Check Out (Fan Made) High Resolution Views Of Star Trek’s New USS Kelvin

Since TrekMovie revealed the first exclusive image of the USS Kelvin in October, this new ship from the upcoming Star Trek movie has been the subject of much fan discussion. We have seen more of the Kelvin in the trailer and at the Intel promo site, but as with many things with Trek, fans have decided to take it upon themselves to get a closer look.

Do it yourself Kelvin
So far the best fan work on the Kelvin (by far) has been done by Tobias Richter who is a Trek fan and veteran CG artist. Richter runs the The Light Works graphics studio in Cologne, Germany, which does visual effects for games, TV and film. He has done some DVD covers for Paramount and some work for Star Trek magazine, but he is not affiliated with the new Star Trek movie and tells TrekMovie.com he just "liked the design of the Kelvin from the new Star Trek trailer a lot." So he created his own detailed CG model of the ship based on the information that is available at the moment (the trailer and the wallpapers), and here is what he came up with…pretty impressive. Check out his HD animations and super high resolution desktop images below.

Video animations (no sound):


[HD YouTube version]


[HD YouTube version]


[HD YouTube version]

Desktop images:


[Desktop Downloads: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200]


[Desktop Downloads: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200]


[Desktop Downloads: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200]


[Desktop Downloads: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200]


[Desktop Downloads: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200]


[Desktop Downloads: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200]

UPDATE: Our friend (and winner of the ‘fake Trek contest’) Daniel Broadway has been playing with his own version of Tobias’ model. Here is where he is so far.


[click to enlarge]

The Kelvin – 60s style
And Richter isn’t the only CG artist who is playing with the Kelvin. Kenneth Thomson Jr. is a another CG artist and Trek fan who is currently working on his own TOS era fan series ‘Starship Saladin’ (which he has previewed at the Phase II forums). The USS Saladin was a single nacelle starship first seen in the 1975 Star Fleet Technical Manual and was used in some Trek games. So it wasn’t a big step for Thomson to rework his Saladin into something like the Kelvin, but in good ol 1960s TOS style.



TOS-style Kelvin (click to see full size)

For more TOS-style Kelvin, see discussions at P2 forums HERE and HERE.

What about the new USS Enterprise?
There has been some fan made work done on the new USS Enterprise, but most of it is a work in progress. Richter tells TrekMovie that although he much prefers the design of the old school Kelvin, he also plans to take a crack at the new USS Enterprise as well. TrekMovie will do an update when Richter or others have finished work on the Enterprise to show.

 

NOTE: Everything above is totally ‘Fan Made’ and in no way related to official imagery from Paramount Pictures. More official info and images of the USS Kelvin can be found at the Intel promo site boldlygo.intel.com.

 

Thanks to Thorsten Wulff and Jason ‘Vektor’ Lee for assistance with this article

 

 

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Great work, Tobias!
Amazing quality.

First? Video is link dead, must be a friend

Aw, the video is private. First!

beautiful work

Any public version of the youtube vid? Sweet wallpapers though.

Any chance of a YouTube video that isn’t restricted to friends on the person who made it? Nice work on the pictures though :)

Tobias was kind enough to allow me to convert this Kelvin CG model from Maya to 3ds max. I am about 95% finished with it, and here where it stands so far….

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v58/PixelMagic/kelvin_max_04.jpg

It would be interesting to poll the fans about which version of the Kelvin they prefer – the Richter model or the Thomas model. I suspect that you will see an interesting correlation to the degree of “canon fanaticism”. The canonistas will mostly prefer the fuzzy androgenous plastic-looking Thomas version because it’s reminiscent of the cheesy cardboard model work from the 60’s (although well done nevertheless). I prefer the tougher, realistic, detailed look of the Richter version. As you can tell from my posts, I’m very tolerant about bending or breaking the canon rules as long as the story, SFX, acting, and directing is good; and the over-all feel and philosophy of the ST universe is preserved.

The talent around here never ceases to amaze me.
Fantastic work!! Love the old school K!

@8…

Nice job, Daniel, who is that guy in the bridge window?

damn… these are so nice! You are all so talented. What programmes do you use for these?

Wow… absolutely amazing. That gave me goosebumps!

Lightworks stuff is always awesome. My favourite is the second picture.Good job Tobias!

Very nice indeed!

You guys put the “fan” in FANTASTIC! These are incredible. So help me out with the single nacelle approach. The nacelle on the bottom is the warp drive structure and the nacelle on the top is living/work space?

