Quick Update

Time for a quick update.

Things have still being pretty busy for me over the past few weeks, I won't bore you all with the details so onto what's been happening.

I'm pleased to report I've had a really good script writing session today, and things are coming to a close. So much so that if I have a session as good tomorrow I'm confident it'll FINALLY be complete.

I've spent some more time on the storyboards, which shall form the basis of things when we go into full production of the episode. I've also being working on some new character designs, aside from the main characters, so I hope to have them up soon as well.

Unfortunately, Adam's being pretty busy as well so he hasn't gotten too much done on the 3D front either. I'll have a dig around the archives, because I still think there are a few images I haven't posted on here yet, so at least you'll have something new.

That's it for now.

A background ship of the DY lineage.


A Klingon freighter, which shall play a key plot point in the story.


Small BoP, now complete.


The Kumari type.

And finally, a couple of other items.



More to come soon.

It’s been nearly four weeks since my last update, I know I promised to report more frequently, but to be honest there hasn’t been all that much to report on. However, that’s not to say there’s not been progress, on the contrary, things are going extremely well.

We’ve got several new tests done, bringing us one step closer to the trailer are things are looking good.

Comments, or should I say comment:

Mark said...

Your new Klingon Birds of Prey are excellent - I'm particularly impressed that you and Adam have included the smaller BoP, that's a rare ship. Are you planning to release 4-view schematics of the two Birds of Prey like the other ships you've done? I'd love to see them and would very much like to include those too if so - though I realise you're both probably very busy!

No plans for the immediate future. Honestly, we need to focus our attention to areas of more concern; the thing is I did those schematics to help me get better results in constructing the models. Adam somehow manages to get great results without anything much more than screencaps from the show itself. So they’re not really needed anymore now that he’s on the case. Perhaps in the future when time allows I’ll do some based on the models themselves, which will be far easier.

If anyone has any questions about the project, don’t hesitate to ask.

That’s it for this update, but I hope to upload some new pics later today.

What's been happening today?

The script is currently clocking in at around 60%, although as I post this I've only just started today's work on it, so I'm hoping to be encroaching on the 70% mark by tomorrow. Adam has some new pics ready, but I'm going to hold off posting them for now (it’s always best to save the pics for when there isn’t much else to report on).

More significantly, last night I did some of my first work on the storyboards of the first episode. I've had a pretty good indication of what the Teaser would look like since even before I started work on the treatment, so it's pretty safe to say it's not going to change in the time it takes me to complete the script.

This is quite significant since as far as I can recall pretty much the first work I’ve ever done with storyboards. Unless of course you count some of the old comics I used to draw back when I was a kid.

As of now they're looking pretty good, I've worked out a good template from which to take things from, and the work went pretty smoothly. These are good indications that the storyboarding process should go relatively smoothly once the script is complete, and ultimately means the episodes will get done quicker.

What’s on the horizon, as far as the project is concerned?

Well, Adam Kopala our 3D artist has being steaming ahead with his work on the 3D side of things. Right now, I’d say nearly all of the quota for the models required for the first episode have been completed, are nearing completion, or work has already started. This bodes extremely well as far as the trailer is concerned, and I fully expect animating of those shots required for it to begin within the next week or so. So the trailer itself may be right around the corner.

On my side of things, obviously the script is still underway at a steady pace. If everything goes well within the next couple of days I plan on just throwing a whole day’s work just into the script, which should hopefully bring it to completion.

I’m also working on a new 2D test animation, depicting a walk sequence, which I also hope to have completed soon, and to when complete will likely appear in the trailer.

That’s it for now.

Nothing too much to report on, only that I'm definitely over fifty percent through the script, and here are some new images from Adam.

Klingon Shuttle:
Klingon Outpost:

Romulan Bird of Prey:



And we have a test video uploaded on YouTube.

More Pics

D-5 Battle Cruiser


Small Bird of Prey - this is the Klingon Augment vessel seen in 'Affliction' and 'Divergence'.

Klingon High Council building:

As you can probably guess, this episode features the Klingons heavily. All credit for the images on the last few updates goes to Adam Kopala.

As promised, despite being a couple of days later. Here are some of the in progress 3D work.

Klingon Bird-of-Prey:


There's plenty more than that, which I'm saving for later today.

