Making a Star Trek Fan Film - Virtual Sets vs Physical Sets | The Holy Core

[@IdentityCrisisVR]

Wow. I loved the little skit and I thought your 3D rendering with real world footage looked amazing. Keep up the great work.

[@FPSD]

Nice one - thanks Jeremy :-)

[@taysider9973]

Great to see the all the background effort and work that went into your production.

[@FPSD]

Thanks! More videos coming in the coming weeks :-)

[@shadowmann9]

I loved the finished product, and I especially LOVED the virtual set for the corridor. I would have been very happy with that! Thanks to all of you for such a wonderful producton!

[@StarTrekPhase3]

Wow that looked good. I always built lego stets or bought them on ebay for my action figure films! man I wish I had those skills!

[@mrjasongrant7]

Your CGI was good for what you did. I understand however of making it the best, but I'll be honest that was done pretty well!!!

[@FPSD]

Thanks! :-)

[@super-gerald]

I love the footage. I think a short scene in a corridor would work! Looks great to me!

[@FPSD]

Nice one Gerald - I still prefer the physical sets myself, but I'm glad you liked it :-)

[@remaincalm2]

As a test sequence I think it worked. It lets you be more adventurous with camera angles, have wider shots and lets you pan and travel down the corridor. If you went into production and post production with this then I'm sure you'd have more time to make it a little cleaner, so yes, it would have worked and allowed you more freedom as a director. That said, I appreciate the huge effort that went into creating the physical sets. I hope you have another episode in the works.

[@FPSD]

Thanks Gary! Certainly virtual sets allow for more flexibility in theory, but on balance I think I'm glad we stuck almost exclusively with the practical sets for the film :-)

[@loganq]

Your abandoned concepts are much better than what most people use!

[@sXeblues]

One of the things I was very impressed by, was the marriage between practical and cg effects to bring the starship in the film to life. I remembered watching your pre-production video discussing how you were going to go about recreating the rear of the bridge, and looking at each scene to see what you needed to show, without needing to go overboard with it. And there were a couple of shots, notably on the bridge, that really wowed me with how they came out. This was one of the key aspects of why I likened the feature to really harnessing the look, feel and vibe of TNG. It was only bolstered by the costumes, writing and performances. But, chiefly, the world felt real because of how well the sets and cg embellishments came to life. By the way, I got a kick out of your test subject short. It kind of reminded me of the John Simm Master in the Doctor Who story The End of Time, where he turned everyone in the world into himself. So every character was John Simm for a little while, lol. ;)

[@FPSD]

Thanks Bluesman :-) I had a lot of fun working on those bridge shots for The Holy Core - there will be a video in the coming weeks specifically about some of those, so I hope you'll catch that one! As for the test clip, I hear you regarding "everyone looking the same". I must have made a hundred films over the years where one dude (normally me...) has had to play every part! Sometimes I even tried to explain it on-screen (clones, time travel, twins etc) but more often than not it just became a kinda meta joke where it's not even mentioned! Ha ha. Low budget film making eh!

[@TheRadioAteMyTV]

@@FPSD Bring on those extra docs, can't wait.

[@FPSD]

@@TheRadioAteMyTV Stay tuned! :-)

[@robsmoviecollection3715]

I don't know I think it looked pretty good. When the action going on within the environment is interesting, be it an actual action sequence like in your test or a conversation like in the finished product is engrossing, then the background won't be a distraction. In the end a combination of both virtual and practical environments will only benefit the final product. I think you guys are very good at the digital elements.

[@FPSD]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

[@voyagesfanfilm]

Haha! I appreciate just how much thought went into that test scene. It looked pretty good and shame you weren't able to make it work with the existing set pieces. You've given me a terrific idea tho! :P

[@FPSD]

Nice one Aaron, thanks :-) Keep me posted if you come up with something though!

[@toval76]

Oh I haven't seen this behind the scenes bit. Your virtual sets test looked very good.

[@camb99]

Very interesting, and cool little film scenario lol. I understand why you decided not to go with the complete CGI corridor scene, and that test doesn't look bad at all it's pretty good, but you guys set the bar so high with Chance Encounter that to get the best results, it's better to only combine CGI parts with physical, so I think you made the right decision and it definitely paid off.

[@FPSD]

Thanks Cam. Yeah, there's pro's and con's both ways for sure, but I'm happy with how it all turned out :-)

[@Jimkalski]

I got lost in the clone action too much to think about the corridor, just accepted it (one of the best hopes for any special effect is not to be noticed as such).

[@FPSD]

Thanks Jim - yes there were clearly some problems aboard the USS Clone... ;-)

[@richNfit4life]

They weren’t good enough, you say? Actually, I thought it looked quite good. Maybe some more deck lighting and shadows and some shadows cast by the actors onto the floors...but overall, it looked great!

[@TheRadioAteMyTV]

Ironically, 20 years ago such a scene would have been wowed at, from using all the modern "technology", but after the Star Wars prequels buried the audience in CGI, people were more than happy to go back to practical "real" effects.

[@FPSD]

Yep! Real sets wherever possible as far as I'm concerned!

[@flagship1701e]

3D modeler and long time, picky Trek fan. I think it looked good enough for production if you did one more thing. I've learned that if you add imperfections that show past wear and tear (bump map scratches and background reflection textures), to 3d surfaces, they look more real. Also, any repeated surface, like a corridor, needs random things added to the walls and ceiling (like access panels, screw plates, a non-functioning light). keep up the good work.

[@FPSD]

Nice one, great points :-)

[@macIain]

What software did you use to make this?

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

I know its KZbin stock music but that tune will forever belong to Techmoan.

[@FPSD]

Haha! Yeah I agree!