This was actually a deliberate plot device, but not just because I didn't want him caught--later on in a crew briefing, it comes out that Garr is an accomplished engineer and that he'd "secretly been upgrading" the shuttle he stole, and what I want the audience to realize at that moment that if he stole the plans for six of Starfleet's most sophisticated starships...
Yeah, but this part doesn't make much sense. The dude with the glasses even tells the captain straight up: "You can't hit me, and you can't keep up with me." So why doesn't he just fly away? Why with the ridiculous stunt flight through the fleet yards and then the asteroid belt? Only to conveniently crash - most advanced shuttle ever, piloted by an extremely smart and capable guy, and he crashes?
If I were that captain, the way I thought to myself watching right away, I'd say, "I don't buy that for a moment. Find me that runabout."
Well, we know now why he does his ridiculous stunt flight: to fake his destruction, but still, it makes no sense; and is SO obvious that that's what he's done because of it, the crew of that starship look like a bunch of morons for not noticing this.
Finally one thing; the asteroid belt isn't the way you depicted it at all. You could get away with it in some unknown asteroid belt; no matter how improbable - as space is big, no HUGE - but not Sol's asteroid belt - as it is known. The asteroid belt has the mass and volume of some 1 or 2 planets spread across an planetary orbit which is several million times the volume of a planet. Asteroids are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even greater distances apart from each other. You could fly through it with simplistic ease and not even see the nearest asteroid of the one you just past with the naked eye.
The whole opening scene then, works much better with the firing of proximity fuse torpedoes; and the guy with the glasses uses the torpedoes explosion to fein a warp core breach somehow, which he uses to stealthily go to warp - hell, there's nothing stopping a criminal from mounting a cloaking device to make the whole thing easier. It would make the whole scene itself better, tighter, and the crew of the starship wouldn't look like complete buffoons.
Sweet stuff. Interesting "New Orleans-Class" meets "Entente-Class (Galaxy X-Class)" upgrade. Seems a bit uber, actually. I would've gone with Galen's Legacy-Class.
The Legacy class almost looks like a melding of the Intrepid and Sovereign designs. That might work, but one of the guilty pleasures I'm enjoying with Specter is the ability to recreate (and show off) all the TNG interiors (especially the bridge and engineering), which with the right lighting and a texture change here and there (read: as they appeared in Generations) actually looked really cool, but which looked too cheesy on the TV series.
However, that ship would work great for another scene--where can I get it?
tnpir4002: Ask Galen, the Legacy is his ultra-awesome TNG Relaunch-era pride and joy. I know that someone was working on interiors for the Legacy-Class starships, U.S.S. Cadence and U.S.S. Protector but the website went offline for maintenance.
Here's some old W.I.P. pictures of the Legacy-Class bridge I saved to my hard-drive for using in fics, before the site went down for maintenance & I never saw it again.
