Once again, something special from Andy Probert: A wonderful AV presentation taking you on a tour of the thought processes and work that went into creating this unique hand painted offering from “The King”. Thank you Andy! Awesome! Note: This may take a minit to load.
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Thanks tons for sharing that with us!! I have gone back through some of the old posts looking for specific things, and when I come across this painting I am always compelled to stop and enjoy the beautiful lighting, coloring and details.
I thoroughly enjoyed seeing your process of determining the layout of the bays and central structure. The quick sketches made it obvious that the end to end configuration is not only more functional but better aethetically, as well. The CG part was a surprise to me, but wow, I see how that can be helpful in working it out with more specific details before applying actual paint.
Of course, CG wasn’t available for your Captain’s Painting, and I don’t think it was when you did Past Reflections (I’m not sure when you did that), but I was wondering if the process was similar for these as well. I’m love your black illustration board stuff.
BTW, do you prefer Andy or Andrew? I know most folks call you Andy, but you sign your posts Andrew. Or I could call you Mr. Probert, Commodore or, well I won’t say whatever you like because I’ve regretted that before.
Thanks again for letting your guest shine, Doug!
THAT WAS AWESOME !
Always appreciate your work and attention
to detail you put into everything you do !
THANKS for this…
Absolutely Awesome! Thank you both Andy and Doug! Andy care to elaborate on the red “third eye” at the Warbirds top center? It is an intriguing addition, I’m thinking its an upgraded weapon of some kind but only you know for certain, what is it’s purpose??
This is hands down the best Star Trek Site EVAR!!!!
Andy this vlog is awesome! It is something I have always wanted to know, the behind the scenes workings of how ST was and is continuing to be produced!
I love you guys for doing this for us…
Andy – do you have anything you want me to buy off the internet??? *giggle*
Andrew Probert: I never cease to be amazed at the level of detailed thought that you put into your creations. This is probably why your TV and movie career is so long and awesome.
Airwolf, Streethawk, ST:TMP, not to mention my favourite Enterprise of all time -the Galaxy-class 1701-D, the list is endless.
You are the MAN!
I have to say I am thrilled that the Romulan Warbird is being honored in this way. She is a magnificent beauty but has seriously lacked the respect she deserves in Trek history. (And being completely overlooked for ST: Nemesis was such a sad thing for we Warbird fans. Not getting to really see this design in action on the big screen was a travesty.)
But the one thing I love (among so many) is the clear view of the terracing on the inner surfaces of the Warbird’s duel nacelle “wings”. It looks like a small city in there, running along the bottom and hanging from the top! I would give a kidney to follow a workbee or shuttle through that space just to see it from that prospective.
Awesome!
I’d like to echo some of the comments from above. I really appreciated this insight into your design and process. You’re one of my favorite Trek designers, and the Warbird is one of my favorite Trek ships. I think the combination of it and the Ent-D make a dynamite duo to square off against one another.
I was also disappointed whenever the Romulan sense of style started to drift from what TNG had helped to establish. I remember thinking about early word on Nemesis’ plot…”Finally! The Romulans as the big adversary in the movies!” but was really disappointed with where they took that. I never got the reasoning behind spending years to develop an interesting alien species and then deciding to change everything when you have an opportunity to exploit that backstory. Finally going to feature Romulans? Okay, let’s make it about Remans. ….?! Heh, anyways thanks again.
And I’d LOVE LOVE LOVE if you’d do some features on the bridges you’ve worked on. If I recall correctly, you came up with some ideas for what the Ent-C bridge might look like, if you took what was shown in Yesterday’s Enterprise and considered that to be the battle bridge, rather than the main bridge.
that was very cool,and what an honor to meet Andrew in person at the ‘Kitumba’ shoot….
(the aussie James !!:D)
Andy, I love these videos that you put together with insights on your designs and the process that you go through to get to the final design!
The Warbird is a strong design fitting the race that it represents and it’s great to see that we’re going to get to revisit that design again in this coming year’s calendar!
