Experimenting with some more FX...

[martok2112]

I think I may have mentioned here at the Fleets that I managed to pick up most of the first wave of Johnny Lightning's Star Trek miniatures. (I have all the ships in the first wave except NX-01 Enterprise.) The ships are TOS Enterprise, TOS Shuttlecraft, TOS Klingon Cruiser, TOS Romulan Bird of Prey, and USS Reliant from Wrath of Khan. (Like I said, I lack only NX-01 in this collection.)

Anyhoo...with halfway decent lighting, and even a cheapoid 20 dollar digital vidcam, these ships make ok photographic models for effects shots.

I just completed my first FX shot with the Classic Enterprise (NCC-1701...no bloody A.B.C. or D......or E for that matter ) It did not turn out too bad at all.


I am going to make a "What if" mini movie of The Wrath of Khan, where Khan learns how to take the Reliant back in time, using the slingshot effect, back to just after the old Enterprise breaks from orbit after dropping Khan and Co. off at Ceti Alpha V. The Reliant is basically going to tear the living daggit stuffing out of Kirk's old Enterprise.


This will be my most ambitious project yet.

Respectfully,
Martok2112

[Archangel]

Nice concept!

[gmd3d]

martok good luck with that, It will be great to see the Enterprise and Kahn at it again. I recently got the ST motion picture on dvd , great stuff and the extras super. if you have not got it yet , do

Taranis

[martok2112]

Thanks, guys.

Taranis, I used to have that special edition of TMP on DVD..and let me tell you I had tears of joy in my eyes seeing what all they did with it. It was beautiful...and yes, a highly recommended addition to anyone's sci-fi DVD collection.

Respectfully,
Martok2112

[ernie90125]

Martok....what a fantastic storyline....!!!!

I am so sad that Star Trek has gone down the pan. Just today I once again watched the BringBackKirk.com trailer and absolutely loved it. It's the best Star Trek for years !

Your post idea is actually the first thing to create a minor spark in me that ST story might be a little interesting... This should be done from the two shows, with new FX and professional editing. Sadly I have no where near the skill to do it, or the DVDs !!!!!

Best of luck with your ideas with the models, CGI may look better, but I think you'll make a great film....

[martok2112]

The sample FX shot of the Classic Enterprise departing Ceti Alpha V is available at my Yahoo group.


Thanks for the compliments about the story idea too. And yes, I plan to try and find a way to integrate WOK and TOS footage together to make the story more convincing. Might even have to resort to some of my lamer impersonation skillz to make the lines work. (So it might be like watching Star Trek in Japanese with poor English dubbing.)

The sample shot is available here.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BSGCon

in the FILES section.

Check it out if you get a chance.

Thanks again,
Martok2112

[ernie90125]

Best of luck Martok...I did check out the file, but I am left with one burning question ? If you can do all that, why do it with a toy model ? Why not a professional quality mesh, and make a really good job of it ?

I don't think you need to do any impersonations...you have loads of quotes in Trek that would be perfect for the storyline, and Kahn featured in an epsiode and film, so there must be a good quantity of quotes that can be reused.

I don't have the ability to do this, but what my imagination tells me would be a dream come true, would be editing together all the battle scenes, with Enterprise crew scenes from across the Series, and Reliant crew scenes from the movie, with new FX....

All mixed together to make a Star Trek feature actually worth watching....

Best of Luck....

[martok2112]

Originally Posted by ernie90125

Best of luck Martok...I did check out the file, but I am left with one burning question ? If you can do all that, why do it with a toy model ? Why not a professional quality mesh, and make a really good job of it ?

I don't think you need to do any impersonations...you have loads of quotes in Trek that would be perfect for the storyline, and Kahn featured in an epsiode and film, so there must be a good quantity of quotes that can be reused.

I don't have the ability to do this, but what my imagination tells me would be a dream come true, would be editing together all the battle scenes, with Enterprise crew scenes from across the Series, and Reliant crew scenes from the movie, with new FX....

All mixed together to make a Star Trek feature actually worth watching....

Best of Luck....

Thank you for the high praise, Ernie.

My computer is relatively low end compared to what's available today. It has decent specs, but nothng I could run "Jedi Academy" on. I don't know if it can handle meshes. I've tried downloading meshes before, but could never see them, even with the appropriate software. Believe me, I would love to be able to use CGI models.

Besides, I wanted to see if I could do model FX, especially with small models. So far, so good. It's my nod to the FX days of old, when models were used, instead of CGI. (Not that I don't like CGI...I do. )

I think it will be very interesting seeing two three inch models going at it in battle.


Yes, there are tons of quotes I could use, from both Space Seed and WOK...but for the scenes that explain how Khan learned of the slingshot effect...hmm...I suppose I could just make that an opening crawl..and go right to the battle

Thanks again for your praises and support, everyone,
Martok2112

[Fragmentary]

You sir, are one ambitious sumbitch. Good luck. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Especially the first shots showing multiple ships and phasers.
Anytime someone uses toys to make something, he has my full on support.