CREDIT: LEGACY-CLASS BRIDGE IMAGES BY COUNTDOWN5 OF SCIFI-MESHES.COM
you should see tnpir's voyager bridge- thats amazing stuff, considering his use of bryce. Although you gotta give credit to the guy who gave him the floorplan for it
Some trivia about this piece:
-Dr. Chellik gives Garr's birthdate as June 3, 2347. June 3 is my real birthday; based on the years Reyf gives of Garr's birth and apparent death, Garr's age at the time of his disappearance would be 23, an accurate figure for me at the time the script was written
-Chellik tells Reyf to scan for a particle variance of "point four seven terahertz;" the first of several appearances of the number 47 in the film
-Between Chellik's lines "Starfleet is dispatching a survey team to the planet first thing tomorrow morning" and "Gaius, you've known Braiyon Garr for 15 years," there were several lines cut for time detailing Starfleet's concerns that Garr might move on if Reyf doesn't get there in time
-Chellik's concerns about Reyf's ability to focus on the mission regardless of his personal feelings will be echoed several times by members of Reyf's crew later in the film
-after Chellik closes the channel, Reyf stands up from his desk and begins to walk towards the back room of his quarters; in this shot, his quarters have changed--now the Kobayashi Maru certificate on frame left is lit, and the cello by the window on frame right has changed to a nature painting
-this sequence features several missing pieces, including one immediately after we see Reyf walking towards the camera--in its final form, this scene will conclude with a closeup of a photo of Reyf and Garr, both as young Starfleet Academy graduates, back to back and both holding up their diplomas
-in the first shot of the bridge, the dedication plaque for the USS Fitzgerald is missing
-the dialogue in the launch sequence closely matches that of the launch of the USS Voyager, also from Deep Space Nine, four years earlier
-this version of the launch sequence utilizes a short version of the title theme from Star Trek Deep Space Nine; this is the second TV series title theme to be heard in the film (a modernized version of the theme from Star Trek Voyager was heard in the main title sequence), and will be followed later by an abbreviated version of the title theme from Star Trek The Next Generation for the brief appearance of the USS Enterprise
-the third shot from the launch sequence is a recreation of an exterior shot of Deep Space Nine from that series' fourth season; the third shot is a recreation of a similar shot from the Deep Space Nine title sequence; the shot of the Fitzgerald moving off is a recreation of a CGI shot from the series finale of Star Trek Enterprise, "These Are the Voyages;" and the final shot of the ship engaging its warp drive is a recreation of the conclusion of the first shot of the Deep Space Nine title sequence, substituting the Fitzgerald for the runabout seen in the original shot
-when Reyf orders helmsman Maxwell Parks to engage, his hand motion is very similar to the one used by Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek The Next Generation
-in a scripting error, at the start of the briefing sequence, Reyf indicates that Braiyon Garr was one of the Federation's leading scientists "until two years ago;" this is a mistake in dialogue, as in an earlier draft of the script Garr's disappearance had only lasted two years instead of five
-Reyf's listing of Garr's qualifications includes references to cybernetics, quantum physics, and string theory among others; this is foreshadowing for things to come
-note the particular manner in which Commander Bradley Prentice (at the head of the table, on the left) is sitting; that same posture was one favored by Commander William Riker on Star Trek The Next Generation
-the crew briefing scene features missing footage much like the scene in Reyf's quarters; in final form, Reyf's description of Garr's initial posting will be accompanied by a pan of the crew, ending on Chief Engineer Merv Ronston as he asks "So what happened?"; at that point the scene cuts to a shot from over Ronston's shoulder as Reyf responds; as he describes his ship's inability to lock weapons, the camera settles behind security chief Kendra Erickson
-this scene references the events depicted in the prologue sequence; in addition to providing some needed background about Braiyon Garr, the true purpose of this sequence is to show that Reyf does not share his fifteen-year friendship with Garr with his crew
at 4:25 you depth blur the background, but it doesn't really work because the guy in the foreground is already in focus the whole time, this would work much better if he was blurred while the screen was in focus and then the blur swaps over
also the blur looks too much like a gaussian blur - depth blur has different characteristics
I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but IRML you're right--not only about depth blur but you also nailed the type of blur I used. This is unfortunately another limitation of the video editor I'm using; I e-mailed them to ask if there's a better way to simulate a depth blur and I'm still waiting to hear back.
Just wait till you see the rest of the briefing scene--there's a moment where I try to pull off the same trick they used in First Contact (when they had Riker in the extreme foreground, out of focus, and Geordi in the background, also out of focus; Troi was in focus between them), and it looks terrible.
I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but IRML you're right--not only about depth blur but you also nailed the type of blur I used. This is unfortunately another limitation of the video editor I'm using; I e-mailed them to ask if there's a better way to simulate a depth blur and I'm still waiting to hear back.
Just wait till you see the rest of the briefing scene--there's a moment where I try to pull off the same trick they used in First Contact (when they had Riker in the extreme foreground, out of focus, and Geordi in the background, also out of focus; Troi was in focus between them), and it looks terrible.
