probably right about all of them. Again sorry for creating this project,
Dude, calm down. All I did was list the minor issues I had. There's no reason to go off the deep end here and feel sorry for yourself. At no point did I ever say that you "failed epically" or that "it sucked" or even that I'm "pissed off."
You think?
One of the last things I mentioned in my previous post here was that you open yourself up to critique when you do something like this. None of my points that I mentioned were done so with ill will or to cause you to feel like you failed. I didn't hurl any insults, I didn't set out to make you feel bad. The items on my list are there as constructive criticisms of your project, which, if you read all the way through to the end, I closed my post praising you for.
I'm not going to get on my hands and knees and apologize here -- you're overreacting to a viewer's response to your video. Likewise, the last thing needed is passive aggressive "I'm sorry I created this!" crap.
In one new effects shot, the Enterprise swoops off from the left of the screen to the right. In the immediately following shot, it's now flying by from the right side of the screen toward the left. It's common sense, it's visual continuity.
1) I'm not pissed off. At least, not by the project itself. What pisses me off are people who take any kind of critical perspective as a personal attack against them.
Now, in fairness, I could understand if perhaps the rushed nature of my critiques had come across as arrogant or superior sounding, and if they did please understand that that was never my intention. But stomping off and saying "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" is no way to resolve this kind of thing.
2) Thank you for explaining your choice in re-creating the stock footage of the Enterprise. That makes a lot of sense to me, and it's something I hadn't considered earlier when I watched the episode, nor when I typed up my comments. Why couldn't the rest of your reply to me be as level-headed?
3) Don't assume you know how I would react to hypothetical editing choices you didn't make. Thanks.
Oh for crying out loud. Overreact much?
Thanks to everyone though who came to my defense here.
Listen, I'm not looking for trouble, or wanting to continue this craziness. I simply wanted to distance myself as quickly as I could from this mess. It blew up in my face, and I wasn't prepared for a lot of, from my shoes, seemed like negative feedback. I'm sure if it we're you, you'd feel a little bruised as well.
There's no reason to "defend" anyone. I never disagreed with any critical comments, I simply wanted to delete the work and leave it behind. Is that so hard to understand? From my eyes, the project was a failure. I should have thought a little more about posting it on the net for all to see (and comment on), and less about how fun it was. You're absolutely right for giving me the criticism you did, I never negated that fact, or got directly angry at anyone's feedback. With the compounding comments, and legal reasons I removed the video, what more can you ask? Through all of this, I feel all I have done is damage my reputation as a former fan film producer. Although I may have been on the defense as the project was backfiring, I have to admit I would likely have responded in the same way as you did. The video was clearly rushed and not worth the attention it's received. Doubleohfive, I didn't mean to stir the pot, accept my apology and I hope you'll understand. You're viewership was important to me, that's why I let you see the video privately, you have certainly done nothing wrong. I've been a member of this board for 7 years, and never wanted to be at the forefront of one of these threads...big woops on my part...
Let's just hope if they ever do remaster TNG, they put more attention to detail in their work than I did.
I still want to see it, I'm sure i will like it. don't give up. Do you think James Cawley quit when everyone made fun of the vfx in the pilot episode 'Come What May' ( dancing Enterprise, etc..) ? No, the New Voyages team endured and got better and better at it to the point of being pretty professional. People criticise almost everything around here, you get kinda thick skin about it once you been here awile,
doubleohfive
Fleet Admiral
Dude, calm down. All I did was list the minor issues I had. There's no reason to go off the deep end here and feel sorry for yourself. At no point did I ever say that you "failed epically" or that "it sucked" or even that I'm "pissed off."
You think?
One of the last things I mentioned in my previous post here was that you open yourself up to critique when you do something like this. None of my points that I mentioned were done so with ill will or to cause you to feel like you failed. I didn't hurl any insults, I didn't set out to make you feel bad. The items on my list are there as constructive criticisms of your project, which, if you read all the way through to the end, I closed my post praising you for.
