Hi,
I've been working on this piece-by-piece for the last few months. The final goal is to render a recreation of the Drydock power-up and leaving sequences. For the moment, while I await arrival of the new iMac, I'm stuck with a low-end PC, meaning render-times are high, so some of the more complex scenes will have to wait until next month.
For the moment, here is what I have completed so far. A couple of shots at the current stage of this WIP are animated zooms of still images, so consider these placeholders. Mesh credits in YouTube description.
Video:
YouTube - ST:TMP - Drydock Sequence Recreation WIP
Comments/Crits welcomed as always!
UPDATE: Lights-on shot for saucer section top completed and rendered. One more placeholder to complete, and I'll start work on the next stage of the sequence.
UPDATE 2: Final nacelle lights-on shot completed and rendered. Stage 1 of the sequence is complete.
Posts
The only scene that's worrying me at the moment is the crowded planet fly-by. It's going to be a painful wait for that to render (have not yet quite mastered Lightwave's "Textured Environment" to speed things up).
I'll be watching the progress on this project eagerly. Best of luck to you!
The Starfleet worker will certainly be there, assuming I can find/create a suitable mesh. And of course, that clearly visible model support as the ship pulls out of dock.
I'll be sure to post the end result of the power-up sequence after the final shot is done. Looking forward to starting on the next segment!
At a couple of points it was clearly a CG recreation ... but for most of it I was lost in the moment. You made me ten years old again with this little clip!
<golfclap>
Pic-A-Card: I think it might be the codec. I just used FFDShow to minimize upload times/sizes.
Stage 1 is complete now, with just a few minor color-corrections and etc to be made. Here is the video:
Link: YouTube - ST:TMP - Dydock Power-Up Sequence - Final Version
You're not really going to add the model support to the scene are you? Please tell me you were joking about that. Without emoticons I can never tell when someone is being serious or not anymore.
I had actually been considering the support briefly (just for the one leaving shot), but I think it will be left out. xD
It would not have been anything obvious, more like a support-shaped dark patch behind the main hull as it pulls away.
My only nitpick would be the lack of some kind of specular highlights when the NCC-1701 is illuminated from the bridge dome.
Must read some Lightwave Surface Editor tutorials...
I've started work on the second stage now, and am in the process of creating the first shot (where we see that excellent wide-angle shot of the Refit from behind, slow edging out of drydock). With some newly acquired knowledge of Lightwave's Surface Editor, I can now turn down the top and side blue lights of the drydock to get results closer to the original. As always, the is a WIP scene, so it is nowhere near done. I still need to get the background modified for this angle.
The objective was the capture the ceramic-vacuum-formed-like quality of the hull seen in the original. Not sure how close I am to the right effect, but eagerly await comments/suggestions .
Maybe one of my learned fellow posters can explain. But it's something to do with the proportions or how the nacelle feels "flat" to my eye.
Still, that little nit-pick aside, GREAT bit o' footage! You made me ten-years old ... again! Woot!
While the previous scene is rendering for the first draft, I've started work on the next shot (image attached). It still has a few problems (lighting could use some work, needs background), but is gradually becoming what it needs to be.
I'll probably be posting the first videos of these shots around Friday or Saturday.
i'm loving this so far, but i have a nit-pick about that forward nacelle lighting too. the nacelle itself of course needs to be lit, but by all means change the effect so that it its illumination is not tied to that light can on the lower edge of the nacelle itself!!!
its impossible for that light to illuminate the nacelle itself, its like having your car's foglights illuminate your cars hood and windscreen!!
other than that, absolutelu beautifull!
Keep it up...
Actually, that's how that is in the movie. ^_^
I had planned to upload the video to go with that image today, before I discovered that the final render had a really peculiar artifact (everything was white!) on 2 frames. Going to look over the entire scene, then try to re-render (might do individual frames, then recombine later for safety).
As far as the hull is concerned it was painted with car laquer(sp?), Lightwave has a car laquer node maybe this could help..
I played for a while just to see if it had potential..