How Deep Space Nine creates its special effects...
B5JMS Poster
b5jms-owner at shekel.mcl.cs.columbia.edu
Wed Oct 9 06:36:15 EDT 1996
Subject: How Deep Space Nine creates its special effects...
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No. | DATE | FROM
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s 1: Oct 7, 1996: tlh153 at psu.edu (tlh153)
+ 3: Oct 8, 1996: davidlee at umich.edu (David S. Lee)
* 4: Oct 8, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
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From: tlh153 at psu.edu (tlh153)
Lines: 112
My book, The Making of Deep Space Nine, just arrived from home which
describes how DS9 creates its special effects. I thought I'd share it
with you all.
Here's the text:
"Motion control work for Deep Space Nine is considerably different from
that done in the early days of 2001 or even the more advanced system
used in the Star Wars films. In fact, the software changes almost
weekly as new advances are broguht on-line.
A key capability of the motion-control rig is that as the camera moves,
so can the model. At the same time that the camera approaches the
model with graceful arcs, the model itself can be moved in three axes
on its own platform. Each movement of the platform is recorded along
with the camera postion, so each combined motion can be replayed
endlessly. For the pilot episode, "Emissary" the shot through the
window of Sisko's escpae pod leaving the Saratoga required
*sixty-seven* separte film elements.
Why so many? Let's take a look at the simpler shot of looking up at
DS9's pylons to see the Enterprise docked with Bajor in the
background."
Model Exposure
DS9 & foam E 1. Reference Pass
Filmed as a positioning guide to show
where to "paste" the Enterprise into position.
DS9 2. Beauty Pass
Model lit by strong directional source aka Bajor's
sun.
3. Window Pass
Interior lights turned on and exposed
4. Second Light Pass
Exterior light turned on and exposed
Strobe lights turned on and off at appro-
priate frames to create blinking in the final film
5. Power Station Pass
Red interior core light turned on
6. First Matte Pass
Creates a stark silhouette so that stars
can be edited out. On the first pass,
an orange card covers the left half to
hide the frame holding the model in place.
7. Second Matte Pass
Orange card now hides the right half.
8. Third Matte Pass
Orange card hides platform model is sitting on.
9. Star Pass
A half-cylinder of plexiglass with
tiny pinholes through which light passes
Bajor 10. Planet Pass
Project a transparency of a planetary
surface onto a white sphere and film
11. Planet Matte Pass
Shot to remove stars from that position
Enterprise 12. Beauty Pass
Lit by strong light source (Bajor's Sun)
13. Window Pass
Interior lights lit
14. Second Light Pass
Exteriors lights and strobes
15. Nacelle Pass
Light up the warp nacelles to create glow
16. Matte Pass
Remove stars from behind Enterprise
Each shot requires about 10 seconds of shooting time for a total of 160
seconds of film. The "Real" time is a full day of shooting for 8
people. And the final product is only 5 seconds!
Complicated huh? It gets worse...According to this book, here's what
was required for the 67-exposure scene where the Borg destroy the
Saratoga:
Borg vessel
Saratoga
Excelsior-class starship
escape pod
escape pod
escape pod
Saratoga explosion debris
several light sources (nearby star, energy beams, explosion)
Impressed? The record for the Star Trek team is 140! exposures for a
scene in the Next Generation. Wow.
And what do they do in Babylon 5?
Draw a 3D model...let the computer crunch away for several hours, days.
At least, that's what I *think* they do.
(According to a little footnote here in the book, during Babylon 5's
first season they used a 4-person crew with Macintoshes, PCs, and, for
image rendering, 22 Amiga 2000s with Toasters, and a 15 gigabyte DEL XE
4000 server.)
Troy-Heagy at psu.edu _______--_______
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_______________________ _.~. . ._~~~~~-------__-------~~~~~
(___________________][__).____ -
/ /____---~~~.. .. ..~~-_~
<_____________________________- "Reports of my death have
~~~~~~----__ _- been greatly exaggerated."
~~~~~~~~~~~ - Mark Twain
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From: davidlee at umich.edu (David S. Lee)
Lines: 32
In article <3259A38D.7460 at psu.edu>, Stephen <sec108 at psu.edu> wrote:
> tlh153 wrote:
> > And what do they do in Babylon 5?
> >
> > Draw a 3D model...let the computer crunch away for several hours, days.
> > At least, that's what I *think* they do.
>
[...]
> If you want pretty explosions, models can't be beat. CGI is nowhere near
> as good at chaotic explosions as is nature. If you want a bunch of ships
> in a battle, CGI is the best technique unless you have both unlimited
> time and money.
If you want pretty explosions, you do what JMS did (cut/paste from
Lurker's Guide below):
Re: Foundation "adding a new flame effect"...sort of. One night, we just
went out into the parking lot, set up a camera pointing up behind a
plexiglass screen, and set off a bunch of explosions above it. Went great
until one of the blasts was so big it melted through the plex *and* the
camera lens....
Looked good though, didn't it?
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David S. Lee (internet: davidlee at umich.edu)
Department of Otolaryngology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 http://www-personal.umich.edu/~davidlee/
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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 8
All of which, of course, is why Foundation Imaging, which provided B5's
CGI effects since the pilot, is now doing much of the EFX work for ST.
jms
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