I'm not going to get on my hands and knees and apologize here -- you're overreacting to a viewer's response to your video. Likewise, the last thing needed is passive aggressive "I'm sorry I created this!" crap.
In one new effects shot, the Enterprise swoops off from the left of the screen to the right. In the immediately following shot, it's now flying by from the right side of the screen toward the left. It's common sense, it's visual continuity.
1) I'm not pissed off. At least, not by the project itself. What pisses me off are people who take any kind of critical perspective as a personal attack against them.
Now, in fairness, I could understand if perhaps the rushed nature of my critiques had come across as arrogant or superior sounding, and if they did please understand that that was never my intention. But stomping off and saying "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" is no way to resolve this kind of thing.
2) Thank you for explaining your choice in re-creating the stock footage of the Enterprise. That makes a lot of sense to me, and it's something I hadn't considered earlier when I watched the episode, nor when I typed up my comments. Why couldn't the rest of your reply to me be as level-headed?
3) Don't assume you know how I would react to hypothetical editing choices you didn't make. Thanks.
Oh for crying out loud. Overreact much?
Thanks to everyone though who came to my defense here.
Listen, I'm not looking for trouble, or wanting to continue this craziness. I simply wanted to distance myself as quickly as I could from this mess. It blew up in my face, and I wasn't prepared for a lot of, from my shoes, seemed like negative feedback.
I disagree that it's "blown up in [your] face." I'll be blunt here and simply say that you really need to learn to discern between constructive, critical commentary and whatever horrible, insulting baggage you think constitutes "negative feedback."
Maybe. But only a little bit. Beyond that, I'd actually enjoy the opportunity to discuss the editing choices I make, and the resulting film produced. That's the kind of academic, critical discussion I was hoping to have with you about this project.
But you totally overreacted to those critical comments. That's why people defended me.
Frankly, yes. Why would you put so much hard work and effort in to something like this and then tear it all down? Because a few people had the gall to point out a few things that could use some tweaking? The big boys in the fan film community -- New Voyages, Exeter, those guys don't do that. They listen and they explain where they can. They deal with the assholes and the academics. You can't have one without the other, and most of the time these guys deal with everyone pretty well, I've found, and without going apeshit or crying foul. (The reviewers do that.)
Again, why? Because people didn't heap praise after praise on you? Forgive me for saying this but if that's the case, then you really are out of touch with your audience, which consists (thought not entirely) of a whole collection of assholes sometimes. On top of that, (and I don't say this to be insulting at all) but remastering an episode with new effects isn't exactly the hallmark of creative ingenuity. Is it nice? Is it clever? Sure. To be perfectly honest I was more interested in what your thoughts were behind some of the "story" cuts -- the one about Q I mentioned, and the ending -- than anything else after I finished watching the show. I would have loved to discuss that, even though I was somewhat puzzled by the choices you made.
I hate Star Trek. Not because of the show or the movies or JJ Abrams or Rick Berman, but because of the fans. Most are childish, immature and oh so passive-aggressive and throw temper tantrums like little crybabies when they don't get what they want. James Bond is blond? BOO HOO! Warp nacelles wre blue? WHAAA!!
It's not a question of "right" or "wrong" ... it's about personal maturity. I'm fairly certain nobody who got to see the video you edited together has responded in a particularly negative fashion, and certainly not with respect to you or your skills in this endeavor. What more can I ask? Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You did a cool thing. It was fun! You're no victim here. Relish the chance to keep discussing your project even after you've unleashed it to the viewing audience.
A couple things: 1) I haven't seen much of your Encarta series, so I can't speak to your reputation as a fan film producer. That's not an indictment against you, it's me admitting I'm just plain uninformed about your skill in this particular arena.
2) I don't understand. If you admit you would "likely" have responded the same way I did, why are you still charging down this woe-is-me, sacrificial-lamb road?
Disagreed again. Maybe it was rushed; I don't know. But just because people offered up suggestions and critiques doesn't mean the experience has been worthless or negative.
