True. But it also had some new ideas with Species 8472 and whatnot. Romulan crisises. Klingon timetravellers... Sorry. I play it daily.
It's got some good ideas.
2386:
The new openness on Romulus has made it much easier for the Federation to get news about what is happening on that world, but not all of it is favorable for the long-term stability of the region.
Ambassador Spock reports that the Romulan Mining Guild has finished a multi-year study of Remus and has presented its findings to the Romulan Senate. The guild reports that the planet has been seriously overmined, and recommends that to avoid a Praxis situation that the Reman operations should be shut down and mining operations should be moved to more distant areas of space. The guild spreads their operations across the Empire, settling hundreds of miners and their families on space stations and colonies light years away from Romulus.
2387:
The Daystrom Institute has announced the successful launch of the "Jellyfish," an experimental spacecraft equipped with trans-metaphasic shielding designed to withstand conditions that would destroy most other ships.
Designed by famed engineer Geordi La Forge, the ship is slated for extensive testing before it can be used for scientific and exploration missions. Starfleet is working with La Forge and the institute to determine which of the ship's systems can be adapted for Federation use.
Starfleet Intelligence recommends that the Federation keep a close eye on activities of the Orion Syndicate. A multi-year crackdown on criminal activity in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants has been successful in curbing the threat of the Syndicate for Federation citizens, but on Stardate 64163.8 Hassan the Undying assassinates top Syndicate boss Raimus on Farius Prime.
Also at some point in 2387 Romulus is destroyed by a freak supernova (see Star Trek XI)
2388:
Fallout from the destruction of the Romulan system dominates interstellar events in 2388.
The Romulan colony worlds reel from the loss of their homeworld and a vacuum in leadership. With the death of Praetor Chulan and the disappearance of Donatra, there is no one who has the authority to call the worlds to order or organize a new government. The leadership council of Rator III declares itself to be the new Romulan Senate and Rator III as the new capital of the Romulan Star Empire, but it is quickly challenged by the leaders of Achenar Prime and Abraxas V, who make similar claims.
One person many look toward to pull the Romulan people back together is Admiral Taris. She concentrates on evaluating what military forces remain, and issues a call for all remaining ships, even deep exploration vessels, to return to Romulan space.
2389
Infighting continues among the leaders of the Romulan colony worlds. While basic needs are being met and Starfleet is delivering supplies and replicators to every world that will accept their help, the Romulans lack a stable government and the chain of command of the military is chaotic.
Throughout the course of 2389, five Romulans try to seize the emperor's throne, more than two dozen people declare themselves praetor, and at least a dozen more claim the role of supreme commander of the Romulan fleet. Most of these erstwhile leaders fall prey to quick assassinations. A fortunate few are simply ignored.
2390:
Raids on civilian ships and settlements along the borders of the Klingon Empire and Gorn Hegemony rise dramatically and Starfleet identifies at least eight places near the borders where the Nausicaans are constructing bases hidden in asteroid belts or nebulae.
Starfleet Command does not consider these bases to be a major threat, but the Federation Transport Union, which represents a large number of civilian freighter captains, is demanding that Starfleet increase its patrols in the border regions and offer additional protections for civilian shipping traffic.
This puts Starfleet in a position of having to balance the need for defense with the Federation's deteriorating relationship with the Klingon Empire.
I've only posted uptill 2390, because from the end of ST: Spectre thats almost 22 years worth of stella events you could possible use for plot points :P
TBI, after reading the rest of the events from 2391 uptil 2409 its all just war anyway
No worries, I'm doing the kind of in-depth fixes and changes that folks were probably expecting for the Director's Edition. I've put the sequel concept on the back burner, but it hasn't been forgotten. Meanwhile, the search for VOs continues, some of my actors and actresses have turned theirs in but I don't have a full collection yet.
Haven't even started working on the VOs yet I've decided to wait until I can get them all and then put them in in one go. Right now I'm making all the small fixes that needed to be made (things that admittedly I'd probably notice before anyone else would, for example: in early scenes the sets were all still being refined, and so their appearances change throughout the movie; one thing I'm doing now is rendering new backgrounds with the most up-to-date versions of each set so everything is consistent--also I've changed a few shots here and there in early scenes to incorporate some of the techniques I learned later on, specifically the rack-focus shot).
I try to watch the "Star Trek Specter The Director's Edition 09" from YouTube, but I get this message:
"This video contains content from Sony Music Entertainment, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds. "
So, what can I do to watch this part?
I guess you can tell now that this project has moved into its second phase, I'm not keeping up with this thread the way I used to!
