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Posted by Dan (Member # 129) on :

Something interesting that I picked up from several places.

I found this at a website of someone at Foundation Imaging:

quote:
Friday, April 14/2000
With 10 minutes of notice the modeling staff at Foundation Imaging was layed off today. There was little time to feel aprehension as we were called in for a last second meeting. Afterwords was rife with tension as we all packed our stuff, said farewells, and made sure to trade contact information. Animators have been kept on to finish what they have been working on but will soon be jobless as well.

Then there's this little tidbit from www.VFXPro.com that's a couple days old:

quote:
Entertainment Boulevard Inc., a provider of streaming entertainment-related media and encoding services, through its www.Vidnet.com Web site announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire digital effects company Digital Muse ( www.dmuse.com ). The acquisition is scheduled to close on May 1, 2000. Entertainment Boulevard has already expanded its streaming media services to include the encoding of content for other Internet companies. The acquisition of Digital Muse will be instrumental in expanding Entertainment Boulevard's services within the streaming entertainment industry. Entertainment Boulevard will also use the digital animation house's services to create original content programming along with commercials specifically designed to be broadcast over the Web.
Mon Apr 17, 2000, 10:55 AM PDT

I wonder what Trek is going to do next year for visual FX with both of these companies going down the drain (unless Foundation's contracted for Season 7).

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Daniel Henderson
Senior Editor www.Myrkr.com

Contributing Writer www.BeyondBabylon.com

[This message has been edited by Dan (edited April 24, 2000).]

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Spit and vinegar and shoe polish, I imagine.

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"Oh, it's an anti-anti-WTO song. It's essentially a pro-Starbucks song. I saw this picture of a guy sticking his foot through a plate-glass window in a Starbucks in Seattle, and he was wearing a Nike. Man, couldn't you just change your shoes?"
--
M. Doughty

Posted by Mikey T (Member # 144) on :

Oh my God, they may have to crawl back to George Lucas and ILM... That means we may see fully photographic ship models again or see actual wear and tear on Voyager...

I hope that Bill George kept his Pasteur model nearby for filming...

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"Life's a bitch, then you die"
-USS Vanderbilt, Vanderbuilt Class starship

Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :

Actually, I like actual filming models more then CGI's.
It keeps some of the mysteries intact (Wolf 359)

When you CGI, it's far too easy to create other ships and there is a risk of over-done ships (like Nova)

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-- Management slogan, Ridcully-style (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent, Discworld)
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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :

In a CGI vs Model arguement I'd say both have their advantages. I like modelled starships because they usually appear to have more texture and details, but with CGI's some of that detail is lost. Look at the FC CGI's for instance, the only one that was detailed was the Akira-class simply because it's Jaeger's favorite. The other ships, Norway, Steamrunner and Saber-classes didn't receive that much attention, the lack of windows or even phaser strips for example.

Like I said, I'm not against CGI, it's a better and cheaper way to doing great special effects like battle scenes or new starships. Plus a CGI can look as good, if not better, than a real model.

But I think it would be sad that Voyager's next season were to decline in FX because of this.

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"Tigers are mean! Tigers are fierce! Tigers have teeth and claws that pierce!"
Federation Starship Datalink - On that annoying Tripod server, sucks don't it?

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

What's the problem with the Nova, exactly?

Posted by Black Knight (Member # 134) on :

Yeah, really. I love the Nova. I think it looks cool.
And it has big...sharp...pointy teeth! (Whoops, Monty python relapse

)

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I need to think of something...
Quantum Threshold

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

Actually models are good too. Attach a few carefully placed explosives and you've got a ship doing a cool kablooie. That's what they did when they blew up the Ent-D about 3 or four times.

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"My Name is Elmer Fudd, Millionaire. I own a Mansion and a Yacht."
Psychiatrist: "Again."

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Actually, what I meant to say there was where is the problem with the Nova. If it's with how the ship looks in film due to being CGI, than that's just an opinion, but the ship itself was designed by Sternbach the same way he designs every ship. What I'm saying is that a model's status as CGI or "real" is largely seperate from its design.