Doubleohfive, I didn't mean to stir the pot, accept my apology and I hope you'll understand. You're viewership was important to me, that's why I let you see the video privately, you have certainly done nothing wrong. I've been a member of this board for 7 years, and never wanted to be at the forefront of one of these threads...big woops on my part...
For starters, there's no need to apologize to me. I appreciate the sentiment, but it's unnecessary. At the risk of sounding like a douche, I'll simply close by suggesting that you stop taking things so personally.
As a writer, I am all too familiar with how much heart and soul and personality and blood and tears go in to my own projects, and to have people criticize them (unfairly or not) is difficult to interpret sometimes as anything other than an attack against me personally.
But the thing is, all art is like that. Half the battle is getting the thing done. The other half -- and sometimes the more important half of being an artist-- is actually having the balls to put your work out there for people to see, to read, to watch, to form their own opinions about. Granted, the Trekkies on this board are sometimes the least understanding of this particular permutation of the creative process and can be quite coldly insensitive to it ... but that really changes nothing about the process for us as artists.
And, for the love of God, Man up! Stop feeling sorry for yourself! There's no need to feel so bad!
Ok, I really liked the idea of someone sitting down and doing a remastered TNG episode, and I enjoyed what you saw of your project.
But what I don't understand is how you completely miss that everyone here is encouraging you to continue and improve.
I've worked on fan films that take years to put together and still at times get worse feedback then you've received here.
Did you honestly expect to remaster an episode in 2 weeks and not have people offer points that could be improved?!
Most people here like what you've done. Put your VFX shots back up and crack on with your next project.
But what I don't understand is how you completely miss that everyone here is encouraging you to continue and improve.
I've worked on fan films that take years to put together and still at times get worse feedback then you've received here.
Did you honestly expect to remaster an episode in 2 weeks and not have people offer points that could be improved?!
Most people here like what you've done. Put your VFX shots back up and crack on with your next project.
I was really looking forward to watching this.
Now I'm just disapointed that I wasted my time checking up on this thread. Some good, honest, constructive critisism has been taken completely out of context. The reaction is comparable to the child losing at football that decides "It's my ball and I'm taking it home".
Very immature.
Now I'm just disapointed that I wasted my time checking up on this thread. Some good, honest, constructive critisism has been taken completely out of context. The reaction is comparable to the child losing at football that decides "It's my ball and I'm taking it home".
Very immature.
For what it's worth, I don't usually comment much around this corner, but I did really enjoy was was put up. I managed to see the whole thing and I think it was a great improvement. Keep going, even if it means tweaking it for your own enjoyment. Rome wasn't built in a day and nobody can become a pro at anything without the practice that they've done. One step is all it takes, as they say. You've already done a lot more than I'd ever be able to do. I'd encourage you to get back into the Captain's seat and keep going and take the comments here like the advice Spock gives Kirk.
Btw, your animated series is brilliant. Keep up the good work.
Btw, your animated series is brilliant. Keep up the good work.
MikeS, first and foremost, I want you to know that I primarily removed the video from YouTube because of legal reasons, I realized (albeit, late in the game) it's not the best idea to post entire episode length videos on YouTube and expect it not to get flagged, or worse, my account shutdown. I mistakenly overlooked that aspect when I started the project, thinking parody or fair use would work in my favor, but I really didn't want to chance someone noticing this video and then shutting down everything, including the Encarta films, which are Paramount and very important to me...If I had a video server, I'd consider reposting the entire episode, but I don't have a server. Some have requested the new effects be made into some kind of reel...at this point I'm considering that, it would just require some more work. My only fear is we've reached a point of no return on this whole project. But if people are still open to that, and it would satisfy folks like yourself, then why not?
I want to apologize again if I came off as some kind of angry child, as you mentioned, in retrospect I think you're right. I hope we can move on or just close this topic.
I want to apologize again if I came off as some kind of angry child, as you mentioned, in retrospect I think you're right. I hope we can move on or just close this topic.
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