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Very cool!!!
Hi Rob, many thanks for your input and your willingness to answer our questions! A quick one to start with, are you aware how the name Emmette was chosen?
Thanks Captain Sarek!
Andru, honestly, this is the first time I have heard that name used to describe that particular ship. It could have been an internal name, or the name that Eric and the Art Department cam up with. It could have been as simple as the model builder, having to save the object, picking a name that he knows like his son. The ship was so incidental in terms of the show, it was not scrutanised by the producers.
Sorry I couldn’t be more help. Maybe Doug knows. Thanks for asking thought!
The name SS Emmette was on all the files for the ship. Maybe I should ask Eric Hance.
Thanks Rob
A few question.
Could you give us a little insight on doing the “Bridge Attack” for “twilight”?
What would be your best/Fav “Visual shot” you did for Star Trek? “I loved the Voyager crash”
I know for some models, like the NX-01 the poly count is high, but for the “Ship of the week” how much work goes into the model and how much is texture? What is the turn around time from sketch to model?
For someone who wants to do 3D Models, what software and hardware should they get?
What new projects are you working on?
Thanks Rob!
Thanks Rob, for the confirmation of the time frame. I think it works perfectly as the first ship after Phoenix. The rear configuration makes perfect sense!
Did you also work on the reconfiguration for the Mirror intro? I’d like to know what that piece of music is with the great bass on which the whole sinister feel rests. It’s a beautiful piece of orchestration. I couldn’t tell what ship Enterprise shot in half, either, was that your work? The shot of the Emmette firing on the colony is just fun…I think I was empress Deanne in a past life, as I’ve told friends before. There’s an evil streak in here somewhere.
I’m glad you introduced yourself…now I have someone else’s work to review and admire!
Hey Doug and Rob, did any of the other ships have names or Registry numbers?
Like the Intrepid or the Warp Delta? Also the NX-01 has the name”Enterprise” was there any talk about adding the U.S.S. or S.S.? What was the reason for just the name “Enterprise”
Also any info on the Registry numbers NX-01, we know that NX is used for Experimental ships, but was there any talk about NX-01-A Used on the U.S.S. Dauntless.
Thanks again!
JoeRalat,
Your question about the names and registry I don’t remember of the top of my head, but can look them up. My instinct is “no”. We never named them.
As for the thought of using USS instead of NX, OMG, yes, speaking from the CG side, the VFX team had been wanting to do that for soooo long. The ship wasn’t experimental anymore, so it made no sense to us that the NX persisted. However, the producers wanted to keep it and it was also partly economical, as they could then never worry about using an old stock shot. You must have noticed though, that the producers on these later shows were somewhat obsessed with the NX type nomenclature if you look at DS9, Voyager and Enterprise. Personally, I think it was a way of making these ships there own creativally. That is just my opinion. The closest we ever got to using USS as oppsed to NX was in the mirror universes, the ISS Enterprise. You take what you can get!
Not being Rob and speaking my own mind as a fan: seeing as Archer’s Enterprise belonged to a United Earth Starfleet, I’d be surprised at the lack of a “United Earth Starship/UES” prefix before the name itself. If nothing else, it would stand out among the rest of her namesakes and be easily trademark-protected by Paramount!
Back to questions: I don’t recall if Travis’ old ship, the ECS Horizon, ever got a registry number either…?
Oh and we desperatly wanted to return to the NCC-01 or NC-01, which I think I snuck in on some episode somewhere. Again it really came down to distancing themselves from the OS and making something there own. Case in point, the Columbia, second ship in the class, why would she be NX-02? Anyway, we still did a lot of great stuff, all of us and we did get some of the things we cared about as fans through.
Excellent, thanks for the information. The whole thing about NX or NCC helps me with the Enterprise Era ship I’m building. I will definately go NCC with it.
Just a few thoughts I posted over at the tech section of the TrekBBS( forgive the 3rd person reference Rob):
So according to Rob Bunchune, the “Emmette” was intended to be the first warp-capable follow-on to the Phoenix, which would make it a likely candidate for the type the SS Valiant belonged to, despite the depiction in the official chronology, and we know the Phoenix didn’t quite match what was pictured there.
The blunt, windowless forebody would make sense as an armoured, erosion shielding prelude to the introduction of navigational deflectors (you’d still be hoping to not ping much at speed). The saucer-esque profile of the forebody could hint at an internal grav centrifuge with a vertical axis, though depending on the size of the ship, it may be too small to prevent the crew from getting motion sickness – apparently that would have been a problem on something the size of the 2001 Discovery. The thicker hull section of the forebody could just as easily house the first “stator-grids” to provide a deck with artificial gravity (and the forerunner of all trek bridges to come), giving even more signifigance to the type and thus a place on the ENT credits honour role – I suppose that’s more trek than the centrif idea.
The warp drive would still be an experimental system for short hops at least far enough out to catch a ride through the nearest spatial anomaly to the galactic barrier.
Case in point, the Columbia, second ship in the class, why would she be NX-02?
Because, unfortunately, the writers decided that the ship would be “NX-class”, not “Enterprise-class”.
(I wonder if everything was NCC-#### until the Excelsior, the first major technological leap since the NX-01, and they introduced the new prefix as an homage.)
Case in point, the Columbia, second ship in the class, why would she be NX-02?
Because, unfortunately, the writers decided that the ship would be “NX-class”, not “Enterprise-class”.
I think your ” missing ” the whole point in ALL of
Robs comments. The writers didn’t ” decide ” to call them
” NX-CLASS “, that was the less then bright PRODUCERS !