Just checking in, the remastering/fixes process is going swimmingly, I've gotten through fifty minutes of footage so far (some fixes you guys won't notice, others you most definitely will!). It's not a difficult process, just a time-consuming one.
@jbs: that happens sometimes, I don't really know how to circumvent that. I've heard people say they've had some success with various things, but I've never tried any of them. Google it and see what you can come up with, I'm sure there's a way.
Remastering and repairing is proceeding on schedule. This isn't necessarily an elaborate or difficult chore, just a time-consuming one.
For those interested in keeping track, I've reached the scene in Reyf's ready room immediately following "Garr's nightmare." I'm about one-third of the way through (no voice changes though), and I'm planning to post the first hour of "The Ultimate Edition" (as I'm calling this) on Vimeo within the next 48 hours. For those who were looking for lots of changes, some small, some not, this will be the version to watch.
I can explain one change that you probably won't pick up on that nevertheless is taking up a lot of the time: separating the character animations from the background plates wherever possible.
What I mean is, Poser allows you to render an animation either against a solid color background, or against an image. Rendering against a solid black background tells Poser to add an alpha channel component to the animation; rendering against a solid background gives you exactly that, your figures animated against whatever image (still or motion) you give it.
When I did the original Specter timeline, most of the time I did one of two things: either rendered the figures against the background plates (then did a separate white-against-black alpha channel mask animation, and used that to composite the two in my video editor), or else simply rendered the figures against whatever background plate would ultimately appear in the scene.
Each of these two approaches had its own pros and cons. Doing the dual-pass method I described first obviously took twice as long, and also ate up a lot of drive space (when I cleared all of the "mask" animations out, suddenly 85% of this project could fit onto a single 2TB drive instead of being spread across three separate drives)--but it allowed me maximum flexibility, by having characters that blended seamlessly over the backgrounds, while allowing me to change the details of the background plates without having to go back and re-render every single character animation that used that plate (this was especially handy for shots involving the main bridge or engineering sets). Most of the original renders were done this way, which is why the first version of Specter took so long to come together.
The alternative, rendering out character animations against the actual background plates and then just inserting the animation whole into my video editor, had the advantage of being much quicker, but the drawback was that if I wanted to change a detail of the background plate, I had to go back and re-render the same animation all over again. Character animations were rendered this way chiefly when I was in a hurry to get a scene done.
Well, about two-thirds of the way through Specter (the scene in the science lab), I discovered Poser's little built-in alpha-channel trick, and so all of my animations started getting handled that way. Using this method gives me the best of both worlds (no Locutus references, please!): I would only have to render an animation once, and retained the ability to easily alter the backgrounds without having to re-render everything, with the ever-so-slight drawback that you can see a few artifacts at the edges of the character animations overlaid in this manner.
Now that I'm going back and redoing the timeline, I'm doing everything using the third method, but re-rendering all those character animations is time-consuming. I notice this because the backgrounds all match what I consider to be the "current" versions of the sets, and as the guy who designed all the sets to begin with, I notice every tiny difference--but the reason I say most of you won't notice is because I don't expect everyone to have studied the "old" sets as closely as I might.
Another big time-taker is redoing the exterior shots. I know most people probably didn't notice, but the Fitzgerald changes appearances just about every time its exterior is shown (owing to different versions being used throughout production, culminating with the Prologic9 model that was introduced at the end of the science lab scene, which is the "current" version). The current model renders much faster than the one I'd been using, and looks stunning compared with mine, so I'm going back and re-rendering all the exterior shots using the current model, to great effect since it looks terrific. But even though it renders quickly, it still takes some time--and since Bryce doesn't share Poser's ability to build in an alpha channel mask into the animations it renders, all of them have to be done twice, one to actually show the ship, and a second time to create an object mask of it, so I can superimpose it over backgrounds.
Long story short...it's a painstaking process that's taking time.
When I made the first version of Specter (about the first hour and change), it was self-contained on a single hard drive, and all files related to the project were in one place. Obviously with a 3 hour movie that's not possible, and over the course of production the source files ultimately wound up getting spread across three drives:
H - "current" development (Scenes 1-38)
N - the "old" version
R - Scenes 39-52
So when I started doing all the fixes and updates, I was focusing on everything on drive H (and yes those are the actual letters), and manually swapping things out one-for-one in the timeline of my video editor. Problem is, I missed a few things--and so, this is why at the conclusion of the scene in Troi's office, you have a dark-looking entryway suddenly become a lot brighter in the blink of an eye when the door opens (the still image being from the old version, the brighter animation of the door opening being much newer). I caught a few things like that as I was going through and "proofreading" the film.
Also, there were a few other things that I'd been debating on whether to change, that I had originally decided against, that now I've decided should be changed. (One big one is in "Garr's Nightmare"). So it's a combination of things that need to be done, and things that I just want to do, that I probably would've done the first time around if I had been in less of a rush.
