Okey dokey, gang! That wraps it up for me! Time for the Christmas feast! I hope you enjoyed the holiday offering here on the Drex Files! Until next time, remember my friends, stay jolly!
Archive for December, 2010
25
Dec
10
Time To Eat!
25
Dec
10
SOTL 2012 Is A Go!
SOTL – Landing Party - Max Rem
In the works and going full bore. Roughs are due on the first of the year.
Of all the shows we did for Caprica, the VFX I am most proud of was an episode that took place in a monastery on Gemenon. The entire show was shot greenscreen without any sets. Gary Hutzel had three teams for the episode. All exteriors were created in CG by Dave Morton and Neal Sopata, while all the CG monastery interiors were created by me and the amazing Farrah Welch. The icing on the cake was the beautiful comps by Heather McAuliff and Derek Ledbetter. A gigantic visual effects show, and no one watching knew it! Above is the episode’s demo reel put together by Dave Takemura. Full screen is the finished product. The inset on the lower right shows the greenscreen shoot.
25
Dec
10
No kidding!
No kidding, this was a real contest back when I was a kid. Revell was a thriving business, and boys built zillions of plastic model kits. There were no no computers yet, so this was 3D modeling back in the day! If I had won this, my parents would never have gotten me out of it. The Gemini spacecraft had movie star good looks. Damn, it was sporty!
You think John Ellis and I would leave our heroes up to their necks in it?? Heck no! “Operation Stray” picks up right where we left off! The classic 1950′s newspaper strip by Milton Caniff lives again!
Get caught up on John’s efforts to restore the classic “Steve Canyon” television show, as Volume three is on the tarmac and ready for throttle up!
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/the-return-of-steve-canyon/
25
Dec
10
Delta Flyer Lifeboat
I was working up at Foundation Imaging when Rick Sternbach’s Delta Flyer lifeboat design came in. I was the lucky boy who got to build it. Joy!
25
Dec
10
Doing Pennants
For all you kids warping out of orbit with the NX refit, Here are Mike Okuda’s official graphics.
25
Dec
10
That Thing Wants To Be Us
Ships of the Line -”Thing From Another World” – John Teska
Oh my Godzilla! I’m so excited to post these today! More goodness from the Hutzel! These shots are 2K images scanned directly from the original master print of “The Trouble With Tribbles”. When we did “Trials and Tribble-ations”, Gary had to pull plates off of the original print in order to create comps rivaling “Forrest Gump”. You will never see TOS looking better than this! Abondanza!
One day I’m sitting at my desk in the Trek art department, and my ICQ pops up with the cryptic notation “DGR!” It’s VFX Ron Moore. Just a few weeks ago we made a Trek field trip to the LA Museum to see the beef jerky people. You know the show… pickled people. It looks like people made of bacon. Actual dead peeps, preserved on on display like Pugsly Adams’s action figures. Ever since then I started getting notes from Ron emblazoned “DGR” - “Dead Guys Rule”. It took me awhile. Doug, my friend, Ron continues… we have a shot where the NX drives right into the camera. I need a transition. I want to have us pass thru the wall straight into the bridge. Can you make me some interior bulkheads, honey?
Do wood chucks chuck wood? Does an ex-marine drill sergeant make a terrible analyst? Did the little pig cry whee whee whee all the way home? Can do, Captain! Pfffht! What is it? 3 seconds of animation? Check me at the end of the day!
Never let a blurry transition go to waste.
It’s years later. Gary sez… hey Doug. The Caprica title sequence where we pass thru the wall of Graystone Industries to Daniel Graystone? We need a transition there! Can do? Can do, Captain!
Go back and look on the attached link (Youtube doesn’t allowing posting this particular video). Thatsa’ right, boss! You guess it! There is a little bit of the NX-01 in the walls of Graystone Industries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BYxWWQKFs8
A couple of weeks ago Jimmy, Luna, Dorth and I go to the El Portal Theater in North Hollywood to see Debbie Reynolds perform for the Hollywood Thalians charity. Sitting right behind me is Richard Herd from the original “V”. Luna introduces me to him and he says, Hey! I have a note here from a friend of yours, he said you’d understand! He hands me a folded up slip of paper. I open it… it reads: “DGR!”.
25
Dec
10
STS 133 Roll Out
By way of Gary Hutzel, a stunning shot of STS 133 taken by Gary’s friend Tanner. Click and Wow.
25
Dec
10
The Beat Goes On
An unused work in progress view of the NX-01.5 for the 2011 SOTL calendar.
25
Dec
10
More Refit
Among the very first test renders of the NX refit.
25
Dec
10
Back and Packin’ Conversion Kit!
With Starship Models conversion kit, the NX continues its evolution, heading to a dovetail with Matt’s original masterpiece.
Well brush my teeth and call me smiley! Leon Cosilio at Starship Models has come out with a refit conversion kit for the 1/1000 scale Enterprise NX. See it here – http://www.starship-models.com/en/22193/starfleet/NX-01%20REFIT.html
25
Dec
10
Drex on Trek Radio
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I’m talking and I can’t shut up…
When Zach Nicodemous of Trek Radio (http://www.trekradio.net/) asked if I would be a guest on his show last weekend, my first thought was what the heck do I have to talk about for over two hours? Apparently plenty! Stream it here: _Doug Drexler on Trek Radio – Part 1 – 18-12-2010
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(Left) Doug surprised by a visit from pal, the ever gorgeous BarBara Luna, on Trek Radio! Get yer ears on!
