I’m going to admit, I was tired and in a hurry when I laid this out. I was going for a contrast in size, but it doesn’t really read. Looking back, I probably should’ve gone with an angle along the length of the Vorlon ship, with more perspective.

I could probably easily spend another week working on this jumppoint, putting it into real scenes and realizing things I missed (there’s a reason none of the points in this shot are in front of the planet), and then doing it all again until I’m satisfied. And there’s got to be some way to do that transparent-from-the-sides effect in-camera…

90% of the way there on that jumppoint. Well, 90%, plus the recolor-jobs, and I’ll probably tweak the animation timing again. And again. And again…

The most pressing thing to fix, though, is the shape. At times in Babylon 5 and Crusade, the jump point vortex appeared to be tapered, rather than a straight-edged cone. It was definitely the case in “The Lost Tales.” I attempted to replicate that by modifying Yuri’s model, but I think I might’ve blown my order-of-operations (it’s a little bit more complicated to change than you’d think because this version of the vortex is a multi-part model).

Still, I might just be able to run off the picture I planned for Sunday tonight. Though Lightwave got oddly temperamental about loading more stuff in with this newly-modified scene setup. I’m hoping it was just a freak arrangement of factors, though I can’t ignore the age of my computer being a contributing factor. I feel like I’m coaxing an old jalopy at this point. Just needs to hold on for a little longer…

I spent most of yesterday fiddling with Yuri Parovin’s A-Call-to-Arms-style jumppoint. While Lightwave makes most of the conversion for working in linear color fairly brainless, surfaces that are driven in greyscale any don’t need to be gamma-corrected don’t react well. This is simple enough to fix for image maps, but it’s more complicated with procedural textures, and the result that the model came out looking funny. I also wanted to adjust the timing of the animation effects. I ended up with something that looked good in a still, but didn’t animate well. I’ll keep working on it today, I think I’m most of the way there.

Still, it ended up being very late, and I had nothing ready for today, so I cast about for an idea, and came up with a stock Babylon 5 shot of a Minbari Flyer approaching the Gray Council’s cruiser. I’d already prepared a version of the ship when I added the rib lights to Rhys Salcombe’s model (it’s the green running lights that distinguish it), so it was quick one to put together.

Decided to spend some time with the Narns. Or Narn. It’s ambiguous what the correct plural is.