My goal is to have a complete hour ready for viewing before I start to put them up. I'm almost there now, it's just taking a little longer than I expected. Don't worry, those looking for the hundred small things that are different are going to have a field day, because there are a lot of small differences
Alright guys, I know everyone's been eager to see the Ultimate edition, and now your wait is over. (Almost.) I'm uploading the first hour onto Vimeo right now, but it's slow going. I'll post the URL as soon as I can. Stay tuned!
Posts
It's got some good ideas.
The new openness on Romulus has made it much easier for the Federation to get news about what is happening on that world, but not all of it is favorable for the long-term stability of the region.
Ambassador Spock reports that the Romulan Mining Guild has finished a multi-year study of Remus and has presented its findings to the Romulan Senate. The guild reports that the planet has been seriously overmined, and recommends that to avoid a Praxis situation that the Reman operations should be shut down and mining operations should be moved to more distant areas of space. The guild spreads their operations across the Empire, settling hundreds of miners and their families on space stations and colonies light years away from Romulus.
2387:
The Daystrom Institute has announced the successful launch of the "Jellyfish," an experimental spacecraft equipped with trans-metaphasic shielding designed to withstand conditions that would destroy most other ships.
Designed by famed engineer Geordi La Forge, the ship is slated for extensive testing before it can be used for scientific and exploration missions. Starfleet is working with La Forge and the institute to determine which of the ship's systems can be adapted for Federation use.
Starfleet Intelligence recommends that the Federation keep a close eye on activities of the Orion Syndicate. A multi-year crackdown on criminal activity in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants has been successful in curbing the threat of the Syndicate for Federation citizens, but on Stardate 64163.8 Hassan the Undying assassinates top Syndicate boss Raimus on Farius Prime.
Also at some point in 2387 Romulus is destroyed by a freak supernova (see Star Trek XI)
2388:
Fallout from the destruction of the Romulan system dominates interstellar events in 2388.
The Romulan colony worlds reel from the loss of their homeworld and a vacuum in leadership. With the death of Praetor Chulan and the disappearance of Donatra, there is no one who has the authority to call the worlds to order or organize a new government. The leadership council of Rator III declares itself to be the new Romulan Senate and Rator III as the new capital of the Romulan Star Empire, but it is quickly challenged by the leaders of Achenar Prime and Abraxas V, who make similar claims.
One person many look toward to pull the Romulan people back together is Admiral Taris. She concentrates on evaluating what military forces remain, and issues a call for all remaining ships, even deep exploration vessels, to return to Romulan space.
2389
Infighting continues among the leaders of the Romulan colony worlds. While basic needs are being met and Starfleet is delivering supplies and replicators to every world that will accept their help, the Romulans lack a stable government and the chain of command of the military is chaotic.
Throughout the course of 2389, five Romulans try to seize the emperor's throne, more than two dozen people declare themselves praetor, and at least a dozen more claim the role of supreme commander of the Romulan fleet. Most of these erstwhile leaders fall prey to quick assassinations. A fortunate few are simply ignored.
2390:
Raids on civilian ships and settlements along the borders of the Klingon Empire and Gorn Hegemony rise dramatically and Starfleet identifies at least eight places near the borders where the Nausicaans are constructing bases hidden in asteroid belts or nebulae.
Starfleet Command does not consider these bases to be a major threat, but the Federation Transport Union, which represents a large number of civilian freighter captains, is demanding that Starfleet increase its patrols in the border regions and offer additional protections for civilian shipping traffic.
This puts Starfleet in a position of having to balance the need for defense with the Federation's deteriorating relationship with the Klingon Empire.
TBI, after reading the rest of the events from 2391 uptil 2409 its all just war anyway
pain in the ass syncing them up?
Yes, yes. Hysterical. Thank you for coming off as mature as a high school freshman who said the same thing to me earlier today.
Not to worry, I'm to be credited differently. Thanks, though.
-Jack
Indeed, I'm hopefully recording this weekend.
"This video contains content from Sony Music Entertainment, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds. "
So, what can I do to watch this part?
Just checking in, the remastering/fixes process is going swimmingly, I've gotten through fifty minutes of footage so far (some fixes you guys won't notice, others you most definitely will!). It's not a difficult process, just a time-consuming one.
@jbs: that happens sometimes, I don't really know how to circumvent that. I've heard people say they've had some success with various things, but I've never tried any of them. Google it and see what you can come up with, I'm sure there's a way.
so... no updates
For those interested in keeping track, I've reached the scene in Reyf's ready room immediately following "Garr's nightmare." I'm about one-third of the way through (no voice changes though), and I'm planning to post the first hour of "The Ultimate Edition" (as I'm calling this) on Vimeo within the next 48 hours. For those who were looking for lots of changes, some small, some not, this will be the version to watch.
