Star Trek Fan Film, Anyone?

My latest thing is Star Trek fan films. A while ago I read an article in my then-local paper about a woman involved in Phase II, which is the one that has actual sets in a warehouse somewhere in Albany, and which is endorsed by the Roddenberry family. And had D.C. Fontana write for them. Never mind all the guest stars. Yikes. And I totally am holding on to my dream of someday dragging my ass up for their filming week and helping out... hey, I know how to use a hammer. And a sewing needle, although let me tell you, I am way more accurate with a hammer.

Anyway, I've lately blasted my way through Hidden Frontier and now I'm working on the Helena Chronicles (a spinoff of HF). But I really, really, really want to make my own now. One big huge problem... no money. Another huge problem... no friends who are into Star Trek. Well, that's not true. I have two friends in Florida who are Trek fans. But Florida does not help me whilst I am stuck up here in the hinterlands.

I do intend to move to Florida eventually, probably by climbing into my parents' moving van when they decide to retire/leave the snow behind. But in the meantime, I'm trying to think of immediate solutions. And ones that don't require me to make new friends, because really, I just don't have the wherewithal to do that. That's why I blog, instead of going out and having a life.

So I poked around, and there is this interesting 3-D rendering software called Blender (interesting because it is free and yet looks pretty sweet) that I downloaded. I also had to download Python, which kind of scares me based solely on the XKCD comics regarding Python, but whatever. I just need it for Blender. So now I'm trying to figure out Blender. Luckily people have already rendered a lot of ships and a spacedock and such, which are free for the downloading, but I am not sure how to go about making 3-D humans. Totally different thing than drawing 2-D comics or cartoons, that's for sure, and I never did figure out 2-D animation. Why I think 3-D animation is going to be any different, I dunno. Delusional, maybe.

Anyway, if anyone's remotely interested in Trek fan film and wants to help me figure out this rendering stuff, plus collaborate on the script (I have a ship, some main characters to populate the bridge, and a vague idea for a pilot ep but could use an assist here), give moral support, do voices for the characters, whatever... that would be cool. Just leave a comment and I'll get back to ya. Helps if you're in NH but I guess that doesn't really matter, what with the totally awesome Internet we have now. Ha.