Comments on: Review of I,Mudd Remastered

By: Scorned

Scorned — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 04:44:47 +0000

It goes to show you that you can’t “copy” greatness.

Remember that….Abrams!

By: Surak II

Surak II — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 22:56:09 +0000

Hello, Daren. I hope my admiration for your work is not too illogical. On the “new” Enterprise thread, you indicated your work is Lightwave, and CBS Digital uses Maya, but it could be converted. I hope the Okudas or Dave (is it Dave) Rossi reads this post.

Thank you for the information. Too bad CBS chose to do “Remastered” at the eleventh hour; humans are illogical!

Perhaps you could get involved with my outrageous idea of an all CGI Planet of the Titans — if the script is good enough; maybe Harlan Ellison would rewrite it! LOL!

I hope Abrams gives you a call or vice versa — your resume is great. I wonder if you could “telecompute” for other productions, from Narnia to Harry Potter?

Live long and prosper.

By: Daren Doc

Daren Doc — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 22:53:42 +0000

lol… no, I don’t wanna part with that. :)

By: Donn

Donn — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:32:47 +0000

And a reddish SECONDARY hull ring 4 sale, I’m sure! ;)

By: Daren Doc

Daren Doc — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:18:39 +0000

I think it’s more complicated than just going with the “lowest bid”… I think that the studio was so rushed to get _something_ into production that they didn’t give time to actually have a formal bidding process from anyone. It’s my understanding that numbers were just being thrown around… and the studio wanted to keep it “in house” for various reasons.

If I had been brought in from the beginning, I would have had enough staff to do the job. I had several people around town who would have jumped at the chance to work on it. I’m relieved I don’t have the responsibility to live up to the insane schedule for the project… but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have wanted to do it. :) Just saddens me that it all happened so fast, when I had officially presented the idea back in 2001. If it weren’t for Rossi’s class, I wouldn’t have known about it happening at all, but even then, it was by and large too late to do anything about it.

But I still am impressed at what they have been able to do under such circumstances. And if anyone from there is reading this, and is open to it, I’m willing to be of any help I can. I have some used nacelle caps here with their name on it. :)

By: jonboc

jonboc — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:38:40 +0000

Phillip, I seem to recall reading something about Daren not being involved because CBS simply went with the lowest bid. In fact, I thought I read somewhere that Daren was a little relieved that he didn’t get the project because he was way understaffed to take on that kind of project in the insane time schedule allowed.

If Daren comes across this I’m sure he will set the record straight, but that’s what my less-than-reliable memory seems to recall.

By: seangh

seangh — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 20:19:43 +0000

I thought the remastered shows would be improving each week, but this episode (one of my favs) was a little disappointing.

The shots of the ship were inconsistent and the milky looking Enterprise surface is just so BAD – it does not look solid to me – anyone else?

I actually liked the tummy shot of Norman and found it a nice mix old retro robotica and modern circuits.

However, I’m concerned that they are setting a precedence that now all short shots of technology will be upgraded. Why not upgrade everything – the food processors, the intercoms etc.

Overall, mixed feelings, but still hopeful…

By: TomBot2006

TomBot2006 — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 02:27:31 +0000

Lol! I did not expect the political detourism~
I thought Norman’s innards were both oddly retro and futuristic… specially with the spinning wheel do-hickies. I didn’t notice that shot backside of the Enterprise… but when you say plastic, it does indeed remind me of old model kits! I need to check out Darren’s work apparently. :-D

By: Phillip

Phillip — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 00:34:35 +0000

The ringed planet at the end was wonderful; but the Enterprise to me still looked either like a bad Playstation or Xbox video game. Plastic — that one word says it all too me.

I have no idea why the team, knowing Daren Doc, just didn’t bring him in and not “reinvent” the wheel! I’d still love for him to do Doomsday Machine; look at the lighting on his “models” — pretty amazing stuff!

But I agree that a lot of the CGI that is not related to “space” shots are pretty good. What Jason says, not being a CGI person, makes sense: how could they not “know” the rendering time was taking so long? And *what* detail?

By: Jason Lee

Jason Lee — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:40:42 +0000

No, what Dave Rossi has said is that the model of the Enterprise they’ve been using is too detailed, apparently requiring them to sacrifice rendering quality in order to complete the shots in time. As I mentioned in my review, effects like global illumination can make an image seem much more realistic, but the more detailed the model is, the longer it takes to render such effects. It sounds like the level of detail on the current model is massive overkill for the types of shots TOS requires so they can probably stand to lose a great deal of it without any noticeable effect on-screen. What surprises me, frankly, is that such a thing wasn’t taken into account from the beginning.