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I am by no means a celebrity or famous! Just a humble visual effects supervisor here at Foundation Imaging. My credits include Babylon 5, Voyager, DS9 and a few others. As far as credentials go, you may just have to take my word for it. If you like, you can email me at Foundation Imaging and take my reply as proof that it's really me ([email protected]). I suppose any net slueths out there shouldn't have too hard a time verifying that that truly is our domain.
In any case, I'm glad I could start an argument :-)
The name "Bonchune" was not used in the show - we are always given names and registry numbers for what appears on the air. Since it was such a hard-to-see part of the ship in the calendar image, Rob thought he would give himself an 'on-screen' credit for building the model of the ship (even if he was the only one that really knew what it was there).
The 2001 book will be very, very starship oriented. That's about all I think I should say for now.
As far as the 2002 calendar goes, as I said, this one is more artsy. The idea behind it is that Starfleet has hired real photographers to take pictures of starships. The cover and centerfold are in black & white. There is a silouette shot of the Borg Unicomplex. The photos concentrate more on the art of the picture itself as opposed to focusing on the details of the ship. I'm excited about this because we've portrayed the subjects in a serious, artistic light and not just done another round of pretty spaceship pictures. As far as I know, this has never been done before and I am keeping my fingers crossed that everyone likes this new concept.
Oh, and this calendar also features the movie Enterprise, which was absent from the first one since the model wasn't quite finished yet!
I think that answers everything... I'll check back soon.
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Mojo, I'm glad you didn't get scared off! (Speaking as a relatively new member, these guys get a little scary until you get used to them. )
I'm sure you hear this a lot, but your work is certainly impressive, in all its forms! (Just curious here -- did you work on the "Babylon 5" pilot back in 1993? I was wondering because it was on the SCI-FI tonight, and the improvements in CGI in just six years or so is amazing.)
I look forward to these new ship-oriented projects with great anticipation!
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Hasn't "The Gathering" gotten the special edition treatment, though, with all new CGI? That would make its effects only about a year or two old.
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I remember seeing the new effects for that show,a nd it was indeed brought up to typical B5 standard - meaning it was okay, but nothing like the cash they pump into Voyager or DS9. You get what you pay for.
------------------ "Why build one, when you can have two at twice the price?"
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I dunno... some of that breaching pod stuff in the pilot looked like it was still the old footage. The pod auto-shooting the maintenance 'bots, for instance...
"You get what you pay for."
Really? I take it you haven't seen "Severed Dreams" or Shadow Dancing," among others.
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*In a spate of poetic justice, Tom undertakes a grand purge of all things B5*
"Get the HELL out of this thread!"
(sorry, couldn't resist...)
Anyway, just to swing the topic back to niggling our good new Foundation Imaging friend for insider info before dumping his drained corpse in a ditch somewhere, care to elaborate a teensy bit on the book? Y'know, the book you referred to earlier about not saying anything about. This book? About which this was written?
------------------ "People have the right to discriminate based on religion." -Omega, Jan 26 "There is no "seperation of church and state" in the Constitution" -Omega, Jan 30 "A private business has the right to refuse service to any person or group, be they KKK, black, gay, or neo-nazi, regardless of reason." -Omega, Feb 24
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Yes I have - and "Severed Dreams" sits near the top as one of the best-orchestrated sci-fi battles ever. If there's one thing that B5 has done that Trek has yet to match, is properly-done fleet actions.
However, in terms of sheer quality of CGI stuff, Trek has the competition beat hands down IMHO. B5 effects have never been able to convince me that the ships are close to being realistic-looking as models. By the end of "Crusade", stuff was looking much better than the first season, but still nowhere near the quality of the CGI models they have in Trek.
Mark
------------------ "Why build one, when you can have two at twice the price?"
B5 does absolutely look dated, but keep in mind that was our maiden voyage into digital effects; for that matter, it was the first time ANYONE had done that, so we had to write the book as we were going.
Star Trek looks better not because they have more money, but because we had improved greatly as artists during those initial 3 and a half years (Foundation only did the FX for B5 from the pilot to the end of the 3rd season). By the end of the first year of B5 we learned so much that we could have gone back and rebuilt all the models and made them look ten times better, but there simply wasn't the time for that on our schedule.
Doing something like "Severed Dreams" is still a major highlight for me personally (I storyboarded and directed the battle sequence), since we had a creative freedom on B5 that few companies ever enjoy. Star Trek, on the other hand, has a long legacy that must be matched and adhered to. Trek also has their own visual effects supervisors that insure our work is consistant with the Star Trek universe and who also bring their own expertise to the process.
They are very different beasts, and thusly have different results.
And no, at the moment I can't tell you any more about the upcoming book. However, I'm sure that will change relatively soon as Pocket Books decides to release details.
People here have specifically said they would like to see more fleet combat envisioned in Star Trek, and that is the sort of thing we will be focusing on in the "Unseen Frontier" book, which is coming in 2002.
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