[Adalla]

Well, while I've built some momentum in posting on this forum (sometimes I go weeks and months between visits when I get busy unfortunately) I thought I'd post a topic regarding which I'm curious to know the thoughts of the Diaspora Devs.


SPOILER WARNING, we'll be discussing the VFX of the Finale. If you have not see it, dont read any further.

Two main sub-topics:

a) What do you think of the VFX in the Finale. Especially the space environment of the Colony and does it inspire you to reproduce such an environment for Diaspora? Besides the battle in the Ionian Nebula and the green environment of Ragnar Anchorage, it is possibly the most original space environment in BSG which usually is set to simple space with a simple star background.

b) I'd like to hear your thoughts regarding modeling on BSG. Specifically, i'd like to know if you can spot when a Hero model is used, when a medium detail and when a low detail model is used for the various shots. For example, regarding the Flight Pod. It seems to me that there is a lower poly model that is part of the main Galactica model used for distant shots, and there is a high poly model that is used mostly for interior shots of the Flight Pod. What I'm trying to understand is the transition from a distant to a close up shot. For example right outside the Flight Pod, do they replace the low poly flight pod with the high poly and keep the rest of the Galactica model during the transition?

What about the Galactica engines? in the Finale and in the Ionian Nebula we see a closeup of the engines and each has a distinct nozzle within the main engine nozzle. Did they model detailed engines just for those close up? Because for 95% of the the rest of the shots it seems it's just one main exhaust stream which varies in color depending if it's Zoic, Atmosphere or In-house.

Last but not least, Viper Cockpits. In Season 4 the VFX team was very fond of doing one of my favorite shots from the series, which is basically capturing the battle from the POV of the pilot from the cockpit. You see the reflection on the glass, and you see a pretty detailed cockpit. My impression is that it's all CG, but I wanted to know your thoughts.

I know that in the past BSG has deceived me. For example the scene when Adama is in the Raptor awaiting for Roslin's base star alone, when he walks to the front of the Raptor the cockpit is all CG, confirmed by RDM in a podcast. All along I thought that was the real deal, live action footage composited lol. I always said, you know it's darn good CG when you cant tell the bloody difference with the real thing

My family made me watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua last night and I swear there were times when I couldnt tell if it was CG or the real darn dogs!

Everyone is welcome to respond, but I'm especially interested to hear from the Diaspora modelers and VFX folk.

Here are some reference images for what I'm referring to:

Single Nozzle Galactica Engine (Zoic)


Multiple Nozzle Detailed Galactica Engine (In-House)


Raptor CG Cockpit with Base Star in the distance


High Poly Flight Pod



Low Poly Flight Pod


CG Pilots and Cockpit?

[FraktuRe]

heading on over to http://darthmojo.wordpress.com/ you can get some good insight into the process in some of the older posts.

[General Battuta]

The CGI work has been consistently gorgeous on this show.

My personal favorite sequence was the Resurrection Ship Part 2 battle. There's something particularly stark and crisp about that scene...I think it must've been done by Zoic instead of Atmosphere or in-house? It just looks gorgeous.

[Angreifer]

Zoic did all the CGI until the second half of Season 3, I believe. Someone correct me if I got that wrong.

[General Battuta]

Nah, according to their website Atmosphere was involved pretty early on. Don't they have some shots from 'Hand of God'?

[chief1983]

All I know is I liked the earlier filming style better, I think the first studio did a lot more of the shaky camera thing like in Firefly.  The Galactica model seemed a bit grittier than too, I almost seem to remember it being even higher detail than after the switch.  I might be wrong about that though.

[Hellstryker]

As much as I love Zoic, I must say those in house engine FX look better..

[karajorma]

Bear in mind that the house FX team had 2 and a half years worth of improvements to computer hardware and rendering software. If you go back to when the models were originally made for the mini-series then we're talking about what ZOIC could make using stuff that is now six years old.

What simply wasn't worth the rendering time then (when the original Galactica model was made) may have been worth it when the in house team decided to retcon the models.

[Adalla]

Zoic did the Miniseries and Season 1. I believe the last shot Zoic did for BSG was the nuclear explosion that took out Cloud Nine and about a quarter of the fleet with it.

from Battlestar Wiki

Zoic, shorthand for Zoic Studios, is responsible for the visual effects shots used in the Battlestar Galactica Miniseries and Season 1.

Zoic was initially indirectly involved in the Tom DeSanto continuation through one of Zoic's owners. While this project failed to get off the ground, Zoic were approached by series writer/producer Ronald D. Moore to handle the Miniseries, based on work both Zoic's Visual Effects Supervisors Emile Smith and Gary Hutzel had undertaken on Star Trek.

When the Miniseries was given the greenlight for production, Smith was directly involved with Moore and Michael Rymer, the series' director, in extensive pre-visualisations which determined the look and feel of the mini and the series itself. Hutzel acted as Zoic's Visual Effects Supervisor on the Miniseries.
Digitally Extending BSG Sets

The effects produced for Battlestar Galactica range from completely rendering all space vessels and backgrounds for the series through to digital extensions of the sets themselves, digitally melding live-action shots with digital backgrounds that enable the production to present the cavernous interiors expected on a vessel the size of Galactica (see left).

As a result of their work on the Miniseries, Zoic was awarded the 2004 Visual Effects Society's award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Television Miniseries, Movie or a Special.

In Season 2, visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel began building up an in-house effects team, which by Season Three would produce over 70% of the show's effects shots. This allows them to produce more elaborate special effects for less money. The rest of the work is done by Atmosphere VFX

Season 3 and 4 I believe were 100% in-house.


And I agree that the in-house team did a pretty bad job in Season 3 and some of Season 4, but then I think they got their act together and Season 4 shots rival those of Zoic from S1 and Miniseries.

After all the in-house team won an Emmy for He That Believeth in Me, which I think was a very kick arse battle, and the work in the Finale I think is outstanding.

I think only at the beginning of Season 4 and throughout Season 3 the fill light for the ships was too much, almost as if they had applied luminosity to the surfaces. Hence why most people say Zoic's "darker" ships are better looking, and I agree. But in the end I think we had really great shots in S4.

In fact I appreciate the simpler shots a lot more, such as the Raptor (piloted by Racetrack) firing it's engines and departing in the Webisodes and in the ep with Boomer.

I also loved the simple shots with the Demetrius, Vipers taking off and landing was really awesome.

Doesnt always have to be big explosions and battles, though those are very cool for sure