Or It Crawled Out Of The Mailbox
(Wherein Visitors Get To Speak Out)
|
Or It Crawled Out Of The Mailbox (Wherein Visitors Get To Speak Out) |
Despite a relatively small number of "real" letters, I did get the usual crop of "I enjoyed the site" letters. Often mentioned in these were this lettercol and the images shown here. Good news--a lot of images this go around and all are good. To those who sent GFXs my way, thanks for letting all of us see them. All images are copyrighted by the artists and their permission is required for their use.
CONTEST: While sketching roughs for the Commando Cody ship I found myself chuckling at some truly sexist lines in the first chapter of Radar Men From The Moon. Which spawned the idea--"why not have a contest and gather together all such great sexist lines from the movies?" These are the lines that make one sit up and say out loud, I CAN'T BELIEVE SOMEONE WROTE THAT LINE OF DIALOG!!! Lines so obviously sexist that they are jokes.
I took the contest name from a line in the classic western My Darling Clementine. Like my personal favorite from Frankenstein's Daughter--"I'll use the brain of a woman because they are easier to control"--it slams head-on to sexist dialog that leaves you rolling because it's so bad. If you think these two examples are serious weaving of masterful dialog, then simply forget this contest and move on to the letters and images further down.
A contest must have a prize. Friend Robert E. Vardeman was recently here on a visit and I had him sign an extra copy of his Star Trek novel The Klingon Gambit I found in a used bookstore. So that's the prize--one prize only--an autographed copy of a used paperback book.
Rules: I let this run until the entries do a nose dive, then I select my favorite and give she or he who submitted the gem of dialog the prize. I select the worst bit of dialog--however, all submissions will be listed here. Submit early--submit often!
Now on to the letters and images received.
Motion Blur
Hey! Nice job on the site update. Your "So You Say" and "No Parachute" sections are great additions.
I hope to keep trying to get the hang of 3D so that I can throw something out there. If I'm lucky, it will get cut to ribbons by
those in the know. At worst (shudder) it will get ignored and maybe I'll still learn something from that as well.I was noticing that on almost every 3D image (still render) that I've come across, I've only seen one image with motion blur(a well-done yet hard on the eyes image of a Classic-Trek-style Klingon Battleship being hit from behind by the shockwave of a very large explosion). I know that animations use this a lot but would think that stills would look more realistic with the effect as well (something like a race car caught by a high speed camera shutter).Keep up the good work,"Phill Bogart"
I think it's the above mentioned "hard on the eyes" that keeps most CGI artists from using a motion blur on a scene GFX. The idea is to show the meshes and not smear them--at least for me. For an animation a blur does add realism, but for a single frame it merely makes the viewer think he needs to go see and eye doctor.
Andrew Marrs
British computer artist Andrew Marrs sent this image of the Star Trek Spacedock he recently modeled in LightWave.
Meshes and Other Questions
I attempt to place two new meshes for download with each update of this site. As to what goes up depends on requests I get and the time I have to get the meshes ready. Obviously a small mesh can be converted to other formats a lot quicker than one of multi-meg size. Eventually, I will upload all my meshes--but that will take more than a bit of time to do. On the main MESHES page check the links to other great sites with meshes for the download--and let me know of those you find so they can be shared with others.
Animation Frames
Red and blue and 3-D all over
As mentioned before, I use an old program called 3-D It for my red and blue images, which I purchased in a remainder bin at a computer store. I have discovered a 3-D program on the web that may or may not suit you needs. A demo can be found at Greg White's site .
Ships Of Yesteryear
Great Images
MY KIND OF SITE
Having recently gotten access to a good quality rendering program, I've
become very involved in trying to learn it. I've downloaded all the fine
meshes on the Wolf359 site as well as a few from Eric Peterson's Sisyphus
page. And your own of course. I am really looking forward to seeing more of
the meshes when they do arrive. Particularly those from the classic movie
series. What other meshes might we be seeing from your future updates as well?
I have scoured all the major mesh sites and a great many minor ones as well
Lastly, I would like to ask how to add ship numbers on the hull without
discoloring the hull texture like I seem to keep doing under 3dMax?
Patrick Mulawka
As to hull numbers, here's something I learned from master modeler Eric Peterson--make the numbers a separate object and then use "BEND" to curve the registry numbers to fit the hull shape. Then place this object just above the hull surface so it appears part of the hull. I'm using this technique on a TOS Enterprise 1701 I'm modeling now and it works well. Patrick, sorry to have had to edit your message heavily, but it was long.
A couple months back I received a phone call from a young man at MTV in New York. John Bailey and I have been talking and writing with him since. He sent along these frames from an animation he's making for his own personal pleasure. Working in LightWave, this is his first attempt at an explosion. Looks good to me!!!
I was looking at the Red/Blue 3D section, did you do this in TS? if so
*HOW*. I've been trying everything I can think of and it just doesn't come
out right-- Frank Ramsay
Nice web-site. I, too, am fascinated by the pre-sputnik period of
"space travel".(It's what made me get my degree in Aerospace Engineering, many years
ago.)I was surprised to see the Bonestell "Round-the-Moon-Ship" rather than the
Disney RM-1 lunar orbiter. Were you aware that various plastic models once
issued by Stromberg in the late 50's are now available again from Glencoe?
Their "Lunar Lander" is a close variant of the moonship you've recreated.
BTW, since the XR-1 (which is how I located your site) and the RM-1 are
"cousins" (the RM-1 is basically a wingless, tail-less XR-1), I'm in the
middle of semi-scratchbuilding a 1/72nd scale XR-1 by adding delta wings,
empennage, landing gear, etc. to the RM-1. I plan on mounting it in a diorama that
could be described as the next frame after your "Homecoming" [ file: landing.jpg
] image: The XR-1 being towed from the (Muroc?) landing strip by an airport
tractor.
Also, I'm drumming up support for Disney to release the "Walt Disney's
Man in Space" movie to home video. This is the theatrical version of "Man
in Space" and "Man and the Moon" edited together. Or alternatively, I'd like them
to make the whole MiS trilogy (which would then include "Mars and Beyond")
available. If you're interested, please send Buena Vista a letter expressing your
support--Tom Zmudzinski
Actually I been plugging the Glencoe models on the Info Page for months, but a mention here doesn't hurt. How about sending us a photo or scan of your plastic kit conversion when you're finished? I will eventually get around to doing a 3-D mesh and images of the RM-1 as well as the Mars ship shown on the Disney episodes. As far as the three Disney Tomorrowland episodes go, I feel they are classics and should be preserved. However, when I contacted Disney about them a few years back my response was that they were out of date and no one would care about seeing them again. Too bad, since they sparked a lot of imaginations when they were first shown in the 1950s.
British computer artist Geoffrey Saul send these images while inquiring about other matters. I asked for permission to show them off here. Geoff is putting together a site of his own at Geoffrey Saul. Give his efforts a looksee.
Have a look at
http://www.slick-net.com/space/
I enjoyed and remember well the series of novels
you wrote with Robert E. Vardeman some years ago.
However, your recent computer art is spectacular.
Keep it up--Rory Coker
Okay, Rory, I did and I love it!!! I highly recommend this gem for the starting point into the kid show science fiction television of the early 1950s. We're talking my favorite Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Captain Video, and Space Patrol. Plus there's images of some great old spaceships!!! And to top it off there are links to sites with even more about these beginnings of television science fiction. I give this site an A+++++++. Check it out!
