All the recent talk about the new and improved (and improved again) Enterprise CG model has me agreeing that the latest iteration has a better surface treatment than before, though I would still like to see the contrast kicked up a bit. Creating a completely believable photo-real CG object involves a big investment of time in lighting and texturing. Heavily backlit objects, ships that whiz about, or pitching naval vessels in a rainstorm at midnight are easier to pull off.
Front lit objects in the vacuum of space take a lot more layers of color and reflectivity and bump texturing, more than CBS probably had the time for. I rsquo;ve always been more a fan of physical models, but I can accept the remastered NCC-1701 in the current series context.
The planet surface map is a not unexpectedly vast improvement over the fuzzy pinky-purple original.
Greenish land masses and purplish seas say it rsquo;s alien, with a plausible smattering of cloud patterns. It wouldn rsquo;t be TOS if it didn rsquo;t have saturated colors, now would it? The shots of the U.
S.S. and I.
S.S. Enterprises gliding in orbit or departing, as well as on the bridge viewscreen, work well within the episode and are fun to see.
The other new VFX shots in the show, the agonizer sparks and agony booth smeary glow previously shown in screen captures, are also welcome enhancements. I had expected to see some reworking of the phaser hits in the corridor and perhaps the transporter sparkles, but those remained the same, the latter showing the familiar hard-edged black matte outline. The blue Tantalus Field glow and blink-out was also from the original, but still worked for me.
As we know, ldquo;Mirror, Mirror rdquo; was the genesis of future excursions into the mirror universe in Deep Space Nine, and while I could quibble endlessly about the science of parallel universes, a producer once said (about some science thing in TNG), ldquo;This isn rsquo;t an episode of NOVA. rdquo; True, so I rsquo;ll keep my questions about how the uniforms got swapped to myself. All in all, the remastered ldquo;Mirror, Mirror rdquo; was a fun romp that still felt like the old TOS episode.
Rick Sternbach is an Emmy and Hugo award winning space and science fiction artist whose career dates back to the 70s. Rick s designs and illustrations have found a home everywhere from NASA to the groundbreaking science show Cosmos to (of course) Star Trek. From props to space stations, Rick s designs have defined much of the look of the Trek franchise.
Learn more at his company website .
- Wait a sec, Rick Sternbach, master modelmaker designer and fx wizard had to see MM Remastered on a VHS recorded from a rabbit ears antenna?
Let s pony up some bucks to buy Mister Sternbach a digital satellite system with a DVD-R or TiVO!
HAHAHAHA!!!
Good one, Rick!
Yes, this is obviously a work in progress and I too suspect by the time it makes it s way to the DVD format we ll see some additional work done on the episodes. They already admitted they are going to remaster the remasters by swapping out the new CGI Enterprise for the old one in the first few episodes.
Hey Rick! Tell what you are up to these days. Any interesting projects?
In another ten years it ll be Star Trek Remastered: Remastered!
Or Star Trek Remastered: This Time It s Definitive We Swear To God!
Btw Mister Sternbach, can I call you Rick, have they given you a call for your magic touch.
C mon I know Mike Okuda called you up and asked Drop by give us some pointers!
Heh.
BUT .
I LOVE the NEW Third Season Shots of The ENTERPRISE they made then in 68-69!
They were different and waaay cooler Enterprise shots freshly delivered for season 3, produced by Fred Freiburger, that were already far greater than ANYTHING in the previous 2 seasons!!
!
Leave the newer STYLED shots of the 3rd season 1968-69 flyby shots be from cgi ,I say., okay?
. are you ready for the vote? .
.Scotty to McCoy in Turnabout Intruder , which aired on thurs 8:30 PM E.S.
T. June 3rd, 1969 The last first run ep of TOS. From what I ve seen over quite a few recent threads, the original hand phaser beam effects are turning into the new dreaded Nascelles issue
And I m one of the dreaders unfortunately I would absolutely love these effects to be enhanced in some way before final High Definition DVD release ahem, along with SOME background landscapes / clouds in the sparser episode sets as these phaser shots are going to look SOOOO dated in future, given the sparkling new additions, if not.
IF they can t be redone from scratch in any way without great time and expense due to limitations of what stock the CBS Digital team are having to work on can someone say on this site if it is possible to SUPERIMPOSE some kind of additional magic ON TOP OF what is already there, to at least jazz them up somewhat. If it s not viable to even do that given today s technology, then I will accept that fact quite happily.
And yes, as a professional designer myself, I DO KNOW what I would suggest to ADD to the originals to make them shine and tie-in better if anyone cares to ask.
Frankly, I will believe Mr. Sternbach s thoughts as he mentioned in #36 above others in here because I know his history and expertise. Cervantes - November 20, 2006 I believe him too MichaeIT !
LOL!
Just to clarify as Rick is suggesting that he is unsure if his suggestion would work on other hand phaser effects over and above this one in Mirror Mirror , I am asking if ANYONE out there knows or has an idea if the dodgier hand phaser effects across ALL THE EPISODES can be improved UPON, if the CBS Digital team are unable for whatever reason to completely REDO them. Norm - November 20, 2006 Paramount Pictures.
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