SOTL Flashback -2009 – Behind the Scenes

Andy Probert’s 2009 offering for the SOTL Calendar is one of my all time favorites. When I saw it it took my breath away. THIS is Star Trek, and man do I miss it! The black and white study you see above was the rough Andy sent me before going ahead with his magnificent final.

Andy Probert and his hand painted piece of eyecandy.

Countdown to 2010 SOTL – 06

(Above) Andy’s rough for “Captain Arriving” 2007 SOTL

From Pocket Books, where all eras of Star Trek live!

Click for a better look.

… and The final painting (below)

2010 SOTL Closeup – Andrew Probert – “Refit At Station Gray”

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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2010 SOTL Closeup – Mark Rademaker– “Aventine”

(Above) The image in the SOTL 2010 calendar shows the Aventine a couple of months out of space dock. A slightly updated version will probably show up on a book cover in 2010.

With two previous pages under his belt, Mark Rademaker is a SOTL veteran. Mark came to me through Andy Probert, who, impressed with Mark’s originality, thought I should give him a shot. Later, when Marco Palmieri and Margaret Clark were preparing a new Trek novel series called “Aventine”, they needed a new distinctive starship…  well, Mark was just the guy for the job, and the 2010 calendar was the perfect place to launch her! 

My name is Mark Rademaker, born 1980. I live in the Netherlands in a small and slow town called Silvolde. It’s almost Ba’Ku slow, but we do pay taxes and have fast-food.  Since 2008 I have created images for the the Ships of the Line calendars, I’m rather new to it but it’s great to do! My favorite era is post-Dominion War, my previous entries all show designs from that era. 

After some email traffic, Marco Palmieri, Margaret Clark and Doug gave me green light to design the Aventine for the SOTL2010 calendar. I was happy, all I had to do now was to design the ship… A capital ship, roughly the size of the Enterprise E, in less then 4 months, while having other projects as well…I got slightly intimidated by that idea, but decided to go for it. My only restriction: The pylons and nacelles had to face upwards to avoid being mixed up with the U.S.S. Titan. I sketched 2 choices for the pylons, a third one (bending arc) was drawn by Andrew Probert. It would make the ship longer and more sleek. Some more mail traffic and we decided that Andrew’s suggestion was the way to go.

For me the main purpose of the design was to display speed & strength. Construction speed both “in universe” and as a 3D model came second. After the Dominion war Starfleet probably needed easy to construct, multi-role platforms that could be quickly updated with new technology. I also decided that this “modularity” would go before elegance and grace. The final shape has been heavy influenced by the Enterprise E, Voyager and the fake but useful Starfleet ship Dauntless. I also added some features from my Spirit class Quantum slipstream testbed, from this year’s calendar.

2010 SOTL Closeup – Robert Wilde– “We Come In Peace For All Mankind”

 

I remember leafing through  Scifi-Meshes and coming across Mr. Wilde. I think it was a piece called “Vertical Combat”. I put a check next to that name… this guys got something…

  

Almost a year ago, when Doug contacted me by leaving a private message at Scifi-Meshes.com, my very first thought was “You gotta be kidding me.” I have been doing a lot of Star Trek images just for fun for several years now, and the Ships of the Lines Calendar has always been one of the many sources of inspiration. There was always this little spark of hope that some day, somehow, one of my images would get printed in that calendar. But I would have never expected that to happen. But as it turned out, sometimes, somehow, dreams DO come true.

I had a look at the previous calendars to get a feel of what had been done before, what had been hinted at and what had never been done. I had already been working on a model of the giant mushroom shaped Spacedock from Star Trek III, one of my favorite structures in Star Trek. It gives the Star Trek universe such a grand scale and it shows what mankind is capable of in the 23rd century. So I wondered how I could take something that famous and majestic and combine it with something that had never been done before and that went beyond a simple beauty shot.

(Above and below) The two rough sketches I submitted to Doug for this piece. 

With the addition of the Enterprise it became clear what timeframe this image was set in. We didn’t see the Spacedock in The Motion Picture or The Wrath of Khan, yet it was suddenly there in The Search for Spock. So I figured it would be cool to see the construction taking place roughly at the same time as the Enterprise’s refit in drydock. Thanks go to Alain Rivard for giving me permission to use his vast collection of models, from the Enterprise and Drydock to the Reliant and various shuttles.

After Doug gave me the green light, I immediately started working on the “damaged” Spacedock model.

2010 SOTL Closeup – Greg Stewart – “Operation Return”

Meet Greg Stewart! You’ve seen him around the drex files. He’s one of us! I mean one of the hopelessly afflicted! I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s genetic. But anything about getting “out there thataway”  just fires all our circuits and sizzles our synapse!

So Greg! Hip us, daddy!

 

I was contacted by Doug, out of the blue, to submit an image for the calendar.  He had seen a couple of my Star Trek images online and wondered if I would be interested.  At first I was skeptical, but after I researched a little, I realized the opportunity was legit!  This guy was the real Doug “freaking” Drexler!

The Ships of the Line calendar has had a place on my wall since I was a teenager.  Every year I would look forward to a new and dazzling array of eye-candy that would light the fuse of my imagination.  And to get a chance to create an image for that very calendar!  Boy, what an honor and a thrill!

 I cracked open the beautiful SOTL book for inspiration, and immediately knew my subject vessel.  My all-time favorite Star Trek ship is the USS Defiant, and she’d been under-represented in the recent SOTL calendars.  So I envisioned the Defiant doing what she does best…kickin’ some butt! 

Working with 3d models by some awesome artists (Skye Dodds, Flat Eric, Rick Snider, Ebolii), I set out to depict a skirmish on the front lines of the Dominion War.  And with Doug’s words of encouragement – “knock ‘em dead” – I was off and running.

I started with a rough layout to get a feel for the composition, then a quick render with rough effects and lighting for approval of the image.  Doug had some suggestions, which I gladly took to heart!

Then the fun part began; lighting, effects, and lots of refining!  The image was created with a mix of Lightwave 3d and Photoshop.

 

A big thanks to Doug for making this fan-boy’s dream come true!  And kudos to my fellow SOTL artists…it’s an honor to be represented with such an amazingly talented group!

 

I’m thanking YOU, Greg!