Star Trek: "The Doomsday Machine"

[RobertoOrtiz]

This sounds like a very very cool idea.

Keep us updated on your efforts.

-R

[Professor Moriarty]

Count on it, Roberto. :)

[freakmoomin]

absolute quality!

i think the effects in the original are fine as they are to be honest but this is very cool project and ill be keeping up to date with this ;-)

only crit i can think of is in scene 011 when the enterprise comes over the camera, the star/sun in the BG is a little out of place......it looks a little 1996 CG (babylon 5) if you know what i mean....

Good work tho, and i look foward to seeing the rest.

p.s the very first model i ever done was the original enterprise and im still proud of it ;-) its nothing like yours tho ;-)

[Professor Moriarty]

absolute quality!
Thanks. :)


i think the effects in the original are fine as they are to be honest but this is very cool project and ill be keeping up to date with this ;-)
Whether you choose to believe me or not, I agree with you. Star Trek's original FX are what they are--and forty years ago, they were damn amazing to TV audiences. I myself, a child of the 70's, grew up watching endless reruns of Star Trek, and the Enterprise was the first woman (other than my mother!) who I unconditionally loved. There's nothing inherently "wrong" with the original effects--indeed, they are part and parcel of the charm of the series. I'm only attempting this project because (a) no one else (to my knowledge) has ever completely replaced all of the effects, so it'd be a minor accomplishment to be the first one to do it, and (b) it keeps me from being out in the bars drinkin' on the weekends. ;)


only crit i can think of is in scene 011 when the enterprise comes over the camera, the star/sun in the BG is a little out of place......it looks a little 1996 CG (babylon 5) if you know what i mean....
Actually, I know exactly what you mean, and it's purely intentional. For example, the look of the asteroids is pure Sixties Trek. Remember the moon-sized asteroid that was going to smash Kirok and his wife in "The Paradise Syndrome" (and which was unfortunately repurposed only five episodes later as the space ark Yonada in "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky")? Do you think it's any accident that my asteroids look very, very similar (albeit with a dash of molten glow thrown in)? I'm deliberately going for a very retro look for this project, and the slightly too noticeable lens flare and star streaking are all a part of that "look" I'm striving for. (One of my few concessions to modern sensibilities is the "aztec" surfacing on the Enterprise and Constellation, but you can only see that texturing from certain angles so I hope it's not too intrusive.)

[freakmoomin]

That was one of the reasons i really like what you have, it doesnt look weird when it cuts back to the original footage of the crew, it pretty much fits in seemlesly which is pretty hard to acheive. (i still dont like the streaky star tho ;-) too 80's/90's and less 60's for me)

i think your Enterprise is really top notch, and i dont mind the "aztec" surfacing or anything, as i say it all fits in perfectly. If you had tried to copy the original too much then it would kind of be pointless, i remember when i done my Enterprise i wasnt sure whether to put the more modern textures on or to go with the smooth almost greeny/blue thing they had going on in some shots.

Keep the thread alive, as its great to see this in progress and i think its a great homage to the original.

p.s The Enterprise was my first love too ;-)

[shadowman99]

I've enjoyed watching you work on this over at scifi-meshes. I'm glad there's some new shots here I haven't seen before. Great stuff. The Digital Stream tests looks like cheap videogame cutscene stuff next to this.

Your Enterprise is top notch, my favorite alongside Vektor's. But your animations have been better than his.

Perhaps my only crit is there might be too much orange glow on some of the rocks.

[skurge13]

Man, this is way cool, I love it! Can't wait to see the whole thing. Forgive my noobness, but how did you achieve that nice specular bumpiness on the Enterprise? (Is that this 'aztec' surfacing?) I that done with specular map? What does it look like?

[Professor Moriarty]

Yes, the specular highlights on the Enterprise hull were achieved with fourteen different aztec maps that I made using POV-Ray. I still have Adobe Illustrator sitting on my shelf gathering dust... I know a lot of people use AI for making texture maps but I got my start in CGI with POV-Ray--even made a complete Enterprise model using it! (http://www.scottgammans.net/povrayenterprise/povray_enterprise_04.png)--and I'm already very comfortable with its flexible scripting language, so there you go.

[cbowyer]

Very nice work Scott.

Here's hoping Paramount hires you to do them all. So we can go out an buy them all over again and watch them on our iPods!

[Professor Moriarty]

^^^ Thanks. (Although I must confess I have never understood why anyone would want to watch television on a teeny-tiny postage-stamp-sized monitor! Of course, if you do a little digging around my website you'll see why I've gotten used to--ahem--a slightly larger screen size. :D)

[Professor Moriarty]

Scenes 14-19: The Constellation
http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine/teaser/sm_doomsday_scene014.jpg

http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine/teaser/sm_doomsday_scene015.jpg

http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine/teaser/sm_doomsday_scene017.jpg

http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine/actone/sm_doomsday_scene018.jpg

Download the 40 MB zipfile containing the Windows Media 9 movie clip for these scenes from here (http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine/teaser/doomsday_scene014.zip). Previously-released scenes may be viewed here (http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine).

