Where did Starship "Aztecing" come from !?

[SpaceRanger1]

The answer is here:

https://www.anovos.com/blogs/news/where ... come-from?

[southwestforests]

That would be a good question,

A smooth object has no scale so it’s important in model work to find ways of creating scale.

I don't know that my brain deduces that from it,

panels providing a series of interlocking edges in order to reinforce the ship's surface tensile strength.

And that would be one of those places where telling the story requires a bit of straying from 'strictly realistic',

I agreed that it would give the Enterprise more credibility as a manufactured spacecraft, even though panel lines wouldn't be visible at the scale distance needed to encompass the entire ship in a shot.

[EVApodman]

With the increased detail and visual panorama of the movie screen the producers decided that the flat, featureless hull used for the lo-res 60's TV screens wouldn't work. So they decided to add variation in surface colors and plating to catch the eye.
the
In real life there are certain variations in the hulls of aircraft and ships due to differences in manufacture and grain of plating that will catch the light at different angles.

In ST:TMP they created a regular pattern for the upper and lower saucer section and since then it has been required to show variation of panels on all spaceships. Even in the re-mastered TOS series we now see a variation in hull plating of the CGI Enterprise.

[seam-filler]

That would be a good question,

A smooth object has no scale so it’s important in model work to find ways of creating scale.

I don't know that my brain deduces that from it,

You may not be aware of if but your brain does. In real life just think how much more difficult it is to accurately judge distance when the landscape is featureless. Anyone who has been in a desert, snowfield or in mid-ocean will vouch for that. Same goes for a model.

[southwestforests]

That would be a good question,

A smooth object has no scale so it’s important in model work to find ways of creating scale.

I don't know that my brain deduces that from it,

You may not be aware of if but your brain does. In real life just think how much more difficult it is to accurately judge distance when the landscape is featureless. Anyone who has been in a desert, snowfield or in mid-ocean will vouch for that. Same goes for a model.

It seems you have misread my post format - the statements are above the quote they refer to;
therefore "I don't know that my brain deduces that from it," is not referring to scale,
but is part of,

"I don't know that my brain deduces that from it,

panels providing a series of interlocking edges in order to reinforce the ship's surface tensile strength."

[seam-filler]

Ah, gotcha.

[Zubie]

I would also suggest that the idea of "aztecking" for scale did also come from the appearance of real subjects, particularly in natural metal finishes, where the variation in different components either through manufacturing process, assembly, or material becomes apparent as subtly different reflectivity or color shades.

The Streak Eagle (1975)

B-52s on the line, F-104, BAE Lightning, Atlas

With the current use of composite materials and new manufacturing techniques the appearance of some unpainted aircraft can be pretty wild (see new Airbus (big pic))

Panel shading and details were already being done in Gerry Anderson's stuff as early as Fireball XL-5. It's visible on Thunderbird 2, which is a non silvered vehicle (https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f2/98/e6 ... 52a738.jpg, note back wall paint job as well)

The paneling effect was also a means of scaling vehicles in art in the 70s by various artists whose work I'm sure the art dept on TMP were aware of
Angus Mckie; original from the Stableford book covers c.1974

[blakeh1]

I also thought it was an attempt to get the "plated ship" look

[southwestforests]

I also thought it was an attempt to get the "plated ship" look

That brings to mind one time in 1980s watching Dad's ship return from deployment & there were five, yes, count 'em, 5, discernably different hues and sheens of grey on the ship's hull & this was was just a little old Gearing class FRAM 1 DD.

Edit: and then my next memory is the always present smells of fuel oil, cooking grease, and paint thinner.