This is Scene 7, the first crew briefing, in its entirety. I'm still refining the very last shot when they all get up to leave, but the rest I think is pretty close to the final form, if not finalized already.
nice. still need to get the voice actors in, but not bad at all. I dont know anything about video editing, but i would guess there's better software out there you could use?
The third warp nacelle of the Galaxy refit would be totally visible in that conference room scene. Would be a great touch to finally be able to see parts of the ship through the windows.
I've tested this myself, barely anything of the normal ship would be visible, but the 3rd nacelle would definately be in view
although in the final TNG episode there's actually a big extra chunk of detail behind the bridge that would block everything in view, I don't know if that's on this model or not
IRML I know what you're referring to, that big torpedo launcher (what I nicknamed the "air conditioner") right behind the bridge; I did include that on my Fitzgerald model but I just kinda hoping no one would notice that those parts could be seen through the windows
Some trivia about this scene:
-the music heard as the Fitzgerald assumes orbit of the planet is an excerpt from James Horner's "Returning to Vulcan" from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
-the music for the remainder of the scene is "Data Awakes in Engineering," from Jerry Goldsmith's score for Star Trek: First Contact; as with the score for the remainder of the film, the eerie Borg themes represent Dr. Braiyon Garr
-in a costuming error, Commander Prentice's combadge is missing from the first shot of the scene on the bridge
-the Operations Manager of the USS Fitzgerald is named in this scene as "Mr. Garrett;" this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Garrett Wang, who played Ensign Harry Kim, Operations chief of the titular starship of the Star Trek: Voyager TV series; the character of Maxwell Garrett was originally to have had a more Asian appearance as another homage to Garrett Wang, but when a suitable Asian character morph could not be located in time for production, the idea was dropped
-the angle of the show wherein Garrett makes his recommendation about the away team size is a re-use of a similar angle seen in "Evolution," when Captain Picard orders power cut to the bridge
-when Reyf is preparing to leave the bridge, he tells Prentice "the ship is yours," as opposed to the more familiar "you have the bridge;" this is a nod to Captain James T. Kirk, who used similar phrasing in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan before transporting to the Regula I space station
-the final shot of the scene (that of Reyf walking into the turbolift) was in actuality rendered almost six months before any of the rest of the scene; as such, the bridge is still staffed according to an earlier version of the script, in which Lieutenant Commander Data (seen here at Ops in Garrett's place) had already joined the Fitzgerald by this point
-in keeping with the literary undertones of this film, the exterior shot of Garr's laboratory at the very end of the clip is the visual equivalent of the line, "It was a dark and stormy night..."; this is the only instance in which the lab exterior is seen with such violent weather above it--for the remainder of its appearances, the lab's exterior is seen under quiet skies with only a hint of mist in the air
-listen carefully when the lab exterior is seen at the very end of the clip; beneath the wind and storm sound effects you can hear a unique humming sound--this is the same sound effect used to represent the Technodrome from the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series; that sound will continue to be heard anytime the lab is seen, but unlike the cartoon, in the film is treated as a sound the characters actually hear as opposed to incidental music heard only by the audience
This is just the first few seconds of scene 10, "Caves/Into the Hidden Lab," basically just enough to show off my nifty transporter effect. I'm eager to get feedback on the effect itself since it's one of the most integral parts of the Star Trek universe, even more sacrosanct than the replicators.
They are! The people are all Poser 4 Hi-Res people, the uniform tunics are simply the P4 turtlenecks male and female, and all the Starfleet props are pieces designed by DTEMachine.com
one thing that no program (as far as I've seen) gets right, is the shoulders XD I believe if instead of doing high res models, we used low-poly ones, it would cut the padding where it should....
anyway... if I may ask
how do they behave render-wise? I mean, what time does it usually take to render the entire movement for one char? what kind of materials you use?
