Ain't It Cool News (www.aintitcool.com)
Coaxial

"Starship Troopers" CGI reel seen / "Buckaroo Banzai" series FX test images ((aka Foundation-o-Rama)) !!!

Glen here...

...with a report from the recent Shore Leave convention in Baltimore.

This report comes from Chief O'Brien, who was kind enough to take a few moments from repairing the subcutaneous Drosophila melanogaster to file this report:


___________________


Chief O'Brien wrote:

"Over this past weekend I was at Shore Leave, a fan-run convention near Baltimore. Mojo, the supervising animator for Foundation Imaging, was there. He showed a piece of Starship Troopers which had been Fed-Exed that morning.

The animation was clean and quite fluid and looked a lot like Transformers: Beast Wars. The entire sequence played out to a heavy metal soundtrack (which I really liked).

Fans of Heinlein's novel will be glad to know that the power suits are in the show - as well as dropping the troops from orbit. Even the "Join Now" recruiting posters are there.

The piece was only a couple of minutes long, but it was enough to make you want more. Mojo says 40 episodes have been ordered, and the show will have no network attached to it.


((Glen Note: CLICK HERE to jump to Coaxial's image gallery of Starship Troopers CGI pics. You can also see more images from Starship Troopers by accessing the Foundation Imaging web site linked below...))


If you haven't seen it already, Foundation has produced a short trailer for Buckaroo Banzai: Ancient Secrets and New Mysteries.

The "Banzai March" was re-mixed with a kind of techno edge to it (I really wanted a copy).

The sequence opens with lightning hitting the ground and charging up some batteries in a potato field - which are all connected to a giant transmitter. The transmitter fires its visible signal into space.

Fade to an icy landscape (the exact same one used in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Timeless"), where the Jet Car is scooting along, and then is chased by a pair of flying craft. The Jet Car escapes by activating its overthruster beam and driving through a mountain!


((Glen Note: the Overthruster portal closes immediately behind the jet car; the flying craft smash into the mountain as they try race through the portal before it closes...))


The last sequence has the jet car driving along a road - only to find out that it's a runway, and the space shuttle Atlantis is landing behind the Jet Car!

Apparently, the front landing gear on the shuttle is in need of repair - because the Jet Car positions itself so that the shuttle can land right on top of it, thus our hero saves the day once again!


((Glen Note: this last sequence is amazing: there is a lot of detail on the shuttle, and small things like the Jet Car's suspension lowering under the wheight of the shuttle's nose give many shots a close to photo-realistic feel. Well, here - see for yourself!))


Images from Foundation Imaging's visual effects test reel for the proposed Buckaroo Banzai television series. These images are swiped directly from Foundation Imaging's web site, which you can access by CLICKING HERE!
All hail Foundation! And, "Supersize Those Fries!" ((which is the title of the Banzai pilot episode, by the way...))


________________________


Questions? Comments? Praise? Ridicule ?

CLICK HERE to e-mail Glen

If you send a message to the above address & bounces back to you, send mail to a back-up address!

Or call:

(512) 347-1992

Mail can be sent to:

Glen Oliver

P.O. BOX 160812

Austin, TX 78716-0812

USA


Readers Talkback
comments powered by Disqus