Babylon 5 interviews, artwork and other stuff

[Triple F]

BTW. I’m not some elaborate ‘bot – if concerned (I know it’s a problems with many forums these days) you can PM me on here or ask something on this thread. I just thought some B5 fans might find this of some interest. ; )
Basically, more by accident than design a learning exercise in putting a web page together somehow ended up full of information and interviews provided by about a dozen of the FX artists who worked on B5 and the various spin-offs – they even sent over a fair bit of previously unreleased production artwork.

Here’s a link to a facebook page showcasing the site – the reason for pointing there will become obvious once you see it. So hopefully you’ll ‘like’ the thing for the reasons stated. . . . . assuming that you like it of course. ; )

Babylon 5 - Some behind the scenes stuff | Facebook
Even if you don’t have a facebook a/c you can still use the link that you’ll see there to take you to the actual B5Scrolls website.

Here’s a small selection of images from the Concept Art section. All the artwork was sent over by the artists for inclusion to B5Scrolls.

[Makaan]

Now that's very nice of you. I've never seen these sketches and pictures before. Quite interesting.

[NMRK]

I love sketches and concept art as they mostly show the develeopement between the draft and the final model.
Thank you for sharing these masterpieces!

[Triple F]

Making the information and artwork from the FX artists available for anyone to download seemed the sensible thing to do – since there is not a lot of that kind of information on the net, and what is on B5Scrolls would have been lost when the site inevitably disappears. So, if you can, it would be cool if you let other fans know about it.

(I’m so glad that your English IS better than my German ; )

[Triple F]

A Babylon 5 “Art Of” book!?

Those who could put one together don’t believe there is the interest amongst sci-fi fans and the various artist who would normally by such things.

I don’t know either way, and am not a big believer in “fan” backed drives, but at least the likes of Steve Burg, Ron Thornton, Alec McClymont (and some of the others) at least visit the FB page and will read this thread.

Pinnwand-Fotos | Facebook

Here’s hoping, especially if they include some of the work done for the likes of Firefly, the nuBSG, Voyager, Enterprise, SG: Atlantis, etc. But I think it stands no chance unless more people hear about it. Hence this post.

[Triple F]

Just a FYI type thing. Those hosting the site renewed their agreement last year, so it should stay up for the next two. Plus I just added an update, new interview as well as new production concept art.

The links at the start of this thread still work. ; )

[AChristoteles]

Thank you for sharing this. The artworks are fantastic. It would be great if someone would give us B5 in High Definition and completley new CGI based on the original artworks.

[Triple F]

Babylon 5 interviews, artwork and other stuff

Just a FYI type thing for anyone who has downloaded the B5Scrolls website in the past.




The last update is now finished (and included in the downloadable zip file). The final numbers are (and this surprised the bejesus out of me when I actually checked on them).

549 pages covering 18 (sometimes very) revealing and wide ranging interviews with the likes of Ron Thornton and Steve Burg explaining various technical and artistic stuff, along with additional contributions from Syd Mead and Wayne Barlow. Over 100 pieces of production concept art which the ‘guys’ who worked on the show sent over, much of which hasn’t been released before, 143 flash animations showing the ship designs seen on the show, as well as links to some other online B5 content that hardly anyone knew about – Like the Novo Babylonia audio drama which has apparently been kicking around since 2008 (the same year B5Scrolls went up)!

It’s also been downloaded over 50,000 times! (Which is pretty cool : ).

Anyway. Here’s the link to the sites front door (still free, no ads or any other nonsense attached.)
B5 Scrolls

The download page.
B5 Scrolls

And the facebook page set up last year to let folk know about it, when it looked like those hosting the site weren’t going to renew their server agreement. Just in case anyone reading this is unfamiliar with the site.

https://www.facebook.com/B5Scrolls

[Triple F]

B5Scrolls has a new home – it’s Babylon 5 related (mostly).

For those that already know about it, and downloaded a copy.

B5Scrolls has moved address, old bookmarks will throw back a 404. The new url is

B5 Scrolls

When the site moved a few folk said they hadn’t realised it still gets updated. The current front page is dated 20th October 2013. If your copy doesn’t say that your missing a pile of production artwork, a new interview with the Emmy award winning Kevin Kutchaver – and possibly a fair bit more from Ron Thornton and a few others depending how old your copy is.

For those that don’t have a clue as to what I’m twittering on about.

B5Scrolls was an exercise in learning to code a web page. More by accident than design it now holds a collection of sometimes very frank, revealing and occasionally funny interviews with 16 (mostly emmy award winning) FX artists, conceptualist and one producer who helped create the Babylon 5 television series.

It’s an ‘art of’ book in some respects, a technical manual and a behind the scenes peak into how some of the artists and technicians helped usher in the modern era of special effects (at least for television), and how B5 was almost like a proof of concept for a LOT of stuff that followed.

It covers a lot of technical and artistic ground and touches on other shows these guys have worked on – Firefly, the new BSG, ST:Voyager, etc.. Steve Burg, who designed the Prometheus for the Ridley Scott movie described what we talked about as the most in-depth examination of his methodology and approach to design ever carried out.

There’s too much to list here, but another large section is the previously unreleased production art which Steve Burg, Tim Earls, Luc Mayrand and a few others sent over. This image is (literally) a tiny selection of the hundreds of pieces on the site.



The whole thing is free to download and keep - no strings, costs, spyware or any other dipshit added, as anyone here who has already got a copy can confirm. Due to the range and type of information it ended up containing, I didn’t want all that to just disappear when the site inevitably goes black - hence the free download.

There’s also a facebook page to let folks find the site – I can only post on forums like this so much. It covers a slightly wider range of topics as B5Scrolls focuses more on the FX, designs and CGI.

https://www.facebook.com/B5Scrolls

BTW. If you do decide to download a copy, and your on facebook, give the page a ‘like’ – you’d be doing others a favour, as it does increase the chances of people finding B5Scrolls when doing a google search.

Cheers
Tom

[Triple F]

Babylon 5 – Some new (behind the scenes) material..

Just a heads up for those that have downloaded B5Scrolls or have been following the interviews and articles.


The next update should be in the next month or two and will include orthos of a handful of the original Lightwave 3D models used on the show. The above image has a background of the production sketches which Steve Burg sent over – and are already on the site – along with a foreground showing the original 3D Thunderbolt model made in Lightwave, with a bit of the wireframe showing through.

If you have been following the site, the current update is dated 26th October, 2014…. And includes a new section that looks at the N’Grath character and an interview with Jim McPherson who largely designed the big guy. There’s even some previously unreleased behind the scenes video from the co-founder of OptcNerve, Everett Burrell, along with the artwork and photos. This is just a small sample of the new stuff added in the last update.



BTW. Since I’m still deciding which of the original Lightwave 3D models to add in the next update (the orthos should be very handy for anyone wanting to do an accurate scratch build of them), let me know if anyone has any preferences. Dropping a note here or better yet on the Facebook page would be handy – as the addition of the model images is a one time deal and will be limited to a half dozen or so.

As always, all the new content from the guys who worked on the show will be included in the download of the website.


B5Scrolls Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/B5Scrolls

B5Scrolls Website (free to download)
B5 Scrolls