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The start of my progress log for an off beat new obsession; Hollywood western style fancy gunhandling.
“Just one more reason to be very, very, nice to Doug…”
Gary Hutzel
Archive for July, 2011
10
Jul
11
Arcane Hobbies Dept
For all you subscribers to “Nacelles Monthly”, our popular new Tech Fold. It’s a tad on the lower rez size to give you a reason to buy the calendar : ) But still enough to dig it now!
I’m out! See you next time, gang!
Reprovisioning At Sea
Dan Uyeno
No kidding, this gentleman has an understanding of the starfleet design ethic that would give Leah Brahms hot flashes, Geordi La Forge an inferiority complex, and cause Scotty to wet his pants. That’s bowlin’ it right down the center, sonny. Join us as the Mad Koi himself takes us through the numbers -
This image came from a real round about way. I started out using the cargo ship in a Kobayashi Maru like scenario with the classic face off view. I moved on because it was to flat and quite static. Many very dissimilar ideas and much feedback later I return to that cargo ship, fate. This time it is a more dynamic composition that depicts an everyday task of re-supplying a deep space explorer. I like this more than any of the other ideas I presented because it is different.
I quite enjoy working with these unseen eras of Star Trek. I keep finding I always return to them after exploring existing eras. I can explore ideas and mix known elements within the adjoining eras. These two ships allowed me to meld two ends of known design, but keep them very different in over all appearance. The cargo ship would be more of the TMP end of the spectrum, where as the Balmung falls closer to the Ambassador class in detail and time frame. But each has details that interrelate as well, depicting a continuous renewal of the fleet through the passage of time. The cargo ship should lend a feeling of a ship that was slowly updated over a long period of time utilizing older repurposed elements. The thought being cargo ships wouldn’t be the first to get all the new technology, but get what works and is reliable.
(Above) The U.S.S. Balmung with her new materials and warp coil elements. This image is still WIP so some of the smaller detail elements are missing from this image.
(Above) This is one of the work bees for the cargo ship. Since these would be small elements I did not add a lot of detail to them. The crates are all made to fit in spaces on deck and in the slots for the cargo pods.
A detail view of the inside of one of the cargo pods. It shows how they slot into the pod and are arranged on the deck of each pod. The pods are modular and can just be detached as a whole or even reconfigured internally.
A rough render of the arboretum that is located in the upper rear right side of the saucer.
A close up of the rear mess hall/bar, large room with tables and chairs, and a bit of a peek into the upper shuttle bay. You can just see the observation interior at the top of the bay. The slots for more work bees can be seen in the upper right.
This shows the cargo ship without the crate pontoons. This is part of a modular system so that other items can be mounted to the struts.
A test render of the underside view of the U.S.S. Balmung.
I hope that the viewer can find new details with each viewing of my image and can read past the visual story to a story untold. It was a joy to work with Doug on this and his simple right to the point crits really helped me decide a direction to take, to solidify my wayward attention. I apologize for not be as entertaining as other guests on the blog! Hopefully this gives a small insight into the image.
-MKF
Sure, sure… that English prince-guy got married to that gal, whatser’ name a little bit ago… but this is true royalty you’re looking at right here! Last weekend Rod and Heidi celebrated tying the knot! The reception was a wonderful affair to be remembered. Most of you know that Rod is an avid scuba diver. He proposed to Heidi underwater, and presented her an engagement ring drawn from an oyster shell! What a guy! What a gal! What a night!
U.S.S. Planck – Shakedown
Mark Rademaker
Mark has an eye for detail and an understanding of tech that goes far beyond those of mortal men. His realization of the ring ship Enterprise last year created a real stir. Thanks Mark for another demo of “starfleet clean”. Here now he details how this new ship design came to be -
U.S.S. Planck, Merian Class.
When I was reading Kirsten Beyer’s novel “Full Circle” I noticed that an expedition fleet of ships (9 in total) where outfitted with Quantum slipstream drives. Two of these where Vesta class ships. It got me thinking about the other ships. After emailing with Kirsten, we decided to put some primary specs on paper. Crewsize, class names, registry numbers and their respective role within the fleet.
For my SOTL 2012 project, I picked the U.S.S. Planck. (1 of 3 Merian class ships in this fleet.) Merian, the name rings slightly like Miranda, was meant as a replacement for this aging class.
