Cool News
Images from Foundation Imaging and Flat Earth's "Starship Troopers" CGI series !!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Glen here...
...with a look at Foundation Imaging & FlatEarth's forthcoming CGI series
based on Robert Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers.
The series will be considerably different than the movie. It will be a
re-telling of the events covered in the film, with large portions of extra
storyline augmenting both the film and Heinlein's work.
For a sampling of just how the series will be handled narratively,
access Coaxial's previous coverage.
For news about some of the series' voice casting,
For news about the behind-the-scenes talent realizing this new CGI blow-out,
CLICK HERE!
Most of the film's design scheme has been tossed-out in favor of a new look -
one of the only holdovers being the returning warrior bugs pictured below. The
series also looks considerably darker than movie director Paul Verhoven's
brighter, cleaner, photographic approach.
Here are some images from the show, in no particular order. See what you
think...
Above - the novel's "power suits"...whose absence in the film
pissed off many a Heinlein fan...will be featured prominently in the CGI
series.
Glen
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Mail can be sent to:
Glen Oliver
P.O. BOX 160812
Austin, TX 78716-0812
USA
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Austin, TX 78716-0812
USA
Austin, TX 78716-0812
USA
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This is going to be a great series. I think all the stuff we've seen looks terrific. Just makes me hungry for more!
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WOW and EEE! OK, I admit it, I was a Heinlein junkie in my early teenage years. I must have read Starship Troopers at least 20 times. Yes, I'm a grown-up now and I know that most of his books are aimed at emotionally retarded 14 year old boys; I know that Heinlein was a psycho, fascist sexual deviant, and I know that I just don't care. I still re-read the odd favourite every once in a while. Hell, I even loved the movie, despite the fact that it completely missed the point. Starship Troopers was *not* supposed to be a satire -- Heinlein really believed all that guff! The book was all the better for Heinlein being an unreconstructed Nazi. Vintage stuff! Have to say the CGI images look fab. Can't wait!
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Nah na-nah! Wonderful examples! Even better than the ones I've already seen. :)
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These are the guys who used to do the Babylon 5 CGI, yes? Well, it looks like they've surpassed themselves (and surpassed even B5: Crusade, which has CGI that looks like it came out of Tron's editing room floor, much to my intense dismay). Those ships are just incredible, with bumpy texturing and everything (unlike the smoothies of their last venture, the above mentioned B5).
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THAT IS AMAZING STUFF!! Jesus, Netter digital has been holding out on JMS ***BIG TIME***. The ships, the people, EVERYTHING looks great. If the quality of those pics is really an indication of the overall visual quality of the show then it blows away pretty much anything I've ever seen. If this show turns out all right (and I get to see it up here in Montreal), then I hope we see a lot more from these guy's. Maybe someone can try something ALL ORIGINAL next? (ie a NON-remake?)
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Foundation Imaging and Flat Earth are doing ST. Not Netter Digital. Don't make that mistake again. Ever.
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jj9892 wrote: "Foundation Imaging and Flat Earth are doing ST. Not
Netter Digital. Don't make that mistake again. Ever." GLEN says: I don't thnk Dolfanar meant Netter was doing STARSHIP TROOPERS. He meant that...given the quality of Foundation's work on STARSHIP TROOPERS...Netter Digital (who does the FX for CRUSADE) has been underproviding for CRUSADE. At least, that's what I think he meant...**Glen** -
This stuff looks really great, just hope the plot and story is good as well. Just one question, when does it start airing? Maybe Netter can take a few lessons from these guys.....
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Ha! ND stole everything they know from FI!! But that's another story *sigh* Big lunkin spaceships and a sprinkling of Hypernaughtiness, eh, Ron? Goes to show all things come to those who wait. What would Roger Mellie say? Hope this isn't just another load of old bollocks.
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Thanks for coming to my defense Glenn, but ACTUALLY I *thought* I had heard somewhere that Netter Digital was the one doing ST (Is it possible that they were in the running to do it, I'm positve I heard Netter in connection to ST). Anyway sorry for the mix up. My bad.
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Hey, when does this thing air and where? I want to make sure I don't miss it...
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... then go see War Planets from Mainframe
and for narrative style, go see ReBoot Season III (never aired on ABC) on Cartoon Network's Toonami timeslot...
