CCGSociety :: Production Focus
26 May 2009, by Renee Dunlop

Space may be the final frontier, but the ever-expanding capabilities of visual effects are nipping at its heels. And where the two meet, there is Star Trek.

In just six months, roughly 800 visual effects shots from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and 150 from Digital Domain (DD) in four months helped to bring J.J. Abrams’ vision to the big screen.

“Growing up, I wasn’t a big Star Trek fan, but I thought the script was great. Getting to see these iconic characters with J.J.’s touch made me a bit of a fan, I have to say.”
Russell Earl, ILM Co-Visual Effects Supervisor

ILM
Abrams wanted to maintain familiarity while basing everything in reality, so there were many discussions about how form follows function. Some of the ILM Star Trek aficionados added back-stories for what the ship does here and what the crew stored there. Abrams desire for reality required extensive research into the fantastic, finding a blend of science and art to compliment scenes like the battle in the black hole, the transporter, or the ice planet. Co-VFX Supervisor Russell Earl explained. “We tried to develop different, what we called neighborhoods in space. We didn’t just want a black void of space with stars. There are different beats in the film, so we have distinct areas.” Abrams brought in Carolyn Porco, leader of the Imaging Science team on NASA’S Cassini mission at Saturn to advise ILM on the look and attributes of Saturn’s rings. “We spent time talking to her so we could nail the true science.”

Earl oversaw Asset Development and Look Development. He was experienced in art in both digital and traditional mediums, and did traditional miniature modeling at Berkshire Ridefilm Massachusetts, working with Doug Trumbull on the Back to the Future ride. Though all prior Star Trek films used miniatures in some way, Earl and VFX Supervisor, Roger Guyett, realized “due to the scale of the film and the compressed schedule, we ruled out [traditional] models early on.” There were no traditional models or miniatures used in the finished film.

One challenge was to sell the weight and scale of the ships that ranged from a 30 foot shuttle to the new Enterprise at 2,357 feet long, to the nemesis ship, the Narada, five miles long. To show that scale and detail would require the building of so many physical miniature models it would be prohibitive. “As it was,” said Earl “we spent almost the entire show building detail into the computer model.”

The team studied large vessels like cruise ships for reference. “When you really look at something like a cruise ship or a Naval vessel you see just how much imperfection there is. We spent a lot of time trying to bring that same imperfection into the perfect CG world. A lot of times you build a ship and dirty it down and that instantly makes it feel more real, but the Enterprise was supposed to be a new ship. We tried to build it in modules with final LOD (Level Of Detail), built some elements for hero shots, and tricked it out for when you see it up close.”