"Joe, I don't think anyone *really* doubted that the new FX would be any good."
Then, Mojo, if nobody "doubted that the new FX would be good," explain to me whence came all those messages from pseudonymous individuals posted on the newsgroup saying that they were going to be crap, that there wouldn't BE any EFX, that the show was going to hell...on and on. My message was in reply to those individuals who set out deliberately to trash us. If they didn't doubt the EFX would be good, then why did they say so? If they did post messages that the EFX would be crap, which they did, then why would you say that no one doubted it? Are you suggesting they deliberately lied in their messages? Or that the messages, which exist, did NOT really exist (dream state) or that they were in fact accidentally crossposted from Bizarro World. "New B5 EFX am bad!" meaning that they're great. Perhaps that's what you're suggesting.
"I'm sure that your Foundation Imaging-trained team, using Foundation Imaging objects and Foundation animation techniques will turn out some very fine work indeed!"
It's nothing to do with Foundation one way or another...the message posted was in reference to the people who were slamming the people who were now doing the B5 EFX...that has nothing whatsoever to do with what I was discussing.
If you felt this strongly about the quality of those doing the EFX, then I'm surprised you didn't defend these individuals from the attacks then being made. If they're Foundation trained, using Foundation tech, and someone's out there trashing them, I'd think that Foundation would actively want to defend them. I guess when it looked like they'd be crap, there wouldn't be much point to defending them...but when they came out well, then I can see why one would want to jump in and make sure that Foundation shared the credit.
(BTW, your note accidentally left out Eric Chauvin's fine work on the show, who created many of the images of Minbar, Earth, the Garden and other amazing sights...or Steve Burg, who helped design the Starfuries and many other ships, neither of whom are part of Foundation. It would be an error for people to assume that Foundation was the be-all and end-all of B5's EFX, and I know that neither you nor Ron would want to create that impression.)
And certainly, we continue to use Eric on the show, and others, who were never a part of Foundation Imaging. So it wold be an error to imply that they all came to us from there.
Our animators have acquired a wide range of experience, at Foundation and elsewhere. We have always spoken well of Foundation, which came into existence because Doug and I were willing to give Ron a chance. And we have never wished them anything but good fortune.
Our continued best wishes to everyone there.
jms
JMS Usenet messages for February 1997. |
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