I wanted it to be Quantum Slipstream compatible, modular to fit different mission profiles, and very easy to produce. The latter to quickly fill the gaps within the fleet, after the Destiny events.
A mild issue (for me) on the original Miranda was that the pylons where kind of “stuck” into the primary hull. I searched for a more valid solution that would provide more structural strength to the ship. It is now based on a central spine that connects the pylons and the “roll bar”.
(Above) Early 2010: Creation of the superstructure as a test for the look and feel of the overall model.
(Above) Autumn 2010: The primary hull is almost done, nacelles are still work in progress.
(Above) January 2011: Texturing/Coloring and detailing of nacelles. (98% finished) Because the crew compliment isn’t that large, I wanted to reflect a logical layout for rooms, labs and engineering on the exterior. Living/Recreation sections are on the higher decks, the lower decks are labs, research, storage etc. The rear features the double shuttle bay layout, like on the Miranda. The Planck does not use traditional thrusters, but a graviton manipulation system designed by Coridan engineers. Because of the ships small size, this maintenance friendly (but experimental) system could be used. Dimensions: Length: 218 Meters Width: 113.5 Meters Height: 47 Meters
In the future I hope to create the other 8 ships of this fleet as well. Some are simple modifications, others have to be created from scratch. It’s a lot of fun to do. The 2380 era is by far my favorite era, from there on things are mainly unexplored, both in design and near the borders of known space. I would like to thank everybody (especially Doug) for their support and I hope to see you all in 2013! 
Top left – Jerry Quist in the TNG makeup department making pasties for semi nude actresses in “Captain’s Holiday”, as I snap away. Top right – That’s set designer Fritz Zimmerman holding a Voyager phaser rifle, so I can grab some reference for the Star Trek Encyclopedia. Below top – Mike Okuda, the skipper and Gilligan dress a foam core model of an early Ds9 set (Story Teller?). Below bottom – Illustrator Jim Martin bumming around in the early days of DS9 in the Paramount camera building.
03
Jul
11
SOTL 2012: 4 of 7 – deg
Whatever this thing is, it’s big.
Douglas E. Graves
We brought deg in to work with us on “Blood And Chrome”, need I say more? Here he is now to talk his talk -
Yes, “Tomorrow Is Yesterday.” I love all TOS Trek, but that episode produced the single most compelling piece of Trek imagery ever to be impressed upon my young Trek-obsessed imagination. There was just something about seeing E up in the blue sky that somehow made Trek “real” for me, like I could actually reach out and touch that beloved universe. For years afterwards I can recall summers sitting on the front-porch with my brother and just imagining E up there in the blue sky (that and a T-Rex lumbering down our street were our two fav front-porch day-dreams).
Anywho, that TIY imagery stuck with me through all the years (and still does), so I had to see it fleshed out even more to the satisfaction of my mind’s eye. And thus was born this shot. An extra added bonus was the fact that Capt. Christopher flew an F-104, one of my all-time favorite silver-bird jets, so I didn’t have to twist me own arm to build that shiny pretty birdie (which was painstakingly researched to be accurate to Christopher’s sky-ride) .
It seems the original episode’s blue sky E imagery struck the same wonderment chord with many other Trek fans, as “Whatever this thing is, it’s big.” has easily been the piece that I have received the most emails expressing praise and delight. Doug was easily one of its biggest fans, so I was (and am) honored that he asked me to include it in SOTL: 2012. It is a big thrill to see it immortalized like this, and I hope that all my fellow fans will enjoy it as much as I do myself.
peace & bananas | deg
Wow… Ds9. Can it really be that long ago? What once was work has now passed into the incredibly nostalgic for me. What an adventure. It was exciting and scary. This makeup guy had a lot to prove, and I owed it to Mike Okuda to not fall down on the job, as he put his rep on the line for me.
Ops was a lot of fun, and the expressive Cardassian graphics were almost predatory in their design ethic, composed of claws and entrails.
20 years ago, and probably wondering what 20 years will bring. Relax Drex, it all turns out.
