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Contents:Overview -Notes

Overview

All special effects for Babylon 5 are computer generated. Foundation Imaging,headed by Ron Thornton, produced the special effects for the pilot movie andseasons one through three. Starting in season four, the special effectswere moved in-house to Netter Digital Imaging, another subsidiary of theparent of B5's production company.

The B5 effects teams, both at Foundation and at NDI, useLightwave 3Dby NewTek and specialized software to design and render the visual effects.For the pilot, the effects were rendered on a network of Amiga computers;later, Foundation used 12 Pentium PCs and 5 DEC Alpha workstations for 3Drendering and design, and 3 Macintoshes for piecing together on-set computerdisplays. The NDI team uses a similar array of equipment; see GeorgeJohnsen's comments below.

CGI space scenes are clearer and have more realistic movement than model shots.Some interior shots such as docking bays are "virtual sets" combining liveaction with computer imagery. Computer-generated aliens make regularappearances on the show as well.

Babylon 5's makeup is put together by Optic Nerve Studios, which has done makeup work on such projects asBatman Returns andMighty Morphin Power Rangers: TheMovie, among others. On B5, they've made an attempt to break awayfrom the minimalist approach often seen on weekly series, preferring full-head(and, in some cases, full-body) prosthetics rather than simple changes tothe nose or forehead. Their work has paid off in the form of anEmmy award.

The Babylon 5 FTP archive'sPicturesdirectorycontains numerous examples of the show's special effects and makeup.

An interview with Ron Thornton.
An interview with Mojo (supervising animator.)
BlackPool Studios home page

Assorted production notes

From Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz, Foundation Imaging animator

• The general composition of our FX shots, including camera moves, aredictated by the feeling of a scene. If JMS writes a big action scene,we'll move around a lot to convey that mood - if the scene has asomber tone, the moves will be slower to reflect this. Everything isdictated by story - a swooping camera move just for the sake of it canvery easily draw your attention to the effect and away from the story- something we have no desire to do.

  Interestingly enough, big swooping camera moves aren't something wecan do very often for a good reason: you have no points of referencein space. Next time you're driving around, look at the clouds. usingonly them as reference, it seems as if you're standing still - even at120 MPH! Now let's move into space, where your only reference arestars and planets - it doesn't matter how fast you move the camera,it's going to look as if you're standing still. In addition, withoutthe background moving, if you move a camera past a ship it tends tolook as if the ship is moving, which is why you will almost never seea shot of the camera moving past Babylon 5.

  All this is why we tend to bank the camera a lot (twist it from sideto side) - it's a way of adding camera motion to the scene withoutbothersome perspective problems!

From coproducer George Johnsen

• Are Macintoshes used in the production?

  Even though the Joe uses "another" platform, the show actually usesmany! Macs have been essential to the creation of the show from thebeginning. Even farther back, the Amiga and the Newtek Toaster wereemployed.

  Currently we use Pentiums and Alphas for animation, Macs for Editing,Matte paintings and Compositing, and SGI's for Compositing and titling. If that isn't platform independent, I don't know what is!

• The arsenal looks like the following-

  Alphas for design stations serving 5 animators and one animationassistant (housekeeping and slate specialist). Most of these stationsrun Lightwave and a couple add Softimage. VERY plug-in hungry. PVR'son every station, with calibrated component NTSC (darn it, I hates ntsc)right beside.

  P6's in quad enclosures for part of the renderstack, and Alphas for therest, backed up 2x per day to an optical jukebox.

  Completed shots output to a DDR post rendering and get integrated intothe show.

  Shots to composite go to the Macs running After Effects, or the SGIrunning Flint, depending on the type of comp being done, and then to theDDR (8 minutes capacity on the SGI).

  Boy it sure sounds easy! The only problem is, we have a killer scheduleand very picky producers, and ESPECIALLY picky viewers! :-)

  It is, however, a bunch of fun!

• What does the process of coming up with a new ship look like?
  The script will dictate a direction to look. Joe has some amazingpictures in his head, and sometimes they actually pop out and leak ontopaper! Other times it takes more help. There is a discussion around atable not unlike the one that you describe, where the generalcharacteristics of the race and their mode of conveyance are discussedin detail. The ideas that result are communicated to a designer(creature specialist, futurist, technical illustrator, theorticalscientist, or animator- depends on the type of design required) for aconcept sketch. Once that is adjusted and approved, a modeler buildsthe object in the appropriate animation software, and the surfacingbegins!

  At completion of that point, a move test is done, approved or rejectedby myself, John Copeland, and JMS, and the object is added to theanimator's arsenal.

  Yes, it is collaborative, and fairly time consuming, but it does resultin some cool ships that no single vision could produce!

Last update:August 12, 1997