Tips on making ,cheap,but cool Starships.

[Halsey]

Someone said use metal look,because it is easer,cheaper.I want fast and real looking,the will be send in a close shot."""not super close"""

[miker]

Another way they are made is around a wooden frame (depending on scale), and then details are added by sticking on bits from model kits from toyshops ... modelmakers have a term for this, but I can't remember what it is.

Certainly a lot of the models in the original star wars trilogy were made this way.

[Littlerich]

So was "Starbug" in Red-Dwarf.
They used everythiing from kits to bits of lego.
That's how they made the Red Dwarf ship!


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KEEP FOCUSED!
Little Rich.
http://go.to/littlerich
www.rmsgraffix.freeserve.co.uk
[email protected]

[Xendar]

One way to do it would be to use Lightwave or 3D Studio Max. There is also a cut down version of Lightwave called Inspire.

Take a look at: www.405themovie.com
There you can see what can be done with Lightwave. It's movie with a CGI plane landing on a motorway. Mixed with real footage. The movie is 7MB to download but it's worth it.

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Mark Smith
Neon Films - Low / No budget films in West Yorkshire
www.neonfilms.freeserve.co.uk

[shakespeareskin]

you can pretty much use anything, in Return of the Jedi one of the ships was a sneaker.

[miker]

...and don't forget some of the background ships were just bits of chewing gum.

Now *that* is film-making!!

(I never have been able to spot the sneaker though...)

[Chance1234]

the shoe is when the tie fighters are chasing hans ship into the asteroid field

[Jon Taylor]

The original USS Enterprise in the Star Trek TV series was a 14 foot model with a highly complex lighting system inside to give it a sense of activity and life onboard. It was shot on a high speed camera using wide angle lenses to give an impression of bulk travelling at 6,000,000,000,000 miles per hour.

The Millenium Falcon on the other hand was only 4 feet long. Lucas's Visual Effects Supervisor, Robert Edlund, used a specially built Mitchell Variable Speed VistaVision camera using Nikon lenses.

Jon.

[miker]

Star Wars used lots of different scale models of the main ships, eg Falcon, Star Destroyer.

The smallest falcon was the size of a penny in Empire, I think one of the Star Destroyers was something like 15ft.

I heard that in Jedi they also used kits from toyshops of x-wing/ties to use in the end battle.

Now of course with CGI it's a matter of resolution vs rendering time...