Andy Probert is the master, simply put. Before I fell so madly in love with the NX-01, the Constitution Refit and the Galaxy-class were, bar none, my favorite science fiction vehicles. They’re still a very very close second.
I remember playing with my older brothers’ 1701-D model way way back, just holding it from different angles and looking at it. A masterpiece of design, compounded especially when you consider that it manages to look as good in two pieces as it does in one. Just incredible.
And the D’Deridex I think has to be the most original design in Star Trek, after Jeffries’ D7. You can feel the love for it in this painting.
Hey, Gang,
Thank you so much for your enthusiasm (and kind words).
For 2011, I’m hoping to show you a piece of Romulan,… ah, well, actually, it’s something you’ve all,… hmmm, let’s just say it’s going to top this one, both in size and scope.
Andrew-
Also, in response to ‘DeanneM’: The first time I really took advantage of using a CG perspective underlay was in 2007’s “Captain Arriving”, where I had to understand what all those overhead docking-support girders would look like.
Oh, and that “eye” you were asking about is a bridge ‘window’ that was part of my original concept, as were all those ‘added’ deck levels between the wings,… mysteriously left out when the model was fabricated.
Andrew-
How about the briefly-seen Valdore from Nemesis for next year?
Yet another FANTASTIC Andrew Probert painting (and great video blog too). Thank you, Doug, for posting it. One thing I’ve been thinking about is when you see something like an aircraft carrier being built in drydock you don’t just see the ship in the dock and an office building nearby. You see a whole industrial complex, where things like sub-assemblies for the carrier are constructed and then brought to the carrier for inclusion. Might we see something like that for Star Trek ships in drydock? (We’re often shown a partially assembled ship, and the office complex to monitor construction, but WHERE do all the “pieces parts” come from I’ve often wondered? Are they beamed into space? Are they stored on the moon?) Thanks.
Zat waz fan-taz-TEEK! Thank you, Commodore Probert and, our sponsor, Lord Drexler! Nothing satisfies my geeky need-to-know-new-things quite like these insights into “the process” – the how and the why and the where from that goes into a final result.
Anybody who made a Star Trek project with out a Probert at the drafting table needed their head examined.
Oh yes. I went there.
Andrew
Another very nice piece of art. It’s seems like the Romulans dockyards are little bit more elegant than what the humans have. Thanks for the behind the scenes look at the art.
These videos are always such a pleasure to watch. Thanks for taking the time to make them.
Fabulous stuff, and mindblowing attention to detail! Thanks Andrew and Doug.
Already salivating at the 2011 prospects – Valdore maybe?
Very wonderful artwork.
Watching this video is like peeking into an alternate universe where Andrew Probert is working on a new Trek show – I thought this was just a one-off painting, not a fully thought-out spacedock design. And the comment about the eye of the Warbird only reminds me how little we know about that design (and the Marauder) as opposed to the Enterprises, which have been pretty well documented.
I love the Warbird design, and the marauder. It’s a pity we didn’t see more or these (especially the latter). I always thought it strange that the Grand Nagus didn’t travel around in one of these, rather a a tiny shuttlecraft.
So interesting new look at this Warbird design.
Intriguing discussion about the thought that went into the design process, particularly about the repair workflow affecting the dock configuration.
And I love the magnetically suspended lights. I’ve read about how magnetohydrodynamic fields could kind of “lock” free-floating (superconducting?) components into place relative to each other in microgravity, so you could really have something like this using real physics, no need to resort to technobabble energy fields. I always love space designs that are really designed with microgravity in mind. Too many TV/movie spaceships and stations are locked into Earthbound design assumptions. But for this, you don’t have to worry about getting approval from executive producers who might have narrower imaginations; you can just do whatever inspires you.
That’s just awesome, Andrew, thanks! Great lil’ presentation there too. I love the magnetic mounting of the lights, very cool, and logical. IMO. I used an anti-gravitic mounting concept on a ship John Eaves designed for a project we recently worked on, as I like that advancement/direction of technology.
Love the design take on the whole dock itself as well. Look forward to seeing the final printed piece eh!
LLP,
deg