The writers and the FX gentlemen that did the actual WORK
knew the score, the PRODUCERS on the other hand ?????
We could write VOLUMES on what those two
didn’t ” know “!
Oh, and you do realize that NX is not really a CLASS
of Starship ? NX has been well known to signify EXPERIMENTAL
like the X Series of planes created to break the sound barrier.
Thanks for your insight Rob. Here’s another one: who built the Horizon (J class) and Fortunate (Y class) CG models? Was it Doug, or one of your team at Foundation/Eden? What about the Sarajevo, the Earth ship that had a submarine/clothes iron look?
Also, were you instructed not to add names/registries to the models, or was is simply an expedient to save time and/or be able to reuse the models without having to relabel them every time?
“NX” stood for experimental in the Star Trek III movie. It was a temporary designation during tiral periods of a new design. Somewhere along the line, it took a different meaning in “Enterprise.” Rob’s explaination regarding the producers distancing themselves fro TOS seems the best explaination I’ve ever heard. Thanks Rob.
Heya Rob!
First off, thank you for taking the time out to field some Qs for us all. Very cool of you, eh.
And thanks Doug for bringin’ Rob on to do so.
Being a model builer/painter with an aim toward gettin’ into the industry, I have some modeling/painting Qs if you don’t mind…
1). Speaking w/Doug, I understand with hero models like the NX-01 that no corners are cut when building it. But with a “ship of the week” mesh, just what corners are generally cut when building those type of mesh? Put another way, what are the tricks and/or allowances (or lack thereof) that are performed (or not performed) to allow for completing such mesh in a crunch-orientated production time-line?
2.) Generally, just how long to build a SOTW, and how long for a hero mesh?
3.) Do you guys UV your models, and if so, what are the maps sizes you use, 1K, 2K, 3K, 4K, etc….? And how many UV sets spread across a given mesh? Meaning, do you jam it all into just one UV set, or spread it out over more than one UV set, thus giving the mesh’s paint-job a higher rez with multiple UV sets spread across the model?
4.) Given the amount of surface manipulation work done in compositing these days; to what level of detail do you now (or still) go to when naming your surfaces, for specific surface attribute control? The reason I ask is; I will incorporate all my color, diffuse, and spec variation right into my maps, and when going from modo (where I model and UV) into LightWave, sometimes for ease, I’ll just re-name the collective surfaces simply; UV-01, UV-02, UV-03, etc., and go from there. That’s just for myself, as I have the .psd maps to edit if needed. But if passed along, retaining the specific surface names can be necessary for editing in LightWave itself, correct? But, back to the point, given the amount of surface manipulation work done in compositing these days, do you guys still take the time needed to micro-manage all your surface naming?
5.) What is the general weight of these meshes, point-wise? More specifically, how many edge chamfers do you perform, generally? Starting out (w/my Slave 1) I used to bevel edges a min. of four times, better later, with more rendering experience, gleaned that, generally only one bevel is needed, just to catch the light for an edge hi-light. By the time motion and motion-blur are added, you really don’t need all those edge bevels, as they are basically indistinguishable from a single bevel at that point. Which is good, as a light model is a faster model, both to work with, and to render.
6.) What is you preferred method of pushin’ polys? Are you a spline-cage builder, box-modeler, edge-modeler, subD’er? Or a “whatever works best to get the job done” all of the above modeler like myself?
7.) Have you ever used modo?
I could go on, but I think w/Lucky 7 Qs I’ve bent your ear long enough, for now anywho, eh.
If you care to, please feel free to check out my website (link in my post name callout) and feel free to let me know what you think of my work. Know too, I am available for freelance contracting if you ever have the need. It would be beyond cool to get the opp. to ever work with your and you crew, eh.
Thanks again dude, and goes without sayin’ (but I’ll say it anywho), HUGE, ‘UGE admirer of your work, eh.
LLP, and enjoy your day,
deg
Emmette like Emmett L. Brown? (At least that’s the only occasion I ever heard that name)
I think that these name, was first used in public in this blog
My questions ( I put in other post, sorry for make double question)
1) How you did made the warp jump FX (when the Enterprise or other ship going to warp speed). I like to imitate it, and I managed to do something similar which a pluging of 3d max (Ky_Trails)
2) How you make windows in the ship meshes ?
3) The rest of my questions are the same that deg make.
I really like all Enterprise stuff and I admire your work (Doub, Rob, and all creative guys inside Star Trek), I think that have the most original stuff of all star trek series (since TOS).
I’m sorry … But I just remember…. You write a old book about doing FX which 3d max (for version 2 or 1 !! ), in that sometimes speak about Star Trek : The movie, including something of about how was made the original photon torp FX which a laser and glasses ??? I saw these book a lot of years ago but I cannot find it… and I not remember the name or the writer…
Emmette like Emmett L. Brown? (At least that’s the only occasion I ever heard that name)
I have an uncle and had a grandfather named Emmett. There’s also an athlete named Emmett Smith, I believe.
Do you have any reference shots of the Klingon D-5 battlecruiser from Enterprise (the one that actually made it on screen) Awhile back when you were posting on the Hobbytalk forums you posted a bunch of reference pics, but that was the one ship you never got around to doing.
“Emmette like Emmett L. Brown? (At least that’s the only occasion I ever heard that name)”
Thinkbabynames.com says: The girl’s name Emmette \e(m)-mette, emm(et)-te\ is a variant of Emma (Old French, Old German), and the meaning of Emmette is “entire, universal”.
Not a bad name for a starship.