I ask because I have to make some uniforms on my own, and I'm having some headaches with the photon calculations even with normal materials =S
Nighthawk your question is a complicated one to answer, render times vary depending on frame size, number of characters or props, number of lights. I could say "they render quickly" or "they render slowly" but it's all relative. The scenes where the characters are lit from all directions (i.e. scenes on the bridge) take a lot longer than the scenes in the caves do, because there's key light coming from one direction, and a little bit of fill coming from the other direction, and that's all.
I use Poser 8, which is faster than Poser 7, which is faster than Poser 4. I have a quad-core system at my disposal, which is faster than the dual-core system I used to use.
Scenes 10 and 11 are up! These are two very quick scenes, the first one is the continuation of the transporter test you already saw, with Reyf and his team finding their bearings. The following scene takes place on the bridge of the Fitzgerald as the crew realize what they're getting into.
Some trivia about this particular piece:
-the color scheme and appearance of the Beta Reticuli caves is based closely on the caves of Alpha Onias III, as seen in "Future Imperfect" (TNG).
-the ambient sound effect of the wind heard in the wide shot of the caves is the "Bungee" sound from the soundtrack of Goldeneye 007 (N64 game).
-the transporter effect is a variant of the effect first introduced in Star Trek: Voyager, seen here with colors and sounds from the feature film Star Trek Generations.
-the exterior shot of the Fitzgerald orbiting the planet is a recycled shot of the Enterprise-D in orbit of Veridian III from Star Trek Generations
Posts
Yeah, but this part doesn't make much sense. The dude with the glasses even tells the captain straight up: "You can't hit me, and you can't keep up with me." So why doesn't he just fly away? Why with the ridiculous stunt flight through the fleet yards and then the asteroid belt? Only to conveniently crash - most advanced shuttle ever, piloted by an extremely smart and capable guy, and he crashes?
If I were that captain, the way I thought to myself watching right away, I'd say, "I don't buy that for a moment. Find me that runabout."
Well, we know now why he does his ridiculous stunt flight: to fake his destruction, but still, it makes no sense; and is SO obvious that that's what he's done because of it, the crew of that starship look like a bunch of morons for not noticing this.
Finally one thing; the asteroid belt isn't the way you depicted it at all. You could get away with it in some unknown asteroid belt; no matter how improbable - as space is big, no HUGE - but not Sol's asteroid belt - as it is known. The asteroid belt has the mass and volume of some 1 or 2 planets spread across an planetary orbit which is several million times the volume of a planet. Asteroids are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even greater distances apart from each other. You could fly through it with simplistic ease and not even see the nearest asteroid of the one you just past with the naked eye.
The whole opening scene then, works much better with the firing of proximity fuse torpedoes; and the guy with the glasses uses the torpedoes explosion to fein a warp core breach somehow, which he uses to stealthily go to warp - hell, there's nothing stopping a criminal from mounting a cloaking device to make the whole thing easier. It would make the whole scene itself better, tighter, and the crew of the starship wouldn't look like complete buffoons.
But i agree with 3D Master- it makes sense (Consultant Credit?
Image By Galen of SciFi-Meshes
"Legacy" / "U.S.S. Protector" Images From:
http://wiki.tf-575.com/index.php?title=Legacy_Images
However, that ship would work great for another scene--where can I get it?
