Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 16:04:22 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Take that Darth Vader, thwack! , was  Sith
  andbefore

At 11:43 AM 6/16/05 -0700, Drew Bittner wrote:
>I *love* the new Galactica series. As noted, what they
>do with establishing shots is amazing.

Thank modern computer graphics.  With the motion control stuff they came up
with for the first Star Wars movie there's a limit to how far away you can
get...usually the optics of the camera combined with the length of track
you have and the dimensions of the building to put it in.  With computer
graphics anything is possible with the right programming.

They still have "sounds in space" occasionally, hut when they do that the
POV is always someone in a cockpit.  When they are not associated with a
particular character's viewpoint, as with the establishing shots, it's
always silent.  I've also seen them spin-and-shoot a couple of times, which
is nice too.

I still haven't seen some of the fancy tricks they did on B5 though.  There
was one battle on that show where a B5 fighter spun and vectored sideways
while accelerating...that put it on a nice curving course that intersected
that of an enemy fighter firing on another B5 fighter, and as it crossed
paths, it fired, destroyed it, and was out of the path of the debris all in
one motion...while already accelerating for the next encounter.  The enemy
fighter apparently never saw him coming from above and to the right/behind.
 Slick looking move, but just good use of physics.

-- Mike B.
--
Sacred cows make *divine* hamburgers.