Information about SeaQuest - Made on Amiga!

[viddi]

Hi Amigans,

it´s me again.

I´m searching for articles, scans, infos, pictures etc. related to SeaQuest and Amiga.

I searched the web but there´s almost nothing...


So, thank you very much in advance for your help.

[Steve]

Oh, I really didn't like SeaQuest DSV much. I kept expecting Jaws 7 to finally track down Roy Schneider and attack his stupid dolphin sidekick.

The 3D underwater scenes were rendered using the video toaster, a load of Amiga's networked together (ScreamerNet) and a copy of Lightwave running on each Amiga. I'm not sure what more there is to know.

The Amiga/Video Toaster/Lightwave setup was also used to render the brilliant 3D scenes in Babylon 5.

Just look for pictures of the underwater scenes in SeaQuest DSV.

[Galaxy]

There is some magazine coverage of this, prob AF/CU/AC but I don't know exactly off the top of my head. Will let you know if I come across anything.

[Zetr0]

If i recall correctly

Amiga Toaster combinations were used in

Seaquest DSV
Babylon 5
Terminator 2
Freejack
Jurasic Park (although SGI got all the kudos )

Infact untill the PC / SGI systems caught up to VideoToasters & Lightwave, pretty much all CGI in moves were done using miggys.

however by the end of jurassic park it was time the industry moved over to SGI, faster hardware and the fact that lighwave had become a cross-platform stand-alone product ment that the miggys roll in the movies was on its way out, I belive that in somepart there used in prototyping, but since the advent of the Toaster on the Wintel PC this will be less and less.......

BUT Amiga toasters are stillused today at disney in some of thier psuedo motion rides as well as Universal Studios

[Galaxy]

Amiga's role in Jurassic Park was on early development models afaik - all the rendered stuff in the movie was SGI.

[viddi]

Great so far

Thank you all!

[StevenJGore]

The Amiga/Video Toaster/Lightwave setup was also used to render the brilliant 3D scenes in Babylon 5.

Only the pilot episode called 'The Gathering', I believe.

If i recall correctly

Amiga Toaster combinations were used in

Seaquest DSV
Babylon 5
Terminator 2
Freejack
Jurasic Park (although SGI got all the kudos )

Add the James Bond film 'Goldeneye' to the list. I've still got the issue of Amiga Computing which has quite a lengthy article on how Amigas were used in the film. From memory, it was CGI fighter jets passing a radar installation, and a few other scenes.

Steve.

[Dizzy]

and Robocop (not the movie )

[Galaxy]

SeaQuest is the cover feature of this issue of Video Toaster User

http://amr.abime.net/issue_2738

Thanks to Pyromania for the scan

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Amiga's role in Jurassic Park was on early development models afaik - all the rendered stuff in the movie was SGI.

Yes, Video Toaster and Lightwave was used for all the pre-production work because the final SGI rendering took so long for the final pictures.

[Pyromania]

I'll see if I can get the the seaquest info from this issue of VTU on AMR.

http://amr.abime.net/issue_2738

[viddi]

Thanks very much

[Vascillious]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

If i recall correctly

Amiga Toaster combinations were used in

Seaquest DSV
Babylon 5
Terminator 2
Freejack
Jurasic Park (although SGI got all the kudos )

Infact untill the PC / SGI systems caught up to VideoToasters & Lightwave, pretty much all CGI in moves were done using miggys.

however by the end of jurassic park it was time the industry moved over to SGI, faster hardware and the fact that lighwave had become a cross-platform stand-alone product ment that the miggys roll in the movies was on its way out, I belive that in somepart there used in prototyping, but since the advent of the Toaster on the Wintel PC this will be less and less.......

BUT Amiga toasters are stillused today at disney in some of thier psuedo motion rides as well as Universal Studios

Silicon Graphics made graphics supercomputers the size of upright domestic fridge freezers.

Lightwave was named after graphics software which preceded it: Intelligent Light and Wavefront.

The belief there was ever a time when mature computer graphics architectures were trailing a supermarket brand home computer like the Amiga is simply naive.

Certainly SGIs took more credit for films such as Jurrasic Park and Terminator 2 because they were the principal systems used to create the most difficult and advanced special effects: They deserve the credit.

[TCD]

Found this article in ASM 4/1994 today:

[Gerry]

The seaQuest Vault is a nice source for information.

All of the screen graphics for the bridge and other stage 28 sets were controlled live from our control room using a program on the Amiga called Elan Performer, which let you assign animations to different keys on your keyboard. So you’d just click on a key and it would play the animation assigned to it. We had a full set of Amiga computers as well as several 3/4 inch video decks. And we had a video feed from the main camera so we could see what was going on, for timing purposes. For other sets we had a “portable” system. It was about as portable as a barn.

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by Gerry

The seaQuest Vault is a nice source for information.

That was a great read. I remember watching Seaquest DSV just because it used the Amiga and I ended up really enjoying the show. I didn't know Dick Van Dyke had an Amiga and used Lightwave. The article led me to this Youtube video of Dick at Siggraph 2004 which was interesting. He showed one of his animations and talked about being blown away by Lightwave [ Show youtube player ]