Reflections After Probert
Craig Frey
When I saw Craig’s version of Andy’s fabled painting, I knew we had to have it for the 2012 Ships Of The Line. Craig had captured it… the tone, the elegance, and the Probert. Craig speaks -
It all started with a painting, an image that stuck with me since childhood. The newly refitted U.S.S. Enterprise from Star Trek: The Motion Picture hovering over a crater lake in deep space, but the reflection showed the Enterprise from The Original Series. The painting was created by noted sci-fi illustrator Andrew Probert and it appeared on the cover of the magazine “Enterprise Incidents.” I thought it was just incredible; such an evocative way to represent the beauty of both ships. As a young fan in love with all things Trek, I bought a copy of the magazine solely because of that image. It was, simply, the coolest piece of Trek art I’d ever seen.
(Below) Andy’s original painting for “Enterprise Incidents”, and Criag’s first pass.
Many (many) years later, I decided to re-create that image in CGI using 3D Studio MAX. I had Dennis Bailey’sTMP Enterprise and Chris “evil_genius_180” Martin’sTOS Enterprise in my model library, so all I had to do was build the lip of the crater and its reflection, then find a suitable background. With the help of a fellow member of the scifi-meshes.com website nicknamed “rekkert”, I obtained an online version of the original painting and set to work. The result was (I believe) a suitable tribute to the original.
About a year later, I heard through the grapevine that the editor of the Star Trek Ships of the Line Calendar (our illustrious host, Doug Drexler) was looking for submissions for the 2012 edition. Another member of scifi-meshes.com, Tobias Richter, forwarded Doug’s e-mail address to me and I sent him a HUGE file full of what I considered to be my best work. Doug singled out my CGI version of Andrew’s painting for consideration. The only problem was the image wasn’t the right size for the calendar format, so I had to recreate the scene from scratch because I hadn’t been smart enough to save the original .max scene (D’oh!).
After rebuilding the scene and submitting multiple drafts, it became clear to both Doug and me that the image would not fit the calendar’s interior format. There was too much empty space and trying to fill it meant deviating too far from Andrew’s original painting for our liking. I thought that was the end of it. Close but no cigar. Try again next year. Doug, though, had other ideas and suggested that the image would work well as the cover of the calendar! After I picked myself up from the floor I did a quick test and cropped the original image to fit the cover. That still didn’t work. Part of the border and the credits on the image were visible, and the background wasn’t of high enough resolution for my taste. I went back to the new .max scene and reworked all the elements to fit the cover
Doug liked the original image, but he had a few changes. He asked me to give the crater’s reflecting pool a visible surface and ramp up the lighting on the entire scene. Changing the lighting wasn’t a problem, but getting the surface of the reflecting pool to look right proved to be a maddening conundrum. I sent Doug draft after draft, only to receive the reply “Nope. Try again” over and over. It became clear that there was no way I was going to get the look he was after using 3D Studio MAX alone.
Then I hit upon an idea. I rendered images of every element in the scene separately, then brought each of them into Photoshop and built a new version of the image layer by layer. That way I could make any changes Doug suggested without having to re-render the entire scene. Now, I’m sure many of you are saying “Well, duh! That’s how you’re supposed to do it,” but I’d never really worked extensively with Photoshop before. Up until this point I’d used it only to add simple effects to my images. This was entirely new territory for me and I had no idea if I’d be able to make it work.
I submitted a new set of drafts, worried that my inexperience with Photoshop would be all too apparent and Doug would give me the “thumbs down.” Surprisingly, he responded favorably, saying that I was getting very close. A few nudges and tweaks later, and, after three months and over 30 drafts, I finally hit the bull’s-eye! Doug accepted the image and the rest is (or, rather, hopefully will be) history.
My deepest heartfelt thanks go out to scifi-meshes.com members “rekkert” and Tobias Richter for their initial help; Dennis Bailey and Chris Martin for letting me use their incredible models; Andrew Probert for allowing me to pay tribute to his original artwork; and of course to Doug Drexler for his endless patience, support, and guidance…and for giving me, a relative noob and completely unknown CGI artist, the chance of a lifetime. I’m honored to have my contribution to Star Trek stand beside the work of artists who have been an inspiration to me for years. I hope you all enjoy the Star Trek Ships of the Line 2012 Calendar. Live Long and Prosper!
The travel pod set from Star Trek: The Motion Picture as you’ve never seen it.
03
Jul
11
Mr. Drexler’s Neighborhood
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(Above) Watch Master Hatter, Mark Mejia shoot a hat from the hip.
