What did you think of the CGI in Star Trek: Insurrection? I've heard many people said it was bad, and that they should have stuck with ILM. I personally thought it was good, they kind of screwed up on the Enterprise-E model around the deflector, but the Briar Patch effects and the Son'a ships were great. I particularly liked the shuttle/scoutship battle scene, and the Enterprise-E racing over the Son'a collector ship as it explodes.
What was so different about the E-E's deflector? Just curious because I haven't noticed. I found the effects impressive too, but was annoyed at the transporter effect when Picard beams into and away from the collector, it seemed too... "fuzzy." I can't think of the right word but it was almost as if there was too much glitter to the effect.
Look at it real closely in this movie, then look at it in First Contact. It looks bigger, and it is sitting on a flat surface when in First Contact the hull curves around it. I have a couple of pics at my website here, but they're not very good.
The E-E was 100% computer generated in this film, as oppsosed to using models, like in First Contact. This is the first time in motion picture history that no models were used at all and the entire scene was CGI. They tested the waters in First Contact using CGI for some of the borg attack scenes, and in Generations for some of the Enterprise B shots, but this was the first film were no models were used. Other studios have followed suit with such films as The Matrix with the CGI Nebucanezzar
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought they had to go back and reshoot bits and pieces with models because the CGI was giving them trouble. (I liked ILM's work better than the new people's. Too bad they're busy with Star Wars for the forseeable future.)
I don't think so, at least not from what I've read in the Star Trek The Magazine behind-the-scenes info. I'm absolutely certain that the E-E wasn't a physical model because of the deflector being changed, and the Son'a ships looked too complicated to build (not that it's stopped them before).
Well, there *is* a model of the E-E around, so it is possible that it was used. (I saw a picture of it once in The Continuing Mission.)I tend not to trust Star Trek: The Magazine, because they only exist to gas up the hype-wagon.
Well, the only reason I trust it is because the article was written by John Eaves himself, and he said all of the ships were CGI in Insurrection unlike First Contact.
I remember hearing the FX team on Insurrection complaining because the studio only gave them three weeks to complete the effects for the film. In fact, I don't think Paramount was willing to delay the release date, even for a couple of weeks to let the team complete and touch up on some of the films effects. Does anyone have any more info on the subject?
Only three weeks? What the hell were they thinking? That's not enough time to do SFX! Those studio head honcho idiots! Obviously all they care for is the money they thought the film would make and to put it out as quickly as possible. In effect, they sacrificed quality for a quick buck.
MarkN: So what else is new?
For Declan Quinn, the esteemed moderator...I thought the first film with special effects generated exclusively by computers (ie with no models) was "The Last Starfighter," released about 1985...Is anyone listening?
I think it may have been Disney's "Tron." i don't know the year, though.
Tron was released in 1982,The Last Starfighter in 1984. Babylon 5(1994) was the very first TV series to utilize CGI on a weekly basis,it didn't take long for all of the other shows to follow B5 like Space:Above & Beyond,Seaquest DSV,Farscape,Battlestar Galactica,& so forth.Enterprise was the first Star Trek series to use CGI entirely from the very start.ST:TNG used models in the conventional manner as did the original series.DSN sarted with models but eventually shifted into CGI,Voyager used a combo of model & CGI,though CGI became more prominent with both shows as their seasons went on & as the FX crew saw just how incredible CGI can be & its lack of limitations.
Voyager had to switch to CGI mainly because they needed to rebuild the ship week after week due to those reset episodes.
The producers of The Addams Family did something that was cheaper. Whenever Gomez blew up his electric trains, they used the same footage from the first time he blew them up. It just was too expensive to keep buying those trains.
There weren't that many reset episodes in which the ship was seriously damaged.