Babylon 5 - lost tales

[Tigger]

kidkoala wrote:
If the Babylon 5 people had more money, they would've used a studio. I also remember having read that somewhere in an article about the low budget and using Amigas. After the first season they migrated over to a bigger studio using PC's, among other things because they got a bigger budget for the following seasons.  Basically what i'm saying is using the incredibly cheap, but smart and powerful solutions of the Amiga gave them the power they needed at first, when the success of the series showed they dropped the small amiga-firm for something else that presumably also cost more.

Actually there is several untruths in your comments.   First of all the turnover from Amigas to PCs was because the PCs were faster, just for a reference.  When I got my first PC for the house, it was a 100Mhz Pentium, it rendered 10X faster then my 25Mhz 68040 4000 on identical scenes.  When the PC and Alpha versions of lightwave came out, it was faster, they moved to the faster systems.   Basically the same people Foundation Imaging(led by Ron Thornton) did the pilot and the first 3 seasons of Babylon 5, then some of them stayed on for the last 2 season and Crusade, when Babylons fearless leader took the special effects in house by starting his own company for the effects, Netter Digital Imaging, they also used Lightwave.  The Amigas used for the pilot (and for Seaquest) were as fast as they could make them but even with the couple of Screamers they had helping out, the move to faster machines had to happen especially with Commodore going under.
    -Tig
   

[Tigger]

AmigaMance wrote:
 Does anyone know which version of LightWave did they use back then and with what plug-ins?

For the pilot, 3.5 and evenutally a beta of 4.0 on the Amigas.  Then 4.0 and eventually 5.0 for the first two seasons, on to 5.5.   Most of the plugins they used are basically part of lightwave these days or were specifically written for them.
    -Tig

[Tigger]

kidkoala wrote:

@tigger
They moved to pc because they were faster you say, I say they moved to pc's because they were better, so that's about the same reason.

No not really.

And how could they have made the move over to faster equipment if they didn't get a bigger budget from the producers (changing all your equipment etc. is not a cheap migration)? The new studio (as I call it when you get new equipment, probably new housing, probably a few new employers and a new name for the company) must've cost more than a few amigas with lightwave..

Well I sold an Amiga4000D with a Toaster and moniter and bought my 100Mhz P4, 17 inch moniter and a copy of lightwave 4.0 ($795) and still had money in my pocket, so the changeover in equipment wasnt as expensive as you are trying to make it.  In addition Foundation Imaging didnt change names etc as you are trying to imply.   They ran on a bunch of amigas they scrounged up to do the 2 hour pilot movie, once they series was bought and they were going to have to do 22 hours worth of episodes, they obviously needed more equipment, people, etc.   Doing a weekly show is a much bigger job then a 2 hr made for tv movie pilot.
   -Tig

[Tigger]

kidkoala wrote:
I don't think using a personal example like yours qualify but anyway..the migration started after the first season..

Actually it does pretty much, because the Amigas were sold at a pretty good price, and in actuality I dont think Tim and the gang charged Ron and the Gang for Lightwave, making it cheaper then what I had to do.   Also if you read the Babylon 5 site it says quite specifically that they only used the Amigas for the pilot (ie the first 2 hour movie), Adam will tell you the same thing.  And it probably says the same thing in one or more of the Video Toaster articles about the show.
     -Tig