Post

Star Trek Generations is 31! USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D saucer crash sequence, created with multiple plates by the ILM crew:

The Spaceshipper 🚀

@thespaceshipper.com

What I should have said 👌

Bill Mudron@mudron.bsky.social

A perfect showcase for the benefit of motion-control cameras: you can program a moving camera to shoot a moving object the *exact* same way multiple times under various lighting conditions so you can tinker with how all of those elements are combined (like layers in Photoshop) when printed together.

18/11/25, 8:26 pm0 reposts49 likes

The Spaceshipper 🚀

@thespaceshipper.com

18 Nov 2025

Joel Aron@joelaron.bsky.social

so then according to the math, I completed the comp, added the thermal fx, the planet matte and the filmout of that shot 32 years ago. Ouch. I'm old.

🕹️ algi 🇭🇺 🇪🇺

@algi.bsky.social

18 Nov 2025

I love that they shot it basically like Star Wars even 17 years later.

John Bijl

@johnbijl.bsky.social

18 Nov 2025

Isn’t that a Dykstraflex?

Bill Mudron

@mudron.bsky.social

18 Nov 2025

I’m sure the Dykstrafkex had been long retired by 1994, but ILM kept on building new camera systems based on those principles right up until CGI took over.

The Spaceshipper 🚀

@thespaceshipper.com

18 Nov 2025

Maybe @tvaziri.com or @joelaron.bsky.social know what it was exactly💡

Joel Aron

@joelaron.bsky.social

18 Nov 2025

most likely, that was shot on the 'VistaCruiser'. When I started in 91, we had that and the 'MooseFlex'. Both built on the same concept using tundo motion tracking.. I remember getting the data and using it to track a 3D flat sphere to use for the procedural noise I used for the thermal fx.