From AquaTec 8615 to Babylon 5

[Skiffy]

This thread will cover what I learn about how a manufacturing warehouse in Sun Valley, California became the home of Babylon 5 in the early nineties.

I'm an old-hand 3d modeller with a keen interest in (and some practical experience of) set design. I plan to show how John Iacovelli, John Copeland, JMS and the whole team managed to fit the worlds of Babylon 5 into 60,000 Square feet of warehouse with a 16ft ceiling.

 

[Dusty Satai]

Sounds interesting.

 

[Skiffy]

Thanks Dusty Satai. It's interesting to me so hopefully to a few others too.

Here's an image from a very similar space in the same compound to help illustrate what the team started with.

 

[Skiffy]

So, one of my first jobs is mapping out how the three sound-stages fit into the available space, along with the offices, prop stores, workshops etc. The images here are collected from material uploaded to the Internet Archive - drawings produced by John Iacovelli and his team.

These are 'dye-line' prints. The originals were drawn in black ink on tracing paper and prints made via a photographic-style process using ammonia and light sensitive paper. I can still remember the smell from producing this kind of print back in the day.

 

[Skiffy]

I made a little progress today to familiarise myself with the styles of set dressing used in the series. An awful lot of 'floating' pieces were used, like the overhead beams, pillars, even doors.

There are no detailed materials in the following screenshot but I've added some very rough colouring to make a start.

From left to right - there's an overhead view of the pieces I'm moving around to get the correct feel - then a 'camera view' of the results - then the on-set photograph I'm using for reference. It looks like the photographer used a 50mm lens which has helped me work out distances etc.

Very much a work-in-progress but it's fun to play with.

 

[Springer]

Seeing your 3D representation of the corridor there makes me wish there was a VR version of the sets that we could walk through. I seem to remember someone did just that for Star Trek TNG's Enterprise-D.

 

[Skiffy]

Seeing your 3D representation of the corridor there makes me wish there was a VR version of the sets that we could walk through. I seem to remember someone did just that for Star Trek TNG's Enterprise-D.

Thank you Springer. That was my initial intention and still may be do-able, maybe not in VR but definitely as a 3d walk around. I soon realised, though, just how quickly the settings were converted / adapted from scene to scene, sometimes with several setups on the same day. So, apart from a few standing sets there isn't really a fixed plan that folks could walk around.

What I've decided is to focus on one episode over a few days of shooting. I have dated plans by John Iacovelli covering some second season episodes so I'm going to focus on that.

More soon!

 

[Looney]

This will be very helpful when I am wealthy in the future and I have a home made to look like the sets. What are we thinking, C n C as a kitchen OR living room?! I don't know I really like Londo's Kitchen setup, though it is small and I eat a LOT.

 

[LateArrival]

This will be very helpful when I am wealthy in the future and I have a home made to look like the sets. What are we thinking, C n C as a kitchen OR living room?! I don't know I really like Londo's Kitchen setup, though it is small and I eat a LOT.

Will the Future Home will have LED color panels in the hallways to easily switch "sectors"?