Viper redux: turning shinola into shit

Over the weekend I posted the above image of a Viper from the 1979 version of Battlestar Galactica; as most people are aware, when that show was produced there was no such thing as CGI, so all of the visual effects were created “old school,” meaning the Vipers were actual, physical models, photographed with real lights and a real camera.  Thirty years later, visual effects on the new BSG are created entirely with computers, but, despite all this fancy new technology, the goal of most artists is to still have it look  like good old-fashioned miniatures and cameras!  Of course, on the new series, there never was a real  Viper model, so we have nothing to compare the CGI version with to see if we “got it right.”  However, there is plenty of footage of physical Viper models in episodes from the original BSG, so I decided to see just how close I could make a “fake” Viper look like a “real” Viper…

and the real viper is… still grounded by technical difficulties (UPDATED)

2/5 – Problem solved!  Looks like my browser cache was full (thanks to reader Malitia9 for the heads up).  D’oh!  In any case, all the images are in place and I’m doing the write up as we speak.  Check back later tonight for the full post, probably around midnight Pacific time.

2/4 – For the love of Larson, I just spent over an hour preparing a whole slew of tasty, step-by-step images, detailing every last bit of the hi-tech process  in make a low-tech Viper, but WordPress STILL doesn’t want to play nice.  Every time I upload an image, it goes through the upload process, but it reports “complete but with errors on page,” the key error being the actual picture doesn’t show!  I just rebooted in the hopes that it was something on my end, but no dice.  I’ll hunt around and see if WordPress is actually acknowledging an issue, but you know what they say – good things come to those who wait!  I mean sure, I could do the write up without any images, but that would sort of be like going to a BBQ festival and being greeted by a sign saying “no animals were harmed in the making of this ferstival.”

In the meantime, let’s start a meaningful discussion in the comments section: if you were stranded on a desert island and you had to pick ONE character from Battlestar Galactica (original or new) to keep you company, who would you choose and why?

and the real viper is…

Ok folks, it’s 1:30 am and despite my best efforts, WordPress is not allowing me to upload any images!  Trust me, I’ve tried everything.  You’re all going to just have to hold on one more day for the full story.  Besides, today was uber-busy and the extra time will allow me to really put together a comprehensive look at the whole process.  It will be worth the wait. 

Oh frak it, the bottom one is fake :-)