I'm pooped and off to bed... I'll answer any questions/comments tommorow (er, later today :D).

[Professor Moriarty]

Just a follow-up to the previously-uploaded scenes:

I'm still not quite satisfied with the asteroid positioning and movement in these scenes, but as I progress along my technique is improving and becoming more consistent. Earlier this week I rewrote the custom LightWave plugin I'm using to create, position and keyframe the asteroid objects, but I'm still trying to get a feel for the appropriate amount of rotation and movement of my space rocks. When I am confident that I've got the process down pat, I will be going back and re-rendering all of the asteroid backgrounds, so consider this a "beta release".

The starship Constellation took about 100 hours to model (I'm lots of things but speedy isn't one of 'em!), using a copy of my Enterprise model as a jumping-off point. The textures on the Constellation (the parts that aren't all burned and shot to hell, that is!) are a bit dingy-er and more rusty-looking than those on the Enterprise; the idea being that the Constellation is an older ship (hence the lower registry number). You'll also notice that the Constellation has some subtly different detailing from the Enterprise. In scene 18 you can see two of these details: the black vent dohickeys on the port and starboard sides of the saucer and the markings on the forward edge of the saucer. As the episode progresses you'll see more details--basically, most of the features seen on the Enterprise in "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

Next up: two more exterior shots and a bridge viewscreen shot, a possible reworking of the transporter beam-in effect (I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to attempt that), and then a short break while I finish the planet killer model. It's going to be a race to see how much of this episode I can get finished before the NutraTrek CGI-ed version in syndication is broadcast, so stay tuned!

For my friends in the United States, have a safe and fun Labor Day weekend.

[KevinKraeer]

Hey Professor. Would love to see this but it seems all the links are dead and/or your site is down. Anyway, sounds pretty awesome, looking forward to checking it out.

[Professor Moriarty]

Hi Kevin... try it again. The data center where my website is hosted was having some problems this weekend, but they now seem to be resolved.

[KevinKraeer]

Extremely impressive stuff so far, looking forward to updates!

I especially liked that you have the hull plating visible in the specular, and added the blinking running lights. Nice detail work.

[Professor Moriarty]

^^^ Thanks. :) I should have a couple more scenes done by this weekend, and then there will be a break while I finish the planet killer model that is required for almost every scene starting with the end of Act I.

[Chiko]

really great work!

[Professor Moriarty]

A minor release for today.

Scenes 25 & 31: The Constellation
http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine/actone/sm_doomsday_scene025-031.jpg

Download the 9 MB zipfile containing the Windows Media 9 movie clip for these scenes from here (http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine/actone/doomsday_scene025-031.zip). Previously-released scenes may be viewed here (http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine).

And yes, there are several live action shots between the two F/X shots in this release that were edited out. Gotta save that online bandwidth, you know.

This is the last release you're going to see from me for a little while. I now need to go and finish a model that will be needed for the next batch of scenes, and let me tell you, it's a killer. ;) Stay tuned... I'll be back soon. :cool:

[Professor Moriarty]

Wow... no comments at all? Maybe this one will garner a response.

Scenes 68 - 76: "Red alert... red alert."
http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine/actone/sm_doomsday_scene068.jpg

Download the 27.8 MB zipfile containing the Windows Media 9 movie clip for these scenes from here (http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine/actone/doomsday_scene068.zip). Previously-released scenes may be viewed here (http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine).

I've also created a 1600x1200 wallpaper of scene 68... you can download it here (http://www.scottgammans.net/doomsdaymachine/actone/doomsday_scene068_1600x1200.jpg).

I'm off on vacation for the next two weeks... I'll respond to your comments (and hopefully this time there will be some!!) when I get back. Enjoy!

[cbowyer]

Beautiful Work Scott.

You know I watched "Balance of Terror" and "Miri" this past weekend. I have to say that while the effects refit is welcome they could have gone a wee bit further in terms of detail as you have done with your Enterprise. I'm also not a fan of keeping the old Start trek star fields. IMO they're the weakest part of the new fx.

Hope you have a great vacation, keep up the good work.

[Professor Moriarty]

Thanks for the feedback, and I agree... if you're going to go to the trouble (and controversy!) of officially replacing the visual F/X, don't do it half-baked the way CBS Video seems to be doing it.

Unfortunately you and a handful of others seem to be the ONLY persons interested in this project... I would have figured after a major update like the previous one that I'd have gotten more than one response. Oh well. Interested parties can continue to tune in to my project at trekbbs.com, scifi-meshes.com, lwg3d.org, or my own website at scottgammans.net, but I think this thread is done.

[freakmoomin]

hey

yes there is a strange lack of interest in this thread for some reason? dont take it personally because it is quality work.

ill be keeping an eye on your website since this isnt going anywhere on here.

thanks for sharing your work

[maxx10]

your commitment is unbelievable, and it's also a top notch work, congratulations!

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