90s SciFi TV Shows Made Possible By THIS Software!

The Software That Made It All Happen!
LW4 was the first version available for Windows. It was being used at the studio level as early as 1994. Beta testing in live production. The first season of B5 was in production during late 1993 with a release in 1994. Part of the first season was still on Amigas, but they quickly transitioned to Windows machines running the beta. As many of the studios did. The B5 pilot was 100% Amiga LW.
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[@kevincozens6837]

A lot of the computer graphics seen in the early episodes of B5 was due to a combination of three things. They are the Amiga 2000, the Video Toaster, and Lightwave.

[@HoldandModify]

Cheers!!

[@enitalp]

Don't forget: ID software used Lightwave to make Doom 3 (and maybe others), but more than that, the LWO's (and maybe some LWS) files were in the game folder directly; they were easy to load, so no export was needed.

[@davidewhite69]

1:52 speaking of Space: Above and Beyond, I witnessed some of the making of the pilot episode. It was filmed at RAAF Base Williamtown, NSW Australia, where I was based at the time. If only I knew R. Lee Ermey was there, I would have asked for his autograph

[@HoldandModify]

I didnt know he was in it

[@CantankerousDave]

@@HoldandModifyHe played their drill instructor, naturally.

[@manueljesus3147]

Thanks for this. I made my career by being a Lightwave early adopter. I work in the toy industry where I worked on toys where we would produce consumer hard goods (toys and collectibles) on these entertainment properties. We used to take the Lighwave geometry and use that as a template we would trace over in programs such as Pro Engineer, SolidWorks, and IRON CAD. Well whenever we needed to make a toy I would request the Lightwave geo and reconstruct it in a parametric CAD package or make the lightwave GEO water tight for 3D printing. Fun times!

[@HoldandModify]

oh wow! hey that’s great! Way back in 1998. We did deliver a 3-D model from Babylon 5 to what was back then considered emerging technology called 3-D printing. I don’t think it even had that name back then that was my brief experience with using 3-D software and producing something physical.

[@manueljesus3147]

@@HoldandModify we used to call it rapid prototyping, then 3D printing, and now additive manufacturing.

[@maverickbna]

I LOVED SeaQuest!

[@HoldandModify]

It was such a neat idea!

[@SGUDistantHope]

Very fun! Classic Lightwave! I still use it every day for various work projects! 2015 and 2020 with octane :D

[@kellymyers3477]

Mreow! LightWAve or death!

[@SledgeFox]

Thank you for showing this! Have a great day!

[@fonesrphunny7242]

I remember seeing previews for a B5 space sim in magazines back in the days. The devs had access to the original 3d files, which made for some pretty nice screenshots. That somehow stuck with me for decades and, as I got into 3d modelling, I wondered what these early 3d files looked like and if copies have escaped into the wild.

[@HoldandModify]

Not sure about originals but there are plenty of amazing clones

[@cullmaster7361]

Another great vid “Q” 👍🏻 Thanks for the free entertainment 😉 I miss Space Above and Beyond… Great show. Another Fox show that got cut short 🙄😔

[@HoldandModify]

Fox…make a fun SciFi show and we’ll cancel it!

[@paszTube]

I tried using Imagine 2.0 and Real 3D on the Amiga in the nineties, but the results weren’t great. I did not have the patience to learn the programs well and artistically I still had to learn. Having to wait hours for renders didn’t help either. A few years back I started using Blender with much greater succes! Blender started on the Amiga btw!

[@HoldandModify]

it did, i remember!

[@kellymyers3477]

Come over to LightWave3D. 2023.0.2 should be out very shortly.

[@foznoth]

What you called the Agamemnon class is the Omega class. The Agamemnon herself was Captain Sheridan's first full command. I'm going to have to go rewatch all of B5 again soon.

[@HoldandModify]

Yeah I made some flubs. I need to re-watch too!

[@zool8008]

As far as I know, the Amiga was used for rendering Season 1 and 2 of Babylon 5 as well as the whole first season of seaQuest DSV (you can see Amiga computers in the making of B5). LW PC version wasn't released when B5 S1/S2 and seaQuest S1 were aired. The first LW PC version was released around 1995.