I’m a New York City guy. I’m used to everything being right out there. Neon signs and big stores. No secret what’s going on. But the San Fernando Valley is like the desert with it’s life underground. It’s here, it’s dynamic, it’s bursting at the seams. Within a couple of miles from my front door are hundreds of shops and garages serving the motion picture industry, and some have been doing so 75 years.
And so it was that I discovered Baron Hats, a mere mile from my house. I went in because I wanted a “Have Gun Will Travel” Richard Boone “Paladin”, and through the Internet discovered that Baron made the original. To make a long story short, I had my mind blown by the depth and texture of the Hollywood Hatters world. I also came to realize that through my makeup background I shared a certain blood line with the Hollywood Hatter. A carefully designed hat will define a character for an actor, the same way a good character makeup will. Where would Indiana Jones, Marshall Dillon or even Bob Dylan be without their Baron Hats?
Baron Hats has made hats for many of entertainment work’s top names, television shows, and movies, Film epics such as “How the West Was Won”, Paul Newman’s “The Sting”, and “Exodus”, “The Man from Snowy River”, “1941″, “Crocodile Dundee”, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, “The Whole Ten Yards”, “Back to the Future”, “Dick Tracy”, “Tombstone”, “The Mask”, “Bowfinger”, “Wild, Wild West”, ” 3:10 To Yuma”and “Hidalgo”. TV’s popular mini-series, “Centennial”, “The Thorn birds”, “North and South”, and the Emmy award-winning, “Winds of War”, as well as the long-running weekly series “Gunsmoke”, “Bonanza”, “Star Trek” and “Little House on the Prairie”. Baron has created hats for many of John Wayne’s immortal classics like “The Alamo”, “The Searchers”, and the film that earned Duke his academy award for best actor, “The Grit”, in fact Baron made the hats for the recent Cohen Brothers remake of True Grit
So now that I know where they are, they aren’t safe. Jack and I went over to their shop the other day with HD cam in tow, while master hatter Mark Mejia made a hat right before our eyes… the same way hats have been made by hand for centuries. Not just made a hat, but imbued it with a sense of character. You’ll be amazed at the physical effort it takes. You will be seeing more of Baron on the files.
And be sure to tour the Baron website -
03
Jul
11
SOTL 2012: 2 of 7 – D.M. Phoenix
The Terminal Descent Of Allegiance
D.M. Phoenix
When I first saw the original version of this image by the enigmatic D.M. Phoenix, it inspired a sense of fear, and pity, that is hard to forget. Haunting, dramatic, and beautiful to look at. It captures that horrific moment in life when you realize that you are the bears dinner.
Hello, I am D.M. Phoenix, CG artist and occasional Puerile Video editor. This is my entry for SOTL 2012, a project I had a lot of fun working on. This work is a modernization of a similar scene I did back in 2003. In order for it to stand up to high resolution viewing, the majority of the scene required reworking…
The planetary background is a composite of two renders: A simple spherical planetary render of Mars, and a high detail procedurally generated terrain. The latter required a 30 hour render at maximum resolution.
This vessel is the U.S.S Allegiance, a Federation Starship. I designed it back in 2003 as a hybrid of the Galaxy and Sovereign classes, suggesting a transition between the classes
The flame, and the smoke effects, were rendered in a separate pass using FumeFX. I also added some flames from oil well fires, along with some hand painted debris, stock explosions, and battle damage to increase the effect
The Borg cube consists of only three visible sides. The innermost layer was a simple plane set to illuminate a texture from within while the outermost layers were packed with irregular geometry. Later, I cut out large swathes of the surface during the battle damage pass
Lastly, some final atmospheric streaks and trails were added to give the scene motion. A J. J. Abrams-esque lensflare served to draw the eye forward and complete the image.
Thanks again to Doug Drexler for the opportunity to work on SOTL alongside these great artists. – D.M. Phoenix
03
Jul
11
Rock Out With Your Spock Out
Jack Marshall just sent me this. Don’t know who the artist is. First I’ve seen of it. LMAO.
Since today is all about celebrating the 2012 Ships Of The Line Calendar, it’s a perfect opportunity for me to shake out some odd ‘n end happy snaps that never fit anywhere before. They make for jazzy spacers between the articles, and also make great coasters for your drinks!
