"With the change in CGI houses, can we expect a "new approach" or
substantial change in the *design* of new ships, cities, creatures, etc?"

Nope. The CGI is created by using set geometries, textures and other
elements that are stored as data. We have virtually all that data at
hand; as a result, it is made of the same identical elements, and will be
indistinguishable from anything done before. So no, what's been
established won't be changed at all. What we will do is increase the
level of detail and texturing in some of the models, so that we can bring
them closer to camera, something I've been wanting to do for a while now.
(The closer we get to camera, the bigger and more massive the object
appears.)

I saw some of the first renderings today, and as this was the first stuff
off the line, I was in hyper-critical mode, looking for something to
quibble with. I couldn't see any difference between this and what we've
had in the past. (One was a nifty little sunrise shot, the lights going
off as a group of starfuries fly past.)

There are also about six or seven new major ships we'll be seeing in the
first batch of year 4 episodes that are being built now, and the first
renderings on them looked very cool.

"Or - are the show's principle designers still on board?"

Yes and no. Steve Burg was a principal designer of the Agamemnon, the
Starfury design, the Minbari cruisers, B5 itself, and other ships. He's
hip-deep right now working on "Contact," and not available for a while
yet. We've always had to sandwich in Steve's stuff between his major film
gigs. (He did major design work on The Abyss, Waterworld, T2, others.)
As soon as he's free, we'll send some stuff his way. Eric Chauvin, who
has done our digital matte paintings (Centauri Prime exteriors, palace,
others) and other stuff, like the ship-lift used by the Lumati, is still
with B5, doing the same stuff.




jms