[@HoldandModify]

B5 pilot and part of the first season. LW for Windows was in beta test for some time before public release and the studios quickly switched to it. Mostly because of the fast SGI and PC platforms. Late Going back to early 1994 and even late 1993. Much the same for SeaQuest. The studios were struggling with Amiga hardware keeping up with turnover rates needed. racks of 2000s with 040 accelerators was barely cutting it. They jumped on early alpha and betas for Lightwave3D as soon as they could and started switching over.

[@paszTube]

Great stuff. Huge Babylon 5 fan. I was so sad Space: Above and Beyond got cancelled. Same with Firefly.

[@HoldandModify]

So hard for those shows back then. Firefly was my baby!! I miss working on it!

[@paszTube]

@@HoldandModify you worked on that? Cool!!!

[@HoldandModify]

@paszTube i worked on a lot of stuff you may have watched. ;)

[@jeffmontray88]

I worked on season 4 and 5 of B5. Blowing up spaceships was fun

[@DeFrisselle]

I recall reading that the rendering was offloaded to clusters of Raptor units (RISC based WinNT machines) networked to the Amigas

[@HoldandModify]

that and and there was an all hands in DEC approach for sure. ;)

[@jercommodore4411]

Same here, all the work was done on Amiga's and then sent to 24 Amiga farm that had GForce 40 Mhz accelerator cards.

[@cjadams7434]

Oh yeah… i’m a longtime lightwaver!…. i missed the amiga era.. was still on an apple 2gs from 87-96… Then when to PC mainly due to newtek! - Framfactory / Video Toaster NT/2/3-5 and Lightwave! - Its nice to see LW back with new versions going forward.

[@HoldandModify]

That’s great! Yes very happy to see Lw continuing!

[@kellymyers3477]

LightWave or death! :)

[@chrissmith7669]

As I remember there was an Amiga shop in Orlando on the corner of Colonial drive and Semoran BLVD at the height of B5 & Seaquest popularity. I’d be in there killing time and see people working the shows in there talking tech and showing off animations.

[@HoldandModify]

i have such great memories of not only going to Amiga shops but working at them. fun places!

[@chrissmith7669]

@@HoldandModify I remember they had the largest monitor I’d ever seen and would show the B5 and seaquest clips in full glory while talking to the guys who worked there about the challenges. Glory days indeed

[@jeffmontray88]

I learned on an Amiga 2000 with a 30 meg processor. Video toaster with Lightwave vers 2. I am self taught. Got me a job as animator/Supervisor for season 4 and 5 of B 5. By the time season 4 came we were all running the stand-alone Lightwave on PC. I miss the old toaster. Nothing compared to it for the time. 😊

[@HoldandModify]

Great times! Golden Age era of TV vfx!

[@GlennBurgess78]

Babylon 5 is 100% responsible for my getting into 3d stuff at all. And I still use Lightwave today for most of my stuff!

[@HoldandModify]

It inspired so many. Heck I remember seeing lensflares for the first time and we all were stunned. “But its not a real camera!?”

[@GlennBurgess78]

@@HoldandModifyYes! I can totally understand why we all used so many lens flares back then, they just looked cool! I too graduated from Imagine 4 (on PC) to Lightwave 5.5 and I just couldn't believe the difference. I could put things where I wanted, and move them around with just a drag. It felt like magic at the time!

[@dragon1011dk]

So Many show has so much to thank this program for! I loved/love Babylon 5, Space: Above and Beyond (Slaget om Tellus, swedish titel) and Seaquest DSV (I have them all on DVD) J. Michael Straczynski (Maker of Babylon 5) said that the show would never been done without this program. Soo many great shows.

[@HoldandModify]

It was truly groundbreaking!

[@dragon1011dk]

The good old days... Star Trek DS9, Babylon 5, Space AABgood story´s. How I miss them..I feel old....@@HoldandModify

[@HoldandModify]

@@dragon1011dk experienced, not old, we are! :)

[@dragon1011dk]

Thanks...I feel a bit better😀@@HoldandModify

[@mikedefoy]

Seeing how things were going for the Amiga whilst working at Chicagolands Geneva CBM dealership, I jumped ship when I acquired the 1st PC laptop with a video input and 1GHz processor from a relatively unknown company Lenovo. Lightwave was already available on the PC and Mac so transition was quite easy. Hollyweird became irrelevant, so I went on to pursue my music career instead.