I have been a lover of Mainframe Entertainment's work for a long time, and looking at the recent putrid shit that is Voltron 3D, I realize that the balance of good storytelling and graphics is needed in order to have a good CG animation series.
Mainframe's stuff looks very much like the shots here so far, other than the humans. Humans, at this point, is still not yet perfected in the CG style. Go look at Voltron 3D, and the shots of the Trooperz...
At this point, no matter how good-looking the machinery stuff looks, humans still do not look realistic (or a realistic representation) yet.
Looking forward to the series, but looking forward to Mainframe's new stuff even more :P -
Oh! What a rush of emotions! There is the fan side of me, looking at those images going; "Bitchin'! That's actually a little bit like how I imagined the armor in Heinlein's book! Woohoo! This going to be cool!". Then there is the DEE side of me going; "Hrm. Really nice character work, they using Puppetmaster or MG? Good armor surfacing. But are those things suppose to be rock hunks of melted plastic?" and lastly, the wistful side going; "If only my demo reel hadn't sucked... I could be working on that...oh the woes! The woes!" What's my final opinion? Damn fine work! :)
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A most impressive set of images. I do look forwards to seeing this show.
Of course, one can hope that the scriptwriting will be of the same calibre.
I also think that Heinlein was unfairly maligned as being "fascist", "deviant", and guilty of aggravated mopery and dopery. For an in depth analysis of this, check out http://www.kentaurus.com/troopers.htm -
If you get a chance to see clips from "Vortex," that movie Foundation Imaging has been trying to make, watch it! They have definately got what it takes to do Aliens-style action with CGI. And believe it or not, their human movements are very impressive! Normally, CG human movement sucks. It usually looks like that exaggerated swaying-ape crap in Voltron 3D. That, or it's underplayed like in the Mainframes shows. But there were shots in Vortex that looked like live action actors(albiet, in full helmet and battle gear). I believe they have a process that allows them to imput an actual actor's movements into the computer. What I know of that doesn't get less vague unfortunately. Their real drawback was human expressions, but they promiced they were working on it. From the pics Glen and Helen have shown us, I'd say they've improved their character expressiveness nicely! Hope they look that good when they're moving.
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!!!Sweet fucking christ that looks good!!! When does this show start airing? I'm going to record this shit. I love CGI, so this show definately has my attention. I just hope they don't fuck up on the writing. Good looking images does =NOT= mean we'll forgive a shitty story (see ST film as referrance).
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I honestly cannot understand how you can lump the Troopers characters in with (shudder) Voltron's. Voltron, yes, has plasticy looking untextured unconvincing people. But just from the 2 shots that show faces on Coax here, you can see a world of difference. Doc, the black guy has scars, bumpy skin which is differenly shiney over nose and cheeks, thick eyebrows. While stylized, it beats anything I've seen before as far as "Character" goes. He's got it.
The shot above him, that trio all have *expressions* on their faces! Not the rubber mask distortion of voltron, or even the interesting yet muted expressions of Reboot (which I am religeously watching on CN)
In short, theese guys look like individuals, even though they wear uniforms (the armor) Diz looks very gung ho, and its scaring the other two troopers! Where else have you seen personalities communicated in a still from a sequence?
Egad Man!
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WHOAH!!!! Im tapeing all these episodes.GLenn...when does this show start??? I'm there!!! they look great!!!
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Anybody have any idea how, when or where we'll be able to see the new animated SST series in the UK?
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Now we get to see what they thought was "too expensive" for the big screen.
The look is right, let's hope the story doesn't sacrifice the tone the book set.
Definitely one to set the VCR for. If it is as good as it looks, I hope they put out a dvd compilation. Yowsa!
"To the everlasting glory of the Infantry shines the name of Rodger Young!" -
I find it difficult to believe that anyone who actually has read any of Heinlein's novels could claim Heinlein was an "unreconstructed Nazi." Heinlein's proto-libertarianism is manifest throughout novels such as "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress," "Friday" and even "Stranger In A Strange Land."
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The CGI images from the "Starship Troopers" TV show are simply amazing. Tell the producers of that travesty of a film I will tolerate no more B.S. about the power armor being "too expensive" to use in the movie. And who wants to bet the computer-generated actors on the TV program show more emotion than the stiffs in Verhoven's steaming pile?