(Above) I’m really starting to miss jumping behind the glass and getting lost in the wonderfulness of it all. The Runabout cockpit was economical and straightforward. In the DS9 pilot, the set was built on hydraulics to shake it for real. Silly rabbit! That never works! It only succeeded in shaking the set apart, and never looking any better than shaking the camera. It was funny to watch, though, reminding one of a low rider with hydraulics bouncing down Sunset Blvd.
(Below) This was a conversion of the DS9 Saratoga bridge into the bridge of a Romulan Warbird. What I remember most was incorporating art deco lighting sconces into the standard backlit panel. For all the work, Director David Livingston shot up everyone’s noses and missed the set entirely. We did our duty and teased him about it the next time he came up to the art department.
Ambassador Class Sea Trials
Tobias Richter
What drew me to Tobias was that his shots of the JJ Abrahms Enterprise looked light years better than any of the publicity images I had seen come from the studio. I immediately contacted him about contributing to The Ships Of The Line. The guy is a brilliant 3D artist and an astonishing modeler. He also seems to live in a dimensional plane where there are at least 72 hours in a day. How else does he manage to produce all this fun work, and still hold a full time job? Take it away, Tobias -
Most of you will certainly remember the TNG episode “Yesterdays Enterprise” – an all time favourite. In that epsiode, the “Enterprise C” is one of the stars. Back when the show was produced, all the effects work was done using models, so every new model had to be designed and painstakingly built – time and budget was an issue.
When the script came up and it was clear a new ship was needed, Andrew Probert came up with a sketch. A beautiful starship, very sleek and elegant – the lines following in between the shapes of the Enterprise B and the Enterprise D.
In the art department, Rick Sternbach was also designing a version of the ship – also elegant and functional, but maybe a bit easier to build for the modelmakers. I do not know the exact reason why, but it was Ricks version that ended up being built for the screen.So when Andrew asked me last summer if I´d be interested in building his version of the Ambassador, I was all in. I knew the sketch and loved the design. Andrew once had started himself to do a 3D model, but never completed it. Unfortunately, a sketch does not solve all technical issues. What works in a sketch does not always look good in three dimensions.
While the saucer and the warp nacelles proved no problem, the secondary hull was rather problematic. We were in constant contact to get the basic shape (and later the details) right. We did about 20 iterations of the secondary hull til we found a solution that is close to the sketch, while still looking good in 3D.
Since I wanted to really do Andrews version of the ships and not cheat around and make something that just looks similar, the whole process took a couple of months til the model was done. Andrew had very specific ideas about this ship, most areas were designed with a technical purpose. E.g. behind the bridge is a warp engine structure with retractable nacelles hidden beneath panel lines.
It was also the first time that I did model all the windows on a TNG-era ship. For the large windows, we also have some interiors – lounges and stuff like that. But I refrained to model interiors for all windows (at least for now…)
Since I imagined this vessel to be an explorer rather than a battleship, the picture for the “Ships of the Line” calendar should reflect that. Showing the ship charting the unknown, exploring some unknown solar system with two gas giants close by. It´s that sense of wonder that is one of the strong points of Science Fiction – and hopefully in Trek soon again.
As for the asteroid ring, a fellow artist came up with a setup to use a combination of modelled asteroids and Maya fluids to get that mixture of hard elements in a dusty environment. Of course it required some finishing touches in Photoship, but it turned out nicely. The sun setting on the edge of the ring gives the whole picture a beautiful mood.
There will be some renderings of the Ambassador shown in the centerfold as well, so you´ll be able to see some more of that ship. The collaboration with Andrew was really great – I learned a lot in that time – and I hope I made a model that he can be proud of.
Honey? Where is that jar of pickled nacelles?
Welcome back, and welcome to the drex files 2012 Ships Of The Line Calendar BBQ! Sure, we started early the other day by kicking off with our pals at trekmovie.com, but today we cross the streams and put the anti-matter to the matter! Five of our delta radiation crazed artists have stepped up to the drex files hot plate, providing the fireworks that will help make this weekend nova! A special thanks to the fevered minds of Tobias Richter, Mark Rademaker, Dan Uyeno, Douglas E. Graves, Craig Frey, and D.M. Phoenix, for bringing all the fixins!
We’re gonna run it a little different today, Rather than string all the SOTL pictorials into one long entry, each will have it’s own feature article. In between I’ll slather some relish and typical drex files hyperbole. So don’t just stand there jawin’, Spock, throw another ship on the barbie!
(Thanks to Matt Boardman for the invite art!)
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