[@HoldandModify]

You were smarter than a lot of us. :)

[@greywolf3211]

I bought my Amiga's from MicroED, and MicroTech was also a Amiga Dealer back then.

[@greywolf3211]

Chicago

[@bamdadkhan]

haha apollo's 'SAGA' should have been called 'AGAmemnon' xd

[@HoldandModify]

hahah clever

[@toaf6467]

i liked using lightwave at the local community access channel . i fell in love with 3ds max.. so its semi painful to go back

[@HoldandModify]

interesting. even to this day i can’t use Max. but obviously it has its fans. way more than LW.

[@paulklasmann1218]

Very cool! 😮 Are the files publicly available?

[@HoldandModify]

drive.google.com/file/d/1MtK5HmeZFqhRID5oaJDbGHVM-8QQ6y_N/view?usp=sharing

[@paulklasmann1218]

@@HoldandModify Wow, thank you! Can't wait to try this out. Its much appreciated.

[@HistoricNerd]

This is fantastic, Gonna be honest....didnt seem like the render times were that awful. I only say this because i've done really stupid things in blender to set my GPU on fire. Not because theyre complex. Im just bad with settings.

[@HoldandModify]

Keep in mind what I showed in that video was using an emulator and running much faster than an Amiga would have. :)

[@HistoricNerd]

@@HoldandModify ohhh I missed that part. That's pretty awesome

[@KayoMichiels]

That lovely amiga pointer! That's why i have altered my windows one, to resemble it... albeit smaller due to higher res displays.

[@HoldandModify]

I also like how easy it is in Workbench to edit the pointer. I used to spend hours doing that. then almost always reset it. heh.

[@keyboard_g]

I support more SeaQuest rendering!

[@HoldandModify]

I need to find more!

[@chriszapara4697]

I remember driving up to LA to interview at Amblin for an intern job in… 1995? IIRC it was between seasons 2 and 3 of Seaquest. They showed me 2 render farms: the first was a large closet with about 12 Amigas whirring along. The other closet was empty except for one mammoth DEC Alpha Raptor sitting ominously in the middle of the floor. Both rooms pumped out the same number of frames.

[@HoldandModify]

@@chriszapara4697 Haha that’s awesome! The REAL super computer!

[@CantankerousDave]

@@chriszapara4697The ads for Lightwave in magazines always listed Amiga, PC, and DEC Alpha.

[@steveroberts2793]

Do you have anything from Hypernauts? I liked that show, too!

[@HoldandModify]

Sadly i do not. :(

[@lizbeigle-bryant1710]

I designed the costumes for Hypernauts

[@HoldandModify]

@@lizbeigle-bryant1710 Great stuff!

[@vertigoz]

I have the impression that if it wasn't for you know one would even know what Lighwave 3D was 😝

[@HoldandModify]

awwww….nowadays…probably true. But in late 90s through 2010s…it was a huge deal.

[@vertigoz]

@@HoldandModify just kidding, it was quite the stronghold back then, and even today it's still a good software and well known

[@kellymyers3477]

LightWave or death! =^..^=

[@CantankerousDave]

6:50 - Lamont Cranston, duh.

[@HoldandModify]

hahah

[@danielktdoranie]

Did you work on any of these TV shows?

[@HoldandModify]

No but I did work on many many others.

[@cjadams7434]

can we get those files?

[@HoldandModify]

there’s a contact email in my yt about page when using desktop version

[@NdxtremePro]

SeaQuest has not aged well in terms of the quality of the original look, unfortunately. Babylon 5 still looks futuristic and of decent quality. I grew up watching both, and I have to say SeaQuest lasted too long and not long enough.

[@HoldandModify]

Yeah Seaquest had interesting ideas. It could benefit from todays budgets and tech.

[@mattperson7293]

I disagree, I think SeaQuest vfx holds up better than B5. The murky low contrast underwater stuff hides a lot more sins than outer space. They had to do the compositing within LW itself, so when you watch it now it's those shots that stand out badly. The show itself feels a lot more of it's time however.

[@NdxtremePro]

@@mattperson7293 The vfx looked decent, I was referring to the live action that hasn't aged as well. I should have been more specific.

[@christianemden7637]

I finished my rewatch of B5 last year (3rd or 4th to be honest), the VFX was adding to what made the show this timeless classic, but they did look rough at some times. It’s the storytelling and acting that made it the superior show, and that still holds up perfectly.