I've just finished watching the amazing sci-fi series 'Space: Above & Beyond' and read that the CGI was done on LightWave 3D probably utilising Amiga workstations especially in the early episodes before Lightwave 3D was ported to the PC. Awesome! Another string to the Amiga's bow and much better than Babylon 5 in my book

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@BigD

No Amigas used.

Who produces the special effects for the show?
The special effects are done by a company called Area 51, who handles all the computer generated scenes (which, frankly, are spectacular).

Hardware/Software (from Area 51):
We use DEC alpha PC's, running at 275 mhz, along with Pentium 133's. Our primary rendering engine is Newtek's Lightwave, which we use to generate most of our images. We also use Photoshop to produce our custom texture maps, Elastic Reality, WinImages fx, and Fractal Painter. We preview our animations on a Perception board, and lay the final animation off to Exabyte tape for transfer to DCT tape for final editing. Most of our compositing is handled by Lightwave, but we find it faster and easier to comp our bluescreen cockpit shots at Varitel Video.

http://spaceaboveandbeyond.tv/saab-faq-01.html#j

@Xmas87

That interview was done after the show was cancelled. They easily could have been using Amigas for the earlier shows.

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"Art challenges technology. Technology inspires the art."
John Lasseter, Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios

@BigD

There is a compromise.

Draco?

A Dec Alpha 275 Mhz workstation, inside the same tower case as a Toaster equipped Amiga, 2-4000?

Its like there is an award for the best addon for Mac in one year, and it was a Toaster workstation. Effectively a standard Amiga 4000, running headless, and with identifying marks removed.

I have the review of teh Amiga DEC somewhere and its hilarious. Setup a basic wireframe scene. Render, takes 30 seconds. Add in lighting and shading, hit render, 30 seconds. Add in full scene and full raytracing, about 42 seconds. Turned out the 30 seconds was teh bidirectional transfer of the scene data and image over the SCSI link, and the rest, maximum 12 seconds, was the rendering the frame at the selected resolution.

Just because theres no Amigas mentioned, doesnt mean there were no Amigas used. 8)

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@RodTerl

I was watching an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 with my son the other day (I think it was the episode with Gamera) and Joel started talking about using his Amiga mouse.....ah....the days when Amiga was a famous name.....

Scott

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@RodTerl

Bingo!
From Video Toaster User November 1995...

"Using all the power that Lightwave 4.0 and nine DEC Alphas can muster..."

M

@BigD

I liked that show. It was the closest thing to "Wing Commander" until the Battlestar Galactica reboot. I have the DVD on a shelf somewhere.

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@Darrin

Quote:

I liked that show. It was the closest thing to "Wing Commander" until the Battlestar Galactica reboot. I have the DVD on a shelf somewhere.

Yeah, I've been watching the Battlestar Galactica reboot as well but I think that 'Space: Above & Beyond' has the edge. The themes are far stronger and rather than "The West Wing in space" thing that Battlestar went for, 'Space' analyses and tackles most moral and ethical aspects of modern warfare, the human spirit, faith, God and even considers our place in the universe! Awesome stuff and it really does feel like there was some Amiga magic in there somewhere


Wildcards we salute you! OORAH!!

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John Lasseter, Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios

@BigD

Something i found from Area51 forum about closing credits of the pilot episode of
Space:Above and Beyond

Area51

and


Computer Special Effects

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@noXLar

Interesting...

Lee Stranahan (Co-founder of Area 51) on 21st March 1998

Quote:

The part I want to make real clear is my 'dismissal' of the Amiga. I sold most of my Amiga/Toaster systems while working at NewTek because I was investing in other non-computer stuff - namely an audio studio. (I have a way {*filter*}in' music/audio setup currently.) Because I was working at NewTek, I did not need a bunch of Toasters. I sold my last Amiga right before NAB. This was an investment strategy - the market was high, and I (as an inside trader, naturally) knew that NewTek would be showing a 'PC Product', and therefore I assume the market would go down after the show. This was a financial, not technical. decision.

Looks like the moment he heard LightWave 3D was going to be released for the PC he jumped ship! Sorry. I wish his cousin Kermit Woodall of Nova Design (ImageFX) fame could have urged him to keep a few for his Area 51 work!

_________________
"Art challenges technology. Technology inspires the art."
John Lasseter, Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios

@BigD

Yep, just like BSG, it address a lot of moral issues that we see in play today. I can't believe it was cancelled after only one series.

I think the look and feel of the movie Starship Troopers owed a lot to it.

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Quote:

by BigD on 7-Aug-2014 16:01:57 Yeah, I've been watching the Battlestar Galactica reboot as well but I think that 'Space: Above & Beyond' has the edge.

There had to be some creative homage. I'm sure that Space: Above and Beyond was influenced in part by the original BSG, but some of the re-imagined BSG bears similarities to Space: Above and Beyond (Scar -> Chiggy von Richthofen, humanoid Cylons -> Silicates, etc).

Quote:

by Darrin on 8-Aug-2014 10:05:34 I can't believe it was cancelled after only one series.

I can. I won't say its cancellation was in any way a good thing, but there might be a silver lining to it at least. Space: Above and Beyond never jumped the shark. The re-imagined BSG definitely did, IMO.

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