hello,

as always: imho. (!)

ah ... babylon 5 :))

this was one of the best scifi shows back in the mid 1990ties.

it introduced a lot things which we take for granted today ... together with startrek "deep space nine" which roughly aired during the same time:

* telling a "story arch" over multiple seasons

* 2 parallel story-lines within episodes

* causally show people doing "every-day" life things, like going to the toilet - you may laugh, but 30+ years ago, for example in various startrek spinoffs - tng, ds9, voyager - nobody went to the toilet ... ever!!

don't get me wrong, i'm a big fan of startrek too ;))

* despite their budget decent CGI for the time

if i remember it correctly: they used a software called "lightroom", which ran on the amiga hardware-platform at first, for later seasons they moved to PC hardware...

just if you wonder about the quality of the CGI ... this was some 680x0 computer running at something like 16 or 32 MHz (!) with a few MB (!) of memory.

not a scifi "blockbuster" utilizing multimillion us$ SGI clusters like ILM productions of the era did!

absolutely recommended:

"the lurker's guide to babylon 5"

* http://midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html

just my 0.02€

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lantastic a day ago | parent | next [-]

> if i remember it correctly: they used a software called "lightroom"

Afaict, it was Lightwave3d, that I just learned still lives to this day. Last release June 11 2025. Also used to make SeaQuest :) Oh, the memories...

	▲	HolyLampshade 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		That explains why the effects looked so similar in the two... Never did get into Babylon 5, but SeaQuest, for all its campiness, was my jam briefly in my childhood.
	▲	blackhaz 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		It's incredible that it still lives to this day. I remember running it on Pentium-133. The gallery they have there still has showcase renders from 2000s.
	▲	t312227 a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		yes, you are right ... its been a few years :))

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pjmlp a day ago | parent | prev [-]

You are missing one important detail, an Amiga alongside NewTek's Video Toaster.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Toaster

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bilegeek 21 hours ago | parent | next [-]

24 Amiga 2000's each with a 68040, 32mb of RAM and a Video Toaster, managed by a 486 server with a 12gb of storage.

[1]https://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue166/68_The_makin...

	▲	sillywalk 21 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I just had to add more, because I remember they used DEC Alpha systems at some point. " Alphas for design stations serving 5 animators and one animation assistant (housekeeping and slate specialist). Most of these stations run Lightwave and a couple add Softimage. VERY plug-in hungry. PVR's on 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 the rest, backed up 2x per day to an optical jukebox. Completed shots output to a DDR post rendering and get integrated into the show. Shots to composite go to the Macs running After Effects, or the SGI running Flint, depending on the type of comp being done, and then to the DDR (8 minutes capacity on the SGI)."[0] [0] http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/effects.html
	▲	pjmlp 8 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Thanks for the correction and link.

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t312227 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

you are right, i left this detail out ... but it went somewhat together with the amiga & the lightwave-software :))