Thanks for the compliment! I'm doing all I can to make it a top-notch film and it's nice to see that getting noticed!
Yeah...The CG has been a bit of a problem from the very beginning. Initially, I was thinking about using physical models but my green-screening skills were not up to par. Bouncing over to some Blender tests, I loved the results, basic and poor as they were. Thanks to The Director, the latest materials look really good. Nailing a good lighting setup will help push things even better. As to your concerns, I have two thoughts.
First, you're right, often stop-motion and CG don't mix well. In fact, that was one of my initial concerns with doing the effects in CG. Sure, The Lego Movie could pull off photo-realistic renders, but I don't have supercomputers or full-time VFX artists either. While tools like Mecabricks and Stud.io can get nice still renders, the same processes won't work as well on moving animations. All that being said, as I mentioned previously, CG work has currently stalled. Who knows, by the time I return to that, somebody may have found a way to push the detail even further and you won't be able to tell the difference.
Secondly, beyond the technical limitations and lack of other options, I'm draw towards slightly non-realistic renders for another reason. I'm trying to echo Enterprise, not only in script, style, and feel, but also in another way. The CG scenes in the show were good for the time, and still look mostly decent...though obviously CG. There was never mistaking a CG establishing shot from a real one, just like will be true on this film. If anything, imperfect CG then becomes a bit endearing, hearkening back to the era of hokey effects and obvious CG that Trek (and even classic Doctor Who) is kinda known for.
I dunno...maybe that last paragraph is me just trying to justify the CG, but it's been something bouncing in my head for months. Yes, The CG should be the very best possible, but when/of it isn't, I'm totally fine with that.
It's nice to hear feedback about it. If you have any suggestions on how to get better CG, I'm open to them.
In the meantime, work is continuing on storyboards for the VFX sequences, though my drawing skills may not be much help if somebody else ends up putting those together.