CREDIT: LEGACY-CLASS BRIDGE IMAGES BY COUNTDOWN5 OF SCIFI-MESHES.COM
YouTube - Specter v9 Part3
Some trivia about this piece:
-Dr. Chellik gives Garr's birthdate as June 3, 2347. June 3 is my real birthday; based on the years Reyf gives of Garr's birth and apparent death, Garr's age at the time of his disappearance would be 23, an accurate figure for me at the time the script was written
-Chellik tells Reyf to scan for a particle variance of "point four seven terahertz;" the first of several appearances of the number 47 in the film
-Between Chellik's lines "Starfleet is dispatching a survey team to the planet first thing tomorrow morning" and "Gaius, you've known Braiyon Garr for 15 years," there were several lines cut for time detailing Starfleet's concerns that Garr might move on if Reyf doesn't get there in time
-Chellik's concerns about Reyf's ability to focus on the mission regardless of his personal feelings will be echoed several times by members of Reyf's crew later in the film
-after Chellik closes the channel, Reyf stands up from his desk and begins to walk towards the back room of his quarters; in this shot, his quarters have changed--now the Kobayashi Maru certificate on frame left is lit, and the cello by the window on frame right has changed to a nature painting
-this sequence features several missing pieces, including one immediately after we see Reyf walking towards the camera--in its final form, this scene will conclude with a closeup of a photo of Reyf and Garr, both as young Starfleet Academy graduates, back to back and both holding up their diplomas
-in the first shot of the bridge, the dedication plaque for the USS Fitzgerald is missing
-the dialogue in the launch sequence closely matches that of the launch of the USS Voyager, also from Deep Space Nine, four years earlier
-this version of the launch sequence utilizes a short version of the title theme from Star Trek Deep Space Nine; this is the second TV series title theme to be heard in the film (a modernized version of the theme from Star Trek Voyager was heard in the main title sequence), and will be followed later by an abbreviated version of the title theme from Star Trek The Next Generation for the brief appearance of the USS Enterprise
-the third shot from the launch sequence is a recreation of an exterior shot of Deep Space Nine from that series' fourth season; the third shot is a recreation of a similar shot from the Deep Space Nine title sequence; the shot of the Fitzgerald moving off is a recreation of a CGI shot from the series finale of Star Trek Enterprise, "These Are the Voyages;" and the final shot of the ship engaging its warp drive is a recreation of the conclusion of the first shot of the Deep Space Nine title sequence, substituting the Fitzgerald for the runabout seen in the original shot
-when Reyf orders helmsman Maxwell Parks to engage, his hand motion is very similar to the one used by Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek The Next Generation
-in a scripting error, at the start of the briefing sequence, Reyf indicates that Braiyon Garr was one of the Federation's leading scientists "until two years ago;" this is a mistake in dialogue, as in an earlier draft of the script Garr's disappearance had only lasted two years instead of five
-Reyf's listing of Garr's qualifications includes references to cybernetics, quantum physics, and string theory among others; this is foreshadowing for things to come
-note the particular manner in which Commander Bradley Prentice (at the head of the table, on the left) is sitting; that same posture was one favored by Commander William Riker on Star Trek The Next Generation
-the crew briefing scene features missing footage much like the scene in Reyf's quarters; in final form, Reyf's description of Garr's initial posting will be accompanied by a pan of the crew, ending on Chief Engineer Merv Ronston as he asks "So what happened?"; at that point the scene cuts to a shot from over Ronston's shoulder as Reyf responds; as he describes his ship's inability to lock weapons, the camera settles behind security chief Kendra Erickson
-this scene references the events depicted in the prologue sequence; in addition to providing some needed background about Braiyon Garr, the true purpose of this sequence is to show that Reyf does not share his fifteen-year friendship with Garr with his crew
also the blur looks too much like a gaussian blur - depth blur has different characteristics
Just wait till you see the rest of the briefing scene--there's a moment where I try to pull off the same trick they used in First Contact (when they had Riker in the extreme foreground, out of focus, and Geordi in the background, also out of focus; Troi was in focus between them), and it looks terrible.
*edit*
Ugh, didn't realize it's now $100. I bought it some time ago when it was still $50 (might have been a special, can't recall).
YouTube - Specter v9 Pt4
This is Scene 7, the first crew briefing, in its entirety. I'm still refining the very last shot when they all get up to leave, but the rest I think is pretty close to the final form, if not finalized already.
although in the final TNG episode there's actually a big extra chunk of detail behind the bridge that would block everything in view, I don't know if that's on this model or not
hey, could always use the good old Jedi Mind Trick (wait...wrong universe...)