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Doesn't that 6th picture (stroops6.jpg) look startlingly like a headshot of one of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation puppets from the 1960's? Wild. The more things change.... (There's a fan page at http://www.ludd.luth.se/~kavli/Tbirds.html )
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from what I've seen so far, this show is going to set a whole new standard to the cgi television world. I can't wait to see Starship Troopers on T.V. and look forward to future projects these people put out.
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....LIGHTWAVE!!!!!!!!!!!
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What? I've read a few of his books. And heard other people talk about him. I've never heard anything socialist about him. I agree that he might be a pervert. He certainly liked strong, sexually agressive women.
As far as I know he didn't think much of government (And facism is all about a strong government). The only strong political statement I got from him was a firm belief in the right of an individual to be armed. And Facist have always opposed the right to bear arms. People who support government power always have. It's just hard to impose arbitrary rule when the citizens can shoot back. In fact there was an uprising in a Jewish ghetto when they got a hold of like 3 (or 4 or something) guns that lasted several days. No,
Facist have never like gun ownership. So I ask what was facist and Nazi-like about Heinlein? -
Well, almost everything I've seen about this series looks very promising, from the expanded storyline to the graphics, which truly look bitchin'. My only reservation at this point is that in the one picture we see of a "bug," it's nekkid (i.e., unarmed). I pray to Klono that this series doesn't share the movie's conceit of the Arachnids being non-tech . . . the idea that a non-tool using species (especially without FTL) could be a serious danger to a star spanning civilization is ridiculous. I'll even let 'em get away with having one "class" of bugs that are mindless attack dogs, but the species has to have access to FTL ships and modern (to the movie) firepower if they want me to believe they could be a credible threat. Otherwise, logistical considerations would doom them, if nothing else.
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It was mentioned above that the bugs would need tech to be a serious threat.
The idea in the book was that what the bugs had was a sort of natural biotech... EVOLUTION.
Bugs being the horific breaders that they are and specialized so much that the bugs evolved methods of interstellar travel is much more frightening to me than if they had to rely on tech.
Just think how many world they could make hive worlds breading at whatever speed the queeen thinks is apropriate.
This is in keeping with the monster genre of fiction. Take Frankenstein for instance. Stitching dead tissue togather and bringing life to it with electricity or whatever? Isn't that equally improbable?
The more we learn ... the more we learn that things are possible given the right circumstances.
Ask yourself one thing... What if? And enjoy the ride.
Arid Magnus -
I'd love to enjoy the ride . . . but key to enjoying the ride is its believabilty (just ask the folks at Paramount, MGM, Universal, etc.). Specifically, if you're telling me that something is science fiction, I
expect the vehicle to be a rocketship, not a magic buttercup. Critical to making SST work, on a dramatic level, is that the Bugs have to be a believable menace. In Verhosemoverin's movie, this believability totally evaporated for me when the audience was informed (by the classroom instructor) that the Bugs spread from planet to planet via "spores." If this was their only and fastest mode of interstellar travel (and nothing in the movie contra-indicated this), then the Bugs could not be a credible threat to the Terran Federation. To an outlying colony or two, perhaps . . . to the Federation as a whole, no. Why? Because, without the ability to travel quickly between star systems, the Bugs are at an insurmountable strategic disadvantage to the Federation armed forces. Essentially, the Feds can deploy their entire military might . . . every battleship, every transport, every trooper . . . against a single Bug stronghold at a time. There is no need to fight a war on multiple fronts because the Bug forces cannot maneuver strategically. They cannot attack a planet they are not already on, they cannot reinforce planets they already hold, and they cannot even retreat. Since they can only travel between planets at a miniscule percentage of the speed of light, their forces are strategically immobile. This is precisely why Heinlein made "his" Bugs a technologically advanced species, with weapons and spaceships and navies . . . so that they COULD be a credible threat. His Bugs didn't require some never-specified "magic" to spirit an asteroid across the galaxy to attack the Earth; they could credibly do so because they had FTL spaceships with which to get there. (Yeah, I know, but at least everyone shared the "same" magic, and it was clearly declared.)
