"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.