Hi guys! My progress so far... The CG version of the Akira class starship for the fan film
Star Trek: Triton. It's been slow going since I don't really get a chance to work on it all that often.
From the show bible;
U.S.S. Triton. NCC-62507. Though the Akira class was initially intended to fill a combat role, most of the TritonA’s shuttle hangars and weapons platforms have been converted to state of the art science facilities. Primarily an exploration vessel, sheA’s more than capable of coping with the inherent dangers of deep space.
Hope you guys like it and stay tuned for updates!
- Andy
Posts
Thanks man!
I am striving to make it as screen-accurate as possible, but that presents some pretty unique challenges since it wasn't a hero model but more of a mid-to-background ship, so some of the shapes are a bit wonky. I've tried to clean it up a little bit and made some very slight alterations that I can show when I get some free time to do some specific renders.
I started the nacelles a couple of nights ago, and it took me probably 5 tries to reconcile all the crazy shapes and polygon smoothing issues from the original First Contact model. Madness! Hehehe, hopefully they'll come out nicely.
You, Sir, just won me over. I cannot emphasize how absolutely refreshing it is to see a project where the combat aspects of a starship take a second seat to science and exploration efforts. For this, I thank you. In the words of the FedNet spots, I would like to know more... do you have a direct link to the series bible?
As for the project itself, it sounds very interesting, I would love to hear more about it.
And really nice grading too
Books: [ Ashes of Alour-Tan | Embers of Alour-Tan ] | Blender Tutorials | Blog
Thanks! Someone else gets it! :thumb: We haven't released a whole lot of material as we don't want to actually spoil thet film for anybody heheh, but here are some sheets we did up back when we were doing our first round of casting:
We're actually using a mix of CG and physical shooting miniatures for our SFX shots, so that's what I was going for! I want to integrate them seamlessly.
The first film shoot is tentatively scheduled for March, which is just a simple scene meant as kind of a proof-of-concept for the whole thing. It'll help us identify what works and what doesn't in terms of production. We'll probably release it online to try and drum up interest in the project and get some help hehehe.
Actually, the Akira-class was pretty detailed, considering when it was made. It was the only one of the CGI ships created for the Borg battle that was designed to be seen up close. What doesn't help it was being made in 1995-ish. But, yeah, it's got some wonky shapes. I've considered making it in the past, but those shapes are a pain.
I think maybe the mesh was damaged through getting ported to different pipelines a couple of times too, since there is some really crazy texture stretching and assymetry going on in the reference that Doug Drexler put online.
That's true too. It was either a Max or Maya model that was converted to Lightwave for the TV shows, and we know too well what can happen when you convert a model. I'm amazed it came out as well as it did, but I think it looked better in FC and in Star Trek: The Magazine, where it was seen in its original format.
We struggled with the choice of uniforms quite a bit. It was always going to be either the TNG ones or the DS9/VOY ones. To be honest I probably prefer the TNG ones but it worked out the way it did mostly because of story requirements. Either way we've already gone too far into costuming to turn back now! But don't worry, there are definitely TNG ones in the film.
I totally agree, it looked it's best in First Contact, that's the look I'm going for.
I'll make sure to do up some nice big renders soon. These ones so far have all just been preview renders from the XSI viewport. After I get the big pod done up I'll set up some bigger renders.:thumb:
We initially wanted to build full sized sets for the film, but we quickly realized that it was going to be a huge nightmare both logistically and financially, so I did a couple of tests with greenscreening. It looked waaaayyyyyyy better than I expected so we settled on a middle ground; Anything our actors touch or interact with is a physical set piece, and the rest is done in CGI and composited together.
Our first test was the captain's ready room set. When we film the desk / chair / desktop computer / PADDS are all real physical elements (depending on the shot requirements) and the rest will be this CG set.
Andy
Now, greenscreen-- that tech has gotten a lot better but I still can't help but think of Hidden Frontier. I would totally suggest that you consider doing cgi storyboards with lighting, so that you can light the actors the right way to matte them in, so you can have the sun shine through the windows like you have above (and of course, tracking dots and a high-res live-action input).
Might I also suggest you consider making some CG officers for the background, walking past in the corridors and so on.
I agree, except on the point that the room feels claustrophobic... not all 24th century ships have to have huge interiors. This was one thing that always bugged me about the Voyager... it was such a smaller ship than the Enterprise-D, yet its bridge felt and looked more spacious than the D's bridge... same with Janeway's ready-room... it was literally like the step-down living room of a luxury condo, it looked so big. I think Andymator is going in the right direction with this.
only sudgestion would be to personalize it abit.. has that off the showroom floor feel to it.. maybe add a plant, fish, Ancient Klingon Tribal Mask... something
Yeah, a lot of fan efforts are going with green screen. Of course, the first and probably most famous/notorious was Star Trek: Hidden Frontier. It was all green screen with props and you could tell because everybody had green outlines around them. Fortunately, technology that people can afford is getting much better these days.
Andymator, might you be willing to share some of the composite tests you did?
Books: [ Ashes of Alour-Tan | Embers of Alour-Tan ] | Blender Tutorials | Blog
Now, for your Starfleet observer, typically when you have an outsider in Star Trek they rock some sort of skintight outfit, but since she's also Starfleet, she'd need a uniform, so I was thinking maybe a colour we'd never seen before.
(boy, I wish that I had a less cheesecake picture to use as an example, I just needed to do it quick. And I couldn't get the gray purple that was in my head).
Besides, it says on her bio sheet that she's a command-track officer, so she should wear red. The fact that she's on board the ship as an observer shouldn't affect her color of uniform, as that's department specific.
Yeah, I don't know much about their back story. I just figured they were limited by what they could afford and what was available at the time. I know they started working on that series back in the '90s. (taking into account their "proof of concept" series, USS Angeles) Their green screen did definitely get better over time, though. The first couple seasons or so were very rough, but their last few seasons were much better.