Now, I know that a lot of people consider this type of thing to be
nitpicking . . . that once you slap a label of "science fiction" on something, anything goes. But I personally have always believed that such totally non-critical audience participation should be reserved for professional wrestling. If you're watching a western, and it's revealed that the main villain has no arms, then the climatic gunfight is going to seem less than compelling (or BELIEVABLE); if you're watching a science fiction movie, and it's revealed that the main villains do not have viable space travel, then the interstellar conflict is going to be less than compelling. I've learned not to ask a whole lot from Hollywood SF, but some faint glimmer of common sense should not be considered an unreasonable expectation. (Especially when it was done right in the source material!)
By the way, Mary Shelly used the most modern speculative technology available to her at the time. If she were writing the story today, I'd wager she wouldn't use thread and lightning, but genetic engineering and nanotechnology . . . because that's what would make her creature the most believable, and therefore the most frightening. -
Personally I didnt like the movies conciets either. Spores? Come on! Vorhoeven has that french socialist take on the whole thing which was anoying too but thats aside from the point.
My supposition is this...
Suppose that a species of bugs evolves a way to become star faring, has a queen that needs to have some measure of control over those vast distances, needs to expand with speed due to how quickly they would overrun a planets natural resources, etc...
We already know that they evolve quickly and include plasma weapons in thier natural weaponry arsonel. Suppose a mind or class of bugs with alien thought strategems guides this evolution in some way.
Wouldnt it be believable given this set of supositions that bugs could evolve into the specialized vehicles. Imagine a carrier bug, Bugs that carrie bugs into space and bugs that carrie others at at least close to light speed.
Even at sub light speeds if there were enough bugs constantly being produced on dozens of world and sent out at a steady pace, wouldnt such a thing be a challenging opponent? The bugs main weapon is its breeding capabilities and its ability to eemingly learn from what the hive mind experiences and evolve to suit.
If I' willing to accept that einstein was wrong I've already gone far enough to suspend my belief enough to buy such suppositions.
Arid Magnus -
Well, sure . . . if one would go to the effort of explaining that the Bugs have evolved these capabilites, I'd at least give the storyteller the benefit of the doubt -- but Volholenubbin didn't care enough to even make the effort, and that was what I was responding to. I'm just hoping that the series handles this better, one way or another, than the movie did. (However, it still seems to me like less of a stretch to postulate that the Bugs could develop high-tech than that they could develop all these biological analogs -- I mean, how do you "grow" the equivalent of a nuclear reactor? And if they could, then WE wouldn't stand a chance. If the Bugs could develop biological materials able to withstand the forces of those plasma-farts, they sure as hell could have developed bullet-proof warrior-bugs. Well, that's my six-cents -- now I'll shut up.)
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It's rubbish. How do I know it's rubbish? Because it mentions hard tech ships in the book, and modern weaponry in the book. It isn't speculation. It isn't my opinion. It's in the book. Heinlein made a plot point about why the bugs were dangerous. He mentions that the bugs were not simple mindless slaves of evolution. They were tool users. They build FTL ships and have modern weaponry. It's in the book. I agree it could be changed, but what in heavens name for? It works just fine as is.
Iaidoka
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You restate my original point well, Iaidoka. The Bugs as envisioned in the original book were so believably menacing, why work so hard to reinvent them in a way that is both LESS believable and LESS menacing? Why do Hollywood types always have to piss on something, just to prove it's theirs? When your dog does that in the house, you smack him on the but with a rolled-up newspaper and throw him outside -- maybe we need to take some rolled-up newspapers out to Hollywood -- engage in a little behavior modification.
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The models look great, and its nice that everyone's sayin it will be based more off the book then the series, but it still looks like its not THAT close to the book.
I mean that pic up there that has the text about the power suits? Those aren't anything like the suits from the book, those are more like mechs, vehicles.
In the book they go into describing that the suits AREN'T vehicles, they are definitely suits. The soldiers arm fits in the arm, he controls it just like his arm, working the hand through a mechanism in the arm.
I'm not saying its not gonna be good, but still it could be closer to the book.
Also, what about the bugs? In the book they had actual technology. I mean they built weapons, flew around in spaceships, will they do that in the TV show or will they be like the bugs in the movie? Sure they sould launch ground attacks on ships in orbit with those huge bugs that shot flaming rocks outta their behinds, but will their soldiers carry guns, will they have ships?
And the story? Will the war start for the same reason it did in the book? Will it the TV show satire the ideals in the book, change those ideals or stay true to the original?
Just a few things to think about before turning on your caps lock and screaming 'THIS SHOW WILL KICK ^%&*'
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