Babylon 5

[The Nth Doctor]

Here are a couple of places where I posted the photos I took of the images JMS shared:

https://forums.jmsnews.com/forum/di...-animated-movie-announced?p=162877#post162877

https://www.facebook.com/JMSnewscom...YT62vQfgkWML37eW64di3JuENLAxMPxHE6GxPyHEwmAFl

https://www.b5tv.com/threads/b5-animated-movie.46050/page-3#post-472198

Should be something where you won't have to register to see them, I hope?.

I quite love the animation style but like Reverend said, it's hard to truly judge it until we see it motion. Sometimes less is more, especially in animation so I think this is a promising start.

And don't forget, we've also already seen the station itself animated and it looks maginficent.

 

[Mage]

The animation style looks kinda like what I expected it to be. Nothing groundbreaking but also good.
As long as it isn't horrid and the story is good, I'll be happy.

 

[Reverend]

It looks to me more like 2D CG, like Archer. I'll have to see it in motion, but from these three screencaps and the shot of the station released earlier, it looks like it's 3D for the space stuff and 2D for the characters.

I do have a little bit of an "As opposed to what?" reaction when JMS describes this art style as very realistic, though. There's nothing wrong with stylization philosophically, it's required by the medium, but that isn't quite what I would've imagined given that description (which I've thought since we saw animated-style station screencap, with its pointier... points... and excess of lights).

No, it's clearly a 3D render. That sense of "flatness" is from the type of shaders used ("toonshaders" in this case) that produce flat colours and hard shade lines instead of a gradient & specularity, to somewhat mimic the look of traditional 2D art.
'Archer' and the like uses an entirely different method, closer to actual traditional cartoon animation. Basically the digital equivalent to paper cut-out rod puppets.

As for the art style being "realistic"; I think he means in terms of character proportions. There's very little in the way of caricature in these designs, which can be a little dangerous as it can stray a little close to the uncanny valley, but that's probably what the toon shading is there to avoid. Realistic, but not too realistic.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Looks like the Rooster Teeth style, actually. They are known for Red vs Blue, but more relevant is their 3D original animations like RWBY and gen:LOCK. The latter looks close to those shots:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[JD]

Have they said who did the animation? Could have been one of the companies that worked on one of the shows we've talked about?

 

[Jan]

Have they said who did the animation? Could have been one of the companies that worked on one of the shows we've talked about?

All I see on IMDB is that it's WB Animation. The Art Director is Matthew Girardi, if that's helpful?

 

[Commander Troi]

For anybody interested, here's my report on JMS' spotlight panel yesterday at Phoenix Fan Fusion. Apologies for typios, I hate typing on my laptop.



I hear the images are being shared but I'm not going to until I get clarificaion. Not sure how to post images here if I do get permission...

Hey! I didn't know you were local! I was there too.

 

[Jan]

Hey! I didn't know you were local! I was there too.

<waves> No, I'm not local, I flew in from Orlando. It was a fun panel, wasn't it?

 

[Commander Troi]

<waves> No, I'm not local, I flew in from Orlando. It was a fun panel, wasn't it?

Very! I'm trying to remember that terrible opening joke correctly so I can tell it to my husband.

 

[Jan]

Very! I'm trying to remember that terrible opening joke correctly so I can tell it to my husband.

The bees? Hadn't heard that one before!

 

[Mage]

Very! I'm trying to remember that terrible opening joke correctly so I can tell it to my husband.

The bees? Hadn't heard that one before!

One of you better remember it and share with the group!

 

[Farscape One]

I am really curious to hear this joke.

 

[Jan]

One of you better remember it and share with the group!

It came out kind of garbled but I'll listen to my recording later and post it.

 

[David cgc]

The Companion had a quick update with the information from the UK film rating. It's rated "12," equivalent to the PG-13 rating it got in the US, but the report has a little more detail about the specific elements that prompted the rating:

Spoiler: Contextless tidbits from the content warnings

Moderate violence is fantastical, with humans engaging in gunfire with alien creatures. Impacts of shots are visible, but are largely undetailed and resulting in only brief sight of blood. Sequences contain threat from alien invasions and planetary explosions.

There are occasional bloody images, such as blood spatter showering a character after an alien is shot and destroyed.

Bad language is mild ('crap'), accompanied by other milder terms ('freakin'', 'hell', 'God' and 'damn'). There are also very mild sex references.

Final runtime is 79 minutes.

 

[Jan]

Information has shown up on IMDb on the composers. With thanks to John Joshua over on FB:

Okay then - a little bit more digging has brought up the fact that IMDB's entry for Babylon 5: The Road Home now has credits for those providing the music for the movie - Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuiston and Lolita Ritmanis. All three have credits for previous Warner Brothers animated movies and shorts, notably 2019's "Justice League vs The Fatal Five" as well as "DC Showcase: The Phantom Stranger" and other materials.

(We've known since shortly after JMS' first announcement that Christopher Franke wouldn't be providing the music for this, but - as far as I know - this is the first indication of who will be doing so.)

There are links to demo reels for all three below, if anyone wants a listen - but be aware that demo reels would traditionally aim to highlight the breadth of work they've done, so don't automatically assume that what you hear in the first 30 seconds will be exactly what the B5 soundtrack will sound like.

Kristopher Carter: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0141766/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr7

Michael McCuiston: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0567090/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr8

Lolita Ritmanis: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0567090/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr8

 

[The Lensman]

Well, one million, but the end result is the same. B5 covered the key flashpoint in the history of humanity, and illustrated the future history from that point as being dependent on that five-year span. How do you top saving the universe and charting its direction for the rest of foreseeable time? We already know that everything will turn out largely crappy for humanity over the next few centuries anyway, so nothing jms has come up with has been able to create any sense of urgency as we all know how it’s going to end up.

Mark

Which is why he should’ve stopped trying to come up with another cosmic level “ancient evil” type bad guy and gone smaller. As the show progressed and the FX got better, the station interior looked great and felt like this active and alive place. Always liked the train shot that was used in later seasons (coming out of a tunnel iirc). I would’ve liked a “there’s a quarter million stories in this place” type of setup. The station is huge, lots of different types of stories and characters that could’ve been used. More down to earth, slice of life stuff. Remember the dockers guild or whatever they were called? It was interesting seeing blue collar in space., too bad the main story didn’t allow for much exploration of that. S1 was the most we got as they were world building a lot back then

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Information has shown up on IMDb on the composers. With thanks to John Joshua over on FB:

Aside from their work on Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond, I'm not familiar with their music. I'm still bummed that Franke isn't returning (but I get why). Thank you for sharing this.

 

[DonIago]

Aside from their work on Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond, I'm not familiar with their music. I'm still bummed that Franke isn't returning (but I get why). Thank you for sharing this.

If it's not a touchy subject, what is the why as to why Franke isn't returning? I'm not surprised, but I am definitely a fan of what he'd done for the series.

 

[David cgc]

JMS has posted clean copies of the screencaps from his con appearance on Twitter.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

If it's not a touchy subject, what is the why as to why Franke isn't returning? I'm not surprised, but I am definitely a fan of what he'd done for the series.

I can't find it now (I thought it was either in this thread or JMS on Twitter) but it came down to Franke being retired in a remote area. Or maybe just retired. I can't remember the specifics. I'm sure Jan knows.

JMS has posted clean copies of the screencaps from his con appearance on Twitter.

Again, I have to say I really love this animation style.

Also...is that a diagram of a Gaim behind Dr. Franklin?