Right. I have a feeling that if all the archives were meticulously kept, and it was just a matter of changing the size of the final rendering and switching out old versions of the models in scenes for newer ones, well, it would've already been done.
I'm not sure I'd want to go back and revamp the sfx. There is something a bit timeless about the space scenes in B5 and I think its because they look animated, as opposed to photorealistic.
I think that animation quality also goes a long ways to provide the feel of a story about Babylon 5, rather than a documentary. We see this idea of the story of Babylon 5 in other elements, such as certain episodes (Deconstruction of Falling Stars) or voiceovers (Ivanna's monologue on how B5 changed them in season 4).
true the models were lost but some were recovered for the LOTR tvfilm.
I agree that there is a distinctive style to the show as it is and the images are pretty good even now....but there is a part of me that wonders: what if...
what if the same detail that went into the battle over Coruscant was applied to the Battle of the Line? etc
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Freejack [/i]
[B]I'm not sure I'd want to go back and revamp the sfx. There is something a bit timeless about the space scenes in B5 and I think its because they look animated, as opposed to photorealistic. [/B][/QUOTE] You still could rerender the existing animations in higher resolutions. There wouldn't be more detail, but the blockyness on dvd would disappear.
Biggles<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
The original models [b]were[/b] lost, but they managed to recover them from an amusing source: the ITF development team. :)
Into the Fire, the Computer game based on Babylon 5 which would have completely revolusionized the Starship combat games industry, and the reason this site exists.
Biggles<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
I'd say leave them alone rather than risk screwing up like some of the stuff I've seen in the new Star Wars DVDs (only in pictures, which I assume are real. I don't know how the hell they screwed up with some of that stuff).
I was wondering about the ItF stuff Sierra had. The history part of this website doesn't mention anything about what happened to what was made. I assume that Sierra got rid of it long ago and it's no longer in existence? Or if it is somewhere, maybe I should dress in all black and pay a visit some night....
Biggles<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
Well, it's not mentioned because we don't actually know what happened to it. At one point they claimed to have "lost" it, but noone knows for sure.
B5 CGI has it's ups and downs. In some places, it's good and has aged well - Still rivaling todays low-budget TV shows. But in others, OMG, NOooo! B5 always handled the space-combat nicely, but really fell flat with CGI environments. It also tends to change through the seasons. Season 3 had some really nice looking CGI shots (the battle in Shadow Dancing was pretty rich).
The only CGI environment I can think of from the top of my head that B5 did really good (for 1998) was in The Ragged Edge.
B5 CGI is so often slandered. But it's so rich and vibrant, full of energy and realistic movement - And pretty top notch lighting. So what if it looks cheesy. It's fun and exciting, and when I first watched it on a big screen with surround, I never had no much fun. Christopher Franke's music boosted that enjoyment. When I was a kid, I loved space battles. B5 offered the most thrilling of the series on at the time. I remember watching the battle in Thirdspace about twenty times over, cause I was just a 14 year old who loved space battles
I think the space battle in Thirdspace was the best they ever did for B5. The detail was superb and I loved all the close up shots with the Whitestars and alien fighters shooting each other up. The colours etc were all very rich and vibrant. Makes you wonder what went wrong with the final big battle in ACTO.
The original new groundbreaking series about a law firm operating all alone in a spacestation million miles from Earth. Where they settle differences between alien lifeforms and their loved ones / afternoon snacks. Starring Ombudsman Wellington and a host of other characters from your favourite TV-show, Babylon 5.
Messiah its actually yet another Law and Order spin off. Its gonna be huge! One could say galactic almost :D
Peter... yeah must have been. The final battle was really rushed. It was a great shame as the director Mike Vejar is great when it comes to action sequences and his skills were really wasted. The one thing that bugged me big time was the way we saw shot after shot of Omega crusiers which we'd seen many many times before and they snuck in a few seconds glimpse of a Warlock!!! Now that was just cruel! No I haven't anything against Omega's, they're cool but the Warlock was the latest and greatest kick ass cruiser and it was relegated to hardly any screen time.
I think the music let down the action in ACTA. Rushed or not, with Christopher Franke's music, I'm sure it would've made up for it.