That’s more obvious in the TOS-style version but I’m not really sure.

Of course it doesn’t affect my appreciation. These are truly awesome in every sense of the word. Great job!

Anthony, the enlarge on my image doesn’t actually enlarge it.

#11, Tobias did everything on the Kelvin, I merely converted it over to 3ds max format. There is no one in the window. It’s just a roughly modeled bridge similar the Enterprises from the new movie.

Tobias was kind enough to share his fantastic work on the model, and I volunteered to convert it over from Maya to 3ds max, as the majority of the guys over at Scifi-Meshes use 3ds max. However, in showing my work in progress to the guys over at the forum, I made this render of the ship.

Cool looking ship

@12…

Tobias worked in Autodesk Maya on these…

@16…

The structure below the saucer is the warp nacelle, above the saucer is the engineering hull with main deflector, shuttle hangar etc…

Seems to be working now, Anthony, sorry.

Amazing. The desing is cool.

Cool! Very Nice.

I like the Kelvin a lot. Its design is a nice hybrid between Enterprise-era design and TOS.

Nice! ’60s version is really cute! lol.

This is amazing.

good work fellas.

impressive.

=h=

I’m telling you, it’s talented fans with the passion like these that need to be hired and put to work on future Trek projects, ensuring constant breakthrough in quality!

@9
For me the TOS style Kelvin is the winner :-). It´s simply beautiful. The movie – version looks strange for me. Mainly the warp nacelle. Looks like vibrator, I can´t help. All the images are wonderful – both from Tobias Richter and from Kennet Thomas Jr. I always liked the images from TheLightWorks.

Well done!

I like this ship! Very cool work there, fallas!

#28—“I’m telling you, it’s talented fans with the passion like these that need to be hired and put to work on future Trek projects…”

Like Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, and Bryan Burk?

People tend to forget that 4 of the 5 members of the self-proclaimed STXI “Supreme Court” are equally passionate Star Trek fans. :)

The work that Tobias, Daniel, and Kenneth have done is fantastic. I love it!

The ship’s appearance seems a little inconsistant with the timeline. Looks very cool, don’t get me wrong, but from a strict timeline stnadpoint, it seems contradictory. It looks like it utilizes technology from the st motion picture, but if the story is set before then, it seems like it would cause a little confusion. Looks cool, but I have to stick to my chronological guns and say that the older looking ship would have made more sense to use in this story. I guess I’ll have to watch the movie and see.

These are gorgeous. Are there higher res versions anywhere? (Specifically 2560×1600)

<3 the Kelvin…can’t wait to see it in the movie… and these pics are wonderful! :)

It seems like the Kelvin is more of a hit design-wise than the new-old Enterprise…

Awesome work guys.
VERY well done!

Cool! All cool. I love fan made projects come to life.

#39

Yes, now if they could only learn how to act, direct, edit, light sets, and block scenes, we could simply watch fan films on the net. ; )

But honestly, who doesn’t love the Kelvin? Well, actually I know some people who don’t… but still ;)

That is amazing! As soon as I get back to my computers, I know what my new desktop is going to be!

#34—-I thought Burk was a bit more of an established fan, but I’ll take your word for it. That interview (or was it the “live chat”?) seems so long ago.

Of course, Bob would sit at the top of that list!

Thanks, Anthony. We should never forget all the fanboys working further behind the scenes, as well as among the cast!

Those are gorgeous. I especially like the one over the ringed planet.

Tobias, you rock as always. Good to see the rest of the world has seen what you have provided FEDCON in the past. Thanks for being our friend and I hope to see you in May at FEDCON as usual!

Awesome work, guys! :)

nice work broadway

The Kelvin is a straight six and later ships are V8’s.

8. Daniel Broadway

Nice job on the render. Real nice.

However, as 29. William Kirk agrees, the winner is the TOS styled ship.
Just what happened to the TOS design style? Surely it looks much more like a naval vessel than the new designs. And is’nt that the impression it is supposed to invoke, that the Enterprise is a navy vessel? Plus as far as metal goes. The TOS style and color does a better job portraying the hull being made of steel, or other futuristic metal. It just looks more solid and sturdy to me. Like a battleship or aircraft carrier!

But the genral design of the movie version is nice too. Its still no match for Kirk’s TOS ship design and style though.

really nice job Tobias!

Thank you for these beautiful Pictures

cheers

Wow I remember Tobias doing awesome 3d Amiga demo’s discs back in the day before anyone else was even doing polygons..look where he’s at today!!!