Caprica: Where No Battlestar Galactica Has Gone Before
As with the latter part of BSG, Caprica's vfx is done with a small in-house unit. Hutzel admits that it's the best approach creatively and financially. "This is a show that could never be done through a regular facility. The reason is that [a vendor] simply doesn't have the resources to do the storytelling in a profit-making way. For Caprica, we were free to create these environments and present them. By doing that, we were preemptive, for instance, in getting New Cap City into the series with artwork. This would have cost $100,000 with an outside facility. And it helped drive it in a positive direction into the series. Even doing a previs on a sequence would cost $30,000 or $40,000 using an outside vendor. We do it for a small fraction of that in-house and with a team that's uniquely capable."
LightWave 3D continues as the basic workflow. "As we moved into environments, it's a lot more greenscreen work and the environments. We're still on the Battlestar model with three cameras that are freely roving, shooting the scenes spontaneously. My MO on the show is to show up and we work it on the day -- just like a performance.
Bill Desowitz is senior editor of AWN & VFXWorld.
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Kurv Studios, Spin Quad and 3D Garage.
I am taking a class on Lightwave and need help while working on the program at home is there anything available? I have not been able to get this far on your site. I am also running the demo program at this time while at home. All of the companies that sell the program to college students are waiting for the program to become available for shipping.
... not to pay money to the middle man but directly to the artists. All companies do need to make profit which of course need to be added to the price tag. Price tag of outside company = profit + fixed costs + paychecks to the artists. Price tag of the inhouse team = fixed costs + paychecks to the artists?
It sounds by the last comments made, that the producers found a small group of highly talented artists under one roof to do it on the cheap. They've obviously succeeded- I've watched the show, and I must give kudos, because not only is the story becoming greater with each episode, but the visuals are equally great.
Doing previz for a fraction of 30,000$...so they're doing it for what - 2 or 3 thousand instead?
...sounds like a group of artists taking it up the backside, to keep the work flowing....which these days is just about right, I guess.
I can't get past the fact that I'm expected to believe William Adama was 68 - 69 in Battlestar Galactica (after the Cylons attacked). Olmos is what? 60? And young William Adama has brown eyes, not blue. Inconsistencies like that drive me nuts.
I also felt a total disconnect with the teens in this show. Why are teens always painted as confused, lost or depressed? And these teens were completely off the rails. Sex orgies, ritual sacrifice?? That's pushing it.
I didn't find BSG depressing at all, I found it inspiring from the minute the miniseries aired. Caprica, on the other hand, I found completely depressing. I'll tune in next Friday to see if things improve.
Having been a BSG addict from start to end, I really look forward to the Caprica series to kick off. The first episode looked promising, but it has a lot to live up to, if it is to match or just coat-tail BSG, which was the best TV show ever produced.
During BSG, there were rumours of cancellation... but fortunately that didn't happen. Too many shows are discontinued after a season or two... leaving the story untold. Such things should not be allowed to take place without legal action against the networks... them having promised a story, get people hooked, then they just walk away, having stolen people's time.
Anyways, I hope the Caprica story will be told for many seasons to come, or even just a couple of seasons, then other stories, from some of the other planets could be told.... the material only has the limits of the story writers... let's hope they are not raised up in closed boxes.
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