It'll be interesting to see who picks up on what
What I mean is, Poser allows you to render an animation either against a solid color background, or against an image. Rendering against a solid black background tells Poser to add an alpha channel component to the animation; rendering against a solid background gives you exactly that, your figures animated against whatever image (still or motion) you give it.
When I did the original Specter timeline, most of the time I did one of two things: either rendered the figures against the background plates (then did a separate white-against-black alpha channel mask animation, and used that to composite the two in my video editor), or else simply rendered the figures against whatever background plate would ultimately appear in the scene.
Each of these two approaches had its own pros and cons. Doing the dual-pass method I described first obviously took twice as long, and also ate up a lot of drive space (when I cleared all of the "mask" animations out, suddenly 85% of this project could fit onto a single 2TB drive instead of being spread across three separate drives)--but it allowed me maximum flexibility, by having characters that blended seamlessly over the backgrounds, while allowing me to change the details of the background plates without having to go back and re-render every single character animation that used that plate (this was especially handy for shots involving the main bridge or engineering sets). Most of the original renders were done this way, which is why the first version of Specter took so long to come together.
The alternative, rendering out character animations against the actual background plates and then just inserting the animation whole into my video editor, had the advantage of being much quicker, but the drawback was that if I wanted to change a detail of the background plate, I had to go back and re-render the same animation all over again. Character animations were rendered this way chiefly when I was in a hurry to get a scene done.
Well, about two-thirds of the way through Specter (the scene in the science lab), I discovered Poser's little built-in alpha-channel trick, and so all of my animations started getting handled that way. Using this method gives me the best of both worlds (no Locutus references, please!): I would only have to render an animation once, and retained the ability to easily alter the backgrounds without having to re-render everything, with the ever-so-slight drawback that you can see a few artifacts at the edges of the character animations overlaid in this manner.
Now that I'm going back and redoing the timeline, I'm doing everything using the third method, but re-rendering all those character animations is time-consuming. I notice this because the backgrounds all match what I consider to be the "current" versions of the sets, and as the guy who designed all the sets to begin with, I notice every tiny difference--but the reason I say most of you won't notice is because I don't expect everyone to have studied the "old" sets as closely as I might.
Another big time-taker is redoing the exterior shots. I know most people probably didn't notice, but the Fitzgerald changes appearances just about every time its exterior is shown (owing to different versions being used throughout production, culminating with the Prologic9 model that was introduced at the end of the science lab scene, which is the "current" version). The current model renders much faster than the one I'd been using, and looks stunning compared with mine, so I'm going back and re-rendering all the exterior shots using the current model, to great effect since it looks terrific. But even though it renders quickly, it still takes some time--and since Bryce doesn't share Poser's ability to build in an alpha channel mask into the animations it renders, all of them have to be done twice, one to actually show the ship, and a second time to create an object mask of it, so I can superimpose it over backgrounds.
Long story short...it's a painstaking process that's taking time.
(seriously, can't wait!)
Since you've decided to re render everything, i cant wait to see the noticeable difference in animations.
btw did you solve the leg walking, by not showing them below the knees? its a neat trick and you dont look for peoples feet going through the floor?
When I made the first version of Specter (about the first hour and change), it was self-contained on a single hard drive, and all files related to the project were in one place. Obviously with a 3 hour movie that's not possible, and over the course of production the source files ultimately wound up getting spread across three drives:
H - "current" development (Scenes 1-38)
N - the "old" version
R - Scenes 39-52
So when I started doing all the fixes and updates, I was focusing on everything on drive H (and yes those are the actual letters), and manually swapping things out one-for-one in the timeline of my video editor. Problem is, I missed a few things--and so, this is why at the conclusion of the scene in Troi's office, you have a dark-looking entryway suddenly become a lot brighter in the blink of an eye when the door opens (the still image being from the old version, the brighter animation of the door opening being much newer). I caught a few things like that as I was going through and "proofreading" the film.
Also, there were a few other things that I'd been debating on whether to change, that I had originally decided against, that now I've decided should be changed. (One big one is in "Garr's Nightmare"). So it's a combination of things that need to be done, and things that I just want to do, that I probably would've done the first time around if I had been in less of a rush.
My goal is to have a complete hour ready for viewing before I start to put them up. I'm almost there now, it's just taking a little longer than I expected. Don't worry, those looking for the hundred small things that are different are going to have a field day, because there are a lot of small differences
Post it already :P