Since I haven't being making the best use of this blog thus far with rather infrequent updates, it's now my intention to post daily, or at the very least weekly reports on the progress and development of the project. The aim is to pretty much update whenever there’s something to report regarding work on the project.

It will be useful to keep a log on such progress just purely from a personal standpoint, so I may as well let you guys out there in on it as well. Obviously, in order to preserve secrecy I probably can’t go into a great amount of detail on some things.

These past seven days has seen some great strides in the overall progress on the project.

First thing up is on the 3D side of the project. Finally, I have some help on the project, a 3D artist has volunteered his services to the project, and his help has greatly increased the output allowing me to devote my own efforts into other areas.

The NX model is about 90% complete, I haven't really done too much work on it lately. Pretty much all the basics are done, the rest is simply detailing and texturing.

The D-5 and Bird-of-Prey models are also pretty much complete. As well as another model we’re calling the “small Bird of Prey”, which was the small Klingon Augment ship featured in ‘Affliction’ and ‘Divergence’. I’ll get some pics posted up tomorrow.

On my end the script writing is continuing, as is my main priority at the moment. Now, that I've being freed up on the 3D end, I've managed significant progress in the script. As of this past Monday, I was... and always try to think conservatively when coming up with this figures somewhere between twenty and thirty percent through the first episode. As of now, I’m somewhere between forty and fifty percent through the episode.

Like I said I’m hoping to get to updating this blog a lot more regularly, and I noticed a few comments on previous entries. It’s important to note that one of the main goals of this blog is to provide an avenue of communication between myself and everyone reading. So if anyone has any questions regarding the project, don’t hesitate to ask.

In that regard, I apologies for the lateness of the responses to you comments, and I’ll get to them now:

LLAP-TERRELL said...

I would LOVE to help you out on this worthy project Joe - I am a writer (I have 5 "spec. scripts" already written for the series and "pitched" them to Manny Coto at the Save Enterprise L.A. Rally, and others; they are registered with the writer's guild and ready to produce!
I can also help by doing Male "character voices" (I am IMDb "listed" - only "partially" for all the work I've done) and have a talent for Voice Over work, dialects and accents - I can Direct" as well, and have many "connections" to production people that can aid us in this project, too... may I assist?
My e-mail is: thimmelheber@yahoo.com - so give me a holler and we'll do this, okay? :D

LLAP, TERRELL B)

You can assist in virtually anyway you’d like to. It’d probably be better contacting me via email, in most of the above cases.

Mark said...

Hi Joe,

Interesting project - are you reading the current Pocket Books Enterprise novels? Wondered if you're planning to work around them or go your own way.

I was actually posting to ask a question re your excellent ship schematics. I have been creating starship themed pdfs on my website Star Trek Starship Handbooks (http://trek.escape-committee.co.uk - sorry I don't know how to add hyperlinks to the comments!) featuring specs and schematics for various vessels. The current volume I'm working on is for 22nd century vessels, and I was wondering if I might have your permission to include some of your schematics? (fully credited of course! - I'd be happy to include a hyperlink to your blog in the websites section of the Bibliography too if you wished).

Either way, great project of yours. All the best.

Mark Gill

No, honestly I’m not really a fan of Trek fiction, and don’t hold them in the least bit canon.

I don’t know why you’d want to use them, but appropriately credited you can use them to your hearts content. A link of some sort to the blog/eventual website would be greatly appreciated as well.

That's it for now, I'll have those pictures posted tomorrow.

UPDATE – 23/01/08

It’s taken a little longer than I expected to get this next blog entry out. Over the holiday season work on the project slowed down a little due to various factors all of which are pretty immaterial to go over now, nevertheless I’m happy to report as of the past few weeks work on the project has settled back into normalcy, so better late than never.

Auditions are coming in at a steady pace. Some are pretty good, but in order to give everyone a chance to contribute I won’t be officially casting anyone for a while yet so please keep them coming in. Even if you don’t get one of the main roles I’m still looking for prospective talent to fill both the recurring cast list and some of the other ancillary roles.

Without further ado, here are some of the more recent updates for some of the ship designs:

It's safe to say that both the Kumari and D-5 are pretty much complete now. Below is the latest on the Romulan Bird-of-Prey, and while the basics are all there I think it lacks a little detail just now.Next up: I want to get up some of the 3D models I've being working on plus a new ship design, the Klingon Bird-of-Prey.