Thread by @virtualbri

So you want to get some spaceships into your TV show….
For this show, there are 3 general ways to do it. You can build from scratch, convert from your library, or be fortunate that the people from Star Trek Online build great ships
#StarTrekPicard 1/18

“Scratch” means a design from the Art Department, where legends like John Eaves and Doug Drexler under the supervision of @DaveBlass create 2D concepts, and then 3D concept models of the starships.
#StarTrekPicard 2/18

They also create orthographic views of the ships, with all the important features, like tractor beam emitters and warp core ejection points are called out for location and specific details.
#StarTrekPicard 3/18

All this goes to vendors to build and texture into the high-res versions. If it’s an asset that needs to be shared between he multiple VFX houses working on the show, it has to be sent to all those places after it is approved by the EPs on the show.
#StarTrekPicard 4/18

The approval process takes iterations, to get everything correct. All while the clock is ticking down to get episodes done and out the door. And propagating changes once the Indiana Jones Giant Ball of a show gets rolling becomes harder and harder.
#StarTrekPicard 5/18

We’ll come back to what happens after it gets to vendors in a sec
#StarTrekPicard 6/18

Converting from our library of assets is a horse of another color. We are fortunate to have access to high-resolution Eaglemoss models, as well as the ILM, Foundation Imaging, Digital Muse and other models from First Contact and Voyager.
#StarTrekPicard 7/18

However, they are mostly made in LightWave 3D in the late 1990s, which is an excellent program but *very* hard to export from. Most work is done for a show without the thought of what happens to it after that show is over.
#StarTrekPicard 8/18

And it was a different world with less sharing of assets and ability to share. To get the Steamrunner and Akira (high-resolution geometry models) out took 3-4 full days a piece to get textures that looked remotely the same in modern 3D software
#StarTrekPicard 9/18

Once you have that, you still have to have more detailed textures and adjust geometry because we can see more in HD and expect more in 2022. Just getting it into Maya and reconnecting all the texture in the way Maya does it isn’t enough.
#StarTrekPicard 10/x

Luckily for us, @DaveBlass reached out to Cryptic and contacted @Cryptic_TtC, who was amazing helpful in giving us access to Star Trek Online ships. I mean, damn.
#StarTrekPicard 11/18

But even those beauties don’t instantly go to screen. We have to convert them from 3DSMax, the 3D program Cryptic is developing in, to Maya, which is what our vendor studios use. *And* the requirements of real-time multiplayer gaming are strict
#StarTrekPicard 12/18

…compared to rendered TV and film images, so especially if the ship is getting close to screen, we need to add detail in geometry and textures. Luckily, we’re starting from that were much easier to convert, especially because they were made recently.
#StarTrekPicard 13/18

We received some of the 2021 upgraded models seconds after Thomas finished the work on them! And for ships in the deep distance, you don’t have to do a huge amount of work to make them screen ready.
#StarTrekPicard 14/18

But there always is *some* work. And we don’t have infinite time and money. And you see me discussing “exporting”, “conversion” a lot. Because that’s where a decent chunk of time gets spent even before we make sure they are high resolution.
#StarTrekPicard 15/18

3DSMax to Maya, LightWave to Maya, *then* the render engines! Maya houses use VRay and Arnold primarily. Each textures differently, so when a vendor gets our ships, they have to make sure it fits into *their* render engine.
#StarTrekPicard 16/18

It has to visually look the same no matter what software it’s rendering in. We’ll have the VFX houses render turntables and compare to our asset turntables to make sure they look the same, and keep an eye on the continuity of shots between various vendors.
#StarTrekPicard 17/18

And that’s the TL;DR version of all of this!
#StarTrekPicard 18/18