If only JMS had left Chen to do Crusade instead of ACTA... It should be remastered :P. What I've never got is, if JMS wanted a different type of music for Crusade, why not just ask Franke for someone different? More oriental? There was no need to get someone else on board. I feel Franke could have easily come up with something new.
Chen handles certain bits well - But whenever any space battle occurs, ow, whats that noise in my ears. I think Chen did a pretty good job with the deep sounding... sounds, though. I had to reconfigure my speaker setup a few times because it kept going too low for them to handle... ;)
Comments
I think that animation quality also goes a long ways to provide the feel of a story about Babylon 5, rather than a documentary. We see this idea of the story of Babylon 5 in other elements, such as certain episodes (Deconstruction of Falling Stars) or voiceovers (Ivanna's monologue on how B5 changed them in season 4).
Jake
true the models were lost but some were recovered for the LOTR tvfilm.
I agree that there is a distinctive style to the show as it is and the images are pretty good even now....but there is a part of me that wonders: what if...
what if the same detail that went into the battle over Coruscant was applied to the Battle of the Line? etc
[B]I'm not sure I'd want to go back and revamp the sfx. There is something a bit timeless about the space scenes in B5 and I think its because they look animated, as opposed to photorealistic. [/B][/QUOTE] You still could rerender the existing animations in higher resolutions. There wouldn't be more detail, but the blockyness on dvd would disappear.
[B]the ITF development team. :) [/B][/QUOTE] ITF?!?
[url]http://www.firstones.com/b5games/[/url]
[url]http://www.firstones.com/firstoneshistory.php[/url]
We're here for a reason. :)
Jake
[B]All about ITF and this site:
[url]http://www.firstones.com/b5games/[/url]
[url]http://www.firstones.com/firstoneshistory.php[/url]
We're here for a reason. :) [/B][/QUOTE]
Yep, still waiting! :rolleyes:
This is probably the wrong forum to ask this question in.
I was wondering about the ItF stuff Sierra had. The history part of this website doesn't mention anything about what happened to what was made. I assume that Sierra got rid of it long ago and it's no longer in existence? Or if it is somewhere, maybe I should dress in all black and pay a visit some night....
Woohoo!
[B]STAN!!!
Woohoo! [/B][/QUOTE] May I interest you in some used coffins?
[B]Hey its Stan the Used Boat Salesman!
Jake [/B][/QUOTE]I finally got the reference at about 1 am last night. :D
The only CGI environment I can think of from the top of my head that B5 did really good (for 1998) was in The Ragged Edge.
B5 CGI is so often slandered. But it's so rich and vibrant, full of energy and realistic movement - And pretty top notch lighting. So what if it looks cheesy. It's fun and exciting, and when I first watched it on a big screen with surround, I never had no much fun. Christopher Franke's music boosted that enjoyment. When I was a kid, I loved space battles. B5 offered the most thrilling of the series on at the time. I remember watching the battle in Thirdspace about twenty times over, cause I was just a 14 year old who loved space battles
[B]Makes you wonder what went wrong with the final big battle in ACTO. [/B][/QUOTE] Money issues I think.
The original new groundbreaking series about a law firm operating all alone in a spacestation million miles from Earth. Where they settle differences between alien lifeforms and their loved ones / afternoon snacks. Starring Ombudsman Wellington and a host of other characters from your favourite TV-show, Babylon 5.
Peter... yeah must have been. The final battle was really rushed. It was a great shame as the director Mike Vejar is great when it comes to action sequences and his skills were really wasted. The one thing that bugged me big time was the way we saw shot after shot of Omega crusiers which we'd seen many many times before and they snuck in a few seconds glimpse of a Warlock!!! Now that was just cruel! No I haven't anything against Omega's, they're cool but the Warlock was the latest and greatest kick ass cruiser and it was relegated to hardly any screen time.
If only JMS had left Chen to do Crusade instead of ACTA... It should be remastered :P. What I've never got is, if JMS wanted a different type of music for Crusade, why not just ask Franke for someone different? More oriental? There was no need to get someone else on board. I feel Franke could have easily come up with something new.