25
Dec
10
Saga of the Four Foot D
If you can’t take the heat, get outta the starfleet! Dave Takemura giving Greg a hand threading power transfer conduits, Dana White Shea meticulously squares up windows, Greg Jein zeroes in. A typical holiday late night at Glencoe.
Last month I posted the latest episode of DREX-TV. Sandwiched amongst the photons was a bit I had edited together from footage provided by mad genius Visual Effects Supervisor Gary Hutzel. It was a chronicle of the late night holiday efforts to build the four foot “D” in time for air. I was delighted to find this note in the comment column -
Submitted on 2010/12/21 at 12:36 am
Hi Doug,
Well, you never know what the cat might drag in the inbox…..my friend Sarah Char sent me this video clip because she recognized me in it. Yep, I was the cheerful girl that painstakingly helped to paint and light the 4′ Enterprise and much more as a minion down at Greg Jein’s shop in the late eighties. See me also working on Star Trek V at Greg’s in Cinefex mag #42 – pg with Tremors on the cover.. have to say watching your piece, made me slightly nostalgic for the “good old LONG days” down at Glencoe with the wafting smell of laquered paint billowing out the double doors. I married a VFX supervisor from Dream Quest named Mike Shea and he and I and Gary H all graduated from Brooks Institute in SB around the same time. I started my career at Gene’s production office at Paramount in 1986 when STTNG was coming out of development working for the writing producers Justman, Wright, Lewin, Fontana, Gerrold, etc. Spent about 2 years there and went into the Art Dept and worked for Greg after that. Long history, but enjoyed working for Greg. Not only was it hard and extremely challenging in many ways, but it was FUN and CRAZY! Well, thanks for caring enough to share some of the inside track with those who appreciate it most.
Sincerely,
Dana White Shea
PS – Hi to Mikey O!
If you missed D-TV 2, or just would like to watch it again, here ‘ya go – http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/drex-tv-02/
25
Dec
10
Daedalus
I first received a note from my new friend William Smith a couple of weeks ago. Will is an excellent physical modeler who is currently building Matt Jefferies’s early sphere-based design for the Enterprise. In his search for whatever reference he could find, Will turned up on my E-doorstep.
Almost ten years ago I had built a rough and ready CG model of this Jefferies classic for the New Voyages episode “In Harm’s Way”. The amazing Greg Jein had built a physical model of this ship for our use on Deep Space Nine, and it was seen in Captain Sisko’s office through the run of the series. When it came time to bash out a CG model on my lunch break, I went down to set dressing and borrowed Greg’s model from Laura. Now it sat on my desk, the best reference in the world, and I got to work. You’d love to spend a few days on something like this, but we were in the middle of making a TV show. When Will asked me if I had any reference to speed him on his way, I dusted off the old CD storage book, located the disk, and fired up the ship’s systems. Like all good starfleet vessels, the Daedalus rumbled to life, ready for action.
I set up a few cameras, snapped away, zipped them into an archive, and shipped ‘em off to Will. A week later Will surprised me with this poster he assembled. Enjoy!
Merry Christmas everybody! It’s a little after 6am here on the west coast, as Dorth, Beaky, and I rub the sleep from our eyes. Dorth is in the kitchen getting ready to start Christmas breakfast. She always does something special. Beaker is tearing the festive wrapping off of his honey stick, has broken a piece of it off, and holds it in his parrot fist chewing thoughtfully, watching me tapping on the keyboard to you, my friends out there around the world. I’ll be by the keyboard all day long tending to this holiday edition Drex Files, so let’s rock!
Special thanks to my good pal Matt Boardman for the wonderful “Drexmas Day Radio” intro. Thank you, buddy! Happy holidays to you and your family!
15
Dec
10
You better watch out!
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Hi gang! A quick note to say that your wandering boy is going to make a day of the Drex Files on Christmas. I’ll be posting all day long and generally hanging out here, so be sure and drop by! Who knows what I’ll dig up?
Bulletin! – I will be a guest on Trek radio this coming Saturday, so make time to harass me -
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Doug Drexler on Trek Radio this Weekend!
EARTH (15th December 2010) – Trek Radio is excited to announce that it will be interviewing Oscar and Emmy winning Doug Drexler, this saturday (Dec 18th) at 11am Pacific Standard Time.
After 20 years involved with Star Trek in many roles as well as having been involved on other hit shows such as Battlestar Galactica and Caprica, Drexler also produces regular video blog entries for the new StarTrek.com.
He will be joining Trek Radio for an extensive live interview, where he will be asked questions about his life, his involvement in Star Trek and his love for his work.
If you have a question for Doug Drexler, please email it to “zach@startrekradio.com” with the words “Doug Drexler Question” in the subject line.
In addition, if you would like to be considered to come live on the air to ask your question, please add “hailing.frequency” on Skype (www.skype.com) with the words “Doug Drexler Question” in the invitation subject.
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Be sure to tune in for what is sure to be an awesome interview on Saturday, December 18th at 11am PST (2pm EST / 7pm GMT)
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