I'm with Mr Wilde, seeing the third nacelle through the windows would be a great touch.
YouTube - Specter v9 Pt5
Some trivia about this scene:
-the music heard as the Fitzgerald assumes orbit of the planet is an excerpt from James Horner's "Returning to Vulcan" from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
-the music for the remainder of the scene is "Data Awakes in Engineering," from Jerry Goldsmith's score for Star Trek: First Contact; as with the score for the remainder of the film, the eerie Borg themes represent Dr. Braiyon Garr
-in a costuming error, Commander Prentice's combadge is missing from the first shot of the scene on the bridge
-the Operations Manager of the USS Fitzgerald is named in this scene as "Mr. Garrett;" this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Garrett Wang, who played Ensign Harry Kim, Operations chief of the titular starship of the Star Trek: Voyager TV series; the character of Maxwell Garrett was originally to have had a more Asian appearance as another homage to Garrett Wang, but when a suitable Asian character morph could not be located in time for production, the idea was dropped
-the angle of the show wherein Garrett makes his recommendation about the away team size is a re-use of a similar angle seen in "Evolution," when Captain Picard orders power cut to the bridge
-when Reyf is preparing to leave the bridge, he tells Prentice "the ship is yours," as opposed to the more familiar "you have the bridge;" this is a nod to Captain James T. Kirk, who used similar phrasing in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan before transporting to the Regula I space station
-the final shot of the scene (that of Reyf walking into the turbolift) was in actuality rendered almost six months before any of the rest of the scene; as such, the bridge is still staffed according to an earlier version of the script, in which Lieutenant Commander Data (seen here at Ops in Garrett's place) had already joined the Fitzgerald by this point
-in keeping with the literary undertones of this film, the exterior shot of Garr's laboratory at the very end of the clip is the visual equivalent of the line, "It was a dark and stormy night..."; this is the only instance in which the lab exterior is seen with such violent weather above it--for the remainder of its appearances, the lab's exterior is seen under quiet skies with only a hint of mist in the air
-listen carefully when the lab exterior is seen at the very end of the clip; beneath the wind and storm sound effects you can hear a unique humming sound--this is the same sound effect used to represent the Technodrome from the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series; that sound will continue to be heard anytime the lab is seen, but unlike the cartoon, in the film is treated as a sound the characters actually hear as opposed to incidental music heard only by the audience
YouTube - Specter v9 Transporter Test
This is just the first few seconds of scene 10, "Caves/Into the Hidden Lab," basically just enough to show off my nifty transporter effect. I'm eager to get feedback on the effect itself since it's one of the most integral parts of the Star Trek universe, even more sacrosanct than the replicators.
Thrilled for the next part
are those Poser models?
anyway... if I may ask
how do they behave render-wise? I mean, what time does it usually take to render the entire movement for one char? what kind of materials you use?
I ask because I have to make some uniforms on my own, and I'm having some headaches with the photon calculations even with normal materials =S
I use Poser 8, which is faster than Poser 7, which is faster than Poser 4. I have a quad-core system at my disposal, which is faster than the dual-core system I used to use.
They render fine, let's put it that way.
Scenes 10 and 11 are up! These are two very quick scenes, the first one is the continuation of the transporter test you already saw, with Reyf and his team finding their bearings. The following scene takes place on the bridge of the Fitzgerald as the crew realize what they're getting into.
Some trivia about this particular piece:
-the color scheme and appearance of the Beta Reticuli caves is based closely on the caves of Alpha Onias III, as seen in "Future Imperfect" (TNG).
-the ambient sound effect of the wind heard in the wide shot of the caves is the "Bungee" sound from the soundtrack of Goldeneye 007 (N64 game).
-the transporter effect is a variant of the effect first introduced in Star Trek: Voyager, seen here with colors and sounds from the feature film Star Trek Generations.
-the exterior shot of the Fitzgerald orbiting the planet is a recycled shot of the Enterprise-D in orbit of Veridian III from Star Trek Generations